Recent News and Updates - E-mail cquick@d211.org

Tuesday, May 31 - State Finals Results

Our trip to the state finals did not turn out as everyone wanted, but we still placed 5th overall in the 3200 meter relay after running the leading time out of the prelims.  The boys were a bit disappointed in the overall finish, but I'm sure later they will realize how impressive it is to place in the Top 5 at the state finals.  Matt Smoody (Fr), Brian McLain (Sr), Alex Soto (Jr), and Steve Finley (Jr) were the members of the placing team.  The ran 7:56.39 for their 5th place finish.

Saturday Results - 4 x 800 places 5h in the state

4 x 800 meter relay - We started this race from the 4-1 position after running the fastest qualifying time on Friday.  Freshmen Matt Smoody led off, and his goal was to be aggressive in the early stages of the race.  He followed York's Dettman out on a fast pace, through the 400 at 55-56.  The pack swallowed him up a bit around the 600, but Smoody kicked hard the last 125 meters to put us in 3rd place at the exchange.  His 1:56.4 split is fantastic for a frosh, especially one running leadoff in the state finals.  He handed off to McLain who maintained our position, running 1:58.7 to better his time from the previous day.  Alex Soto started off in good position, but he was unable to meet the challenge offered by Prospect's Mike Murray and handed off to Finley in a tie for 4th place with Hoffman Estates, running 2:02.0.  Steve did not have his best race at all and was unable to improve our position.  He closed in 1:59.0.  Elmhurst York and conference rival Prospect took the top two spots.  Our final FAT time was 7:56.39.

3200 meter run - Both James Macatangay and Sagar Patel were in the slower of the two sections.  Neither one had his best race of the season.  Sagar ran all right, finishing in 9:56 to equal his season best time outside of his spectacular 9:36.9 at the Sectional.  James had, by his own admission, one of his worst races as a Pirate.  I prefer to remember that James ran in the 9:30's four times this season after having a 9:51 PR coming into the season.

1600 meter run - Steve qualified to the final in this race by the thinnest of margins, and he simply had nothing left for his fourth race in two days.  He placed 10th in a 4:31.83 clocking.  This race should provide motivation for the future as well as a learning experience about running multiple times in a big meet.

Friday Results - Finley and 4 x 800 qualify for the finals

4 x 800 meter relay - We ran a stellar race in the Friday prelim with Finley coming from behind in the last 100 meters to grab the victory.  Matt Smoody led off in 1:58.6 to put us into second place.  Brian McLain then held our position with a 1:59.3.  The big surprise of the day was Alex Soto.  Alex finally ran the race I believed that he could run, cruising to a 1:59.2 finish.  Finley then anchored in 1:56. 3 for a final time of 7:53.63.  That is the fourth fastest clocking in school history.

1600 meter run - Both John Lancaster and Steve Finley qualified in this event.  Lancaster did not run his best race of the season.  He faded badly in the last 450 meters to finish with a 4:31.42 for 9th place in his heat.  Finley placed 6th overall in his heat after a tired-looking effort, but his 4:20.67 was good for the 12th and final qualifying spot into the finals.

Monday, May 23 - IHSA Sectional Results

The boys track team ran well at the Sectional on Friday at Palatine with a ton of guys setting personal bests on both the track and in the field.  Both of our pole vaulters set new PRs (12'9" and 12'3"), Syed Ajmal set PRs in the 110 (15.4) and 300 hurdles (40.4), and Geoff Bishop ran to 5th in the 100 meter dash.

All of our state qualifiers, though, come from the distance crew.  We qualified the 4 x 800 meter relay, both James Macatangay and Sagar Patel in the 3200 meter run, and both Steve Finley and John Lancaster in the 1600 meter run.  The IHSA State Prelims and Finals will be on this coming Friday and Saturday in Charleston, IL on the campus of Eastern Illinois University.

4 x 800 meter relay - We have consistently been dropping time in this one, and the goal was to qualify and run fast without having to use Steve Finley in the relay.  The boys ran great behind some stellar early running from Matt Smoody and Brian McLain.  Smoody (1:58.4) gave us the lead at the first exchange, and McLain (1:57.8) ran his best race of the year to extend that lead.  Mike Ducore (2:01.3) then got caught up in a race with Jeff Ritzema of Maine West, but he handed off in second.  Alex Soto then ran a 2:00.6 to anchor us home in 4th place in 7:58.0.  We lost to Maine West, Hoffman Estates, and Prospect.  The former two ran their full teams while Prospect held out John Jenkins, their fastest guy.

3200 meter run - This was one of the weirdest races I have seen in awhile.  Prospect's Ryan Craven set this one out on a blistering pace, hitting the 400 at 61 and the 800 just shy of 2:09.  Most of the main pack followed him on this pace.  Our two guys, J. Mac and Sagar, formed a smaller pack with Nebl from Schaumburg and came through the 800 in 2:17 and the 1600 in 4:46.  By the 1 1/2 mile mark, this small pack had closed into the main pack which was fading off the pace set by Kevin Havel and Craven.  Nebl managed to work his way all the way up to 4th place while J. Mac and Sagar couldn't quite get by anybody.  They both managed to qualify though with James at 9:36.0 and Sagar at 9:36.9.  Sagar improved his 3200 meter PR by 16 seconds in just under a week.  What an outstanding race for a sophomore!

800 meter run - Both Eric Repking and Dan Holbach were in the second of the three heats, and they did well in going 1-2.  Eric ran his best open 800 ever, going out in 58.0 and coming back in 64.0 for 2:02.0.  Holbach ran his best open time of this outdoor season in 2:03.9 despite a nagging quadricep injury.

1600 meter run - This turned out to be two separate races.  Finley blasted off from the start and no one even tried to go with him.  He covered the first 400 in 60.1, hit the 800 in 2:05.8, and cruised through the 1200 in 3:12.2.  He maintained form throughout and kicked it in with a 64.1 to finish with a career PR of 4:16.3.  That time ranks him second in the state coming out of Sectionals behind York state champion Sean Macnamara.  John Lancaster got caught up in the pack for much of the race and had to sprint hard to narrowly make the time, finishing in 4:24.4 in 6th place overall. 

Sunday, May 15, 2005 MSL Conference Updates

The MSL Conference weekend was eventful as usual.  The varsity team placed 6th overall at Schaumburg on Friday night while the F/S took 3rd place on Saturday at Wheeling.  Conference champions included Matt Smoody (varsity 800), Steve Finley (varsity 1600), and Sagar Patel (F/S 3200).  Overall, both teams ran well and registered a ton of PRs in tough conference competition.

Varsity MSL - Finley and Smoody run to Conference Titles

The team scored 48 points overall and had a ton of great performances.  I challenged the distance kids to compete like a CC team that finished 2nd in the state, and people stepped up all around with great performances.

4 x 800 meter relay - We held Smoody and McLain out to be fresh in the 800 meters so a ton of our other guys got chances to step up.  Everyone but Finley responded with his best time of the season.  Alex Soto ran aggressively on the leadoff before fading a bit in the last 100.  His 2:01.0 was a season and lifetime best.  Mike Ducore then gave us a great second leg, finishing in 1:59.8 to break 2:00 for the first time.  Eric Repking thought mid-week that he may not even run in the MSL.  With Holbach getting hurt in practice though on Tuesday, Eric had to stay ready and responded with a stellar 2:00.8 leg.  I have never been prouder of him, especially stepping in on short notice to keep us in the race.  Finley powered a 1:58.1 leg on the anchor, but he was not close enough to catch either Barrios from Hoffman or Murray from Prospect.  Steve just held position for the points and conserved energy for the 1600.  Our final time of 7:59.9 was nice considering our 2nd and 3rd best legs did not run.  The 6 points were huge as well.

3200 meter run - Neither Jams Macatangay nor Matt Moss ran their best races of the season, and both were a bit disappointed with their finishes.  Moss ran 10:01 in the slow heat.  Emmanuel Ramirez from Elk Grove captured the heat in 9:55 and wound up finishing in 8th place so Moss knows he missed a golden chance.

In the faster heat, J. Mac cruised through the 1600 at 4:46, but he simply had no legs to handle the surge put on by Havel and Craven in the 5th lap.  His 9:50 finish was good only for 7th place, and he was disappointed.  I'm glad we got this sub-par race out of his system before the Sectional and State series.

800 meter run - Matt Smoody is an absolute animal.  We have known all year in practice that he is pretty good, but his performance exceeded everything that I possibly could have expected (and that's pretty hard with me).  This race didn't really shoot too hard early.  The lead pack came through in 56.  Smoody was trapped on the inside rail, but McLain was in great position on the outside of lane one and made a big move at the 500 mark.  Smoody finally got out of his boxed position at 550 meters as McLain's move created a small space for him to get out.  Smoo went three-wide at the 600 to get free and pulled alongside Jenkins from Prospect at 100 meters to go.  He just blasted the last 100 with that infamous Smoody burst and won by a second in 1:55.8.  Not bad for a freshman!  McLain rigged up a bit after hitting the 600 in 1:27 and faded to 6th in the stretch at 2:00.0.  Matt Smoody is my first conference champion ever in track, and I will never forget that race.  Unbelievable effort from a young kid!  He even approached Chuck Bell's freshman year 1:55.1 school record, which is simply ridiculous. 

Brian McLain had a pretty nasty asthma attack about 45 minutes after his race.  We had to call the paramedics and get him treated on the infield.  He responded well to the neuralizer that they used, and he should be fine to jog and compete in the near future.  We would like to thank all of the Schaumburg coaches and trainers that took such good care of him.

1600 meter run - It was hard to concentrate on this race with Brian struggling to breath on the infield.  I'm sure though that Steve was motivated by what mini-Finley had just done in the 800, and he came out and immediately took control of the race.  Only Pykosz from Conant, Carlson from BG, and Lancaster were fresh in this one, and their fresh legs showed.  Steve came through the 800 in 2:10 just cruising, and no one really challenged him until Pykosz and Lancaster came alongside around 1000 meters.  Pykosz launched a huge move on the back stretch, and Steve held him off gamely.  Pykosz tried again at 100 meters to go, but Steve put the hammer down to win in 4:19.8.  John held third until about 20 meters to go when Carlson nipped him.  John's 4:23.6 was good for 4th place and a lifetime PR.  We snagged 15 team points in the 1600 so that was impressive.

F/S MSL - Patel wins 3200 meter run, Gonzalez second in 1600

The team competed well overall to finish in 3rd place.  We scored in a ton of events, and I think we only had one event champion.  The kids competed hard on a great day and had a lot of fun.

4 x 800 meter relay - We held Phil Conley out of this so he could be fresh in the 800, and I only expected these guys to run 8:40.  They all ran season bests though to run 8:37 and finish in 4th place.  Ulises led off in 2:10.1, Dettloff ran awesome with a 2:08.7, Alex Mourousias "Philled" in with a 2:13.3, and Esberaldo closed in 2:06.1.  We lost a couple of seconds in the middle without Phil, but the guys ran well.

3200 meter run - I challenged both Sagar and O'Brien to be aggressive in this race, and Sagar finally got the message.  He opened the first 1600 in 4:51, and nobody went with him.  He pounded a great 72 second lap in the 5th 400, and no one was anywhere near him after that.  He finished with a season best 9:53.7 and will get to run in the Sectional next week.  Kevin O'Brien went out a bit too quick in 4:55, but you know that I love mistakes of aggression.  He hung on gamely in the last 1600 to finish 6th in his heat and 7th overall.  His 10:17 was a PR by seven seconds.  Kevin made a ton of progress this season and will be a force in the years to come.

800 meter run - Phil and Ulises were dark horses to score in this one, and Phil narrowly missed accomplishing my goal of a top 3 finish.  He got passed by three guys in the last 30 meters and went from 3rd to 6th.  He still ran a career best of 2:09.1 though.  Ulises fought back hard to finish in 2:12 for 7th place.

1600 meter run - Esberaldo controlled this race for quite a while, but Matt Darmofal from Hersey just had lighter legs at the end of the race.  Esberaldo finished in 4:39.3 for 2nd place.  Danny Rakaric ran hard throughout in this one and made a good move to get into the top 3 by the 1200 meter mark.  He simply did not have the strength and training under his legs to hold on and finished 5th in 4:47.

Terrence Thigpen from our distance crew was an integral part of placing 3rd in the 4 x 200 and 2nd in the 4 x 400.  This kid is starting to be a do it all kind of guy with range from the 200 to the 800 and long jump.  CC guys Dan O'Brien and Matt Anderson also placed 5th and 6th in the pole vault.  Overall, everyone competed and ran well with a lot of PRs!

Sunday, May 8, 2005 - Huge Weekly Update

Since we had three big meets this week, including the JV State Championship on Wednesday, there is a ton to talk about.  The varsity ran yesterday at Lisle, the JV ran in our final regular season home meet on Thursday, and the F/S placed 3rd in the Hersey F/S Invite on Tuesday.  Highlights included Matt Smoody and Kevin O'Brien running 4:37 and 4:46 on Tuesday, the JV running like monsters in everything on Thursday, and Steve Finley running 4:21.51 to win easily at Lisle.

I added a huge Palatine Relays photo gallery of pictures from Matt Dettloff and James and Don Macatangay.  Thanks guys!

I would also like to introduce the first ever Distance Runner Heptathlon.  All runners who will not be participating in the MSL Varsity or Conference meets or the Sectional are eligible to participate.  Point tables will be released at a later date, but I think we will use the USATF standard tables for the Decathlon (except for the 800, 1600, and 5000).  Here is the tentative schedule:

There will be an overall winner as well as winners for each grade.  Prizes better than Gatorade will be awarded.  All serious running time trials will be conducted first, preceding the even more "serious" field event trials.  The 300 hurdles will be run over the lowest height possible.  More details of this epic event of endurance, strength, and jumping ability will be forthcoming.

Lisle Invite Results - Finley wins the 1600 meters

4 x 800 meter relay - I challenged the boys to stay in this race as long as possible, and the first three ran well.  We anchored Matt Moss, a 3200 guy, and he ran right on his best time ever, but 2:06.5 doesn't cut it in a big invite.  We handed off in 2nd though after the third leg, and the boys competed hard - Holbach 2:02, Ducore 2:02, and Repking 2:04.  I think we were 7th or 8th overall in 8:15.

3200 meter run - Robert Conley and Ryan Zachar had opportunities in this one to close our their Palatine careers with all-time bests.  Neither ran their best ever, but both guys were close.  Conley ran 10:21, and Zachar ran 10:26, which is a great time considering he missed nine weeks of running with an injury.

800 meter run - Lancaster ran this one for some speed work, and his 2:01.3 was a career best.  Alex Soto got caught in traffic and did not run his best race.  I don't think John placed at 2:01.

400 meter dash - McLain ran well to snatch a season best of 53.2 and then came back later to run another 53 in the 4 x 400.

1600 meter run - This was supposed to be the race of the day. Durrell Williams, the defending state champ in the 800, was going up against Finley with both being fresh.  Williams never went with Steve though, and Steve maintained form in to run 4:21.51.  He only won by 3.5 seconds, but he was up by at least 50 meters at the 800 (2:07.7).  It looked like he had a lot more to give.  James ran his best time of the season to finish 6th in 4:30.3.

Prospect, Viator JV Meet (The JV State Championship)

We ran so many PR's in this meet that I don't even know where to start.  At least 3/4 of our guys ran their best time ever in this final meet of the season.  I don't have the official results, so don't get upset if I forget somebody in here.  On to the results...

3200 meter run - Almost everyone that we ran in this one ran a PR.  Mike McCain and Matt Dettloff traded leads throughout, and both ran low 10:30s to set new career bests.  Dettloff's 10:31 was a 12-13 second best.  Brian Dankowski nearly nipped the 11:00 barrier (11:01), and Paul Kwak finally broke 12:00, running a big PR of 11:51.

800 meter run - The F/S provided a great highlight in this race.  Phil Conley attacked the race to run right at his best ever in 2:10.0.  The real surprises though were Kevin O'Brien (2:10) and Terrence Thigpen (2:11).  For Terrence, that is an 11 second career best.  Robert Conley ran a career best of 2:10 in the varsity section while Dan Holbach finished first for us in 2:05 after running the 1:27.5 600 that I asked him to run.

400 meter dash - Patrick Nyczaj won a race!  He defeated two other Palatine stalwarts to run a carer best of 69.9 and end his competitive running career at Palatine with a victory.

1600 meter run - Moss ensured that this one got out hard, and his 4:37 finish was a nice run for this meet.  Mike Ducore and Esberaldo Gonzalez waged a great battle for the 2nd spot with both finishing in 4:40.3.  Kyle Compton secured us 25 guys under 5:00 by dropping down to 4:58 while our other guys continued to drop time - Ulises Reynoso (4:50), Danny Rakaric (4:46), Alex Mourousias (4:54), Moises Lorenzo (5:08), Lewis Conley (5:15), Matt Morlock (5:23), Andrew Kretschmar (5:28), Andrew Haney (5:23), Chris Wojdyla (5:19), and Andrew Bollman (5:04) to name a few great performances.

Hersey F/S Invite - Smoody and O'Brien run to huge PR's

4 x 800 meter relay - We ran a bit of a B team in here, but the boys fought hard and ended up placing 5th or 6th.  Matt Dettloff ran 2:10.7 to significantly drop his 800 meter PR, and Alex Mourousias did a great job of keeping us in the race.  Matt Anderson tried hard to hold off Hoffman Estates and ran near his PR.

3200 meter run - Sagar and Esberaldo both ran good races, but neither was good enough to beat Mike Spain from Schaumburg or Andrew Jacobi from Fremd.  Sagar ran 10:05 to finish 3rd, and Esberaldo ran a PR of 10:15 to finish 5th or 6th.

800 meter run - Neither Phil Conley nor Ulises Reynoso ran the great race that he is capable of running.  Ulises did lower his PR a bit to 2:10.0, but neither was aggressive enough at establishing position early.

1600 meter run - This race was the highlight of the night for the distance crew as Matt Smoody and Kevin O'Brien both ran career bests to place 1st and 5th, respectively.  Smoody ran smartly, trailing through the first 800 in 2:21.  He then pushed pace and got right on the leader before kicking hard in the last 200 to negative split in 2:16 and run 4:37.  O'Brien ran aggressively throughout and put himself in the race.  His time of 4:46 was a 5 second best and is a heck of a time for a frosh.

Sunday, May 1, 2005 - Palatine and Prospect Results

This weekend was full of track meets and great performances.  On Friday night, a number of individual athletes went over and competed at the Prospect Knights Wanner Invite.  On Saturday, the boys and girls competed at the 73rd annual Palatine Relays.  The girls won the overall title while the guys placed 8th. 

I also created a new Photo Gallery with pictures that James and others took at the LT Relays, and  I put all the old news in the Archives section.  I also updated the All-Time Performance Lists in the History section to reflect recent additions by Steve Finley, James Macatangay, and Matt Smoody.

What a bunch of nerds!  What is Bars doing?

Palatine Relays - Distance Medley Relay Rolls to a Win

We challenged all of our guys that ran on Friday night to run well on Saturday as a simulation for state.  We turned in a number of nice performances, but the team could only manage to finish 8th.

F/S 1600 medley - Brandon Peters led off with a decent 400 meter leg, and Chuck Warren and JT Bobbitt kept it close.  We handed off in 3rd or 4th, and Matt Smoody ran a great leg to bring us to victory.  He ran 2:00.6 to show that he can run two quality halves in two days.

F/S 800 medley - The three sprint legs of Joe Schweikert, Chris Negron, and Dan Sutton put us right in this race at halfway.  Terrence Thigpen then ran near his PR of 54.2 to lead us to a 4th place finish.

800 meter run - This 800 field was loaded, and I challenged McLain to run as well as he had the night before.  Brian competed hard in the stretch to finish with a 2:00.6.  I am not quite sure what he placed, but it was a good run.

3200 meter run - Matt Moss had two goals in this one - to break 10:00 and to place for the team.  He ran aggressively through the 1600 in 4:46, but really trailed off in laps 6 and 7.  Jacob Nachel from LT and Evan Jager from Jacobs battled throughout this one with Nachel prevailing in 9:31.  Moss managed to run a nice final 400 to finish with a career PR of 9:58.8, but he was disappointed in not finishing better.

Distance Medley Relay - James Macatangay led off in the 1200 leg of this one.  The pace went out too slow (67-2:15) so James got stuck in a kickers race.  He handed off to Syed Ajmal in 3rd or 4th place after running a 3:18.  Syed ran the best leg of the relay to get us into second place behind Buffalo Grove.  Alex Soto then ran one of his best races of the season to catch BG and grab us a nice lead.  Soto split a 2:02.  Steve Finley then ran a rather lackluster 4:33 leg in the 1600, but it didn't matter because Syed and Alex did a great job to get us a lead.

4 x 800 meter relay - This race was right there to be won, but we simply did not get the job done.  None of our guys ran with much aggression, and we never competed for the win with Prairie Ridge.  We finished in 3rd place with an 8:17.

1600 meter run - Robert Conley had an opportunity in this one to place and run a personal best.  He ran his fastest time ever of 4:38.2 so that was encouraging.  Barrington's Nick Farina ran a 4:25 to take the victory over LT's Ryan Kuphall.

Matt Smoody = Dorkus Maximus

Wanner Invite - Finley and Macatangay Record Great Times

Mr. Nalley was able to get in a pole vaulter, a discus thrower, a 3200 relay, two 3200 meter spots, and a 1600 meter spot.  Jason Kramer threw 136' to near his best of the season while Ron Peter made 11'6" in the pole vault.  On to the distance results...

4 x 800 meter relay - I had two goals going into this event: 1) break state qualifying and 2) run 8:00 without Finley or Lancaster.  We got one and are nearing another.  Matt Smoody led off in a tight pack.  He was boxed for almost his entire leg, but finally managed to get out at about the 750 mark.  We handed off in 3rd-4th place with Smoody running 2:00.0.  Brian McLain then delivered a great senior leg (1:59.6) to keep us in 3rd.  Holbach then proceeded to go out too fast (55.6), but he held on to run 2:03.2.  Mike Ducore then ran his second 2:01.1 of the season to bring us in just under state qualifying at 8:03.9.  The time in the official results is wrong because we didn't run 8:00.1.  In this stacked race where Prospect ran 7:47, breaking state qualifying was good only for 7th.

3200 meter run - Everyone at the meet knew that this was the marquee race of the night, and it didn't disappoint.  Both Finley and Macatangay got in this one and ran great.  Steve's plan was to run 4:35 through the opening mile as relaxed as possible and then start racing.  They came through the 400 in 65 seconds, but then it slowed way down so that the lead pack of Dettman, Craven, Finley, Kuphall, and Havel only hit the 1600 at 4:39.  Dettman shot hard immediately at the mile and gapped the field.  At about 1800 meters Craven made a decided effort to close the gap while Finley did not.  This was probably the difference in the race.  Steve ran a 65 on the 5th lap and still got gapped.  James hung on gamely through the 1600 (4:40) and was still running great at the 1 1/2 mile mark (7:05).  Steve faded all the way back to fifth before launching a great kick to nail Havel and Kuphall in the last 100 meters and run 9:13.4, which is the fourth fastest time in school history.  James ran 6 seconds under state qualifying (9:31.7) and got 8th place.  His time was the #13 performance in school history.  Wow!  Steve fought back hard and closed the gap a bit on the top two, but that 5th lap really blew the race open.  Dettman won in 9:07.8 while Craven ran 9:09 and change to set his school's record.

1600 meter run - I challenged Lancaster to run a great 1200 in this one, and he followed suit by sticking right with the lead pack until that point.  About five guys came through right at 3:15, but Jeremy Stevens of Winnebago launched a tremendous kick to run one of the best Class A times in years - 4:15!  The other Dettman and Brian Marchese finished together in 4:17 with Kuphall trailing just behind in 4:18.  John really rigged up in the last 400 meters, but he still would have had a great time if he didn't stop at the wrong line and have to restart.  Despite the mistake he ran 4:26.7 to get 8th place.  Both Mike Murray and Yosef Tewolde sprinted past him right at the end.  Still it was John's best time of the season.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - Lyons Township Relay Results

I haven't updated for quite a while so I'll try to give as much as I can.  I spent all night watching the Bulls so it's getting late.  This weekend should be a great one for Pirate track with our varsity team running in the 73rd annual Palatine Relays on Saturday.  Coach Al Carius from North Central is coming to speak at our Relays dinner tomorrow night as well.  To top it all off, Prospect let a bunch of our top guys into the stacked meet on Friday night.  It's a track junkie's weekend!

Lyons Township Results - 4 x 1600, DMR Run to Victories

It was another cold edition of the LT Relays, but our team responded well and competed hard to tie for a 3rd place finish.  Our shot and discus guys both placed second, and we had a ton of competitive efforts.

Freshmen 1500 - I challenged our guys to win all three 1500 meter races, and Kevin O'Brien got us off to a great start by winning the first heat.  Eddie Lopez also ran well to finish third.

Sophomore 1500 - I wanted a dominant performance from our Sophs, and they delivered by going 1-3-4-5-7.  Matt Dettloff trailed through the 800, but he made a great move at the 900 mark and never looked back as he won his first race as a Pirate.  Matt Anderson, Chris Perry, and Danny Rakaric finished 3-4-5 while the much-improved Andrew Bollman placed 7th.

Varsity 1500 - It's races like this one that make me so lucky to be associated with this program.  It was rainy and cold, and none of these guys were in a scoring race.  All of our guys compete hard though, and they showed their pride in our program by placing 1-2-3-4-5-7-8-9.  Eight runners in the top nine is simply phenomenal.  Seniors Robert Conley and Ryan Zachar led the way and were supported by (if I can remember all of them) Don Macatangay, Tom Barsella, Mike McCain, Kevin Yee, Brian Dankowski, and Kyle Compton.

4 x 1600 meter relay - The plan in this one was to get an early lead and allow Lancaster to cruise his anchor leg and save himself for the DMR.  It worked to perfection.  James Macatangay led off in 4:32 to establish second place.  Danny Holbach then turned in his best race of the season, running 4:39 to not only catch 1st place, but also give us a commanding lead.  Matt Moss extended nicely in his 4:41 leg, which allowed John to cruise in with a 5:05 mile for the victory.

4 x 800 meter relay - For me, this was the most anticipated race of the night, and it lived up to its billing.  LT ran their best four of Jacob Nachel, Tim Maier, Ryan Kuphall, and Marc Garstka.  Our first two legs gave us a great lead.  McLain handed off from the leadoff in 2nd in a 2:02 split.  Our freshmen Matt Smoody then ran away from everyone.  Tim Maier from LT closed the gap on us a bit, but he was still pretty far back.  Alex Soto then turned in a 2:05, and we went from a 25-30 meter lead to a 30 meter deficit as Kuphall chased him down and put some distance on him in the last 100 meters.  Finley then had the tall task of catching Garstka, who has been running well all year.  Steve came through the 400 at 54.5, passed both 1st and 2nd place to hit the 600 in 1:24.6, and was leading going into the last 100.  Unfortunately, he spent himself going out that hard, and Garstka kicked past him in the last 40 meters to win the race for LT.  Finley closed in a PR of 1:56.4.

1600 meter medley - I think we got 5th or 6th in this.  Holbach didn't run the best leadoff leg from lane seven in the 400 leg, and we were way out of it by the time Ducore got the baton for the 800 meter anchor.  Mike ran 2:04, which is a good time, but it was too little to catch up.

Distance Medley Relay - Most of the main players in this one were tired from earlier races.  Lancaster went up against Maier and Kyle Sommerfield from Hinsdale Central and ran one of his best races of the season.  The three came through the 800 even in around 2:08, but John exploded through the start line to gap each of them by a lot.  Maier chased him down a bit in the last 100, but John's 3:14 was a great way to start.  James then ran against Nachel in the 800.  After working hard to hold him out, James broke him and extended our lead by quite a bit.  Repking maintained our big lead in the 400, and Finley jogged home in 4:33 to pick up a win in 10:48. 

Class Relay - We placed second overall in this one with distance guys, and it probably could've been better if it hadn't started raining in between the 1st and 2nd heats.  We won our heat, but lost on time.  Smoody, Terrence, Soto, and McLain all split around 54's. 

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 - Manderson Results

The second annual Manderson (aka Doylerson Classic) took place tonight, and the Afro-Deeziax managed to pull out the win with a point total of 22 (only four scoring runners for each team).  Donny and Jimmy Mac ended up taking quite a few pictures (when they found the batteries).  Below are the winning teams, but I put all of the pictures in the Manderson Picture Gallery.

Afro-Deeziax - 1st place Manderson Invite

Pompadilla - 2nd place Manderson Invite

Da Bulls - 3rd place Manderson Invite

The Joint Chiefs of Kenya - 4th place Manderson Invite