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

Sunday, November 5 - Pirates Place 6th at State with Two All-Staters

Our season did not end quite how we would have liked on Saturday, but our boys ran hard and placed a solid 6th in the IHSA State meet.  On a fast day when it took "great" to win a trophy, we just ran good.  Six of our seven athletes ran Detweiller course bests, but it simply was not enough.  The individual highlights certainly had to be Mat Smoody and Sagar Patel grabbing All-State honors.  Mat placed 12th in 14:35 while Sagar was 14th in 14:41.  Both of these guys came to play and deserved the accolades that they earned.

Behind them, we ran okay, but it simply was not good enough to win a trophy on a day that saw the fastest times since the 1970s.  A staggering 40 guys broke 15:00, and Matt Dettloff's 15:12 was only good for 66th place.  Kevin O'Brien returned from injury to place 95th in 15:25 while Alex Mourousias rounded out our scoring in 108th with a 15:31.  Eddie Lopez (15:51) and Tom Laskowske (16:11) were our 6th and 7th runners.  It was obvious that OB was not at his sharpest after sitting out much of two weeks with a suspect IT band, but I was proud of his toughness and applaud his strong mental approach to dealing with a really untimely injury.  I know it affected his race, but all of our 3-4-5 runners needed to do better.

York won with 60 points, and they were followed by St. Charles North (165), Schaumburg (170), Sandburg (184), and Waubonsie Valley (196).  We had beaten all of these teams but York and Waubonsie (whom we hadn't faced) at previous points in the season so that makes the loss sting a bit more.  I told the boys back in June that either us or Schaumburg was going to win a trophy, but not both.  We beat them four times by small margins, but they beat us when it mattered most and that is a credit to them.  Still, we had a great year, and many teams would love to be 6th in the state.  We won the MSL West with an undefeated record, won the MSL Conference for the fourth straight year, and grabbed only the fourth IHSA Sectional title in school history.  Along the way we also won the Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invite, the Peoria Notre Dame Invite, and the Crete-Monee Pow Wow.  We had five athletes place All-MSL, three place All-Regional, three place All-Sectional, and two place All-State.  The success of this program has been firmly re-established, and we hope to keep it that way in the years to come.  Keep running boys, and keep those big dreams alive!

History Updates - I updated the list of Detweiller state times, the top 50 Detweiller best times, the All-State and Team honor roll, and the Invitational Records.  Mat Smoody's 14:35 ties him for 4th in school history all-time with state champion Bob Watson, and is only 5 seconds behind Tom Johnson's 14:30, which is the best junior time ever.  Sagar's 14:41 puts him at 10th all-time.  Our combined record this season in all varsity competitions (excluding St. Charles where the varsity did not run) was 192-7.  In the last four seasons, we have gone 201-4 (2003), 224-2 (2004), 207-4 (2005), and 192-7 (2006) for a four year total of 824-17.  What a staggering testament to the persistent hard work of our athletes.

I'll post more later about the race itself...

Sunday, October 29 - Palatine Boys and Girls Win Sectional Titles

In another banner day for both programs, the Palatine boys and girls ran to IHSA Sectional championships.  Both races were close with the girls winning 94-99 over Barrington and the boys winning 69-77 over Schaumburg.  What a great validation of all the hard work we do together during the season and over the summer!  Both teams have now advanced to the IHSA State meet next Saturday, November 4.  There will once again by a student fan bus, and all of our parents and fans are invited to come and see both teams fight it out for state trophies.  Over the last three years, our programs combined have won five state trophies, and we hope to continue that success on Saturday.

Mileage and Picture Updates - I created a new photo gallery with pictures taken by Mr. Day, and I also updated the mileage for Week 10 and Week 11 along with the Mileage Progression.  Many thanks go out to photographer extraordinare Mr. Day for his fine work at the Sectional.

Above: We celebrate our 3rd IHSA Sectional title in the last four years after squeaking out a 69-77 win over Schaumburg.

Below: The Palatine girls pose with their sectional plaque after winning 94-99 over MSL West rival Barrington.

Girls Sectional Race - Pirate Pack Gets the Job Done

I was very proud of our young ladies on Saturday as they showed that they are building momentum at the right time of year.  All year long it has been difficult to get our entire top four to fire on the same day, but the girls sure ran well.  The foursome of Colleen Standridge, Michelle Brunk, Emma Maslanka, and Tory Wright hooked up early and ran a really smart first 800 meters.  That group continued to move up throughout the race and catch people.

Barrington has been the favorite around here all season long, but their top girls may have gone out too hard in the wind, and that opened the door for our girls to run them down.  Colleen made a big move coming through the mile and started catching the top group.  Behind her, Emma was locked in a fierce battle with a Hersey runner while Brunk floated along just behind.  Tory made some really aggressive moves in the middle mile before fading a bit, but I was proud how all of them finished.  Both Tory and Michelle needed big kicks to close on or pass Barrington girls, and they got the job done when it mattered most.  We put no one in the top 10, but Standridge, Brunk, and Maslanka all were between 10-20 with Wright in the mid-20s.

The other story of our season has been our search for a fifth runner, and Coach Currins proved once again that he is a master of getting the most out of his roster.  He came up with two fifth runners, Diana Cruz and Olivia Gregorio, who managed to sneak in ahead of Barrington's #5.  The improvement of both of these ladies has been phenomenal, and their continued solid racing could give us a chance at a trophy next weekend.  Barrington can and will surely run better under the leadership of Coach Debbie Revolta, and the girls will also face strong competition from the likes of Hinsdale Central, defending champs Naperville North, Lake Park, and York.  Good luck at state ladies!

Boys Sectional Race - Pirate Team Comes Through

Above: The boys kick off our quest for a fourth straight berth at the state meet.

We faced a number of challenges after a weak race in last week's IHSA Regional, and the boys surely proved that they still have a lot of fight left within them.  Junior Eddie Lopez returned to the lineup after a week long  suspension for grades, and he proved to be the determining factor in the race.  His absence in the Regional left a huge hole in the lineup, but his 31st place finish put us over the top in the team race against Schaumburg.  We still sat out All-Conference runner Kevin O'Brien, but it was just a precautionary move.  OB warmed up and did sprints from the box with his spikes on, but I promptly sat him down to save his leg from any trauma previous to the state meet.  He will surely be in the lineup on Saturday for the state meet, and our team proved its strength by going out and winning the Sectional without him.

We broke from Box 6 and proceeded to get out a shade too slow.  This cost us quite a bit because Sagar Patel got caught up in traffic and was knocked down at the 300 meter mark.  He got up quickly, but this cost him dearly in the individual race.  The top guys shot really hard just past the 800 meter mark when he was trying to get back into his normal running position.  The result was that he ended up in a 9th place void from the 1/2 mile on.  Sagar will rebound and do better next week.

Mat Smoody got out much better than Sagar, and he hooked up in a running group with Robbie Eckardt of Stevenson and Jon Roberts from Schaumburg.  Smoo hung tough through the two mile, but said that he got a nasty side cramp and couldn't make any moves in the last mile.  He ended up 7th.  Behind him, Sagar held his spot, and Matt Dettloff moved well just past the mile to establish himself in 10th place.  He then held that spot with little challenge for the rest of the race.

The top guys did not run amazing, but they did their jobs by sticking three numbers in the top ten.  The rest of the race was up to Ammo and Eddie.  Those two have run together all year, and I told them before the race that we would win if Eddie was within five seconds of Alex.  They ended up three seconds apart and did a wonderful job of working together in the race.  They also got out too slow, but made a really strong move to gap Schaumburg's 4th and 5th guys.  At the 2 1/4 mark we had the race in the bag if we could finish.  They were 20th and 22nd at the half mile to go and gave up a bunch of spots, but their courageous positioning allowed them to finish in 26th and 31st overall.  Behind them, Tom Laskowske had his best race of the season to finish as the top sixth man in 53rd, and Juan Perez gained invaluable experience while finishing 98th. 

Above: Sagar, Detty, and Smoo pose with Prospect's David Anczyk after all four finished in the top 10 at the Schaumburg Sectional.

Monday, October 23 - Pirates Advance to Sectionals

Above: We don't have a Regional plaque to celebrate, but I just got the MSL pictures and it was a ton of fun to celebrate that big win with the entire team.  Way to go boys!

We did not have our best race of the year at the IHSA Regional at Wheeling, and the team will be out to rectify that weak showing as the full squad returns to action on Saturday in the IHSA Sectional.  The team we ran performed poorly and a young and talented Hersey squad nipped us 40-44 to hand us only our second loss of the season.  The race was not pretty, but we made the right decisions about who to run.  Kevin O'Brien, our normal #3-#4 man, was held out due to a minor injury while Eddie Lopez, our #5-#6 man, sat out the meet due to a team suspension.  It felt bad to lose, but this will help us regain our focus heading into the last two weeks.  I railed pretty bad on the guys after the race because our junky week of practice confirmed my instinct - that we were not going to be ready to get the job done on Saturday.

Still, we put three guys on the All-Regional team.  The trio of Mat Smoody (3rd), Sagar Patel (4th), and Matt Dettloff (5th) all placed in the top five while Alex Mourousias had another solid race to finish in 9th.  Our problem was our lack of depth.  Tom Laskowske placed 23rd in his first significant varsity competition ever, but it was not nearly enough and cost us way too many team points.  Considering that OB has beaten Mourousias in every race this year, I feel that we would have had victory well in hand had I risked it and ran him.  Hopefully playing it safe will pay off in the next two weekends.  Eddie also would have helped a great deal, but this loss was exactly the wakeup call we needed to get our focus up for the next two weeks.  As usual, the doubters are out and it will be just how we like it heading into the big ones - us against the world.

Sunday, October 15 - Palatine Wins the MSL for 4th Year in a Row

My great week as a father and coach ended with the boys varsity winning our fourth consecutive MSL title.  This now gives us five titles in school history to go along with our 19th MSL division title.  The boys ran well, but really demonstrated that our consistent race is good enough to win in big meets.  Our 1-5 split was 45 seconds, and both our #3 and #4 were within 28 seconds of our #1 runner.  Those tightened up splits bode well for this team in the big meets to come.  We scored 42 points to outdistance Schaumburg (56), Hersey (102), Prospect (113), and Hoffman Estates (134).  Our five teams are in the driver's seat with respect to getting out of the Schaumburg Sectional. 

Above: The Palatine varsity and coaches celebrate our 4th straight MSL title. 
Check out those faces on Sagar and Eddie.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 - Meet Madeline Grace Quick

I did my best coaching of the season last night to help my wife get through labor and give birth to our new daughter, Madeline Grace Quick.  Maddie Grace was born last night at 11:19 pm, and both the baby and mom are doing well and resting comfortably at St. Alexius.  It was an amazing experience, and I am so happy that both of them are healthy.  The baby is beautiful and has nice dark hair and pretty blue eyes.  Wish us luck as we begin our journey as parents!

Above: The Quick family pose together after the birth of Madeline Grace.

Below: Baby Quick takes a well-earned rest after her tough run toward the light.

Monday, October 9, 2006 - Picture and Baby Updates

Saturday, October 7, 2007 - St. Charles and Crete Updates

We had another eventful weekend at St. Charles as our boys ran well and had a great time.  I continue to be on baby watch heading into the MSL Conference week so I am not sure if I will see everyone there or not.  Any way you cut it, it is shaping up to be a great week, and many of our guys are rounding into peak form at the right time of year.  Our JV guys took 3rd today in the varsity section of the St. Charles Best Invite while our F/S ran to a thrilling 51-56 win over Carl Sandburg.  Lastly, but certainly not least, our men in the open race came out with a domination victory, placing 14 guys in the top 20 to win with 19 points.  Our varsity sat out today, per our usual schedule, but they will return to action next weekend at the MSL Conference meet and will be looking for a 4th consecutive conference title.  We hope to see everyone at Busse next Saturday.

Above: The varsity boys and the coaches pose with the 1st place Crete Monee trophy.

Crete-Monee Pow Wow - Pirates Run to 3rd Straight Title

It perhaps says something about the diminished stature of this meet when we win it, and I don't bother to even post about it.  The meet is atrophying badly, mostly due to course changes and some inept management decisions.  The course was new again this year due to the construction of a new high school on the site of the old course.  My complaint is less about the new woods loop, and more about the 45 degree turns sprinkled along the course, especially the one at the finish.  The course is an accident waiting to happen for a good team, and this will be our final year at the Crete-Monee Pow Wow.

The good news was that we became the first team ever to win the Pow Wow in three straight seasons.  Despite the meet's diminshed stature, that is still a good thing.  We scored 20 points to outdistance state-ranked teams New Trier and Lincolnway East.  We also placed five guys in the top 11 of the JV open and would have won that had it been scored.  Matt Dettloff won Flight Four to be our only flight winner, but his glory was robbed by an insidious plot that ended up with co-captain and supposed friend Kevin LeClair getting announced with the win at the awards ceremony.  LeClair's sick plot also got the names switched in the official results, and he will probably go down in history as the Flight 4 winner for 2006.  And you guys are friends...  Afer Detty's great race, we had three other guys place second (Smoody in Flight 2, Eddie in Flight 5, and Juan in Flight 7).  Sagar Patel placed 4th in a tough Championship Flight while OB was 3rd in Flight 3 and Ulises was 6th in Flight 6.

Friday, September 29, 2006 - Palatine Wins MSL West

Thursday night, the boys won the MSL West title for the 5th consecutive year after squeaking out a thrilling 27-28 dual meet win over Schaumburg.  This was certainly the best dual meet that I have ever been a part of, and it was wonderful to see two evenly matched and hungry teams go head to head like that.  It took the best race ever by a Palatine team at Deer Grove East to win, and that is a tribute both to our kids and the quality of competition.  We put four runners under 15:00 for only the second time ever, and Mat Smoody (14:23) and Sagar Patel (14:24) posted the 3rd and 4th best Palatine times ever behind only Steve Finley.

The win moves our dual meet winning streak to 31 in a row.  We have not lost in MSL dual meet action since Schaumburg beat us in 2001.  I know the alumni are proud of this record, and it was thrilling to see our guys pull it out for them and each other.  Check out the updates in our History section.  I updated the All-Time best list, the Palatine best list and career list, and the Palatine F/S best list as well as the Division Champions page.  Spain's time was the #7 ever run while Smoody and Sagar put times in at 12th and 15th.

Sunday, September 24, 2006 - Pirates Take Second at Palatine

For the fourth year in a row, the Palatine boys varsity team placed second in the Palatine Invite to Elmhurst York (full results).  The boys ran well, though, narrowly downing current state powers Carl Sandburg (108 pts) and St. Charles North (115 pts) as well as five or six other ranked teams.  The 49-104 loss ends our undefeated season, but our nice run indicates that we are part of an elite group of teams who could win a state trophy at year's end.  Five of our seven guys ran course personal bests in the sloppy conditions with Sagar Patel (14:34, 6th place) and Mat Smoody (14:36, 7th place) finishing in the top ten of an elite field. 

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. 

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.