The Mentor boys track and football teams are teaming up for a special event on April 6.
The Cardinals are holding their first Cardinal Pump & 5K Chase.
What's a pump and 5K chase?
It involves bench pressing and running three miles.
The event is open to the public. The registration fee is $25. The cost for kids 14-and-under is $15. All proceeds benefit Mentor's boys track and football teams.
The bench press will be held from 7-8:30 a.m. The more you bench, the more time you can shave from your 5K race (up to 10 minutes). The minimum weight is 45 pounds for men and women. The maximum weight is 225. Individuals can attempt between 0 to 10 reps.
For example, women can earn one minute off of their 5K race if they bench 100 pounds. For men, the beginning weight is 1,350. If the weight is reached, men can earn one minute off their 5K. The weight increments for both women and men increases to 100 pounds per each minute credit.
Following the bench press, the 5K will be held at 9 a.m. The start and finish is inside Jerome T. Osborne Stadium. Runners who chose not to bench or earn 0 credits will start like a normal 5K race.
For more information, e-mail cbirchall@oh.rr.com or call 440-479-4651.
Click here for an online entry form.

-Theresa Neuhoff Audia

My desk is a mess as I'm in the process of wrapping up girls basketball and beginning boys track previews. I attempted to clear away a little clutter when I found an e-mail I treasure from Berkshire boys and girls track coach Julie Cole, who is my running hero.

The e-mail is about a year old. Julie was kind enough to send it to me when I asked her for some running tips when I fell into a rut.
The best part of her e-mail was the following line: Here's JC's Training 101.
As you can imagine, the training tips are not easy.
She started off by explaining to me the body responds to stress. She explained the SAID principle - specific adaptation to imposed demand. She explained it goes hand-in-hand with supercompensation.

I'd like to paraphrase what she wrote, but it's a little over my head so I'll quote her directly:

"If you've never run a step and go out for a half mile, that's plenty of stress and actually breaks down the body a bit.
On the next day, maybe you just go for a walk to recover. At that time, the body gets the idea that it needs to do something to keep up with what you're putting it through and it recovers just a little bit stronger (supercompensation).
As you continue adding training stress (mileage, intensity) and follow that up with recovery days, adaptions will occur and you get stronger, faster, and the workouts feel easier.
However, if you never vary the duration or intensity (very common for the average jogger), you get to a point where you're no longer challenging the body and you actually start to lose fitness, even though you're still doing the same 4-mile run.
You're still burning the calories, but as far as the psysiological changes, you're going in reverse. (This is really what the whole "no pain, no gain" thing is about)."

After reading Julie's e-mail, I realize I am back in a rut.
I can easily run three miles without stopping, but mentally that's where it ends for me. When I try to push it to four or five miles, I struggle. I'm good at blaming my inability to break the three-mile mark on the weather conditions - it's too cold, it's too icy, I don't like running on the treadmill, etc. In reality, I need to tape Julie's e-mail to my fridge and reread it daily.

Here's a running routine she gave me which is geared toward someone who runs six days a week, 30 miles per week. In Julie's running world, this training schedule is probably laughable. To me, it's nearly impossible.

Sunday - long run 7 miles
Monday - easy 4 miles
Tuesday - easy 2 miles, 2 miles at a quicker pace, 2 miles easy to finish
Wednesday - easy 4 miles
Thursday - steady 5 miles - faster than easy day pace
Friday - rest day
Saturday - easy 4 miles plus 4x30 seconds fast with 1:30 jog in between

Right now my running routine consists of about four days of running three miles each time out. I'm also lifting free weights twice a week. Sometimes I count power-cleaning my house as a workout.
I'll admit, this 40-something-year-old woman needs to step it up and quit making excuses.

So thank you JC for the awesome e-mail. It's still inspiring me one year later.

Happy trails!

- Theresa Neuhoff Audia


 

VASJ’s Tour de Associated Press Poll continues this week.

After advancing from the Garfield Heights District, which featured Nos. 1, 2, 8 and 9 in the final poll, the Vikings are in the Division III state final four, which includes No. 2 VASJ, No. 5 St. Bernard Roger Bacon, No. 6 Columbus Bishop Ready and No. 7 Lima Central Catholic.

If you’re looking for a Cinderella story, this is not the bracket to find one. All four teams are heavyweights with state tournament histories.

Let’s take a quick look at the three teams joining VASJ in Columbus:

Columbus Bishop Ready: VASJ’s semifinal opponent is making its fifth state tournament appearance. It has two state titles, in 1972 and ’73. Area fans might recognize the name from football season, when Kirtland beat Ready with a last-second field goal in a Division VI state semifinal.

Roger Bacon: The Spartans are two-time champions in three appearances in the state tournament. Most famously, the Spartans defeated Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, 71-63, in the 2002 Division II state championship game. It was the only year LeBron James didn’t win a state title while with the Fighting Irish.

Lima Central Catholic: The Thunderbirds are making their seventh state tournament appearance, including a state title in 2010. In 1992, Lima CC was leading Berlin Hiland, 62-55, with 38 seconds remaining when the Hawks stormed back to win and advance to the Division IV state title game, in which they defeated Gilmour. The ending of the state semi was detailed in a 2001 Sports Illustrated story about then Hiland coach Perry Reese.

-- Howard Primer

There is only one time a year a blank PDF copy of the NCAA Tournament bracket is needed.

No, not the one at which we all stare trying to figure out matchups and who will make a run between Sunday night and Thursday. The literally blank bracket on which you fill in the teams when they're announced.

That one time is between 6 and 7 p.m. on Selection Sunday.

Even in this age of instantaneous technology and information exchange, there is still something about filling in teams on a blank bracket, an anticipation of hearing about who will make it into the Big Dance.

That something fades away after the brackets are filled in after 7 p.m. on Selection Sunday and can be printed and dissected as forests everywhere become endangered.

But it's still fun while it lasts.

So while we all hear about NCAA "corporate champions" and bubble teams, just like I have for most of my life, I'll also be parked in front of the TV with a pen in my hand.

That anticipation, just like that CBS Sports intro music on the opening Thursday of the tournament, never gets old.

- Chris Lillstrung | @CLillstrungNH

The News-Herald Classic is set for March 29 at Lakeland Community College, and we're working on two interesting preview stories on the boys side.

The boys game is set for 1 p.m. on March 29. The girls contest is 11 a.m.

To get you ready for the boys all-star game, staff writer John Kampf has two stories set for the week leading up to the game:

- Andrews Osborne center Nick Detlev: At 7-foot-2, Detlev is an imposing player. 7-footers don't roam this area very often, and the fact Detlev plays at Andrews Osborne, which is not a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, makes him a mystery. This season, he averaged 19.4 points, 14.3 rebounds and 6.3 blocks How will he fare against the area's best? Detlev also suffered through a family tragedy at age 11, a factor he discussed with Kampf.

- Mentor's Bob and Conner Krizancic: With his brother Cole (a 2011 Mentor graduate) a standoutguard for the Cardinals, Conner and Cole have made the Mentor basketball program truly a family affair playing for their father, Bob. Those days are officially over with Conner set to graduate in a few months. He'll play football at the University of Minnesota. Kampf will profile the father-son Krizancic relationship that began on the high school hardwood in 2008.

- Mark Podolski | @mpodo

I have a question for my female readers.
When you compete in a game or go to the gym, do you wear makeup or not?
I'm  not referring to the times when you go directly from school with makeup on to a game or directly from work with makeup on to the gym.
That's legal.
I'm talking about the times you purposely apply any sort of makeup right before you work out knowing you will be sweating it off in just a few minutes.
To me, that is illegal.
Maybe it depends on what age you are and whether or not you are trying to meet a significant other while you are working out? It may also depend on if you are a professional female athlete who is being endorsed by a large company and whose face is going to be viewed by millions on television.
Just think back to the winter Olympics and the handful of women  who looked like they were right out of a magazine when they took their gear off.
I was amazed.
Then there are professional athletes like my favorite Olympic gold medalist Tianna Madison, who I covered at Elyria High School and the University of Tennessee.  She doesn't wear any makeup while competing and she doesn't need to.
Just look at the picture above after she won gold with her 4x100 relay team in 2012. Her smile is beautiful enough.

If you are an everyday woman headed to your local gym or sporting event to compete, you shouldn't waste your costly makeup in my opinion.
I know I don't.
When I walk into the YMCA to workout, I am makeup free. I always have a baseball hat on and usually, I'm a disheveled mess. It doesn't bother me a bit.
When I walk out, I usually look a little better because I'm fresh out of the sauna and shower and headed to work in full makeup, a nice outfit and my hair done.
Not wearing makeup puts me in the mindset that I am at the gym to get a job done. I am there to work hard, run a few miles, lift some weights and get on with my day.
I am there for me. I am not there for anyone else. So if I'm happy with the way I look, that's all I care about.
What about you?
What makes you feel most comfortable?
Are you the type of woman who won't leave the house without her makeup on no matter where she goes?
Or are you a little more laid back?
Whether you apply blush before you workout or not, you will always have a flushed face after a workout if you've raised your heart rate for at least 20 minutes or more.
Just being yourself is the best way to go.

-Theresa Neuhoff Audia

You may read elsewhere - and likely have heard by now since it went viral - about the Ohio High School Athletic Association declaring the state hockey final March 8 at Nationwide Arena a tie.

St. Ignatius and Sylvania Northview were tied, 1-1, after seven overtimes, and citing player safety, the state governing body determined co-champions was the best course of action.

My two cents: It wasn't.

Here are a couple more cents, if you'll permit me:

-- With Lake Catholic's loss in a state semifinal to St. Ignatius on March 7, I wasn't anywhere near Nationwide for the state final, and the area high school hockey season was subsequently done. But the unusual nature of this situation compelled me to write about it after hearing about it, especially after covering Greater Cleveland high school hockey for the last 14 years.

-- To be clear, the OHSAA should be praised for trying to look out for player safety. No one should fault them for that. That's why they have strict rules in place for, say, severe weather or adverse field conditions - they don't want anyone getting hurt. They are good people who mean well. The difference is, in those instances, they come back and restart the action.

-- It is a national rule that shootouts cannot be contested in high school hockey. Perhaps since this story went national, maybe it'll spark a national change in thought as to putting shootouts in place. At the very least, maybe each state should be afforded the right to apply the rule the way they want.

-- Here are some media outlets who covered the story:
ESPN
MaxPreps
Yahoo!
Fox Sports
Toronto Sun
NESN
Bleacher Report

--  Attempting to add a little levity, what do they do with the state title trophy - saw it in half or make two?

One thing is for sure: This is a day none of us affiliated with high school hockey in Ohio will ever forget. It doesn't matter St. Ignatius is on the opposite side of Cleveland from our area or if Sylvania Northview is in an opposite corner of Ohio.

Like it or not, it's a story that extends far beyond the usual now.

- Chris Lillstrung | @CLillstrungNH

As we inch closer to the World Cup this summer, it's time to take another crack at predictions for the tournament. This will be my second shot at prognostication on the road to Brazil, and to make it fun, I'm not going to look at my original prediction. So let's try this combination (for now):

Group A: Brazil (winner), Croatia (runner-up)
Group B: Spain (winner), Chile (runner-up)
Group C: Ivory Coast (winner), Japan (runner-up)
Group D: Uruguay (winner), Italy (runner-up)
Group E: Switzerland (winner), France (runner-up)
Group F: Argentina (winner), Nigeria (runner-up)
Group G: Germany (winner), United States (runner-up)
Group H: Belgium (winner), South Korea (runner-up)

Round of 16
Brazil def. Chile
Italy def. Ivory Coast
Switzerland def. Nigeria
Germany def. South Korea
Spain def. Croatia
Uruguay def. Japan
France def. Argentina
Belgium def. United States

Quarterfinals
Brazil def. Italy
Switzerland def. Germany
Uruguay def. Spain
Belgium def. France

Semifinals
Brazil def. Italy
Uruguay def. Belgium

Third-place match
Belgium def. Italy

Final
Uruguay def. Brazil

This prediction can and likely will change - but for now, in the first week of March, we'll roll with this for the time being.

- Chris Lillstrung | @CLillstrungNH