May 13, 2012 - Pirates Place Fourth at Mid-Suburban League Outdoor Conference

It wasn't quite what we were looking for on Friday, but our team turned in a solid fourth place showing at the outdoor conference meet.  Our crosstown rivals Fremd won the title with 106 points.  Prospect (99) and Conant (91) also defeated us as we scored 76 points.  We scored over our seeds, but we just didn't have the depth to get in front of these three teams.  The MSL is won with second scorers, and we had no double-scored events outside of the distance events.  Check out the full results on DyestatIL.

Our distance crew scored the second most distance points behind Conant's 32 (second in all four distance races).  On the bright side, every guy we put on the track in the four distance events scored.  On the down side, we couldn't manage to get into the top two of any one event and really score big.  Our frosh-soph unit also ran well.  We scored 38 points with that crew and every guy scored save Dean Roehrborn (who ran the night's biggest PR in the 800 run).  All in all, we brought enough of our "A" game to score well, but we'll have to keep improving to get where we want to go on the state level.

Practice Schedule - Week 16

Performance List Updates - All season best performances turned in at the MSL Conference, the Hinsdale McCarthy Invite, the Carlin Nalley Lisle Invite, the Prospect-St. Viator JV meet, and the JV time trial are no in the 2012 Performance Lists.

History Updates - It's always nice to add new pieces to our program's history.  Our 4 x 800 meter relay tied for the #9 performance in school history with the 1977 team of Dave Kennedy, Brian Kessler, Kevin Nikolai, and Tom Johnson.  Congrats to Tim Johnson, Zach Stella, Christian Zambrano, and Peter Tomkiewicz.  We should be poised to go even faster when Kendric and Clinger are inserted into the lineup for the IHSA Sectional on Friday.

Marcus Garcia also moved up the list a little bit after his courageous run to a third place in the 3200 meter run.  He gave away a great time when he tried to win the race from 1200 meters to go, but he still managed a 9:20.6 (9:20.80 FAT) to move into #9 All-Time, just .3 seconds ahead of his running partner Anthony Gregorio.

Video Updates - Robert Somary's dad posted a ton of videos of the MSL Conference meet on YouTube.  Check them out and thanks to Hersey for running a great meet and providing videos.

Find the rest on the RunHersey YouTube channel.

MSL Outdoor Conference Meet - Pirates Score Solid Across the Board

4 x 800 meter relay - We tried to steal this one with our depth.  We held Andrew Clingerman and Tim Meincke out to run fresh in the open 800 while Kendric Cornelius rotated back to his sprint and jump events for scoring purposes.  It almost worked.  Tim Johnson couldn't quite hand with Conant's James Weaver, but his split of 1:57.9 was a season best.  Our junior inside legs then got it done in their first varsity MSL action.  Zach Stella had repaired our entire deficit by 400 meters and made a gutsy move to take the lead by the 600.  His opening splits of 55.2 and 1:25.2 were personal bests in their own right so the late fade was understandable.  Still, he held composure and kept it close with a PR split of 2:00.2.  Christian Zambrano has been on complete fire lately in both practices and meets, and he kept his roll going.  He gauged his pace perfectly through the 400 meters and then brought us to the lead at the final exchange with a crazy charge in the last 100 meters.  His 1:59.4 was a huge lifetime best.  Peter was a bit out of his element amid the other speedy anchors, but he tried to win it doing what he does best.  He ran rhythmically before taking the lead just before the 500 meter mark.  He held it until the top of the stretch, but didn't have the gears to turn it over and win the race.  We ended up fourth in 7:57.60 behind his 2:00.0 split.  This run certainly bodes well for when we go full go in the next two weeks and proves that our depth is strong.

The F/S section was actually just as inspiring as our varsity.  Amadeus Sanchez has hardly been able to run with what I presume is a stress fracture in his shin.  He asked for the stick on leadoff anyway and ran the best race of his career.  His 2:10.5 put us right in the thick of the race in third place and gave Josh Mackie a shot to do what he does best - compete.  His 2:12.7 split was a huge PR and showed his promise for the future.  Coming home both Ryan Kissane (2:15.5) and Ryan McCauley (2:15.7) ran right near their PRs to get us home in fifth place with a great time of 8:54.2.  I really didn't know if this group could break 9:00, but they did their jobs well.  Scoring with our "B" relay allowed the big guns to get it done fresh in their individual events.

3200 meter run - With speedy senior rivals Erik Peterson and Tyler Schneider lined up against us we knew this one would be a difficult task.  Both guys simply have more finishing speed than Marcus and Tony so they have to be broken before the late stages.  That's not an easy task since both are strong and competitive in their own rights.  The full field was absolutely loaded with Tony's 9:42 seed being second to last in the whole field.  Before we ran, we owned up to the truth that this would be Tony's last race.  He has come back from mono as quickly and as decisively as you can, but he simply can't beat Marcus and Peter out for the two IHSA Sectional spots.  I asked him to bundle up all of his years of moxie and pride to find a way to score one last time for the team.

Right from the gun, Schneider did what we expected: he got out front and went to his monster rhythm.  He, Peterson, and Marcus hit the quarter at 63 and never looked back.  Basically, the field had to choose at the 200 meter mark whether they wanted to go with the pace.  No one else made the choice.  The splits were pretty nasty throughout: 2:10, 3:22, 4:32, 5:42.  Marcus and I had pre-determined that no matter what the pace was, he was going to crank it at three laps to go and try to shake the race to pieces.  He shot as hard as he could off of that pace and managed to string it out for a bit.  Peterson rallied immediately and by 300 meters later so had Schneider.  It was just hanging on from there.  Marcus suffered terribly but still held his poise and finished third in a PR of 9:20.80 FAT. 

Behind him, Tony Gregorio ran one of the best races of his storied career at Palatine.  A two-time state track qualifier with no options next week, he bundled up his considerable pride and got it done.  I shuddered when he took the lead of the second group just past the mile mark.  He has been getting dropped badly in practice by his teammate and I couldn't believe such a move would last, especially off of a 4:37 opening pace.  He did his best to score big, holding fourth place until the final 200 meters, but Schaumburg's Evan Prizy and one other runner snuck in front of him.  Still, I will always remember his toughness - 9:26.4 just four weeks after being diagnosed with mono.  A fighter to the end.

In the F/S section, we ran great.  Graham Brown was attempting the 3200-1600 double for the first time ever so I asked him just to run for the win.  The pace crawled as a result.  The entire top pack of ten hit the 1600 meter mark at 5:04.  It finally picked up some after that, but it didn't really get going until the last 800 meters when Buffalo Grove's Steven Salvano and Graham finally decided to let it out.  Salvano held him off until 300 meters to go, but Graham dropped a 61 second last lap to run away with the win in 9:50.  His hesitance to take the pace also set the race up perfectly for Emil Kozakiewicz.  Emil doesn't have big speed, but he loves to run negative splits off of manageable paces.  He ran 10:04.7 to place fourth overall and set a huge new PR.  That time equals, nearly to the tenth, what Peter Tomkiewicz ran in the same meet as a sophomore.  Let's hope Emil keeps progressing at the same rate!

800 meter run - We gave away some big points by holding two 800 meter guys out fresh for this race rather than running them in the 3200 relay.  Some years we catch the field napping and some years we don't.  This year it wasn't in the cards.  Clingerman and Meincke both scored, but fifth and eighth was not nearly the payoff we were looking for paced on the tactics we chose.  Clinger ran solid, finishing in 1:58.6, but he didn't achieve the breakthrough performance he was looking for.  Meincke got caught up in a shoving match and jockeying for position and it cost him.  He faded to eighth in the stretch.

In the F/S section, both Dean Roehrborn and Connor McGough ran to new PRs.  Dean has been enthusiastic as always lately so I made a spot for him in the meet.  He was our only guy not to score, but his 2:19.6 was a huge drop from his 2:26 PR.  Connor continued to show that he will be a star in the future.  Recent PRs of 4:46 and 10:41 indicated that he was also ready to drop time in his best event.  He competed like mad in the final 100 meters to hold off a charging field and finish third in a new best of 2:05.7.  That is the #4 frosh 800 meter time since I took over in 2002.

400 meter dash - Now that he is an honorary member of the distance crew, I've got to show our love for Kendric Cornelius.  He won his first conference title behind a 49.82 effort in this race.  It is incredible that he will bring that kind of speed to our 4 x 800 relay in the coming weeks.  This race combined with his third place finishes in the long jump (20' 11"), 200 meter dash (23.2), and 4 x 400 meter relay to add up to 28 points.  He ran 49.9 only 15-20 minutes after competing in the 200 meter dash.  For that, he was most certainly our team MVP of the night.  I couldn't be any prouder of his enthusiasm for our team and for the mental toughness he has developed over the course of this season.

1600 meter run - The varsity 1600 was as loaded as it has ever been at the MSL meet.  There were five guys who have run 4:30 or better in the slow heat.  That left a great heat of twelve, but as usual the amount of guys doubling slowed it down.  I think only Fremd's Harry Winter and Prospect's Quentin Schaffer took the track fresh, and it wasn't a coincidence that both men scored.  The pace crawled through the halfway mark in 2:12 when Tim Johnson decided to go for the lead.  He made a huge move to gap the field and string it out, but Conant's Schneider got back on top of him by the time they took the gun.  I applauded the move, but it cost us in the score as Tim faded to fifth.  Peter never looked comfortable and struggled to a sixth place finish.  Not the points we were looking for.  Simply solid.

In the F/S Graham tried his hardest to complete the double.  He enjoyed a spirited dual with Hersey's Jack O'Neil through the last 1000 meters and the two gunned it nearly side by side through the last lap.  He ended up finishing second with a solid time of 4:36.7.  Not bad on the back end of a double for the first time ever.  Behind him, Eddie Graham ran one of the great races of my career.  He has shown great fitness all year, but this was without a doubt the result he was looking for.  He made strong and determined moves to get into the right running group and then closed the last 200 like a madman to place fourth in a huge PR of 4:39.0.  A year and a half ago, he ran 5:55 in his first cross country time trial.  Now he is nearly as fast as Marcus and Tony were as sophomores. 

4 x 400 meter relay - A number of our distance guys played key roles in the closing relays of the day.  Connor McGough anchored the F/S in 55.7.  Our varsity was composed of four members of our mid-distance group and finished third in 3:28.96 behind solid splits from Jordan Jarrett (53.1), Rob Hank (53.7), Andrew Clingerman (51.9), and Kendric (49.9). 

 April 30, 2012 - Palatine Relays Updates

It has been far too long since my last updates.  We have all descended into the track vortex of April and have just a small time to grab some breath before we head into a week that has four meets.  Our top F/S will be in action tomorrow at the Hersey F/S Invite.  We then have three meets over the weekend as we begin to figure out exactly which guys will run in the championship phase of the season.  The main varsity athletes will be in the Hinsdale McCartney Invite on Friday night.  Most of them will come back on Saturday at the Carlin Nalley Lisle Invite.  The rest of our squad will be in action at our annual JV triangular with Prospect and St. Viator on Friday night.

The highlights over the past two weeks have been many.  We have gone up against many of the best runners in our conference and begun to build steam for the end of the season.  We placed second to Fremd by 5.5 points in the Palatine Relays last Saturday.  The score was 126.5 to 121.  That result came after a Tuesday divisional meet which saw the Vikings run away with victory in the MSL West by 25 points over Schaumburg and 30 points over us.  If we want to contend for the MSL title in two weeks, we certainly will have to round out our depth and find some more contributors.

Practice Schedule - Week 14

Video Updates - Steve Clingerman has once again been hard at work creating videos of the track season.  Check out the action from the Crosstown Classic:

Palatine-Fremd Dual Part I

Palatine-Fremd Dual Part II

Facebook Updates - If you haven't liked the public Facebook page for the boys and girls teams, do it!  Both the boys and girls coaches are trying to provide quicker feeback on big news within the programs.

Performance List Updates - With the weather being abysmal, there were few great times to speak of from Friday night at Wheaton ABC.  Brian Smith and Kendric Cornelius were the only ones to run significant PRs in their respective events.  We did run a number of PRs in the MSL West meet and the Palatine Relays.  Tim Meincke and Andrew Clingerman both ran big new PRs in the 800 meters to give us three guys under 1:59.0.  Check out the updates to everyone's seasonal bests.

Picture Updates - I have two galleries of pictures from MaryAnn Graham.  Check out galleries of her photos from the York Dual and the Palatine-Fremd Crosstown Classic.  More to come later.  I also included a picture of the traveling trophy our AD, Jerry Dobbs, developed for the Crosstown Classic.  It'll look good sitting at PHS for a while year!

80th Annual Palatine Relays - Boys Fall Just Short Against Crosstown Rivals

I usually go event by event for the Palatine Relays, but I'm pressed for time.  Highlights:

MSL West Division Meet - Solid Distance Efforts Spark Third Place Finish

Wheaton Warrenville South "Red Grange" Invite - Kendric Cornelius Wins 800 Meters

Short highlights only now:

Prospect-Barrington Triangular

Short highlights part deux:

April 15, 2012 - Boys Win Inaugural Crosstown Classic

Saturday's inaugural Crosstown Classic between Fremd and Palatine completely lived up to the hype that we had generated within our respective squads.  We won in bizarre fashion as the entire meet came down to the 4 x 400 meter relay only to see Fremd's top team DQ'd for a false start.  That was a bit of anti-climax, and to be fair we would probably have lost the race.  Still, to see the scoreboard at Palatine 71, Fremd 70 as the two teams stepped onto the track for the final event was incredible.  It was certainly one of those moments in athletics that few of us will forget.  Afterward, both teams congregated in the middle of the football field for brief talks from both head coaches and a respectful handshake.

In the end I'm not sure it mattered who won.  The meet was fought with the fervency of a MSL conference title bout, and both teams will use this as the catalyst for the rest of the outdoor season.  Many of us have Fremd pegged as the MSL favorites this year so it was nice to compete close with them and give ourselves some confidence that will be in the hunt come the middle of May.

It took record-setting performances from our top athletes to get it done.  Peter Tomkiewicz (9:18.8) and Marcus Garcia (9:21.1) moved to #5 and #10 in school history in the 3200 meter run.  Had Tony Gregorio been in the race (he is out with mono), we would have stood a chance of running three of the ten best times ever.  Graham Brown (4:29.8) moved into #2 Frosh position in the 1600 meter run.  Cam Kuksa (15.1 and 41.3) moved to #3 Junior in the 110 meter high hurdles and #9 ever in the 300 meter intermediates.  Robby Fekete's 44.2 clocking in the latter race improved the #3 Frosh position he had established on Wednesday night at Libertyville.  Kendric Cornelius also moved up the All-Time 400 meter list to #9 with his 50.5 time.

Practice Schedule - Week 12

Performance List Updates - I added all new PRs to the 2012 Performance Lists.

Facebook Updates - Remember to "Like" our new public Facebook page.  It's an easy way to keep up with both the boys and girls teams.

History Updates - I added Marcus' and Peter's times to the All-Time 3200 list.  Peter also moved onto the list for top senior times.  I also added Graham Brown's time onto the All-Time 1600 list.

The Crosstown Classic - Palatine and Fremd Battle to the End

4 x 800 meter relay - We wanted to save our front-line guys for the open half so I loaded this with our upcoming juniors.  Fresh off the ACT, Joe Mars ran a 2:04.2 leadoff to stake us to a solid lead.  Huge PR for him as he continues to return from an injury.  Then, Zach Stella got after it, hitting 600 in 1:28 and finishing with a great new best of 2:02.1.  Christian Zambrano extended our lead with a 2:04.2 clocking before giving way to freshman Graham Brown.  I shut Graham down a bit because we had the race well in hand, but he still ran 2:07.0.  Total time was 8:17.5.

4 x 100 meter relay - We loaded this one with our best guys, but it wasn't enough.  Fremd got a great backstretch run and put us away after that.  The 44.6 time was our season best but not enough to defeat their quick 43.4

3200 meter run - Fremd's sophomore star Harry Winter had gotten close to Marcus in the MSL Indoor meet by kicking hard from off the pace.  We wanted to make him commit to running a fast pace early and used Noah Brown as a pacer for the first 800 meters.  He hit the quarter in 61 and then tied his 800 meter PR of 2:09.  The move strung Winter out from the gun and he couldn't recover after Marcus and Peter kept driving it out to a 4:31 split.  That little bit of absurdity made it tough going in the second mile, but the guys held on to 72 second quarters from there and still ran fast: Peter in 9:18 and Marcus in 9:21.  Great execution boys!  Winter finished third in 9:41.  We also got a new PR from Tyler Squeo who dropped down to 10:39.1.  In the F/S section, we went 1-2-3 behind solid runs from Eddie Graham (10:35), Emil Kozakiewicz (10:35), and Dean Kolar (10:41).  Adam Brauer also continued to make progress with an 11:01 PR.

110 meter high hurdles - This was a huge swing point in the meet.  Cam Kuksa has not been able to beat Fremd's Davy Mellado as of yet, and doing so would guarantee a four point swing.  Cam ran him to the line but couldn't get by.  The race ended with Mellado first in 15.0 and Cam second in 15.1.

100 meter dash - The story of the meet was our distance prowess against Fremd's sprinting power and it continued to play out in the 100 meter dash.  Lewis from Fremd edged out Kendric to get the win in 11.4.  Both guys were credited with the same time.

800 meter run - We wanted this one really bad, but Fremd's Nick Vuckovich is a huge star in the making.  He ran 1:58.71 indoors at the MSL meet so we had a tall task.  We put most of our front-line 4 x 800 in here with Tim Johnson, Andrew Clingerman, and Tim Meincke running for us.  Clingerman had not run since the MSL indoor meet so this was even more of a tall order.  We had Joe Mars blast the race through the 400 meter point where Tim Johnson took over and tried to string Vuckovich out.  Clingerman attached to his hip with Meincke too far adrift.  Into the last 100 meters I thought Timmy J or Clinger might walk him and take the win, but Nick is a fighter and held them both off.  Our times were still solid: Johnson 1:58.9, Clingerman 1:59.3, Meincke 2:00.9.  All three were PRs as was Vuckovich's 1:58.4 race winner.  In the F/S 800, Xavier Ortega ran a massive PR to take the win in 2:21.4.  Way to go X Man!

4 x 200 meter relay - This one was not supposed to be close, and it wasn't.  With a B lineup for us, Fremd pulled away to an easy win behind a 1:30.4 clocking.  We were disqualified for passing the baton before the zone on the second exchange.

400 meter dash - With the meet turning in Fremd's favor, we needed Kendric Cornelius to take the win over Fremd's star quarter miler Christian Vail.  The two entered the far curve together, but Kendric threw down a big move and then held form to win in 50.5.  That mark moved him to #9 All-Time for the 400.

300 meter intermediate hurdles - By this point we were down big and searching for inspiration.  Cam Kuksa provided it with a huge PR in this race.  He was down at two hurdles to go, but competed hard to take the win in 41.3.  As I said before that's the #9 time in that event in PHS history.

1600 meter run - With Vuckovich nursing a foot injury and being saved for the mile relay, our main adversaries here were the two Winter brothers.  Harry returned from the 3200 meter run while his older brother Jackson was coming off a 4 x 800 anchor leg.  We simply brought back the kitchen sink: Garcia, Tomkiewicz, Johnson, G. Brown, Zambrano, Smith, N. Brown, and anyone else we could find.  Stella and Meincke had to be pulled to run legs in the mile relay, but we still had enough to score the points.  Down big in the meet, our guys swept 1-5 in this race to score nine points and get us back into it.  Peter completed a 9:18-4:26 double and took the win while Marcus had to spurt in the last 10 meters to finish second over Graham.  His double was a stellar 9:21-4:29 while Graham's 4:29.8 moved him within three seconds of our freshman school record in this event.  Zambrano completed a 2:04-4:32 day to grab two PRs on the day while Johnson fought hard on short rest to clock a 4:33 and finish fifth.  In the F/S section Connor McGough held the lead into the last 25 meters, but Eddie Graham passed him to take the win.  Both guys ran 4:54.

200 meter dash - So here was the scenario entering the final two races.  If Kendric could win, we would have 73 points.  In a dual meet, it takes 74 to win.  That scenario would have set up a probable outcome of 73-73 with Fremd's predicted prowess in the mile relay.  Instead, Kendric was bested by a great run by Fremd's Fiszer.  He ran 22.4 to take the win while Kendric closed out a 11.4-50.5-23.0 triple by narrowly holding on to second over Fremd's McGee.  So the score entering the final race: Palatine 71, Fremd 70.

4 x 400 meter relay - Like I said before, the ending was bizarre.  With 200 plus boys crowding the infield for the back and forth sprints that are traditional within each team, the stage was set for a culminating race.  We had planned to win the meet (if possible) before the 4 x 400.  All we had left was a skeleton crew, and we threw the team of Chaka Kelly, Tim Meincke, Zach Stella, and Andrew Clingerman together during the 300 hurdles.  For all intents and purposes we were going to lose.  Then Fremd's Harris false-started.  It was almost like no one wanted to call it or have it end that way, but the officials said afterward it wasn't even close.  We then ran against their B team and took the win in 3:38.4.  To prove their point, Fremd's main four ran alone as an exhibition relay and clocked a 3:32.  What a strange ending, but rules are rules.  Still, that wasn't exactly how we wanted to win.

Long Jump - Neither team has an overpowering jumper, but Pfister from Fremd has been consistent all year long just over 20 feet.  He won in 20' 4" while we placed second and third with Alex Nawrot and Nick Dorsen.

High Jump - Fremd's WInberg has gone 6' 2" already this season and he cruised to the win.  We kept it close with Bobby Iacullo's 5' 8" leap for second place.

Pole Vault - Our young vaulters have been improving, but they are no match for Fremd's experienced kids.  Fremd swept here behind heights of 14' 0", 13' 6", and 12' 6".

Discus - This one was a highlight for us.  The discus was wide open with no throwers over 130' so far in the season.  Senior Julian Turner stepped up huge for us with a PR throw of 139' 5".  Justin Roberts grabbed third place points with a 125' 9" throw.

Shot Put - This event was a huge swing.  Fremd's sophomore Riverdance threw 47' last week, but couldn't recapture that effort yesterday.  Brad Walls threw 45' 1/2" to take the win and swing some big points our way.

Triple Jump - For all intents and purposes we were dead in the water halfway through the triple jump.  Cam Kuksa won easily with a 41' 9" jump, but we didn't have anyone else in scoring position.  With the team down, Alex Nawrot found something on his last jump.  He lept 39' 3" to move from fourth to second and take the scoring from a narrow 5-4 to a huge 8-1 advantage for us.  Coupled with the 1600 results, we moved back into the lead.

April 11, 2012 - F/S Win Libertyville Relays, Fremd Dual Up Next

Above: Tim Meincke, Kendric Cornelius, Peter Tomkiewicz, and Tim Johnson console Coach Miller after wiping his last Palatine school record off the books.  Mike Newman wrote a nice article about the relay and included splits for both teams.

After taking down two school records this week, the boys moved on and put forth some solid efforts in our Tuesday triangular with Schaumburg and Elk Grove.  The next day our frosh-soph headed up to Libertyville and won their F/S Relays meet for the second year in a row.  The entire effort was collective and inspirational from top to bottom.  I am so excited to see these guys develop together as a group over the next two to three years.

Practice Schedule - Week 11

Performance List Updates - I added all new season bests to the 2012 Performance Lists.

Video of the Distance Medley Relay Breaking the School Record
(courtesy of Mike Newman at DyestatIL)

Libertyville F/S Relays - Boys Seize Title with 110 Team Points

4 x 1600 meter relay - J.B. Hanson and I were joking around about how we know what to expect from each other in this race.  Both of us had prepped our boys accordingly throughout the week.  LZ always runs their four best sophs.  We spread our guys out between the 4 x 1600 and 4 x 800 with hopes of finishing at least second in both.  We also want to get the win over our well-respected foes from just up the road.

The tactics were weird here since Graham Brown had to come back under 30 minutes later and anchor our 1600 meter medley.  We ran him on leadoff in a controlled leg to get a decent lead, but also to give him enough rest for the latter race.  He executed perfectly, coming through 1200 at 3:32 before snapping off a 64 second last lap to finish in 4:36.0.  It's unbelievable that he can run a "controlled" 4:36, and I look forward to our upcoming meets where he'll get a chance to challenge our 1600 frosh record of 4:26.4. 

Dean Kolar was a bit distraught by his 5:02 split in the second leg, but he was solid enough to keep us in the race.  LZ put their best guy on second leg and he stormed to the lead behind a split of 4:38-4:39.  Running his first race since early March due to injury, Emil Kozakiewicz was noticeably passive in the first 1200 meters.  His split of 3:42 at 1200 meters had us well out of contention with the top two teams, but I asked him for more at 300 meters out and he had it to give.  He stormed a 67 second last lap to get us within 10 meters of the lead.  His 4:50 split was also the first time he had ever broken 5:00.

Eddie Graham quickly caught up to LZ's anchor runner and passed him.  He pushed the pace and dutifully tried to drop him, but their anchor was unflappable.  J.B. told me that he is one of their most talented prospects ever, but he plays soccer in the fall.  Too bad for LZ (and good for us) because he scorched a 4:41 and took Lake Zurich to a well-earned victory.  Eddie fought the good fight, recovering to the shoulder of the lead at 200 meters to go after a weak tactical decision at the gun, but he couldn't hang on and get us the win.  Still, his 4:45 was a monster PR and indicates that he is still headed in the right direction.

1600 meter medley - Jerome Bradley got us in the thick of things with a 55-56 opening 400 meter leg.  Mike Nicholas and Josh Stein then kept it close and got it to Graham just off the lead in fourth place.  Prodigy did the rest from there, moving gently to the lead before gunning it down the backstretch and taking it away.  His 2:03.4 was right on his PR.

4 x 800 meter relay - We ended up a well-beaten fourth in this one, but three of our legs ran lifetime bests.  Connor McGough looked sensational on leadoff, dropping his PR down to 2:09.0 from 2:14.  Ryan Kissane also set a new personal best with a 2:17 before Amadeus did the same with a 2:14 anchor carry.

Other highlights:

Schaumburg-Elk Grove Triangular Highlights

April 9, 2012 - Two School Records Go Down at the York-Palatine Dual Meet

As usual we had a great day at our now annual dual meet with York.  The initial agreement was that we would run each year at York and not score the meet.  This allows Coach Hedman and I to talk with each other and set up the various races and go after fast times.  I have to give him some kudos for the best idea of the day.  He wanted to get rid of the 4 x 800 meter relay and replace it with a Distance Medley relay (1200-400-800-1600 for the uninitiated).  I think we'll make that one a yearly event from now on.  With Fred Miller looking on, we broke the oldest distance record on our books by a fraction of a second, running 10:21.8.  Run in 1969, the old time of 10:22.0 (converted down from yards) featured Phil Donahue (4th in the state mile that year), Jim Verburg, Fred Miller (former school record holder in the 880 run, but only a freshman in 1969) and Mark Visk (state champion in the two mile run that year).  The new record holders: Tim Johnson (3:09.7 for 1200), Kendric Cornelius (50.3 for 400), Tim Meincke (2:02.0 for 800) and Peter Tomkiewicz (4:20.2 for 1600).  Congrats boys!

The second school record came under thirty minutes later from our freshman star Graham Brown.  Following an early pace set by York All-Stater Scott Milling, Graham moved by late in the race and tangled with their sophomore star Kyle Mattes before winning the race and breaking the freshman school record for the 3200 meter run.  Graham ran 9:31.9 to best the 9:32.7 mark that Glenn Morris set in the 2003 Sectional meet.  For a brief time that effort was merely tenths of a second off of the national lead for freshmen in that event.  Later that night, though, a freshman from Idaho ran 9:06 at the Arcadia Invite.  Even when you run great, there are always bigger fish in the sea.

Facebook Update - We continue to get more and more people to like the combined Facebook page we are doing with the boys and girls track and cross country teams.  If you haven't done so, "Like" the page so you can get regular updates.

Performance List Updates - New season bests from both the York-Palatine Dual and the Hoffman Estates-Fremd Triangular have been added to the 2012 Performance Lists.  We continue to make progress on all of our team goals, and I hope that we see another round of PRs this weekend in the Fremd Dual.

York-Palatine Dual - DMR and Frosh 3200 Records Highlight a Great Day

Distance Medley Relay - All season long we were hoping to get a shot at this school record.  Our strong distance depth and the emergence of Kendric Cornelius as a mid-distance star have enabled us to set some real varied goals.  Until the day before the meet, though, we weren't sure what lineup we would run.  Tim Johnson hurt his toe on spring break so we didn't know where he fit exactly.  In the end we put him on leadoff with Kendric on the quarter, Monkey on the half, and Peter on the anchor.  Even though he had never broken 4:30 for the 1600 in an official meet, Peter has been on fire in practice and we wanted the stick in his hands if it got close in the anchor leg.  York countered with Chris May on leadoff, a solid sprinter on the quarter leg, Billy Clink for the 800 meters, and sophomore All-Stater Nathan Mroz on anchor.

I had no idea what Timmy J could run, but my hope was for a split sub 3:10.  We figured that we had to split 3:15, 50.0, 2:00.0, and 4:20.0 to run 10:25.0.  Of all the spots that were easy to improve, his was the one.  He took off in a nice rhythm through the 400 at 62 and then pushed hard to maintain to a 2:07 split.  His last lap was a thing of beauty.  May shadowed him throughout and tried to move on the backstretch, but Tim answered him just past 200 meters to go and threw down a great final 150.  His split was a sensational 3:09.7.

Kendric then took off like a shot.  His first 200 was absolutely blazing, and he paid for it a little in the last 75 meters.  Still, his 50.3 was an all-time best.  With the lead comfortably in hand, Tim Meincke hit it hard through the 400 and 600 splits before tying up badly in the last 200 meters.  Gapped badly up until then, Clink put on a furious rally to get it within 10-15 meters at the final exchange.  Monkey ran a solid 2:02.0, but the fade at the end cost us any margin for error.  Peter would have to run 4:20.

He did just that.  He opened in 61 and change to really stress Mroz, guaranteeing that he would run the final leg all alone barring a miracle.  From there, it was all strength.  He clicked off three straight 66 second laps to bring it home in a gigantic lifetime best of 4:20.2.  It got dodgy in the last 150 meters as he tied up, but I couldn't be prouder of how he fought to the line and brought us home a scant .2 seconds ahead of the record pace.

I want to thank Coach Hedman for the idea and the York boys for the race.  It was a big deal to us to get that school record, and I'd love to see what our boys could do later in the season in a more broadly competitive race.  No offense to York, but all the best DMR times are run at the major meets where there is frantic action the entire time.  For example, our time placed us 8th in the nation for much of the day, less than a second out of third.  Later that night, fourteen more teams got into a race at Arcadia and ran faster than our time.  York understands the benefits of that caliber of race.  Their school record is 9:58, set at the Nike Outdoor National meet.  Their splits in that one: 3:12, 48, 1:53, and 4:08.  Someday, we need to run a DMR that looks like that one!

3200 meter run - That previous statement ties nicely to this one.  If Graham Brown keeps emerging anywhere near his current rate, then we may have a 4:08 anchor leg in our future.  Everyone in our group knows that he has looked sensational in practice for the better part of a month.  A breakout race has been imminent.  I thought it would be in the mile, but it turned out that he pulled it out in the 3200 first.  This one set up perfectly for our guys.  York's junior star Scott Milling is a pace monster, and we knew that he would be looking to set a stiff rhythm and drain the life out of the two freshman challengers - Graham and his star teammate Matt Plowman.  He set a solid rhythm, but nothing that lost the group early on.  The mile split of 4:47 was fast, but reachable, and both Graham and Christian Zambrano tagged in through that point.  Our secondary group got out a bit too fast and paid the price in the second mile, but I didn't mind the aggression in a non-scored race.

It wasn't until 1000 meters to go that Milling started to flag.  After suffering a bout of mono in December and January, it is clear that he still has not fully recovered.  Graham got by him heading into the last half and was matched by York's third man from cross country, Kyle Mattes.  Mattes is a smooth runner with great mechanics, and his emergence in cross country had set York up for a great next couple of years.  He placed 30th in state CC and Garcia and Johnson only caught him at the line.  Basically, he's totally legit and this race proved it even more.  The two battled hard into the last lap before Graham let it out as hard as he could at 300 meters to go.  I was in his ear, letting him know that a great last lap could get the record.  It's eerie, but when I looked down at my watch and saw that he needed a 65 to get it, I knew that he could run it.  We've all seen the shift in practice too many times not to believe in it.

Graham's big move gapped Mattes, but didn't finish him.  The two ran full bore to the line and ended up just about a second apart with Graham winning in 9:31.9 and Mattes second in 9:32 and change.  Graham closed in 2:15.5 with a 64.7 last lap.  That shows some real wheels for a freshman.  Afterward, he barfed all over York's turf field and celebrated by the trash can. 

The other two great stories here belonged to Christian and Noah.  As our sixth and seventh men for most of the cross country season, they never got a lot of glory.  Christian though ran the best race of his career in this one.  He kept yo-yoing off the back in the middle laps, but each time they accelerated he would surge and get back on.  When he hit 600 meters to go, he knew he had it.  He punched by both Plowman and Milling and ran away to a smashing new PR of 9:42.3.  His previous best was 10:09.  A year ago at this meet he had run 10:48.  We'll take that.  Eerily as well, 9:42 was the exact same time Peter ran a year ago.  Let's hope he can experience some of the same improvement.

Noah Brown also came through after a smoking first mile of 4:52 and showed his strength.  Running all alone for most of the second mile, he had many opportunities to fade but didn't.  He caught Plowman in the last 800 meters and went on to run a huge PR of 9:52.  His previous best was 10:15.  Behind Noah, the rest of our juniors backslid after going out in 4:52-4:53.  Still, Stella tied his lifetime best of 10:14 while Brian Smith and sophomore Eddie Graham both ran 10:18.  If we get some more races and training and run a bit more even to negative splits, we can get all three of those returnees for next year's CC team under 10:00.

800 meter run - We didn't have too many guys in this race, but we got some solid results.  Jordan Jarrett was running in only his second track meet of the year after playing basketball all winter.  He ran a bit of a crazy race, taking the lead, then stalling and letting everyone catch up, then dying, then kicking.  Somehow it ended with a 2:06.8 time, which was a huge improvement on his 2:12.0 from a year ago.  Joe Mars had less success tactically, but also took a step forward by running a 2:07.8 PR.  Running in his second race of the day after anchoring the DMR, Peter came back for a "workout" run and managed to steal the entire race.  His 2:03.0 was a PR and a race winner.

In the F/S section, I couldn't have been happier with the races from Ryan McCauley and Amadeus Sanchez.  Ryan had plateaued in the late indoor season and had trouble finishing races.  A more conservative and relaxed early pace left him with some fight late in the race, and I loved how he competed from the 600 mark to the finish.  His 2:14 time and the win were huge improvements over his 2:21 PR.  Behind him, Amadeus Sanchez kicked like crazy and came from behind to nearly nab second place in the last 30 meters.  His 2:15 clocking was also a PR.  Chris Lewis also competed like crazy and ran a lifetime best of 2:25.

1600 meter run - With Anthony Gregorio out ill, we were a bit thinner in this race than I would have liked.  Marcus Garcia was still waiting to run fresh while I brought both Johnson and Meincke back from the DMR.  Without a ton of foot speed, Marcus just seized the pace from the gun and started drilling away through splits of 66 and 2:12.  York's Clink and Johnson tailed him through the 1000 meter mark before making moves to take it to the line.  Timmy J fought hard in the last 400 meters, but Clink was too good and drew away to win in 4:24.  Still, Tim's 3:09 split and 4:27 were steps in the right direction.  Marcus hung on for third place and a 4:28 PR while Meincke never really figured in the race.

The other great story for me was Zach Much.  Zach has labored in relative anonymity throughout the year as a valuable guy in our group, and it has been his big ambition to break 5:00 in the 1600 meter run.  He had run 5:04-5:05 indoors, but I knew this would be the one.  He hit the 1200 at a solid split and then crushed it the last 200 to run 4:55, pulling his teammate Emanuel Rosales to a 4:57 in his wake.  Our JV was simply great.  Bombal snuck under 5:20 for the first time while Vandy showed solid form in his return from injury and Spence Much dropped another ten seconds to get down to 5:04.  Next priority: getting Seabass two more seconds to drop his new 5:02 PR under the barrier.

In the F/S section, York's second freshman runner, Nathan Dale, dominated from beginning to end, cruising a beautiful 4:45.  Watch out world.  He has all the tools to be another great one for the Dukes.  Connor McGough ran a rather crazily paced race to get under 5:00 again, but the erratic pacing cost him a PR.  He finished second in 4:57.  Ryan Kissane made a great attempt at the 5:00 barrier and finished with a new PR of 5:04. 

My other two great memories from this race had to be Gabe and Will Pa destroying their PRs.  Gabe declared before the race that 5:15 was his target, and he attacked with vigor from the gun.  Returning from injury, Emil Kozakiewicz ran a percentage effort race with his teammate and helped him through the race.  Both guys finished just under 5:20.  I believe it was Gabe's first time under 5:30.  Then it came down to Will Pa.  Will the Thrill had given the 6:00 barrier a charge indoors at Proviso, but I told him I didn't want a "weeny" break, one of those little incremental PRs that saw him running 5:59.8 or something.  I asked him to reach higher than that.  So he went out in 75 seconds.  He faded, for sure, but the impulse was there.  He blazed the last 100 meters and finished in 5:42.  People were looking at me like I was nuts, but that finish meant the world to me and a few other guys on the team.  To top it all off, Rayan Chatterjee also snuck under the mark to set a new 5:58 PR from 6:21 before. 

That leaves just one man left.  That's right, Killer.  You're next.  Somehow, some way we are going to get you under 6:00 this season!  We might need to carry you in your specially designed split leg German flag shorts, but we will get it done.  Every man must break 6:00!

Other Highlights:

April 2, 2012 - Outdoor Season Begins with Hoffman/Fremd Triangular

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  I lost my Internet connection over spring break and decided I'd rather lose my connection than call Comcast.  I'm sure some of you can sympathize with that.  We haven't had many meets so you didn't miss much.  We did run a rather outrageous and fun version of the Manderson Invite.  I'll get the pics up soon.

A Message from Jimmy to T Johnny (His Arch Nemesis)

After a fourteen mile run, these is what a man's feet should look like:

November 5, 2011 - Palatine Pirates Win the IHSA State Title

(Check down below for the full update as of Monday, 11/15/2011  The highlight video for the Boys 3A race is also up now on IHSA.TV.  Lots of great coverage of the boys.)

Videos from the Recognition Assembly

It is a Palatine tradition to hold a Recognition Assembly for any team that wins a state trophy.  My wife filmed the entire assembly, and you can watch it on YouTube.  Below you can find part one and then I posted links to Parts 2 and 3.  Enjoy our moment along with us.

Part 2 | Part 3

News Updates - I did a long interview with Mike Newman down at Detweiller after the race, and he compiled some of my thoughts into a nice story.  Thanks so much, Mike, for the fun interview and for being as much of a running junkie as I am.  I really enjoyed talking together throughout the year about all things cross country.  Alan Sutton also published a nice piece about us on his blog at BigSutty.Com.  Also, check out the newspaper stories from The Daily Herald, The Chicago Tribune, and The Chicago Sun Times.  Mike Newman has also posted his recap on DyestatIL.  It's right below Bob Geiger's recap of the girls race. 

Video Updates - As usual Steve Clingerman delivers with another great YouTube video of the race and the post-race celebration.  Thanks Steve!