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

Monday, September 18, 2006 - Varsity Wins at Peoria

For the third time in four years, the boys varsity won the prestigious Peoria Notre Dame Invite (full results).  This year's edition was an exciting race which saw the Pirates win in a squeaker 101-102 over MSL rival Schaumburg.  Both teams defeated the consensus #2 team in the state Sandburg, who placed third with 121 points (although they did hold out one of their best guys).  Naperville North was fourth with 133 while Lincoln-Way East was fifth with 147.  Conference rival Hersey placed sixth with 241 points. 

The boys and girls are back in action this weekend at the Palatine Invite.  State number one York will be in town to do battle with us, Carl Sandburg, St. Charles North, and a host of other great teams.  It should be another phenomenal edition of the Meet of Champions!  Come out and volunteer or just to watch.  The races start at 9:00 am with the varsity girls at 10:20 and the varsity boys at 10:50.

Mileage and Results Updates - I updated the miles for Week 5 as well as the Season Mileage Progression.  The results for each of the races are linked in the Results section.  Picture Gallery updates will come in the next couple of days.  If anyone has any pictures, e-mail them to me at cquick@d211.org or quick2324@comcast.net. 

Varsity Boys - Early Aggression Leads to Victory

Our race goal on Saturday had everything to do with controlled aggression.  I wanted a controlled but fast first 800 and then an aggressive attack until the two mile mark.  We executed the race plan perfectly, and we ended up hanging on to win.  The win was actually a bonus because I was so happy with how we approached the competition and how well we executed our team race.  If we continue to execute like this, great things will happen in the near future.

The weather on Saturday was much hotter than the previous couple editions of this meet, but that had little impact on the individual race.  Hersey's Kevin Havel dualed Griff Graves (Tom Graves' son) from Abingdon, Virginia throughout the early stages.  He then asserted himself to run to an impressive victory in 14:32.  Mike Spain from Schaumburg also looked tough, and he finished third in 14:43.  Behind those three, our top two more than held their own.  Sagar recorded a 14:53 to lower his Detweiller PR by 17 seconds, and Smoody ran 14:57 to nearly equal his All-State 14:52 run from last November.  Sagar placed 4th while Smoo was 7th.  I loved their splits - Sagar 4:43, 9:44 and Smoody 4:43, 9:47.

Behind them, our pack of three fed off each other and ran perfectly through the two mile.  A resurgent Kevin O'Brien continued to reassert himself back in the middle of our lineup.  He, Dettloff, and Eddie came through the 1600 in 4:54-4:55, and they all hit the two mile in 10:15.  OB hung on best to finish in 15:34 while Dettloff kept it together enough to record a huge PR in 15:39.  Eddie faded to a 5:35 last mile, but he still ran a 46 second course PR to finish in 15:50.  Alex Mourousias (16:13) and Ulises Reynoso (16:26) filled the 6th and 7th spots.

Frosh-Soph Boys - Young Guns Place Fourth in Large Field

OUr frosh-soph team placed 4th out of 52 teams on Saturday with a team total of 190 points.  The place was nice, but we were easily out-distanced by Lyons (38), York (99), and Naperville North (111).  Our front running sophomores will have to do much better in the next four weeks for us to begin to challenge these other tough programs.

Tom Laskowske ran as our top runner, finishing 19th in a time of 17:00.  Our other front-runner, Vlad Novikov, had a weak race and finished as our fourth man in 52nd place.  Neither improved on their time from last year, and we will need both to pick it up in the next couple of weeks.

The rest of our team demonstrated tremendous improvement from the previous year, and our current freshmen showed that they will contribute both this season and in the future.  Sophomores Juan Perez (28th, 17:17), Adam Bethke (40th. 17:35), Justin Olson (66th, 17:51), Colin Morlock (76th, 17:56), Luke Kierys (95th, 18:07), Jacob Starcevich (167th, 19:01), and Eric Colish (192nd, 19:22)  all improved tremendously from their freshman efforts.  Morlock, Olson, Perez, Starcevich, and Colish were all over 20:00 in this race last year.

Our freshmen had a great race despite our #1 guy, Mike Grobner, failing to run his best because he was really sick.  Jeff Larson stepped in to grab the 5th man spot in 17:42 and Alec Bollman was right on his tail in 17:48.  After them Nat Pearson (18:24), Mike Abram (18:29), Matt Cannon (18:33), and Brian Sund (18:47) all showed great promise with runs under 19:00.  The other freshmen who qualified for the trip gained some great experience and learned what a big time cross country meet is like.

Junior Varsity - Tight Pack Leads Palatine to Third Place Finish

Last, but not least, I come to our JV warriors.  They don't give team trophies or even team scores for these type of things so the above picture is an homage to our third place finish at Peoria.  Lyons Township and Naperville North beat us, but or guys ran well behind the front-running efforts of total newcomer John Weatherton.  The team loves this guy, and he ran a 16:51 after only four weeks of practice to place 11th overall.  We then packed it up right behind him with Paul Kwak (16th), Matt Anderson (18th), Kevin LeClair (28th), and Lewis Conley (29th).  Brian Cepuran broke 18:00 for the first time on a three mile course while Terrence Thigpen almost did the same (18:01).  I was also very proud of Tim Anderson who ran 19:30 to break 20:00 for the first time on a legitimate three mile course.  Way to go boys!  I am always proud of your efforts.

Friday, September 8, 2006 - Fremd Dual Results, Hinsdale Splits

We opened our MSL West dual meet season last night with a 16-45 victory over Fremd.  The frosh-soph also had a great race, winning 17-46. We do not have an invitational this weekend so that allowed us to run aggressively in our first race of the year at Deer Grove East.  The team had a great time, and a ton of guys set Deer Grove bests.  On the girls side, Palatine narrowly beat Fremd 28-29 behind a 2-3-5-6 finish.  The girls also narrowly won the open race.  Thank you to all of the parents and fans who came out last night.  We hope to see you at the Palatine Invite and our other dual meets.

Monday, September 4, 2006 - Boys Varsity Wins at Hinsdale

The boys and girls cross country teams enjoyed another successful Saturday at the Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invitational.  As usual, both teams were factors in all of the races.  The program placed 1st in the varsity, 2nd in the sophomore, and 3rd in the freshmen.  The girls finished 2nd in the varsity and 1st in the open.  All of the results are linked in our Results section.

Boys Varsity - Patel and Smoody Lead Boys to Narrow Victory

Boys Sophomore - Pirate Pack Places Second

Boys Freshmen - Boys Place Third in a Great Showing