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

Tuesday, March 28, 2007 - Proviso, Manderson Results

We had an eventful week leading up to our Spring Break.  Not only did we run great and finish 3rd as a team at the Proviso Classic, but we also had a ton of fun at our 4th annual Manderson Invite.  Pictures of the Manderson and the Train Trip to Chicago will follow shortly after I develop the film and scan in the pictures.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007 - Manderson Classic Preview

I updated the performance lists to reflect times run at the Glenbrook South triangular.  Congratulations go out to Mat Smoody, who broke two school indoor records last night.  Mat actually tied Jon Cermak's 1000 meter record of 2:34.4, and he (along with Tim Williams) also broke the 300 meter record, running 37.2 to Mookie's 37.3.

Manderson IV is upon us tomorrow afternoon.  Anyone wishing to catch this annual celebration of CC running can catch the race at 5:00 pm at Deer Grove East.  Without further ado...here is the 2007 Manderson Preview.

CK Waffers (Captains Alex Mourousias and Sagar Patel)
This team’s captains are a bit like a situation comedy on television. You throw a Greek and an Indian together and absolute hilarity ensues. They figured that we were only scoring four so only four were needed to win. Cepuran gives them a solid mileage base and a ton of heart, but his recent travails with a nasty strain of diphtheria mixed with Grade III measles make him a bit of a liability. Baran and Blyth also battled sickness in the last week, making me think these guys were gathering the Infirmary All-Stars. Which Baran will show up? The one who passed out and fell out of his desk in science class freshman year? Or the one who ran 5:13 at Proviso? Sterner is a tough kid, but the man blew a booger on the fence the other day that looked like a Martian alien from the movies. Starcevich will have to be the solidifier of this crew, but the odds say they have a better chance of winning a race to the nearest hospital bed than the to the title of Manderson IV. Odds: 12-1.

Beach Boys (Captains Kevin O’Brien, Matt Dettloff, and Chris Perry)
These three white dudes would blind anyone around with their pale reflections if they ever found their way to a beach, and it is looking more like sloppy jungle warfare than beach fiesta time for this edition of the Manderson. These guys obviously don’t believe in experience, going with three freshies and two sophs, but some of these boys are as hot as a day in the sun. Larson, Morlock, and Kierys went 5:07, 5:10, 5:12 on Tuesday night, and our man Tirth “Mini-Me” Patel has put in the time over the winter that will allow him to shine in the bright lights of the Manderson. The X factor is Jacob “The 4th Generation” McPherson who will impress if he just remembers that Kretschmar is dating his sister. Still, these boys are a little short in the tooth. It might be time for these beach dudes to break out the swim trunks, grab their beach towels, and get on their spring break plane. The baggage check should be easy since it won’t include a Manderson trophy. Odds: 10-1.

Waldo’s Hoes (Captains Terrence Thigpen, John Weatherton, Omar Herrera, and Kevin LeClair)
So an old joke goes something like this: what do a black dude, a short basketball player, a Mexican soccer stud, and a French gimp with an inflated knee have in common? The ability to pick out a team that wears stripes and thinks it can get girls? Have you guys met Lewis? I think he’s a pimp, but I’m not sure he should be one of Terrence’s hoes. It’s true that Lew Dog is on fire, but I’m not sure that the Wojdyla brothers will be so easy to find in this crowd of runners. The real guess here is Chano. Can he be found long enough to strap on a uniform and make himself known? Sund is a key pickup, but his knees are aching so bad lately that the only place where you would find him is in an old person’s knee replacement facility. Team with the worst collective form: check. Team with a captain who has dreadlocks: check. Brother power: check. The only problem is that I don’t think you’ll be able to find them anywhere near the awards podium. Odds: 5:1.

Finoody Knights Part II (Captains Mat Smoody, Eddie Lopez, and Mike Grobner)
Well, at least this team will have the cutest and coolest new styles to get them through the race. If we were trying to win three dates to the prom, these captains might have some luck, but picking a winner? Finoody Part I was a disaster, and its studly co-founder is now studying botany, co-eds, Chinese linguistics, and spike removal technology somewhere in a field in Virginia. Kwak is a solid pick up top if he manages to outlast the debilitating sickness which threatened his cello-playing life last weekend, but the perplexing pick is the founder himself. Did these guys think we were racing to the end of a pole vault runway? At least they have Kretschmar, who is the flux capacitor of Manderson running. You just stick his anger into a small bottle, have everyone inhale prior to race time, and then wind all of them up. Mike Murphy and Drew Shaler are wild cards here. Murph is slowly creeping by people, and Shaler figures to run his best race ever on the 2.5 mile course tomorrow. Oh wait, it’s his first race. Odds: 7-1.

Army of Juan (Captains Adam Bethke, Justin Olson, Vlad Novikov, and Juan Perez)
With a combined IQ of 643, a future ACT average of 31.1, and an average GPA of 2.1 (thanks Vlad), these newb captains decided to make a great decision: pick a defending champ. The old Coach may be a faded replica of a former not so great tried really hard version of his not-so-champion self, but he promises to give it the old college try (even in training flats to, you know, level the field). Early reports from eyewitnesses outside the Quick house report that at 10:28 the baby is sleeping peacefully. The sweet thing about Juan’s army of hombres is that the new and improved BP is plotting, rather gracefully, to usurp the Perry empire and topple his brother from his throne of dominance. Never underestimate the motivating power of a sibling rivalry. La arma secreta para estos boys es la duo de second generaciones of Alec Bollman and Mack Murphy. Their secret basketball training has been kept under wraps, but oh yes, it will be utilized when necessary. Don’t forget that Tim “I Survived the Storm” Anderson has a new lease on life after his tumultuous run and will be ready to bleed for the Army of Juan. Bring it on. Odds: 5:2.

Monday, March 19, 2007 - MSL Results, Mileage Updates

The Jim Nagel MSL Invite no longer resembles a true conference meet since only 6 of the 12 schools send their varsity and two others send only their JV.  Still, we placed a strong second to Barrington while leaving a great deal of our points on the bench.  Our four top distance guys ran only the 4 x 800, and our sprinters and jumpers compensated by scoring a ton of points.  I think we lost to Barrington 125-113.

Mileage Updates - I updated the Miles for Week 7 and the Mileage Progression for the entire season.

Sunday, March 11, 2007 - Proviso Quad, F/S MSL Results

I will put up some more complete results and analysis later, but I just wanted to let you know that I updated the 2007 Performance Lists with all recent performances.

Mileage Updates - I updated Week 4, Week 5, and Week 6 miles and added the 2007 Mileage Progression.  Check your mileage so far and see how consistently you are training.

Highlights from last weekend's meets:

Monday, March 4, 2007 - Recent Results Updated

I apologize again for the lack of recent updates, but I am just swamped with teaching, coaching, and fatherhood duties at the moment.  I want to update week 4 and 5 miles as well as the progression in the next day or two.  The Performance Lists for 2007 are also up to date to include the Bolingbrook dual meet and the York and Maine East Invites.  We run at Proviso this Friday night and then have the F/S MSL Conference meet on Saturday.  Times should continue to drop as we start to enter a more competitive phase of our season.

Random Highlights from the last two weeks:

Sunday, December 17 - Final Cross Country Updates

State Meet Recap - Palatine Pirates Place 6th at 2006 State Finals

The boys were relaxed heading into the state meet after winning the Schaumburg Sectional the week before without the services of junior All-Conference runner Kevin O'Brien.  Kevin had struggled for two weeks with an IT band problem, but he was determined to run at state and be at his best.  His presence certainly gave us a lift, and it was good to have him back in the lineup.  I worried that the time off had ruined his sharp edge, but OB is a tough one, and I knew that he would try his best. 

We broke from Box 29, which put us right in the thick of things.  You can see from the picture above that we were right next to York and three boxes away from St. Charles North.  Evan Jager, the eventual champion, and Kevin Havel, the runner-up, were also nearby.  Our plan was to get out at the half in the times that we had discussed.  Smoody and Sagar targeted a 2:15 split while the rest of the guys dialed in on the 2:18-2:22 range.  Times were blazing at the 800.  All of our guys came through fast and still seemed to be buried.  Smoody hit the 800 in 2:12 and all five of our guys were through at or under 2:20.

The first mile of the race was totally smoking.  Smoody and Sagar hit the mile in 4:40 and 4:41, Dettloff hit 4:49, OB was 4:50, Alex and Eddie were 4:56, and Tommy was 5:08.  We had trained all year to run these splits and still be ready to maintain for the rest of the race.  The problem this year was that other teams were ready as well.  At the 1 1/2 mark, I knew that we were running fast, but we were not in great position.  I felt that gnawing feeling that a CC coach only gets when there is a gap too big in the lineup.  Sagar went by the 1 1/2 in 9th place with Smoody in tow around 14th, but the gap to Dettloff felt big, and it was.  OB was ahead of Mourousias, but he was nowhere near his normal running position with Dettloff.  The last three years, I had felt an amazing feeling at that point of the race, but this year I was filled with trepidation.  We had gone out fast, and our guys were still buried.

At the two mile mark, our splits were still great.  Smoody (9:42), Sagar (9:43), Dettloff (9:59), OB (10:09), and Alex (10:11) were in solid position to bring home a trophy.  The problem was that we hadn't finished well all year in the final kick, and OB was not in his normal running position.  We squeaked out wins all year with OB and Dettloff running together and our 5th man doing his best to stay within 45-60 seconds of our #1 guy.  At state we ran with two fifth men due to OB's injury. 

At the 2 1/2 mark, Smoody had passed Sagar and was in 10th place, looking like he could charge into the top 7-8.  I hoped that he could kick, but in all of Smoody's best CC races he has little left at the end.  In the picture above, you can see him kicking with Deerfield's Noble Schermerhorn in a finishing battle for 11th place.  Mat would end up 12th in a remarkable time of 14:35, the 4th best in Palatine history.  Sagar hung on for dear life after his 9:43 opening two miles, and he managed to keep 14th place and just hold off a ton of kicking opponents.  With two All-State finishes in the bag, I thought we might be home free.  The problem was that all of the contenders also had at least two great guys up top: York (8, 9 ,15), St. Charles North (26, 28), Schaumburg (17,23), and Neuqua Valley (3, 20).  In essence, our front runners earned us no points against the three teams that would eventually trophy.

The battle thus went down to the depth guys on the top teams, and my heart sunk as I saw streams of guys going by all of our 3-4-5 runners.  I am convinced that we lost a trophy from the 600 meter mark into the finish.  Gobs of guys were passing Dettloff and Mourousias, and OB had a lot of trouble in the last mile and didn't look as sharp as usual.  I wanted to believe that we had trophied, but I knew that York had beaten us and I thought that Sandburg had kicked past us heading into the finish.  When I saw Coach Macnider from Schaumburg, I got more down because he was at the finish line and knew that his kids had run great.  All year we had beaten Schaumburg, but they always came back on us and made it close with great kicks.  Those great kicks won them a trophy in the last 400 meters of the race.  When coupled with the great run by St. Charles North and the solid pack race of Waubonsie Valley, that put us 6th in the state. 

Our top five placed 12th (14:35), 14th (14:41), 66th (15:12), 98th (15:24), and 108th (15:31).  In most years those times would win a trophy, but Illinois is just too tough now.  Six of my seven guys ran PRs, but we got smoked in the last 800 by a bunch of teams that we had beaten during the year.  I am incredibly proud of this team, and not disappointed with our finish.  The only problem that lingers in my head is that we beat Schaumburg four times, and they got third in the state.  This finish is obviously to their credit, but it hurts a bit more when you know that a team who won a trophy was beatable.  We just didn't get it done when it mattered most. 

I'll remember the 2006 season as a transitional one when we tried to move on from the athletes who established the distance running renaissance at Palatine.  Glenn Morris was at the core of this rebirth, and it was a challenge to move on without him and prove that we could be champions still.  In the end, we won the MSL West, the MSL, and the Sectional, placed 6th in the State, and had two athletes earn
All-State honors.  Most programs would take that any day of the week, and our goal in the future is to continue to give ourselves opportunities to win the big one.  It is tough to win a state trophy in Illinois, and our athletes are dedicated to keeping the program up to the expectations set by former and recent athletes.  We will be great again next year with five athletes returning, and the state will be ultra-competitive.  Let's hope that we can keep training hard and being good people.  The results and the fun will then take care of themselves.

Above: The Quick family poses after the 2006 IHSA State finals.  Meredith is conspicuously absent because she was home taking care of Madeline Grace, who was born just three weeks prior to the race.