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

September 27, 2005 - 1600 Repeats Results

Hey alums and fans, check out the results of our annual 3 x 1600 meter workout.  I challenged the boys to beat our previous record of 6 guys who could run under 5:00 three times in one workout for the 1600.  We had 9 do it tonight.  It was an unbelievable vibe out on the track.  Finley smashed the workout record, running sub-4:40 for each repeat.  Sagar and Esbo duplicated the times that Lancaster and Finley ran last year while Smoody beat Mossy's time and Glenn continued to get his rhythm back.  The girls also ran a gut-busting workout with Laskowske closing an all-out session of 1200, 400, 800, and 1600 with a 5:25.  Awesome!

This team is really starting to believe.  We ran right on the times of last year's team even though we ran it a week earlier in the season.  We also came off a ton of sub-31:00 minute efforts in yesterday's morning loop.  Things are rounding into shape, and the team is starting to believe in its own power.  The end of this season is going to be exciting.

Check out the results of tonight's workout as well as the 2004 results and the 2003 results.  Check out as well the difference between the 3 x mile results from August (albeit on the grass) and tonight.

September 25, 2005 - Palatine Invite Results

We look forward to the Palatine Invite every year, and it never disappoints.  Every year has great competition, and the meet runs so well due to the hard work of all our parents and athletic support staff.  Kids, be sure to thank your parents for their hard work because we couldn't run this meet off without them.  Great job everyone!

Our kids seem to rise to the occasion each year at the Palatine Invite, and this year was no different.  The boys varsity placed second behind nationally-ranked York.  We also managed to narrowly win the first in a series of tough MSL battles.  The final team scores looked like this for the top five: York 57, Palatine 110, Prospect 118, Barrington 129, and Hersey 233.  Assuming that we both make it to state, we will run Prospect four more times this year so that should be fun.  In the individual battle, Ryan Craven of Prospect seized the race just past the mile mark and never looked back.  His 14:06 was the #2 time ever behind Sean Macnamara's 14:00 from last year.  Steve Finley ran great to take 2nd place in 14:17.  That is the #3 time ever, and the best Palatine time by 15 seconds or so.  Eric Dettman of York was third while Hersey's super sophomore Kevin Havel was 4th.  We had the top four returnees from last year's state meet in the race.

Picture Updates - I added two new picture galleries.  Thank Bryan Perry for taking so many great pictures of everyone.  He is doing a great job.  Check out the galleries for the Schaumburg Dual and the Palatine Invitational.

Mileage Updates - Miles for Week 6 have been updated along with the season-long Mileage Progression.

History, Archives and Alumni Updates - I put last week's news in the Archives section, and I also updated all of the all-time History lists for the Deer Grove course.  Mike Nigliaccio sent me some recent race information so I put that in the Alumni section. 

Boys Varsity - Finley and Morris Lead the Way

The varsity team faced a number of challenges heading into our annual cross country showcase at Deer Grove East.  We have several guys recovering from injuries, and we have two sophomores running in the top seven.  On top of that, we had to face national number one Elmhurst York as well as three outstanding MSL teams in Prospect, Barrington, and Hersey.  Add Stevenson and Buffalo Grove into the mix, and we got a real early preview of what our sectional will look like.  That said, it was important for us to run well, and we did.  We scored 110 points to finish second behind York for the third straight year.

Above: The varsity team and coaches celebrate a 2nd place finish at the Palatine Invite.

With so many guys gaining varsity experience, we have emphasized running a smart and fast first mile all year long.  We kept our composure early in this one, and our guys closed well in the last 1 1/2 miles.  Steve Finley went out in a rather relaxed 4:48 and ran the best middle of a race I have ever seen from him.  He took off after Craven just past the mile mark, and he ran a great Twilight Zone loop, passing both Dettmans en route to the two-mile.  Craven ran away from him, but Steven's 4:48 and 4:50 splits for the first two miles were encouraging.

Behind Steven, we continued to get improvement from Glenn Morris.  Glenn ran in our dual meet on Wednesday and felt no ill effects, and he made progress in this one as well.  At Hinsdale, he ran 66 seconds off of his time from a year ago.  At Detweiller last week, he ran within 37 seconds of his 2004 time.  His 14:55 time on Saturday brought him within 19 seconds of where he was a year ago.  He placed 18th.  Behind Glenn, we threw three guys in a nice pack - Sagar 15:08 (27th), Smoody 15:11 (30th), and Esbo 15:14 (33rd).  All three ran course PR's.  O'Brien ran well as our 6th man (15:27), getting us bumps on both Prospect's and Barrington's 5th men.  Holbach also ran a course PR to finish in 15:43.  Esberaldo ran much smarter early on and had a much better finish than the week before.

Prospect breathed right down our neck in scoring 118 points while Barrington ran great with their top four, but dropped their fifth man in 65th.  Prospect placed 1, 10, 20, and 33 with their top four while Barrington was 7, 13, 16, 28.  We have to run better in the 2-4 range if we hope to hold these teams off in the championship phase of the season.

Boys Junior Varsity - JV Gives York a Tough Run

The JV ran in the last race, and I challenged them to demonstrate a championship level mentality.  Their attitude toward racing is so key to developing a top-level program, and they went out and raced York hard.  At the two mile mark, the score was very close.  York's guys pulled away to win in the last mile, but I was proud of how hard our guys competed against a JV team that placed 4th in the varsity last week at Peoria.  These York guys obviously lacked their soph, Achtien, but I was happy nonetheless.

Mike McCain ran the race of his life to finish 5th, and I have never been prouder of his effort.  He went out hard early on and took the lead going into the back 1000 loop.  That type of move is exactly the mentality that I am talking about.  He finished in 15:43.  Mike Ducore also rebounded from a couple of disappointing efforts to run 15:53.  He is recovering well from his early season ankle injury.  Behind those two, we got a ton of support: Ulises, Dettloff, Bars, Soto, LeClair, and CP all placed in the top 20.  As a team, we placed second by a score of 18-44.  Kevin Yee and Don Macatangay also ran great personal best races in their final Palatine Invite races.  Brian Cepuran also showed a ton of improvement.

Boys Sophomore - Mourousias and Lopez Finish Top 10

The sophomores don't run the varsity course very often so there isn't much basis for comparing their times, but I was happy with all six of these performances.  Mourousias tried to seize the race early.  He and Eddie went out a bit too hard in 5:06 and 5:08, but both of them hung on to finish in the top 10.  Alex continued to make a bid for the top 12 group with his 15:50 finish while Eddie ran right at 16:00.  Kwak and Kretsch both broke or came near 17:00 while Lewis Conley served as our 5th man.  Tim Anderson also ran his best time ever.  These boys placed 8th which I considered to be pretty good since our sophomore class lacks real depth and we ran our best two guys on varsity.

Boys Freshmen - Laskowske and Novikov Lead us to Third

I knew that we had the potential to be a top three team in this race, but a bunch of boys really needed to step up.  We have not had a good pack all year with this class, but the boys really stepped it up.  Tommy went out hard and made a strong bid to win this race.  The York kid went the wrong way past the mile, but he caught up with Tom near the two-mile mark and went on to win.  Tommy placed 3rd.  Vlad ran a great race and was near the lead a couple of times.  He finished 5th.  The 13:14 and 13:21 times are the top two freshmen times we have had since we switched to Deer Grove in 2001.  Both boys ran under Kevin O'Brien's 13:28 from last year.

Behind our two frontrunners, we got great support from Adam Bethke, Luke Kierys, and Colin Morlock.  Bethke has been improving a ton lately, and he snuck into the top 25 with a new PR.  Luke Kierys continued to show his courage and toughness, racing aggressively and finishing hard.  The real hero of this race, though, was Colin Morlock.  I challenged all of the freshman to pack it up with Adam and Luke, and Colin was the only one who had the conviction to do so.  Colin ran out of his mind to give us a solid 5th man.

I think everyone else on the freshmen team set a PR.  Justin Olson snuck under 15:00 for the first time while Cole Haas rebounded from a weak race on Wednesday night to run his best race of the season.  Our pack continued to move up together behind Cole - Juan, Colish, Zim, Vania, and Meehan all crossed the line within 18 seconds of each other.  Jacob and Matt also ran course PRs.  Good job freshmen!

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 it's 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

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. 

September 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.

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!

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.