Scouting report interview with Westlake boys head cross country coach Michael Felix. The Westlake boys are a team certainly knocking on the door of being among the top teams in the state. After finishing 4th in a very competitive 5A state race last October, Westlake returns 6 of their top 7 runners including a strong front runner in 9:23 two miler Logan Anderson. With so much experience and very little turnover, Westlake could find themselves in contention for even a state title this fall among all the contenders in the new 6A classification.
Top 7 Boys Returnees
| 7 | Westlake (UT) | 312 | ||
| 1) Logan Anderson | 15:25.97 | 12 | ||
| 2) Grayson Walker | 15:56.70 | 38 | ||
| 3) Keelan Balderree | 16:10.50 | 64 | ||
| 4) Ethan Glover | 16:15.30 | 73 | ||
| 5) Jacob Robbins | 16:39.90 | 125 | ||
| Average Time: 16:05.67 Total Time: 1:20:28.37 1-5 Split: 1:13.93 | ||||
| 6) Obediah Megargel | 17:07.87 | 194 | ||
| 7) Mason Freeman | 17:08.40 | 197 | ||
Q&A Interview with Coach Felix (Westlake)
1. How many years have you been coaching high school cross country (and at your current school)?
5 years, this is my 4th at Westlake HS
2. What do you attribute as the main reasons for the success of your program?
We have put in a lot of miles throughout the Summer, and we have a very Senior-heavy group this year who have been in the program for 3+ years now. I believe that consistency is based on our team philosophies. We really strive to have a welcoming attitude on our team that has allowed the kids to enjoy the team, and as these kids have trained for several years, they have been able to improve into excellent athletes.
3. What would be the best way to describe your style and philosophy of coaching and working with high school runners?
I am probably best described as a follower of Lydiard training. I have taken a lot of what I do as a coach from past coaches that I have had as well, namely my high school coach Timo Mostert.
4. What are your core beliefs in your training plan and workouts for your cross country squads?
We believe in getting an adequate base phase with a substantial amount of miles ran in the off-season, we believe in strength training, be it through running hills at a high intensity or lifting. We also usually won't add anaerobic training until later on in our training cycle.
5. How many runners do you return from your top 7 from a year ago?
6 of the top 7, but like 14 of our top 15. We only lost one significant contributor from our team last year.
That is a tough question due to our depth. We have a pretty well established top four, Logan Anderson: 11th at XC State and the 3200m in track
Grayson Walker: who got 24th at XC State and ran in state for the 1600 in track
Keelan Balderree
Jacob Robbins
Ethan Glover
One Megargel
Jordan Gibson
James Woodrum
7. Who are your team captains or leaders and what stands out about them as examples for the rest of their teammates?
Our team captains were actually our same captains as last year's XC team, Seniors Logan Anderson and Jacob Robbins. Both have great and complimentary leadership skills, but due to the high amount of Seniors we have, we have so many other Senior leaders as well, they have really kept the team focused throughout the training.
8. Who have you been most impressed or surprised with their improvement and/or fitness from their summer training?
A couple of kids have made the leaped in their trainings that have surprised us, Jordan Gibson in particular stands out to me, someone who has been hurt a lot through High School but has put in a lot work since track and looks to be in our top seven now.
9. Any impactful freshmen or transfers to join the team this season?
We have a talented group of Freshmen and a large group of raw Sophomores with a lot of potential and an energetic work ethic. Unfortunately no new transfers, but we usually haven't had much of that.
10. What are the top invitational meets that your team will be attending this season?
We are approaching our Grass Relays invite that we took over from Timo last year as a big meet. We also will be going to the BYU Invite as well. Our biggest meets though will always be the Region and State meets. We are hoping that with a great season, we can set ourselves up for a good showing at NXN regionals as well.
11. What will be the biggest obstacle or challenge facing your team this season?
Consistency, I say that knowing all too well that my boys have had our most consistent Summer of training we have ever had, but as we get into the heavy load of training and the racing season, I just hope that we can see a consistent effort and improvement from my boys (especially in racing).
12. What will be the biggest reason why your team is successful this season?
The top end talent in kids like Logan Anderson who is and has been an exceptional runner ever since he arrived in our program, and our depth.
13. What is a favorite annual or common pre-season workout or run for your team?
I love our weekly strength workout we do, our version of Grinder that AF does. Ours is called Triple Threat.
14. What is a favorite annual or common mid-season workout for your team?
I'm a big fan of our 1000m intervals. I hated those as an athlete, but they always were a great workout to see what kind of grit we had as athletes, and I like that.
15. What is a favorite annual or common championship season or end-of-season workout for your team?
Anything that pushes the kids to run really fast intervals with very little rest!
16. What are your top 3 goals for this year's squad?
These are kind of private to our team this year, but I will say that it involves the continuation of the growth of our program.