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

March 18, 2006 - MSL Jim Nagel Invite Results

I updated both the Miles for Week 6 and Week 7 as well as all of the 2006 Performance Lists.  We have been training hard and keeping the racing to a minimum, but our varsity will kick it back into action the next two weekends at the Proviso Classic and the Illinois Prep Top Times indoor meet.  The rest of our guys have the Glenbrook South meet on Tuesday as well ast he Manderson Classic on Saturday morning.

MSL Jim Nagel Invite - Dettloff Places 2nd in the 1600

Dettloff's run in the 1600 had to be the story of the meet, but we also ran well in the 3200 and the open 800.  Overall, we placed third as a team despite not putting many of our varsity guys into competition.  We sat Smoody, Finley, Morris, Patel, and Soto due to injuries and training through.

4 x 800 meter relay - We got off to a great start in this one behind indoor PR runs from Tom Barsella (2:10) and Phil Conley (2:09).  Barsella competed hard to keep us close while Phil put on a tremendous burst to get us up into second at the handoff.  Neither Yee nor D-Mac had his best race though, and we ended up getting leaned at the wire for 6th place.

3200 meter run - Ulises Reynoso and Kevin O'Brien placed 4th and 5th overall in this one, and both ran huge indoor PRs.  They both came through the 1600 at 5:05 looking nice and relaxed.  Ulises really took control and pushed pace after that to nab a 10:18 lifetime PR.  His previous best was a 10:44 from last year outdoors.  O'Brien meanwhile closed hard to finish in 10:19 and come within 2 seconds of his best from last year.  Even more encouraging is that he has only been running for two weeks and set a 30 second indoor best.

800 meter run - Holbach and Ducore wanted to be aggressive in this one, and Holbach did just that, getting great position and hitting the 400 in 61.  Unfortunately, he is still not in great shape from his late season CC stress fracture and faded to a 2:15.  Despite getting out slow, Ducore came on strong to finish 3rd in 2:07.0.

400 meter dash - Terrence learned a lesson about indoor racing as he didn't push hard enough to get the break and nearly fell when a runner in front of him wiped out.  He ran 57.0 though, which is not a bad time on the 150 meter track.

1600 meter run - We entered Dettloff and Rakaric in this one, and they demonstrated the good and the bad about indoor racing.  Dettloff got a great start and burst to the inside position while Rakaric couldn't work his way up through the crowd, spent time getting bumped, and nearly fell when a runner in front of him tripped.  For a guy that ran 5:00 indoors last year, Dettloff is sure getting better.  He raced from the lead through the 1000, faded to third for a time, and then closed with a tremendous kick to nearly win the race.  His 4:35.1 bettered the 4:36 that he ran on a much better track at York.  Congratulations Matt!

March 12, 2006 - Proviso Quad and F/S Conference Results

After racing so well last weekend, we had a rather turbulent week with a bunch of injuries and illnesses.  Despite these problems, most of the boys came out and ran great over the weekend.  Our JV and F/S have been waiting to get on a 200 meter track all season, and their performances did not disappoint.  Check out the updated 2006 Performance List to see our PRs for the indoor season so far.  We are up to 13 guys under 5:00 in the 1600, which is almost halfway to the team goal for the season.

Proviso Quad - LeClair and Kwak Break Out

4 x 800 meter relay - McCain shows his speed

The challenge for this bunch of guys was to break 8:40 for the first time this season, and they ran right on expectations.  Matt Dettloff continued his streak of great runs by leading off in 2:06.9.  Ulises Reynoso also ran his first indoor 800 under 2:10 while Tom Barsella and Mike McCain both hit 2:11.  That 2:11 shatters McCain's previous best, which either says a lot about his current fitness or the fact that he has never run a great 800 before.  It's probably a little bit of both, but he's a 3200 guy so we'll cut him some slack.

3200 meter run - Kwak! Kwak ! Kwak!

This race was the highlight of the meet for me in a couple of ways.  One, I wanted our guys to be aggressive and show some belief in themselves.  Two, I wanted some of our JV and F/S guys to see the fruits of their hard work.  Everyone who ran PR'd, starting with Kevin LeClair and Paul Kwak, who both broke 11:00 for the first time.  Heck, Kwak set his 1600 PR in the first mile of the race, hitting 5:16 along with Kevin.  LeClair finished with a lifetime best of 10:52 while Kwak chopped 75 seconds off of his time from a year ago to run 10:54.  Other huge PRs for the sophs included Lewis Conley (11:34) and Tim Anderson (12:00).  Tim's run was also astonishing because his 5:52 split for the 1600 was also his best in that event.  We also had three freshmen run between 12:00 and 12:03 so that was a good start for them.

800 meter run - O'Brien is not slow, in fact he might be fast

OB had encountered some training problems as he transitioned from swimming season to track season, but his 800 showed that he is in pretty good shape.  He busted out a 2:11.7 to win the F/S race.  Mike Murphy also improved a ton, dropping below 2:30 for the first time.  In the varsity, a tired Matt Dettloff bounced back on short rest to take the win in 2:12.  Freshmen Vlad Novikov (2:15) impressed in his first race of the season due to injury while Brian Cepuran also ran a sweet PR of 2:21.

400 meter dash - Barsella runs with a particularly Irish flair

Not much to report.  It's a sprint.  He ran hard.  It was a 59.8.

600 meter run - Ducore runs a PR...oh yeah Holbach did too...oh yeah so did Terrence

Ducore looked a bit sluggish in this one, but he still managed to drop his PR to 1:30.  Terrence and Holbach went after each other with T-squared nudging him out 1:33 to 1:34.  Danny looked good racing in flats due to his continuing stress fracture rehab while Terrence looked crisp coming out of basketball season.  Hopefully both can help us in the 400 and 800 this season.

1600 meter run - Tons of guys under 5:00

With 25 guys running, this was supposed to be a highlight event.  For most guys, that turned out to be true.  The F/S race went out a little too slow and our guys learned something about taking control of a race early and establishing clean position.  Tommy Laskowske was boxed early, but took the lead at the 400 and held it until the 1400 mark.  He ran 5:03, but better tactics would've helped him be more competitive at the end.  Our freshmen ran great - Bethke (5:05), Morlock (5:16), Olson (5:20), Perez (5:21), Baran (5:32) and Blyth (5:50).  Andrew Kretschmar and Omar Herrera also ran well with both finishing in 5:11.

In the varsity section, Conant's Ryan Sander won the race in 4:30 over Morris, who didn't run the smartest race and played right into the kicker's hands.  Going out in 62 is probably not advisable, but he'll learn.  The rest of the guys ran great.  Ulises broke 4:50 for the first time, hitting 4:49 while Dan Rakaric (4:52) led a whole parade of guys under 5:00 -
P. Conley (4:53), Yee (4:54), C. Perry (4:57), and D. Macatangay (4:57).  A ton of other guys just missed the mark, including Dankowski (5:02), Compton (5:03), Bollman (5:03), Matt Anderson (5:04), and Wojdyla (5:06).  All of them should break 5:00 soon.

MSL F/S Indoor Conference - Team Ties for First Place

The F/S boys ran well in winning the F/S meet (or tying it anyway) despite a lack of great performances from our distance guys.  Our F/S are a bit banged up right now and a couple of our best guys are coming back from winter sports.  Highlights of the day included a 1-2 sweep in the 55 m dash, Tim Williams' conference record triple jump of 43'5", and our win in the 4 lap relay.  Congratulations boys!

4 x 800 meter relay - Our freshmen finished 4th!

I didn't know what to expect out of this all-freshmen group, but their 4th place run was a pleasant surprise.  This group was buoyed by the strong return of Vlad Novikov and the improved aggression of leadoff man Adam Bethke.  Adam finally went out hard and split a 2:20, which is 5 seconds better than his previous best.  Vlad then ran a sweet 2:16 to move us into second.  Olson dropped his best from 2:29 to 2:24 to hand-off in third.  Starcevich looked sluggish from his 3200 the night before, but he fought hard and ran a 2:28 to give us a 4th place finish.

3200 meter run - Krestchmar fights hard

Andrew Kretschmar was our only entry in this race so I simply asked him to put himself in a position to score.  He did that by going out on a hard pace of 5:20, coming through the 1600 in 5th place or so.  He faded after that to 11:21, but I was happy that he competed for the points instead of playing it safe.  He demonstrated a champion mentality.

800 meter run - Herrera wins his heat

Both of our guys got stuck in the slower heat, but both competed really well.  Omar Herrera won the heat with a big kick as he continues to learn how to run the 800.  He won in 2:20 while Lewis Conley set a PR best of 2:26 while kicking down a couple of guys in the last lap.

1600 meter run - Lopez breaks 5:00 for the first time

Both Eddie Lopez and Kevin O'Brien scored in this one (4th and 5th places) and both broke 5:00 (4:57.1 for Ed, 4:57.8 for OB), but they set the art of running the 1600 back a few thousand years.  We simply ran an ugly tactical race and learned some important lessons about positioning, especially for indoor racing.  The good news is that both guys are healthy and will round into shape from their winter sport seasons soon.

March 4, 2006 - York, Maine East, and Bolingbrook Results

York Invite - Smoody and the 4 x 400 Set Indoor School Records!

I knew that our recent workouts and meets on 160 meter tracks boded well for our performance today, but I was pleasantly surprised with almost all of our efforts.  We exceeded my expectations and that is a hard thing to do.  First and foremost, congratulations to Mat Smoody.  He broke Zach Somers' indoor school record of 1:57.6 in the 800 by running 1:57.0.  In the process, he also established a F/S school record, beating Chuck Bell's 2:01.3 from the 1970s.  Somers ended up placing 7th in the 1600 at IHSA State that year while Chuck Bell ran 4:13 and change to place second as a sophomore.  That's rather illustrious company!

The 4 x 400 also looked impressive in setting a school record that was established all the way back in 1972 when a certain Palatine great named Fred Miller was running for Coach Joe Johnson.  You bet the boys had some fun wiping their coach's name off of the books.  I'm sure that Fred gets a ton of joy though by seeing them run such a sweet early time.  The boys ran 3:32.0 to better the 3:33.0 from 1972.

Glenn Morris and Steve Finley also qualified to the IPTT meet in the 3200 and 1600 respectively.  Glenn ran 9:35 (4:37, 4:58) in the 3200 while Steve ran 4:22 to take the win in his race.

Maine East Invite - McCain and Rakaric Lead the Way with PRs

I wasn't at this meet so I don't have a full report, but the best performances of the day were McCain's 4:51 in the 1600 and Rakaric's 10:41 in the 3200.  Both guys placed in their respective events.  Ulises Reynoso ran a season best 4:54 while Paul Kwak dropped his 3200 PR to 11:18.  The F/S and Varsity 4 x 800s also ran well even though they didn't place.  Danny Holbach, Chris Perry, and Omar Herrera all ran 2:20 splits while Eddie Lopez split a 2:15 in his first race of the season.

Bolingbrook Dual - Finley Wins Stirring 4 x 400 Race

Above: Check out what happens to normal, hard-working kids when their team isn't selected for NTN.  I'm not sure if Smoody looks tough, but I would not mess with Morris.