High School Tennis

Nisha is currently enjoying high school tennis and has the good fortune to play Varsity as the D2 line for Coach Damian.  The team and the D2 pairing have had a great season.  The team was ranked 14th going into team finals and lost in the first round to Colorado Academy.

The D2 pairing is 11-3 this season and aside from the loss to Mullen, they have been competitive in their losses.  They were 2nd place in the league tournament (losing to Evergreen).

They were the number 1 seed going into the regional tournament, but ended up in second place. (losing to St. Mary's Academy).

This is a big step up from her freshman year when she played V2/JV for Coach Derrick.  She played with 6 different partners in 7 matches and ended up with a 4-3 record.  She definitely learned a lot having never played doubles before. 

Pole Vaulting

My daughter took up Track and Field and is fortunate to have a dedicated coach that is willing to work with the kids on his own dime in season and out of season.  The school has a nice pit and has been investing in poles.  The program has gone from non-existent to 4 boys and 4 girls competing.

In her first season she progressed from 5'-0" to 6'-0" by the end of the season.  In her second season, she improved further to 7'-0" and still hopes to get a state qualifying height of 7'-3".

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/SchoolRecords.aspx?SchoolID=14499

UPDATE:  She got her state qualifier and moved up the ranks of all time leaders at D'Evelyn.  The school record is 9'-6" set in 2003.  The mark of 7'-3" sets her up as the best women's vaulter at D'Evelyn since 2021.

Recently Katarina Stefenidi (2000 Olympic Gold Medalist) was at the Jeffco track and I had the opportunity to learn a little more about the history of women's pole vaulting.  

Pole Vaulting has been an Olympic men's sport since 1896 and for women since 2000.

High Schools started sanctioning women's pole vaulting in 1995 and Colorado followed suit in 1999.

The NCAA did not begin sanctioning women's pole vault until 1998.

With the relatively short history, I feel like female vaulters are pioneers.  Colorado is fortunate to have a small program run by Jack Lubbers in Yuma, Colorado.

At D'Evelyn, Coach Anthony Kim is the assistant coach in charge of pole vault. He has a son who is a vaulter.  He competed in high school and University of Minnesota, Morris before attending law school at Georgetown.  

At the 2024 USATF Masters in Sacramento, California he cleared 2.7 meters (8'-10") which was good for 2nd place among 50-54 year old men.

Spring Cleaning

I decided to rearrange my closet and suddenly became overwhelmed by stuff.  It is actually difficult to fathom how many clothes I have that either don't fit, I don't wear, pending mending, or are otherwise not in my daily wardrobe rotation.

Suffice to say, my sense of style has dwindled to mostly jeans and Carhartt work shirts.  I have workout clothes.  Beyond that, my occasional wear clothes are limited to some nice pants and button downs.

I want to get everything consolidated into the master bedroom closet.  Currently, I have the master bedroom closet, overflow into the basement, overflow into the guest bedroom and a suitcase.

I also have an inordinate amount of shoes and athletic gear that I am clinging to.

I have listed some stuff for sale and created a donation pile.  Slowly, but surely, I want to work down try to eliminate a couple of pieces per week.  Even items with sentimental value have a limited shelf life.

Sell:

• Roman Chair - $50 (sold as soon as I dropped the price to $40, paid $50)
• Top Flight Junior Golf Clubs - $100 (paid $150 new); sold clubs only for $50
• Ping Moxie Junior Golf Clubs - $150 (sold in 24 hours, paid $30 used))
• Kokatat Dry Top - $50 (sold in 24 hours, paid $50 used)
• Cerberus Dinnie Stone Trainer - $150 (won, retail $220 new)
• Metolius Rock Rings - $20 (paid $20 used)
• Werksan Change Plates (7kg total) - $40 (paid $40 used), sold via Vintage Weights & Physical Culture Facebook page; lost during shipping claim filed with USPS.
• Ab Bench - $40 (paid $40)

Donation:

• (7) pants
• (2) sweatshirts
• (1) fleece shirt
• (1) pajama top
• (1) suit

College Admissions

I have held off on posting this for quite some time and this will likely remain a draft for a little bit of time at any rate.

My senior has been actively thinking about college since the summer between her sophomore and junior year.  She has visited all of the Colorado schools she was interested in.  She made a West Coast and Midwest trip to narrow down applications.  Most recently she has been flying around the country for admitted student tours.

She has at times been interested in material science, mathematics, aerospace engineering and electrical engineering.

In the end the applied to:

1. MIT (rejected)
2. Cal Tech (rejected)
3. Johns Hopkins (rejected)
4. Colorado School of Mines
5. University of Colorado - Boulder
6. Colorado State University
7. New York IT - Long Island
8. Case Western Reserve - 2nd?
9. Purdue - Indianapolis
10. Worchester Polytechnical Institute - 3rd?
11. Washington University - St Louis - 1st?
12. UC Irvine
13. UC Berkley (rejected)
14. Cal Poly
15. Stevens
16. US Air Force Academy (medical DQ)
17. US Naval Academy (accepted, pending medical waiver) - notified 4/19
18. US Merchant Marine (medical DQ)

She also applied for, but did not receive the Boettcher Foundation Scholarship, ROTC Scholarship and others.  

The big reveal was April 15, 2025 when she decided on Washington University in St Louis.

Boston & New York

For Spring Break the family flew out to the Northeast for some site-seeing, college visits and time with family.

The girls flew out Monday to visit Worchester Polytechnical Institute and I followed Tuesday night to enjoy Boston on Monday.

3/18 (Tuesday) - Fly into Boston

3/19 (Wednesday) - Walking Tour of Boston, Mike's Pastries, Dino's Italian restaurant, Ernesto's Pizza, walk around Harvard, drive to Providence, dinner at a pub with Suzanne, Nisha and I enjoyed the Cioppino (seafood stew) that featured little necks in addition to the usual shrimp, scallops, mussels and clams

3/20 (Thursday) - US Coast Guard Academy (highlight was shopping at the base exchange, but the USS Eagle was pretty cool as well), walk around Yale (dinner at Sherkaan Indian Street Food - fun mix of fusion dishes), drive to New Jersey

3/21 (Friday) - NYIT Long Island, Francesca's Pizza

3/22 (Saturday) - Visit with Naveen, Ratna's Aunt, Singha's Pizza

3/23 (Sunday) - Kaden and Kameron Birthday Party (with Pizza), home repairs (secured interior door and garage weather stripping)

3/24 (Monday) - Stevens and Fly back to Denver

Daniel Corcos, PhD - Exercise and Parkinson's Disease

I have not really connected with alumni groups ever despite graduating from Purdue, Northwestern and University of Colorado.  However, Northwestern had a speaker coming to town that caught my interest.

Daniel Corcos was going to be speaking on Exercise and Parkinson's Disease at the University Club of Denver and I was really excited to take a listen.  I have crossed paths with several individuals including a close childhood friend who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.  I am also a strong proponent that exercise is medicine and wanted to catch up on the latest research.  Finally, I have never connected with alumni clubs and really wanted to take the opportunity.

The University Club of Denver is an amazing venue.  It exudes that old wealth of a private club.  It was established in 1891 and sits on the same property at 17th and Sherman 125 years later.  Resident Membership has an initiation fee of $1400 and monthly dues of $325 plus a quarterly food & beverage minimum of $150.  One of the Northwestern Alumni Club officers is a member and was able to arrange the venue.

The food was good with olive toast points, pulled pork sliders and chicken skewers.  They also had a cash bar with all attendees getting one free drink ticket.

The speaker was very thoughtful and covered the material well.  The net-net was that exercise is clinically proven to improve outcomes for people diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.

There were about 30 attendees at the event.  Most were retired having had successful careers in a variety of fields.  I talked to a couple of folks that retired from aerospace engineering and a law practice.  It was mostly an older crowd with a smattering of younger folks.  I was surprised to hear that there were a number of speech and language pathologists in the mix.

The speaker spoke at a pretty high level, but clearly showed that outcomes are statistically significant for cardiovascular exercise 4 times per week for 30 minutes and strength 2 times per week.  He was in town as part of coordinating with Anchutz Medical Center with an ongoing phase 3 clinical trial.

I certainly may continue to participate in alumni events and thought it was a really great crowd.

Quattro Assi Sean Kelly Tour Edition

Let me preface this by saying that I buying another bicycle will cause me more problems that this is probably worth, but when Will Martin listed this on Facebook Marketplace for $270 a month ago, I had to have it.  Fortunately, I forgot about it and the price was dropped to $215 at which point I picked it up without even considering haggling.

Per Will, he was the second owner.  He purchased from the original owner, put on new tires and handlebar tape and maybe rode it 500 miles.  

It is an aluminum frame with an aftermarket Easton carbon fiber front fork.  Mostly Shimano 105 components and very comfortable during my test ride in the Sam's Club parking lot.  I am looking forward to giving it a proper ride soon.  Aside from the classic Quattro Assi geometry, I was taken in by the color and the front triple chainring which is pretty uncommon now.  The only must upgrades are the pedals.  Everything else looked good.

Sean Kelly Unveils New Bike

Sean Kelly, the "King of the Classics", attended workshops held at six U.S. bike shops from California to Texas, August 15th-23rd. Hundreds of cycling enthusiasts experienced a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet and ride with this legendary cyclist.

During the Tour, Sean unveiled his new bike, a Quattro Assi Elite. Built from Easton Elite Select aluminum tubing and made in the U.S.A. Sean raved to Tour participants on the responsiveness of his Quattro Assi. He noted, one strong reason for the outstanding responsiveness lies within the frame's engineering. The Easton Elite Select tubing employs tapered wall butting. By tapering the tubing walls, not only is the maximum yield of strength increased by 5%, but also a 57% higher fatigue limit is achieved. Additionally, there is a 16% higher tensile strength.

Sean equally praised the surprisingly comfortable smooth ride, not usually found in aluminum frames. The harshness was eliminated during tig welding by using internally purged Argon gas. Externally, the frames are heat treated then aligned within a .5 millimeter tolerance.

Picked up a pair of Shimano PD6700 Road Pedals from Scott Millsapps for $20.  He threw in cleats as well.  He switched over to mountain bike pedals for his new Trek Fuel EXe that apparently set him back $6500, but now his wife does not need to wait for him.

Doing a quick add of my bicycle spend current value:

Pinarello (1987)         cost = $750 (1987)      current value = $300

Gios (2001)                cost = $2000 (2001)    current value = $400

Surly (2017)               cost = $1700 (2017)    current value = $400

Cervelo (2010)           cost = $600 (2023)      current value = $500

Mercier (20xx)           cost = $50 (2024)        current value = $100

Quattro Assi (199x)    cost = $215 (2025)      current value = $215

Nobody needs (6) bicycles, but a lifetime spend of $5500 is not ridiculous.  This does not count a Specialized Rockhopper that I bought for $500 (in 1997) and sold for $125 (in 2007) or a Raleigh Road Bike that I bought for around $300 (in 1989), but was stolen (in 1991).