The boys team finished third and just barely missed out on going to state. Zach Gasick finished fourth overall and is going to state as an individual competitor. Lauren Farina took first place in the girls race and the girls team took first place as well. Congratulations to Zach and the varsity girls team.
Good luck at State!
Last week was Maggie’s last high school cross country meet. It was certainly a time to reflect on the past, the present and future of our youngest daughter’s life.
Hey Maggie, Mom and Dad know how much CC means to you and it was bittersweet for us watching you run your last meet. We know how much you will miss the sport, but the life lessons and friends you have made will stay with you and we know your best days are ahead of you. 143 Maggie.
Congratulations to the entire North Cross Country team for a great season!
The Appleton North Lightning Girls had another fantastic day running away with the conference meet. The sun came out just as the meet started and provided some really nice golden light. It was definitely a bit of a mud fest, but the varsity girls look really strong going into the sectional meet. Good luck in Manitowoc girls!
Links to photo galleries...
The Appleton North Lightning Cross Country Team competed today at the Seymour Invitational. Once again the girls varsity team ran away with the event. They are looking strong going in to upcoming conference and sectional meets!
These were taken today at AirVenture in Oshkosh. The USAF Thunderbirds are capping off a great another great air show. Took these with only my 200 mm lens at F8 and the fastest shutter speed I could get by with. Even though I am only ¼ mile from the flight line I could certainly use more focal length. I spotted a few of the EAA photographers on a platform not too far away from where I was shooting. I don’t know what they had for lenses, but it looked like they had their cameras mounted on friggin telescopes! I think I need a 2x teleconverter for Christmas – that would give me 400 mm at f5.6.
Tonight the moon was a waxing gibbous and the sky was clear. So I hauled the telescope out and set out to capture another one of the images for my moon series. I got a couple of decent shots but in the process of trying to improve the focus to get a clearer image I noticed a problem. The image below is of the planet Mars slightly defocused. When viewing a slightly out of focus star or planet in my telescope (which happens to be a Schmidt-Cassegrain type) you should see a ring with a dark center perfectly centered. As you can see below, there is a ring but the dark area is not centered. Without getting into all the details of telescope construction, what this means is that the mirrors in my scope are not aligned properly. It is not a big deal and there is a straightforward process for "collimating" the mirrors. But the bottom line is that my images are not as sharp as they should be. So next time I take the scope out, I need to spend some time aligning the mirrors before I take more images.
Mars defocused. Notice how the dark area in the middle is shifted towards ten o'clock rather than perfectly centered.
The Appleton North Lightning track team competed in the New London Regional Track Meet Today. The boys team took second overall while the girls took third. Tanner Daines (pictured below) took first place in the 3200.
It was a beautiful day for a parade honoring those who gave their lives fighting for our country's freedom. I walked along parade route with the Appleton North HS marching band. Yes, I admit that I was walking in cadence most of the way, but what can I say!? I love marching bands!
It is Prom day for the Appleton area high schools and Maggie and her best friend Alyssa are all dolled up. They wanted to ham it up a bit for the camera and of course with subjects as cute as this, like this how could I resist!? Here is a link to the rest of the gallery.
It is still cold outside, but the track season is underway. The Appleton North Lightning girls competed in a triangular meet at Neenah on April 8th and the boys and girls competed in a triangular in Fond du Lac on the April 22nd. Here are a few of my favorite shots. Yes, I know the pole vaulter is not from North, but it is a good photo. This guy can vault! He easily cleared 13' 6" on this run and went on to win the meet too.
You can find the rest of the images from these two meets by clicking on the following links. -- Enjoy
