The Sounders have begun their second and final day of fitness assessment at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton. After testing endurance, today’s emphasis is speed.

Top five finishers in the 30-meter dash were: Darwin Jones, Cordell Cato, Abdul Aman, Mike Fucito, Christian Sivebaek.

“It’s just a measure,” Schmid said. “Running with the ball and running without the ball are two different things. Some guys who are … very fast without the ball, and very slow with the ball. But it gives you an idea of where guys fall in the rank order and how they compare with each other. Also, for the guys who’ve been here now, we see if there’s some progression. We see if there’s some improvement in terms of their explosion, their quickness based on some of the work that’s been done with them by Dave Tenney.”

Most impressive in its own was was Sivebaek, who is a sturdy 6-foot-3. I spoke to him for the first time after training. Very nice guy. I’ll have some of that interview on the blog later and a story in the paper soon.