The Etrain Oscars Are Back!

Greetings Train fans. It’s been a great year. We’ve witnessed countless great performances, thrilling finishes and Rick Fowler commercials. Some of us may have even looked up what Rocket Mortgage does. But most importantly, we’ve completed another year at the Blog and it’s time to celebrate!

We are now accepting nominations for the 2^nd Annual Etrain Oscars! For those of you unfamiliar with the event, this awards show is an opportunity to recognize the hardworking athletes on this blog. But more importantly, it’s an opportunity for you as readers to share in the process. You can nominate people for the awards in the traditional ways (email, twitter, commenting) and then we will have a Google Poll link on the site, starting next week, to give everyone a chance to vote on who (or what) they think deserves some recognition.

The Oscars awards presentation is tentatively set for June 29^th at 8 PM and will be live streamed on the blog. Once the Oscars is in the books, it’s out with the old and in with the new almost immediately as July 1^st will kick of etrain’s patented Top 50 XC Rankings.

For those who don’t remember, here are the categories for the 2016-2017 Etrain Oscars!

Best Picture

Best Race of the Year

Awarded to the best race, from either Cross Country or Track and Field, featuring a PA athlete. This is not best performance, meant to highlight an individual’s performance, but rather best race meant to highlight an exciting, impressive or particularly memorable event.

Best Actor

Best Individual Performer

Awarded to the best runner in the year. Voters can choose to consider an athletes full body of work over three seasons or one particularly exception performance or season. It’s up to each reader’s own interpretation of “best”. 

Best Actors

Best Performance by a Team or Relay

Similar to Best Actor, this is open to interpretation as well. Voters can select a relay, a XC team or a track team. They can also consider a team’s entire body of work over three seasons. 

Best Supporting Actor

Best Performance by a #2 Runner on a Team or Relay
This award is meant to highlight the efforts of a runner who may not be the “star” of a team, but made important contributions towards a school’s achievements during the year, whether that be on relays or in team scoring for track and cross country. 

Best Animated Feature

Best Performance by an Underclassmen
This is essentially the “Best Actor” award, but for freshman and sophomores. Again, the voters can interpret exactly what constitutes “best”. 

Cinematography

Best Meet of the Year
Awarded to the best meet of the year. This award is similar to best race of the year, but considers all the events contested at a given meet and the total drama, excitement and experience of said meet.

Costume Design

Best Uniforms
Pick your favorite uniforms that you’ve seen this season! It can be as a simple as listing a high school or, if you want to go in depth, feel free to get specific.

Best Directing

Best Coaching Performance
This award highlights the coaches who help each team and athlete hit their potential. Feel free to list a school or program even if you don’t know the coach who is operating behind the scenes.

Best Documentary Feature

Best Post of the Year
Highlights the best blog post or news article you’ve read over the year. It could be a serious, dramatic story or a funny, humorous piece. Again, you can choose for yourself what constitutes “Best”.

Best Documentary Short Film

Best Comment of the Year
This award is the same as the best blog post, but is meant to highlight your contributes as commenters. If you can’t think of a specific moment or are having trouble skipping back through posts to find something, feel free to just give a commenters name or nickname or highlight a particular prediction or topic that was covered that you particularly enjoyed.

Film Editing

Best Upset of the Year
Which race produced the most surprising result of the year? There are plenty to choose from this year, but don’t feel limited to just state meets or just track. Any meet could have produced the biggest upset.

Best Foreign Language Film

Best Non-Distance Performance
This gives you a chance to highlight some of your favorite moments that weren’t covered on this blog. You can nominate a team, individual or race for this award. Feel free to get creative.

Make Up and Hair Styling

Best Cross Country Course
Pick your favorite course of the 2016 XC season.

Music (Original Song)
Best Running Song of the Year
What song was your go to for this season? Whether it be while training or trying to get pumped up before a big race, it all counts. We will even accept songs that weren’t released this year. Drake songs are recommended by Jarrett.

Visual Effects
Best Kick of the Year
What was the best finishing sprint we’ve seen in the 2016-2017 season? Maybe it’s one particular runner who shines consistently or maybe it’s one race where everyone was gunning to the line and that made it memorable. It’s all up to you!

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Most Improved Runner
Which runner would you like to highlight for making big strides during the 2016-2017 season? It doesn’t have to literally be someone with a big stride.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Best Story Line of 2016-2017
What’s the #1 story of this past year? Which story line made you want to tune into the blog, comment and discuss? Which storyline warmed your heart? Again, it’s all what you as the voters feel defines the 2016-2017 season. So feel free to get creative.

New for this year:
Best Sound Mixing
Best Range
Awarded to the runner in the state who can do the most events in the state effectively.

The 2015-2016 Etrain Oscars

Don't miss the Etrain Oscars, live on the blog Thursday night beginning at 8:30.

The winners ...
Best Make Up and Hair Styling
Best Cross Country Course
#3 Belmont Plateau
#2 Hershey Parkview
#1 Lehigh University

Best Costume Design
Best Uniforms
#3 CR South
#2 Lower Merion
#1 Cardinal O'Hara

Best Visual Effects
Most Exciting Runner
#3 Alex Milligan, State College
#2 Domenic Perretta, Beaver Falls
#1 Jake Brophy, CB East

Best Foreign Language Film
Best Non-Distance Performance
#3 Ayden Owens, North Allegheny
#2 Josh McLemore, DT West
#1 Jordan Geist, Knoch

Best Adapted Screenplay
Most Improved Runner
#3 Brian Mass, CB West and Noah Falasco, Upper Merion
#2 Kent Hall, Unionville
#1 Nick Wolk, Peters Township

Wow thank you! it's such a great honor to be recognized by the community and this blog that I have spent so many hours hitting the refresh button on, just waiting for the next article to be posted. Anyway, I have so many people to thank for the support on this incredible ride the last couple years. Of course I have to start with my parents whose contributions I can't even begin to list because they wouldn't fit on this page and my grandma who came to all my meets and being the person I was most compelled to not disappoint. I would like to thank all my coaches. A big loud high five to my coach Tim Wu, whose high fives are truly unrivaled. Thank you Mr. Z and Coach brown and the rest of the middle school Wolfpack, Paul and coach wright for all the wisdom and advice they have passed down to me as well as everyone who I have learned from and talked to on so many runs, they know who they are. Thank you To Luca Pugliano for being a great training partner and a greater friend, Todd Gunz for that long run and generally being insane and thank you to the rest of the Wpial for four years of the highest competition, great times, and motivation to "do it for the Wpial" at states. Thanks again to all the writers for creating this blog predicting almost every finish of mine this year and for being the life of this community. I'll be a lifelong fan even if I am no longer in Pennsylvania or in high school or a distance runner.

Best Original Screenplay
Best Storyline
#3 Year of the Team Titles
#2 WPIAL Vs.
#1 State College 4x800m

Best Documentary Feature
Best Featured Post
#3 Interviews by the Etrain Staff
#2 Bold Predictions for 2016 by Etrain11
#1 The XC All Decade Team by Jarrett Felix

Best Documentary Short Film
Best Comment
#3 "No Excuses"
#2 "Etrain is a Giant Softie"
#1 The Joe Espinal Comment

Best Original Song
Best Running Song
#3 All Star by Smash Mouth
#2 Sandstorm by Darude
#1 0 to 100 by Drake

Best Cinematography
Best Meet
#3 Penn Relays
#2 XC States
#1 Outdoor States

Best Film Editing
Best Upset
#3 Alex Milligan, Outdoor State 1600m
#2 Matt Kravitz, Outdoor State 3200m
#1 Joe Espinal, Outdoor State 800m

Best Animated Feature
Best Performance by a Freshman or Sophomore
#3 Kamil Jihad, Neumann Goretti
#2 Liam Conway, Owen J Roberts
#1 Josh Hoey, Downingtown West

Best Supporting Actor
Best #2 Runner on a Team or Relay
#3 Nick Feffer, State College
#2 Josh Goetz, CB East
#1 Henry Sappey, Downingtown West

Best Directing
Best Coaching Performance
#3 LaSalle
#2 CB East
#1 State College

Best Actor
Best Individual Performer
#3 Alex Milligan, State College
#2 Domenic Perretta, Beaver Falls
#1 Jake Brophy, CB East

Best Actors
Best Team Performance
#3 CB East Track/XC
#2 Downingtown West Track/XC
#1 State College 4x800m/Track

Best Picture
Best Race
#3 PIAA AAA Outdoor 4x800m
#2 PTFCA Indoor 3,000m
#1 AAA XC States

Etrain Oscars and The Etrain 11 - Links

Just so you guys have everything all in one place ...

Here's the link to vote in the Etrain Oscars: http://goo.gl/forms/IPSAcLLb8OhdVEFK2
Every vote will count! I believe just about every nominee has already gotten a vote and the poll has yet to reach 24 hours of activation. To help you with your voting decision making, we will be putting up some summaries of the nominees criteria on LXV+ gradually throughout the voting window.

Here's what we've done so far:
Best Make Up and Hair Styling
Best Visual Effects
Best Documentary Feature
Best Costume Design
Best Picture
New: Best Original Song

Also, if you've been following along, we have a series of Post Season Recap stories that take a look into some of the most interesting story lines from the 2015-2016 track season. We've been calling it "The Etrain 11". Here's what we have so far on that front.

It Takes a Village
WPIAL Vs.
The Young and The Restless
Running Up Hill
New: The Bucks Starts Here

And oh yeah, for those of you ready to move on, we will officially be starting the Etrain Top 50 XC Rankings for PA High School on July 25th. So stay tuned for that. Can't wait for that to begin? Feel free to start up the discussion on the playground, our official discussion forum.

Don't forget about us this summer! We've still got lots to discuss!

A Quick Message From Garrett...
I'm currently working on an article discussing our PA Seniors and what college programs they will be running in. Although I won't be able to cover everyone, I would like to be extensive as possible, but I'll need your help! Below are some of the graduating PA seniors who will be running in college next year. If you see that I missed a name, let me know and I'll be sure to add them to the list!

-Jake Brophy: Naval Academy
-Jaxson Hoey: Penn State University
-Dominic Perretta: Penn State University
-Matt Wisner: Duke University
-Joe Espinal: Lehigh University
-Matt Kravitz: Lehigh University
-Kent Hall: Georgetown University
-Joe Maguire: Rhode Island University
-Rock Fortna: Rhode Island University
-Brett Wolfinger: Johns Hopkins University
-Alex Milligan: UNC-Chapel Hill
-Marc Migliozzi: Akron University
-Nick Wolk: University of Pittsburgh
-Dominic Hockenbury: Syracuse University
-Rob Morro: Villanova University
-Mike Kolor: Harvard University
-Tucker Desko: University of Oklahoma
-Jacob Susalla: Columbia University
-Cooper Leslie: College of William & Mary
-Blake Behney: Shippensburg University
-Henry Sappey: Monmouth University
-Todd Gunzenhauser: UNC-Charlotte
-Rob Moser: Shippensburg University
-Kevin Lapsansky: Temple University
-Ben Ryherd: Temple University
-Frank Livolsi: Widener University
-Zach Sieger: Temple University
-Sam Signor: Lock Haven University
-Jacob Stupak: Buckell University
-Michael Bove: Duquesne University
-Brian Delaney: Shippensburg University
-Jack DiCintio: Brown University
-David Fletcher: Lehigh University
-Brian Iatarola: Shippensburg University
-Ryan Paradise: Lehigh University
-David Snyder: Shippensburg Unviersity
-Sean McGinnis: High Point University

The Etrain Oscars: It's Time to Vote

We've compiled all of your nominations plus a few of our own to put together the official awards ballot for the 1st ever (sort of) Etrain Oscars!

To vote in the 2015-2016 Etrain Oscars just click here: http://goo.gl/forms/IPSAcLLb8OhdVEFK2

Expect to see that link in a lot of places going forward. The voting will be open until July 31st at 11:59 PM. Then we will work on compiling the results and putting together an awards show to honor the winners!

Throughout the next few weeks, we will break down all the nominees in detail here on the blog just in case you need a little help with your voting choices, so be on the look out for those posts as well.

Spread the word, vote early and vote often! This should be a fun event and we want everyone involved.

Presenting .... The Etrain Oscars!

EDIT: If you want to check out the first post in The Etrain 11 for 2016, Click Here
EDIT #2: After some serious YouTube searching, I've got some potential relay splits for the states AAA 4x8. Working on AA next, but you can check out all the work on LXV+ 

Well, there’s not a ton of buzz right now with the sport transitioning into down time, so I thought we’d try and create some! Introducing the first (sort of) annual (maybe) Etrain Oscars! This will be an awards show to honor some of PA’s best performances from the past 12 months including Cross Country, Indoor Track and Outdoor Track.

If all goes well, we will have a proper fan voting that will (hopefully) be anonymous yet keep the voting a secret until the final results are announced. If things go really well, we will have some type of “Oscars Awards Show” through our high tech google technology. If things don’t go as well, we will still share the results on the blog for everyone to appreciate.

Below, I’ve outlined the categories for the awards show. We are looking for nominations from you for each category. We have some of our own picks in mind and will likely include those as well, but we want to hear your opinions and give our readers the best possible opportunity to be involved in all stages of this event.

So comment, message or email us with your nomination ideas (@TheRealTrain11 on twitter, email jarrettfelix1130@gmail.com, comment on the blog) and tell your friends about this upcoming event! We want to create some genuine excitement for this thing!

P.S. Worth noting, due to the nature of our blog, it will likely be a distance heavy awards show. For those who enjoy the other events in our sport, feel free to reach out and join our writing staff. A more well rounded group will produce more well rounded content.

Best Picture

Best Race of the Year
Awarded to the best race, from either Cross Country or Track and Field, featuring a PA athlete. This is not best performance, meant to highlight an individual’s performance, but rather best race meant to highlight an exciting, impressive or particularly memorable event.

Best Actor

Best Individual Performer
Awarded to the best runner in the year. Voters can choose to consider an athletes full body of work over three seasons or one particularly exception performance or season. It’s up to each reader’s own interpretation of “best”.

Best Actors

Best Performance by a Team or Relay
Similar to Best Actor, this is open to interpretation as well. Voters can select a relay, a XC team or a track team. They can also consider a team’s entire body of work over three seasons.

Best Supporting Actor

Best Performance by a #2 Runner on a Team or Relay
This award is meant to highlight the efforts of a runner who may not be the “star” of a team, but made important contributions towards a school’s achievements during the year, whether that be on relays or in team scoring for track and cross country.

Best Animated Feature

Best Performance by an Underclassmen
This is essentially the “Best Actor” award, but for freshman and sophomores. Again, the voters can interpret exactly what constitutes “best”.

Cinematography

Best Meet of the Year
Awarded to the best meet of the year. This award is similar to best race of the year, but considers all the events contested at a given meet and the total drama, excitement and experience of said meet.

Costume Design

Best Uniforms
Pick your favorite uniforms that you’ve seen this season! It can be as a simple as listing a high school or, if you want to go in depth, feel free to get specific.

Best Directing

Best Coaching Performance
This award highlights the coaches who help each team and athlete hit their potential. Feel free to list a school or program even if you don’t know the coach who is operating behind the scenes.

Best Documentary Feature

Best Post of the Year
Highlights the best blog post or news article you’ve read over the year. It could be a serious, dramatic story or a funny, humorous piece. Again, you can choose for yourself what constitutes “Best”.

Best Documentary Short Film

Best Comment of the Year
This award is the same as the best blog post, but is meant to highlight your contributes as commenters. If you can’t think of a specific moment or are having trouble skipping back through posts to find something, feel free to just give a commenters name or nickname or highlight a particular prediction or topic that was covered that you particularly enjoyed.

Film Editing

Best Upset of the Year
Which race produced the most surprising result of the year? There are plenty to choose from this year, but don’t feel limited to just state meets or just track. Any meet could have produced the biggest upset.

Best Foreign Language Film

Best Non-Distance Performance
This gives you a chance to highlight some of your favorite moments that weren’t covered on this blog. You can nominate a team, individual or race for this award. Feel free to get creative.

Make Up and Hair Styling

Best Cross Country Course
Pick your favorite course of the 2015 XC season.

Music (Original Song)
Best Running Song of the Year
What song was your go to for this season? Whether it be while training or trying to get pumped up before a big race, it all counts. We will even accept songs that weren’t released this year. Drake songs are recommended by Jarrett.

Visual Effects
Most Exciting Runner of the Year
Who did you enjoy watching the most? Maybe someone with a big kick or maybe a runner who was particularly gutsy and aggressive by setting a fast pace?

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Most Improved Runner
Which runner would you like to highlight for making big strides during the 2015-2016 season? It doesn’t have to be literally someone with a big stride.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

Best Story Line of 2015-2016
What’s the #1 story of this past year? Which story line made you want to tune into the blog, comment and discuss? Which storyline warmed your heart? Again, it’s all what you as the voters feel defines the 2015-2016 season. So feel free to get creative.