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

March 23, 2006 - Manderson Classic Preview

Yeah, yeah, I know that we are racing in a pretty stacked varsity meet at Proviso on Friday night, but the real action happening this weekend is the Manderson on Saturday morning.  Five fine teams will line up in an epic battle to decide supremacy within the Palatine distance crew.  Five fine teams will vie for the title of Manderson Champion 2006.  As the defending champion, I decided to sit this one out and give everyone else a chance to share in the glory.  Actually, I couldn't beat OB, Fast Eddie, or McCain with a team of sled dogs pulling me through the course.  In case you want in on the action, here are the early lines from the expert himself:

Thug Nasty (Captains Glenn Morris and Matt Dettloff)

Two-milers know little about the universe of speed, but they are usually smart, level-headed, and in tune with the rhythm of the long distance runner.  These guys stole OB when he fell all the way to the third pick, and he should be the favorite with the varsity credentials to back him up.  We know OB runs well under the bright lights, but this team will lean on Kwak, Bethke, and Compton as a solid pack.  I can hear it now...Kwak, KwAK, KWAK!!  Bethke the Bleeder is easy to overestimate since he runs on just a little less blood than the rest of us, but his late races have been solid.  Glennard and Dett got a steal with Killer Kyle in the 4th slot, but will need help from Juan "Gone in 61.5 seconds" Perez.  The factor that will put them over the top: Timmy power.  The smart money starts and ends here.  Odds: 5:2

Gasolina (Captains Mike Ducore and Tom Barsella)

Fellow seniors Bars and Dookie snagged McCain with the #1 overall pick so the onus is on the senior to  perform.  This a deep team though with both the power of the founder (Manderson himself) and Kevin "Pepe" LeClair to back up its frontrunner.  The burden of victory will fall though on Cepuran and Lew Dog, who must stick tight together to keep victory in reach.  Colish and Blyth also come as a nice freshman package with the potential to bump 5th men on other teams.  Some of the loose money might fall here, but smart handicappers see this as the second best.  Only time will tell...Odds: 4-1

Finoody Knights (Captains Steve Finley and Mat Smoody)

This team hopes to carry the cocky swagger of its "we are better than you and ready to tell you about it" captains.  They banked on Fast Eddie Lopez as their rock while throwing down big trust on an ailing Donny Mac (rumor on the street is that it's diarrhea) and Wojdyla the Gorilla.  Dyla starred on a winner last year, but this team needs Terrence the Gladiator to show up rather than Thigpen the Intimidated by the 2.5 Mile Distance.  These guys also got Morlock and Murph on the cheap in the late rounds and will get leadership from everyone's favorite tall drink of water, Andrew Haney.  In the end, the cocky act only carries you so far in life before some gasoline carrying thugs call you out.  Odds: 8-1

The Fellowship of the Bean (Captains Ulises Reynoso, Sagar Patel, and Dan Rakaric)

Someone put these three in charge of a team, and I'm not sure if they knew that they were supposed to try to "win" the race.  Give them points for creativity and for their faith in the beans.  Esbo Gonzalez, the Palatine Man of Mystery, has grown a sort-of-beard and sort-of-rehabbed from a stress fracture.  He's a wild pick, but a total baller if in form.  Behind him, they snagged solid as they come CP and sophomore Omar Herrera.  What Omar lacks in experience, he could make up in guts though.  If these guys want the W, then it will fall on the shoulders of the Killer B's: Bollman and Baran.  We'll just call them the Ninja and the Priest, and they hope to preach some gospel to their unbelieving teammates.  Hussam Sehwail is the total X-factor here - he's a senior, a chess man, and a mathlete so his intangible powers may come in handy.  Still, these rookie managers will be the Cubs of the 2006 Manderson - just wait til next year.  Odds: 10-1

Manderson Mafia (Captains Alex Soto and Dan Holbach)

First of all, no one should ever let half-milers pick a team, decide the pace, or act rational in any way shape or form.  Their simple animalistic, speed-based natures prevent clear decision making and, at times, rational thought.  They nailed an ailing Kevin "Eye of the Tiger" Yee with their #1 (rumor is that it is either malaria or a stomach ulcer) and then proceeded to pick Phil Conley who was so sick on Thursday that he could hardly run.  Perhaps they are using their top picks to spread disease among the others.  No, probably not.  After all, they're half-milers.  This team will have to lean on solid pack running and the strong leadership of the Dankowski Burst and Kretsch, both of whom are on a roll lately.  Jacob Stars promises to give it all and they could receive some 6th man help from BP, who is much improved lately.  In the end, though, picking the Mafia is like Michael Corleone kissin' Fredo in Godfather Part II: "I thought it was you boys, but you broke my heart."  Odds: 13:1

March 22, 2006 - Glenbrook South Results

This meet at Glenbrook South with the host school and Hoffman Estates always seems to hit at a right time for us.  There is no 3200, and they split the 1600 up into even heats by time rather than level.  That usually allows us to have a ton of great mile performances.  Almost all of the distance guys set season, indoor, or even lifetime bests.  Highlights for me included Andrew Bollman's 2:17 leadoff leg in the 4 x 800, Bethke's stirring come from behind win in the 800, and the performance of our three sophomores in the 1600. 

In fact, the entire 1600 was a highlight with eight guys breaking 5:00, raising our season total to eighteen different guys already under the mark.  The big goal for the season is 30 x 5:00 and I know that we are going to get it.  Right now, we have 29 guys at 5:11 or under with the rehabbing Alex Mourousias, Alex Soto, and Esberaldo Gonzalez yet to run the event.  The other goal is to have everyone under 5:30, and I think that is in reach as well.  Be sure to check the updated Week 6 and Week 7 miles as well as the new 2006 Performance Lists of distance PRs.

4 x 800 meter relay - I put all four of these guys in here to get them some relay experience and to work on being aggressive.  The goal was for each to go out in 65-66 and try to break 2:20.  The results were fairly good.  Bollman had a ton of competition near him and really competed hard to establish a new lifetime best of 2:17.  Cepuran ran right on his best ever with a 2:21, Dank set an indoor best with a 2:20, and Wojdyla brought us home with a 2:21.  All four of these guys ran with the requisite intensity and aggressiveness.

800 meter run - I put McCain, Yee, Compton, and C. Perry in the fast heat of this one and all of them (excepting a rather sick Kevin Yee) ran an indoor best.  McCain got his usual bad start, but moved well to drop his indoor PR to 2:14.  Chris Perry ran a 2:15.4 to set his lifetime best.  This kid will be dangerous when he starts to believe in himself some more!  Compton competed hard to hit 2:16 and showed that he is ready to drop a great mile time in his next opportunity.

In the second heat, we saw the continued adventure of Adam Bethke in the 800.  The half is definitely a tough event to learn, and we all get to see the Bethke learning curve each race. He got out well, looked dead in the middle, and then launched a massive kick that had all of us wondering why he had so much left.  Suffice it to say, his 2:17.4 run is a great one for a freshman, especially on a 160 meter track.  He also won the race!  Other great PRs were run by Juan Perez (2:23), Colin Morlock (2:24), Andrew Krestchmar (2:26), Bryan Perry (2:28). Eric Blyth (2:35), and Matt Baran (2:36).  If these freshmen keep improving their speed, those 1600 PRs will continue to drop.

1000 meter run - All of the 4 x 800 guys came back in this one for a workout.  Bollman again competed hard, taking the crown against his relay mates in a time of 3:00.

400 meter dash - Omar and Phil tried their hand in the open 400, and both were just over 60 seconds.  Phil attacked really hard while Omar closed to nearly nail him at the tape.  You've gotta love having the speed of these soccer guys in our distance crew.

1600 meter run - The metric mile is always the signature event for us at this meet.  I was supposed to divide our guys between 5:00 and below, 5:00-5:40, and 5:40 and above.  Well, I'm proud to say we had no one for the 3rd heat, entered 10 guys in the fast heat, and put another 6 in the middle heat.  In the varsity, Smoody was trying to run an IPTT qualifier on this small track, and he succeeded in doing that, cruising to an easy 4:30.1 win to improve on his 4:37 lifetime PR.  He split 2:13-2:17 in winning by 13 seconds over impressive Hoffman freshman Matt Perez (or is it Josh?  I get the two confused).  Behind Smoodle, OB and Eddie ran much smarter to nail Reynoso and Ducore at the line.  OB ran right on his lifetime best in 4:47.9 while Eddie dropped from 4:57 a week ago to 4:48.  Watch out for fast Eddie later this season and in the fall!

Behind the three sophomores, we got great runs from our senior 800 meter guys and Reynoso.  Ulises snuck in for 3rd amongst our guys in 4:48 and was followed by Ducore (4:49), Holbach (4:53), Barsella (4:55), and freshman Tom Laskowske (4:56.1).  What a race for Tommy the Tiger!  He went out in his 800 meter PR and hung on with a 2:30 to record his first official sub-5:00 performance.  Vlad Novikov also ran 5:02.2 to come near 5:00 in his first 1600 of the year.  Kevin LeClair went out hard after that 5:00 barrier, but ended up with a season and indoor best of 5:09.

In the middle section, Kwak and Lewis Conley continued to show their improvement by running personal bests of 5:11 and 5:16.  Jacob Starcevich and Mike Murphy continued to show their improvement with runs of 5:21 and 5:29 while Hussam and Colish both inched toward that team barrier of 5:30, finishing in 5:32 and 5:37.  For Colish, that was a 17 second best from his first indoor meet of the season.

300 meter dash - Mookie Williams set a F/S school record in this one by running 38.1 and our sprinters delivered a bunch of good performances, including T. Fig (38.8), JT Bobbitt (39.3), Telly Halloran (39.3), and our very own Terrence Thigpen, who managed a 40.0 despite falling completely on his face at the start.  Don't worry T-squared, we'll get after it again on Friday night.  Keep your head up.

4 x 400 meter relays - In the John Nalley Memorial Distance Relays, Palatine again managed to go 1st through 7th place among heated competition solely against ourselves.  The winning team was Ulises Reynoso, Eddie Lopez, Lewis Conley, and Tom Laskowske.  More importantly, these guys won even after handing off five times.  We had the three normal handoffs as well as Eddie handing off to Lewis a lap early and getting it back from Lewis only to hand off again after he ran another lap.  They were just that good last night.  Congrats, boys!

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 as the 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!

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.

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.