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

September 22, 2005 - Boys, Girls Roll Past Schaumburg

The boys and girls teams defeated Schaumburg last night in spirited dual meet competitions last night at Hoover Park.  The boys won by a score of 22-33.  I know our girls scored 25 in a conservative race to win.

On the boys side, the story was the consistent running of Steve Finley and the continued return of Glenn Morris.  Steve ran 16:22 to win while Glenn was our second man in 16:51.  Even more encouraging is that Glenn is recovering after these efforts and starting to look more and more like himself.  That bodes well for our near future.  Behind Glenn, we threw a solid pack right in front of Schaumburg's group of guys: Smoody 17:03, Esberaldo 17:07, and Kevin OB 17:08.  The times are always pretty slow at Hoover since its a 5K with some sneaky elevation changes.  Coach Macnider said anytime your run below or near 17:00 you had a good race.  Schaumburg continued to look improved, putting juniors Mike Spain at 16:31 and newcomer John Roberts at 16:57.  The rest of their pack followed in the 17:20s.  I'll  update more on the F/S and varsity races later.

September 17, 2005 - Girls Win, Boys Second at Peoria

Before I get to the CC news, I would just like to thank all of the boys, girls, and parents who participated in the Hurricane Katrina fundraiser.  Our boys raised more than $2200 dollars for the victims of the hurricane.  What an unbelievable outpouring!  We will donate this money to the American Red Cross fund this week.

Both Palatine programs enjoyed another banner day at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational on Saturday.  The girls finished 1st out of 44 teams, defeating three of the top teams in the state.  They scored 87 points to better Sandburg (101) and Naperville North (118).  On the boys side we finished second to a tough Glenbard South team by a score of 87-124.  Carl Sandburg gave us a good run to finish third with 129 while Elmhurst York's JV placed fourth overall. 

Even without the services of our top two sophomores who ran varsity, our F/S placed 3rd out of 43 teams.  Naperville North, who finished 6th on the varsity level, stashed a number of their best guys down on F/S and scored an impressive 17 point victory.  The JV guys, who get screwed every year because they don't keep team scores, won their race.  Coach Miller scored it, and we had 37 points.  The next best JV team was York (their second JV) with 95 points.  Overall, all of our kids program-wide showed huge improvement from the year before.  Our hard work is paying off with solid results, and I hope that we can carry some momentum now into the championship phase of the season. 

Picture Update - I finally have some pictures of this season since my camera magically started working at Best Buy when I took it to look for a new one.  It was jealous.  Bryan Perry took a ton of pictures from Saturday's meet.  Thanks Bryan!  Check out the new gallery.

Alumni Update - Check out new North Central results.  I summarized all news on the Alumni page.

Mileage and Results Updates - I updated the Week 5 miles and the season Mileage Progression.  All results for the last two invites have been linked to complete results on the Internet.  Check the Results section.  I also posted the splits from Peoria Notre Dame. 

Boys Varsity - Finley Leads the Way as Morris Returns

We have been ranked 2nd all season largely on the basis of our finish last season.  Until this point we had not faced any of the best teams in the state.  On paper Glenbard South has been better than us so far this season, and they proved that on Saturday.  I think we have a lot of improvement left in us though, and it may be a lot closer the next time we race at state.  Our times from Saturday are comparable to what we ran two years ago when we grabbed a trophy.  Last year, we ran our best race of the season here.  The feeling with these boys is that we learned a great deal about the course on Saturday and will only continue to get better as the season progresses. 

To put the race in perspective, we ran 5 guys on varsity who were not even on our Top 14 state roster last year while GBS returned guys who were 17th, 65th, 83rd, and 96th at state last year.  They also featured a much-improved Brian Billie who ran at state CC, but advanced to a 9:34 3200 during track.  Last year, OB ran 16:40, Esberaldo ran 16:52, Sagar ran 17:09, and Smoody ran 18:13!  Yesterday, those four ran 15:41, 15:46, 15:18, and 15:29.  Guys that can improve that much that quickly can and will continue to get better.  If they continue to get better along with Glenn, anything can happen come November.

The big constants for us this season have been change and Steve Finley.  Steve continued to impress on Saturday with a second place finish to Jon Popejoy.  Popejoy ran a scorching 14:31 while Steve lowered his PR to 14:41, gamely holding off a charging Luke Ryan in the last 100 meters.  The big frontrunners all hooked up early (by the 400 meters) and battled throughout.  They came through the mile in the low 4:40's, and a pack of Popejoy, Finley, Adamowski, Mactaggart, and Ryan went into the back loop together.  Popejoy and Finley built a gap back there, and Pope made a big move exiting the back loop to gap Steve.  He closed hard in the last part of the race to hold off Ryan, but the 14:41 is a good time that can get better as we start to peak.

The rest of the team worked well together throughout the race.  Esberaldo scorched the first 800 and was in 10th place early on.  Sagar caught him by the mile after a slow start and worked his way up to 12th place by the two mile.  Meanwhile, Smoody and Glenn hooked up through the first 1 1/2 miles.  Smoody looked like he wanted to drop back in the back loop, but he stuck with Morris through the two mile and kicked hard to finish in 15:29.  Sagar felt his lingering IT problem a bit in the final stretch, and he lacked his usual close in dropping to 19th place.  Esbo learned a huge lesson in course management as he faded from our #3 man at the two mile to our #6 man at the finish.  He can and will run much better.  Kevin O'Brien looked like he was out of it early, but he closed well to nip Esbo and finish as our #5.

Glenn Morris also struggled in the last 400 with limited training and some IT trouble, but his performance today was much more encouraging than it was two weeks ago.  At Hinsdale, he ran 16:18 and was our 4th man, finishing 82 seconds behind Finley.  On Saturday, he ran 15:32 and was 51 second behind Steve.  The more that gap shrinks - the better we get.  Our patience is paying off.  Glenn is starting to practice and race better and better, and none of the other teams we have to beat have a guy like him to add into the mix.  Let's hope that he keeps building momentum.  Remember - there are still seven weeks until the state meet!

Boys F/S - Mourousias and Lopez Lead Team to 3rd Place

With forty-three teams in the field, I really did not know what to expect from our F/S squad.  Both Smoody and O'Brien ran varsity so it was left up to our other sophomores and top freshmen to pick up the slack.  Naperville North was obviously the class of the field in this one, winning with 17 points.  Neuqua Valley placed 2nd with 75 points while we held off Lyons (172 pts) for third place by scoring 170.  Both Neuqua and us had our best sophs on varsity so the story would have been a bit different if Naperville had put 3-4 of their sophs up there.  The moral of the story for us though is that we placed 3rd out of 43 teams, and the future looks bright.  We do not draw from stellar junior high programs like Naperville North, Sandburg, and Neuqua do.  Our kids do improve a ton though, and Saturday's race was no different.  Our sophomores made huge strides from last year, and our freshmen will do the same next year as they start running more consistently.

Alex Mourousias has shown all season that he has no fear of anyone, and he put himself right up in the front group from the start.  Eddie Lopez and Tommy Laskowske did the same.  These three guys will be critical parts of future varsity teams because they all have the requisite courage to go out and battle hard for three miles.  Our top four finished 12th, 19th, 23rd, and 31st.  Vlad Novikov got off to a terrible start, but kept running hard to catch his pack.  The two guys I might have been the most proud of on Saturday were Kretschmar and Kwak.  They were our 5th and 6th guys, but the real story was their improvement.  Kretsch went from 21:21 as a freshmen to 17:48 while Kwak went from 22:45 to 17:49.  Dropping four minutes in a race is only possible with huge amounts of hard work.  I am very proud of both these boys.

Behind the top six, we had a ton of freshmen learn what it means to run three miles for the first time.  Both Luke Kierys and Adam Bethke continued to improve, running 18:41 and 18:59.  In the big scheme of things that is pretty slow, but Esberaldo ran 18:45 as a freshmen here, and he is one of the best runners in the conference.  James Macatangay ran 18:47 and placed 13th at State last year!  Freshmen year is about recognizing potential, and the rest of the time is for building.  We have a good future ahead of us if these freshmen decide to become dedicated CC runners.  Cole Haas impressed me in the last 800 meters on Saturday, kicking to a 19:43 finish.  We then had a real impressive pack of freshmen and sophomores: Zimmerman (20:00), Morlock (20:06), Colish (20:06), Perez (20:15), Olson (20:22), Acic (20:23), Meehan (20:24), Starcevich (20:35), Reardon (20:41).  Now, the goal is to keep working hard and move that pack up.  This group must learn to run hard together.  The sky is the limit for this freshmen class.  If we can get everybody out for track and running next summer, we will be dynamite next year.

Boys Junior Varsity - Holbach and JV Dominate

For the second straight year, we dominated the JV open race.  I am always so proud that the kids on our team continue to stay out and to improve from year to year.  So many teams flash a ton of potential in their young kids, but have kids quit or regress.  Our boys do neither.  Danny Holbach won this race with a nice 16:08, and he proved that he probably belongs back up on the varsity this week at Palatine Invite.  Behind him, we got a great late race surge from Mike McCain to nail down a solid team finish.  Ulises, McCain, and Barsella all hit the line within three seconds of each other in 5th, 6th, and 8th places.  Mike Ducore ran much better than Thursday in his return from an ankle injury, serving as our 5th man in 17th place.  Matt Dettloff also impressed in his first race of the season, running 16:39 for a nice PR.  Other PR's included Matt Anderson, Kevin Yee, Kevin LeClair, and Don Macatangay.  Danny O'Brien also chopped almost two minutes off of his time from last year.  Hopefully, our JV will be ready to come into Palatine Invite on Saturday and battle for a team award - we actually give awards to the JV!

SeptemberPerry 15, 2005 - Boys and Girls Defeat Hoffman Estates

Both Palatine teams ran to victory tonight over Hoffman Estates at Deer Grove East.  The girls won easily, going 1-11 in the Open race and 1-6 in the varsity race.  On the boys side, we won 15-44 on the F/S side and 19-40 on the varsity side.  Steve Finley won the varsity race in 15:22, leading us to victory even as we held out Glenn Morris and Sagar Patel for the big weekend race at Detweiller.  In total, I think 90% of our kids ran a Deer Grove PR tonight.  I'll update everything more this weekend, but it was a great night for the Pirates.  Look forward to Detweiller results and full Deer Grove results on Sunday when I get back from Peoria.

Boys Varsity - Esbo Goes Shoeless, Helps Us to Victory

We wanted to get through Thursday's dual meet with Hoffman with minimal effort since our focus was on the Saturday meet at Peoria.  We let Hoffman lead through the 1 1/2 mile mark and then worked on running a strong middle to the race.  Our surge broke the race open, and Finley, Gonzalez, and Soto went 1-2-3 to secure our victory.  The biggest drama in the race was that Ulises ripped off Esbo's shoe at the 1/2 mile mark so he had to run the rest of the race in one shoe.  So now we know that we have two guys who can perform well in one shoe - Glenn and Esberaldo. 

Although the top three guys cruised, the real story of the meet was the continued improvement of the JV guys.  Almost everyone ran a course PR.  Furthermore, the tough running of our JV allowed us to rest Glenn and Sagar and move Smoody and O'Brien down to the F/S level.  The most notable performances came from Ulises Reynoso (15:45) and Danny Holbach (15:46).  They placed 6th and 7th respectively.  Alex Mourousias (15:56) and Mike McCain (16:03) also ran well, finishing ahead of Hoffman's #4 runner.  Our 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 runners in the race all bumped Hoffman's 5th man even though we can only count the results from the top 7.  The final score was 19-40. 

Check out these course personal bests:

Boys F/S - Smoody Runs Top Palatine F/S Time Ever

We gave Smoody and O'Brien a bit of an easier meet since they were running varsity at Detweiller.  They answered by running the top two F/S times ever for Palatine guys.  Smoody ran 13:03 and O'Brien ran 13:18 to better Esberaldo's 13:21 established a year ago.  We won by a score of 15-44.  Hoffman Estates had three sophomores and a freshman up on varsity, but we put Mourousias up there too.  Eddie Lopez (13:30), Tom Laskowske (13:32), and Vlad Novikov (13:45) continued to improve and provided a solid pack.

The other big story of this meet was the incredible leaps that the freshmen and some sophs made from the meet two weeks prior versus Prospect.  Check out these improvements in just two weeks:

September 9, 2005 - Pirates Win Hard Fought Duals at Barrington

"Are you starting to believe?"

Each time that we go out to Barrington, we know that we will be given a tough race from both their boys and girls squads.  Thursday was no different.  The varsity boys won 26-31 behind a course record run from Steve Finley.  Finley ran 14:55 to break Glenn Morris' course record of 15:24 set two years ago.  The girls squad held off a charge by the Barrington girls in the first 1 1/2 miles to score an 18-42(?) victory.  I'm not sure about Barrington's score, but the ladies swept the top four behind Amy Laskowske's winning effort.  On the F/S boys level, our kids showed they have a lot to learn, taking a 24-31 loss from a talented Barrington squad.  It was our first F/S loss in three years.

September 3, 2005 - Palatine Boys and Girls Stellar at Hinsdale

The Palatine program had a great day Saturday at the Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invitational.  We excelled on all levels in both boys and girls.  Both the boys and girls varsity won, the boys sophomores won, the girls open team won, and our boys freshmen placed second.  Individual winners included Amy Laskowske (girls varsity), Mat Smoody (boys sophomore), and Torey Wright (girls open).  Neuqua Valley gave us a great challenge in all three boys races, placing second in the varsity and the sophomore while winning the freshmen race by a ton.  The boys and girls competed well and showed that our time together in the summer was well-spent.  Way to go everyone!

Full results will be posted later today at Kompusport.com. 

August 31, 2005 - Palatine Boys and Girls Win Openers

Both Palatine teams won their opening dual meets against Prospect last night at Deer Grove East.  The girls scored a perfect 15 points with Amy Laskowske and Carly Bates leading the way.  On the boys side, we won 21-40 behind a strong run from Steve Finley.  Ryan Craven won the race overall in 14:27.  The results are a bit misleading since Murray and Ancyzk did not run for Prospect while we did not run Glenn Morris.  Look for this to be a much better match-up by the time Palatine Invite rolls around in three weeks.  We also won the F/S by a score of 22-33 behind a great first place run by Alex Mourousias.  I have updated the all-time lists for bests on each level at Deer Grove and stored a bunch of old info in the Archive section.  Check out those lists in the History section.

Above: Steve Finley, Ryan Craven, and Sagar Patel duel early in Tuesday's race.  Craven won in 14:27 with Finley second in 14:42.