June 4, 2009 - Alec Bollman Places 8th in AAA 1600 at IHSA State Meet

For the third year in a row, we were able to end the track season with an All-State distance runner.  Alec Bollman had an outstanding junior track senior and made the most of his opportunities by running his two best races of the season at the IHSA State track meet.  What a stellar finish for a guy who couldn't break 4:30 as a sophomore!  I am really proud of Alec and our other distance guys who improved so much this past season.  Now, it is on to cross country and time for another great season in the fall.  Early Bird begins on June 15th at the high school.

Picture Update - I created a small gallery of pictures that John Rossini and I took at the state meet.  The race shots are all John's courtesy of his infield pass, and I was able to get some shots of Alec on the medal stand.

IHSA State Meet - Bollman Runs 4:18.11 to Place Eighth

I knew way back in the fall that Alec was going to have a breakout junior track season, but I had no idea that it would end with him grabbing All-State honors.  I know that I hoped to get him qualified to the state meet, but a top nine finish felt more like a dream than a close reality.  All of the credit has to go to Alec for this one.  He was the most consistent of our winter runners, putting in a lot of long miles in the coldest part of the year - yet another example why Polar Bear running may be the best time to gain fitness on one's rivals.

Even during indoors I was not quite sure what kind of top-end Alec was capable of.  He ran 4:27.3 down at York to finish 5th in a tough field, but he couldn't stay with the pace in a furious kick with York's Jack Driggs and Hoffman's Matt Perez.  I then kept him out of mile racing for awhile to focus on speed.  That focus started to pay off as his quarter times started to fall.  By early outdoors, he cranked a 51.1 relay leg and dropped his 800 meter time down to 1:58.  We ran him on a blustery day at the Wheaton ABC meet, and he delivered a great last lap to win that one in 4:23.  We went back to speed and had him down to 1:56.8 by the MSL meet.  I knew then that the big 1600 times were in the offing.  Alec ran 4:19.7 to advance to state, but it was evident from watching that race that he could go faster.  To the state meet...

1600 Prelims - Alec was in the second prelim heat and was matched against a tough field that included Geneva's Andrew Nelson (a 4:12 miler at last year's Distance Gala), Dundee-Crown's Anthony Manfrin (winner of last year's NON freshman mile), and two mile specialists Gerardo Perez of Lake Zurich and Andrew Larsen of Marmion Academy.  My main emphasis with him was to commit in the third lap and then bring his speed into play in the close.  Our race plan worked to perfection.  He caught a smooth ride through the 800 in 2:10, moved up gently to be on the lead at 3:16.8, and then kicked it home in 59.8 (4:16.6 MT) to nearly take the win.  At the 300 meter to go mark he powered to the lead and then snapped his kick just past 200 meters left.  Andrew Nelson was the only one who responded, and he and Alec waged a spirited dual in the last 100 meters before Nelson prevailed by a couple tenths of a second. 

One of my goals all year was for Alec to make Palatine's mile list.  His 4:16.83 FAT (4:16.6 MT) places him 11th in school history.  What a sick list!  It takes 4:18.8 to be the 17th best miler in Palatine school history.  Alec also checks in as the #7 Junior on our list behind a ton of illustrious All-Staters and State Champs.

1600 Finals - I knew right away after Alec's prelim race that he was in for a completely different type of challenge the next day.  I had talked with Jeffrey Thode's coaches and could sense that his expected attempt at the state record was in the offing.  That meant that the early pace would be brutal and quick, pulling the race out more quickly than Alec had gone out all year.  We had perfected late speed, but Alec had just not been in a race that went out in 2:05-2:07 all year. 

Thode took out the state final in 2:02, went through the 1200 in 3:04, and closed in 61 to run 4:05.17 and demolish both state records.  I had seen people run close to Mark Deady's record from 1986, which was 4:07.35 I am pretty sure.  Donald Sage almost surely would have broken it had he not run 8:42 in the 3200 in 2000 (he ran 4:07.7 or something like that in the 1600 that day).  Still, I had never seen anyone remotely approach Andy Isla-Rupert's real state record - a 4:06.9 for the full mile that equates to a 4:05.4 or so 1600 meter time.  Thode just got it done.  Good for him.  It has been a privilege to watch a truly extraordinary athlete grow up in front of our eyes.  His 4:05 is the best time so far in the nation this year, and Jeffrey plans on taking a shot at the elusive 4:00 mile in the post-season.

As for Alec's race, things went nearly as I expected.  He was drawn through the 400 in 60.8 and the 800 in 2:07.0.  He was right in the thick of things at the halfway mark, but a group with Prospect's Chris Hayek and York's Steve Sulkin moved by him right before the 900 and Alec didn't respond at all.  By the 1000 meter mark, he was in 10th and looking like he might lose his grasp in an All-State spot.  At the 1300 meter mark, things started to get really bleak.  I pulled my hat off and sat down, thinking that he might be done with such a big gap in front of him.  At the 200 meter to go mark, though, Cornelio from Niles North started looking over his shoulder and fading.  Alec caught wind of that and started to kick.  Cornelio looked again at 150 to go, and Alec had moved close enough to sniff that final spot.  They both kicked it into gear in the final straight away.  I thought Alec had him, but Cornelio fought him off all the way to the line.  Both of them managed to move by a fading Nelson, who paid the price for going with the early pace.

At the conclusion of the race, Alec had placed 9th, but a rather shoddy DQ of Dundee Crown's Anthony Manfrin moved him up into 8th place.  Manfrin was called for being out of his alley at the start of the race, but it was apparent to most that he had been forced down out of his alley by an aggressive start from York's Sulkin.  The officials all threw white flags at the start as well.  I felt terrible for the kid.  He was in the infield to get his award and then was unceremoniously sent out in front of the entire grandstand.  Pretty awful stuff for a good young man.

In the end, Alec had an All-State medal and an inside track to a much higher spot next year.  Manfrin, a soph, and Bollman, a junior, were the only underclassmen in the entire race as they battled 10 tough seniors.  On paper they will both be the favorites for next year's edition.  Pretty exciting stuff...

May 25, 2009 - Four Pirates Advance to IHSA AAA State Track meet

We did not have quite the spectacular IHSA Sectional meet that we were looking for, but a number of our guys did well enough to advance to state.  Still others ran PRs or season bests that were just not enough to get them downstate to the big meet.  I am in the thick of the end of the semester so my update will be brief.  Look for more reflection and analysis in the wake of this Friday's and Saturday's state meet.

In the end we crowned two Sectional champions in Alec Bollman (1600 meter run) and Dan LaRocca (pole vault).  Also advancing to Charleston were Chris Norman (400 meter dash - 49.7 seconds for 4th place) and Eddie Anderson (long jump - 22' 7" for 5th place).  Our near misses included Chano Bernardo in the 3200 meter run (9:41), Matt Wiggen in the 800 meter run (1:59.0), and the 4 x 400 meter relay team of Norman, Wiggen, Kyle Marrison, and Alec Bollman (3:25.6).  Other distance highlights included a lifetime best of 9:54.7 for Tom Laskowske in the 3200 run, Luke Kierys' 2:02.1 lifetime best, Jeff Larson winning his heat of the 1600, and our 4 x 800 meter relay guys all running on lifetime bests.  Official times have been included in the Performance Lists.

Distance-wise, we did not match our normal expectations for qualifiers to the state meet.  This is the first time that we have not qualified multiple guys since 2002 or 2003.  Alec at least has a chance to be All-State in the 1600, but it would have been much nicer with Chano and Wigs going along for the ride.  I sacrificed our 4 x 800, which almost surely would have qualified, to give Alec the best chance of making the state final.  I hope he makes good on that choice.

1600 meter run - Alec ran another sweet mile race, and it definitely left many of us thinking that he is capable of much more.  He simply ran what he had to run in order to win.  His splits were solid through the 800 (64.3, 66.6) for a 2:10.8 split, and he looked very comfortable.  He edged up to the lead by the 1200 mark despite a slow 67.6 split.  Boughdiri of Highland Park cut him off pretty bad just before the quarter to go, but Alec took it in stride, collected himself, and went to the lead at the 300 meter mark.  He cruised the backstretch, and then punched it hard to destroy the field in the final 200 (coming home sub 30).  His last lap was 61.1 and proved that all of the 800 meter speed work we have been doing was worth its while.  This is the fourth year in a row that our distance crew can claim a Sectional champ: Finley in 2006 (1600), Smoody in 2007 and 2008 (800) and now Bollman 2009 (1600).  Congrats Alec!

Cross Country Pre-Season Meeting is on Tuesday, June 2

The CC Sign-up meeting will be on the last official day of school.  The captains have also told me that they will be organizing a special run for June 1 - the first day of summer training.  I hope you guys who are in your time off are getting rested up because it is almost time to go!  Spread the word so that we can have a big turnout next week.

May 17, 2009 - Boys Place 5th at Varsity MSL Conference Meet

We ended up placing a respectable fifth place in the 2009 MSL Conference meet.  The boys scored 71.5 points to get us to the top of the second tier of teams.  Unfortunately we were not able to muster our biggest performance of the season at the most critical time.  We were just inconsistent with our efforts across many of the events.  Our team is young and it showed.  I hope that we gained a ton of valuable experience that can help our juniors come back and win it next year.  Top finishers included Chano Bernardo (2nd in 3200 meter run), Alec Bollman (2nd in 800 meter run) and the 4 x 400 relay (2nd).

Performance List Updates - I put all of the conference PRs into our lists.  There weren't too many PRs due to the wind, but we did have some guys run exceptionally and drop time.  I think Laskowske was the only guy to PR in the fast heat of the 3200 meter run.  Pretty sweet.

Alumni Updates - I haven't put up a ton of alumni results during this hectic outdoor season, but Steve Finley ran a sweet 8:43 in the 3000 meter steeplechase to place second at the IC4A championships.  This has got to be one of the better times in the nation.  Also, Amy Laskowske placed 2nd in the Big Ten 10,000 meter run for the Minnesota Gophers.

MSL Conference - Bernardo and Bollman Lead the Way with Runner-up Finishes

Since it was the conference meet, I'll go event by event:

Long Jump - I didn't see much of this one, but Ed Anderson placed 8th at 20' 8 1/2" inches.  I am sure he was a bit disappointed because he has been consistently over 21'.  John Hogan also placed in the F/S section with a jump in the mid 17' range.

High Jump - Eddie Anderson struggled in this one, only making 5' 8", so the work was left up to Mykyta Cheshko.  Kyta jumped 6' 0" to place 4th.

Pole Vault - I know that Dan LaRocca was upset with only clearing 12' 3".  He clearly wanted more height, but just didn't get it together on a windy day.  His vault was good for 5th place.

Triple Jump - Ed Anderson, ironically, had his best placing in his newest event, leaping a 41' 10" PR to place fourth.  Our younger jumpers also did well.  Manny Del Rio made the final and placed 9th or 10th (just out of the money) while Ed's younger brother, Sean, won the F/S with a jump of 39' 1".

Discus - I watched Chad Bobbit throw in this loaded field, and he had a great day.  He had three PR tosses and moved from a PR of 138' to 143' and change.  This effort was only good for an 8th place though.  What a field!  It will be fun to see he, Tyler Jones, and Phil Howe in action next year as seniors.  I think Phil threw 129' to narrowly miss making the final.

Shot Put - Another loaded field.  Chad placed 7th with a throw in the high 47' range.  I know that he wanted to throw closer to his 50' PR, but that may have only moved him up one place.  Six guys threw over 52'.

4 x 800 meter relay - I had big hopes that we could steal some points in this one even without Alec Bollman running in it.  It was great to see Matt Wiggen emerge from his recent funk with a great 1:59.4 opening split.  We were in the lead at the exchange.  Unfortunately, things went downhill from there.  Justin Olson couldn't keep us in the front of the race, and McGough and Kierys ended up way out of it in space.  We ran 8:18.6 to come in 6th place.

4 x 100 meter relay - We were trapped in the slower section, but ended up in 6th place.  Alfonso Butera got nipped right at the line while trying to win our heat.  I still think we beat two teams in the faster section, though.  A solid, but not spectacular run by four juniors.

3200 meter run - The highlight event of the meet for me.  By far.  We have not run the type of times we normally run in this event, and it has perplexed me to no end.  The weather has played a small part in our times since we haven't had many good days to run, but we may need to rework our training a bit to get some better depth going in this one next year.

That said, we ran like champions when it counted the most, and I could not be prouder of any of the four guys we put out there.  All four of them ran like champions with utter conviction and toughness on a windy day.  Our guys were not phased by the wind and treated the conditions as an opportunity.  I probably could have gone home happy after the F/S 3200.  I had to substitute Reuben Frey for Tomkiewicz after Peter came up with a potential stress fracture last week.  Reuben ran his best high school race, bar none.  What a joy it was to see him leading at the mile and a half.  One year removed from a nasty broken leg and there he was winning the MSL.  At that point, Anthony Gregorio took over and held the lead until the last 200 meters.  Jereme Atchison, the top CC freshman in our league this past fall, kicked by him, but we ended up 2nd and 4th in 10:21 and 10:27.

In the varsity we ended up pulling 11 huge points from our tandem of Chano Bernardo and Tom Laskowske.  Hoffman's Matt Perez, who had clocked a 9:13 indoors, took it out in 61 and appeared bent on destroying the field.  Chano hooked up with Hoffman's Kyle Gonzalez and Prospect's Chris Hayek to form a chase pack.  It worked.  Perez slowly faded in the wind and both Chano and Hayek had him by the 6 1/2 lap mark.  Hayek blasted away to win in the last 400, and Chano held off a fading Perez to take second.  Tom Laskowske ran a PR 10:01 to finish in 6th place.  I was so proud of him.  He wasn't supposed to get it done on paper, but he got it done because he is a fierce competitor.  He just kept surging and attacking until he shook loose enough guys to move up and score points.  What a sweet race!

110 hurdles and 100 meter dash - No finalists.

800 meter run - Alec Bollman had a tall order in this race with the state's top two 800 meter runners seeded ahead of him.  Both Conant's Jeff Thode and Barrington's Ryan Mangone have run in the 1:53 range, but we were hoping to catch Mangone on the back end of a double.  Mangone actually ran the 4 x 800, 800, and 400 so he should be commended, but Bollman took it out under control and held him off with a big kick in the last 200 meters.  I thought for a second that Alec might fight with Thode to the line as they were side-by-side at 150 to go.  Thode pulled away to win in 1:55.0 while Alec settled for second in a new PR of 1:56.8.  Sheehan and I had him in 1:56.3 and 1:56.4 so I don't know where that time came from, but we'll take it.  Two junior runner-ups in the MSL is a sweet thing.

4 x 200 meter relay - We once again placed second in the slower heat and finished 6th after beating two teams from the faster section.

400 meter dash - Chris Norman had not been having the type of day he wanted.  He failed to make the fast heat final in the 200 and had not been feeling good in his hamstrings.  Still, he rebounded like a senior should to finish 3rd in this race in 52.0.

300 meter intermediate hurdles - Terry Halloran was our big hope in this one, and the sophomore produced by winning heat three handily.  His time of 42.7 gave him 6th place overall, and his effort this season in general bodes well for the future.  He looks like a future state qualifier.  As soon as he cleans up his hurdling technique, his speed and competitiveness will do the rest.

1600 meter run - This race is always run by a bunch of tired guys, and this year's edition was no different.  Alec was on shorter rest than anyone as he doubled back from the 800, and I was hoping for a top three finish.  He ended up running 4:31 to place 6th overall and looked tired.  Seniors Thode and Hayek finished 1-2 after Hayek caught a fading Pat Lesiewicz from Schaumburg.  Thode and Lesiewicz went out in 2:05 and Pat twisted in the wind after that.  Times were slow with Thode winning in 4:16 and Hayek running to 4:24 for second.  In the slower section, Jeff Larson ran a season-best 4:52 to place 5th in his heat.

In the F/S section, Johnson and Roehrborn took the lead from the gun and suffered a bit from their early aggression.  Still, Timmy J showed that he is ready to become a big player in the near future.  He has missed tons of training due to ongoing knee pain, but he was the only one in the top 8 who ran on his PR.  He ended up running 4:48, but was within 5 seconds of the win.  Consistent training will get him up to the top tier quickly.

200 meter dash - This was a weird race.  We scratched Chris Norman from the consolation final to put him on our 4 x 400 relay.  This left us with junior Dan Schweikert, and he ended up fourth after Buffalo Grove's Steve Miller pulled up with 50 meters to go and fell to the track.  His points may well have kept BG in the title hunt, but his leg just didn't hold up in his 7th or 8th race of the day.  Sad to see.  I hope it was a cramp, but it looked more serious than that.