Recent News and Updates - E-mail
cquick@d211.org
Monday, May 28, 2007 - Mat Smoody Wins
the 800 Meter State Title
Above: Smoody powers into the last 100
meters as Sam Megli from Sterling tries in vain to catch him. Smoody
won it in 1:52.57 and did not seem seriously challenged.
IHSA State Meet Results - Smoody Wins it
All
I have known that Mat Smoody should win an
800 meter state title since he fired past Prospect's John Jenkins to win the
MSL 800 meter title in 1:55.8 as a freshman. Last year proved to be
disappointing for both of us as he struggled with a foot injury for most of
the season and often ran out-of-control. Getting boxed in and
finishing 13th last year at state left both of us with a bad taste. We
wanted to make sure we learned from the past.
Luckily, Mat is a really coachable athlete
and a hard worker who has the gift of extraordinary speed. It really
is not that hard to coach an athlete like him, and he deserves all the
credit for making his dream happen. He listened, ran a ton of miles to
get strong and place 12th in CC, and then carried it over into an undefeated
junior year in the 800. In fact, he only lost twice in any open race
all season - in the 1600 to Kevin Havel at the Proviso West Indoor meet and
again in the 1600 to Evan Jager at the Palatine Relays. He dropped his
PRs down to 48.1 (split), 1:51.8, 4:13.92, and 9:37. To the race...
I have so far found two versions of the race
online, but this one shot by Bob
Geiger and in QuickTime format is the best I've found yet. Smoo broke
from 3-3 after running a steady 1:54 to qualify second from Friday's
prelims. Both his heat and the heat before his became nerve-wracking
affairs when the meet was postponed for 75 minutes due to lightning in the
area of O'Brien Field. Mat really controlled the pace in the prelim,
coming through in 56 high and just making sure that no one got in front of
him and boxed him in. Nick Kuczwara from York and Yosef Tewolde from
Elgin challenged for a bit, but Smoody put his head down at 80 meters and
took off to win rather easily.
In the final, Smoo broke well, but got
squeezed a bit at 130 meters or so. He just shot through and this
minor tactical adjustment changed the race for him. He got in control
and was able to execute our race plan, which was to take the lead at the 300
meter mark and force the pace. His controlled speed to the 600
dwindled the field, and there was never a serious challenge after that.
He had way more in him in the last 150 and just stepped away from the entire
field from 100 meters in. He told me that he had serious reserves of
energy left for anyone who would have challenged him. Anyway,
congratulations to Mat! My only regret this season is that he never
was even challenged off of a hard pace in the 800 all season. We will
decide soon on a post-season race schedule. Right now Mat is looking
at running the mile in the Midwest Distance Gala and will have to decide
later whether he wants to run the 800 qualifier that he has earned into the
Nike Outdoor National meet.
Other State Meet Results - Tim Williams
Places 6th in Long Jump
Long Jump - Mookie Williams came into
the state meet with the best jump in any Sectional, but he was not able to
replicate that feat. He jumped 22' 5" on the first day, but was not
able to improve on the second day. One jumper did pass him, and he
ended up placing sixth. I am pretty sure his six jump series went like
this: 21', 22' 0", 22'5", scratch, 21'+, scratch.
Triple Jump - Due to the weather,
Mookie ended up triple jumping at the exact same time he was supposed to be
running the 4 x 400 relay. He jumped 44' 10 before having to check out
and go run his race. Mookie seemed off his rhythm a bit and was lucky
to place eleventh and advance to the final. However, he did not
improve on his jump from Friday and finished in eleventh, two places out of
an All-State metal. I hope that Mookie takes both of these results as
good, but not great indicators of where he should be. He will have to
become more detail-oriented and attentive to the nuances of competition
before stepping up to the elite level.
1600 meter run - Matt Dettloff ran an
all-time best in the 1600 on Friday, but it was no match for the insanely
fast field. It took sub-4:17 to qualify into the final, and I saw a
4:17.20 that did not make it. The quality of this event is reverting
back to mid-1970s caliber so 4:20 is not going to sniff making the final
anymore. Matt's time would have made the final in a ton of years
throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, but those days are over. Still,
he executed well, splitting 63.7, 2:08.8, 3:14.1, and 4:20.5. His
official time was 4:21.05.
3200 meter run - Sagar once again was
the first person out from the fast feet, and his did his best to race hard
and put a good time out there. His plan was to make a big move in laps
five and six to take the lead, and he did just that right before the 1 1/2
mile mark. He raced hard, but once again his lack of speed cost him as
a couple of guys kicked by him in the last 400 meters. He finished
fifth in his heat and twenty-sixth overall with a finishing time of 9:32.87.
It doesn't mean much in relation to getting a medal, but Sagar did qualify
to state three times and improved his state time each of the last three
years: 9:56.19 (So - 37th), 9:44.28 (Jr - 21st), and 9:32.87 (Sr - 26th).
4 x 400 meter relay - If there was one
disappointing thing for me this weekend, it was our inability to qualify
this relay into the finals on Saturday. The first half of our relay
ran competently if not great, and we had a solid shot at qualifying with a
51.0 leadoff from Terrence Thigpen and a 50.6 leg from Tim Williams.
Tim had us near third place heading into the exchange, but he and Chris
Norman botched the exchange. I don't think Chris looked going through
the zone, and he ran right into a runner who had just handed off. This
cost us big time. We came out of this exchange in sixth. Chris
went out too hard while trying to catch up, and he ended up running a 52.3
split. Smoody was just too far out of it. He split 49.1 trying
vainly to catch up, but you just cannot be a viable relay down at state with
only one sub-50 leg and poor handoffs. We'll have to work on that for
next year. Still, we ran 3:20.0 this year and have 3/4 of that relay
back.
Saturday, May 19, 2007 - Pirates
Advance to State, College Signings
We performed exactly to expectations at the
Palatine Fremd Sectional on Friday night. That means that all of the
people that we expected to qualify got through to the state meet, but we did
not have any of our bubble athletes or relay teams make it. We placed
third as a team behind Elmhurst York and Barrington. We qualified Sagar
Patel in the 3200 run, Mat Smoody in the 800 run, Matt Dettloff in the 1600
run, Tim Williams in the long jump and triple jump, and the quartet of
Terrence Thigpen, Tim Williams, Chris Norman, and Mat Smoody in the 4 x 400
relay. Smoody coasted to an easy-looking 1:53.0 to win the 800, but he
absolutely dropped the hammer in the 4 x 400 to run 48.1, send us to state,
win the race, and deliver the #2 time in school history in 3:20.0.
College Signings - Dettloff to Eastern
Illinois, Patel to Rend Lake
Below: Coach Quick, Sagar Patel, Coach
Nalley, Matt Dettloff, and Coach Miller pose together as we celebrate two
more scholarship athletes getting ready to exit our program.
Sectional Results - Pirates Send Six
Events to IHSA State Meet
I'll recap the state qualifiers first and
then get on to other performances from the meet. Once again, the
Palatine Sectional was a special event to be apart of. Adding York,
Maine South, Lake Park, and Fenton the last two years has only increased the
level of play in what has usually been the toughest sectional in the state.
This year's edition did not disappoint. Nine shot putters made it out.
Ten 3200 runners. A sophomore threw 185' in the discus and a senior
lost throwing 183'. Seven teams made it in the 4 x 800. Seven or
eight milers made it.
3200 meter run - Sagar always runs his
best when he gets out on a fast early pace and fights hard to gap speedier
runners in the sixth and seventh laps. He has qualified the last two
years (without scoring a point in the meet), but has been consigned to the
slow heat. Our goal this time was to charge all out in the seventh lap
and make a bid for top four in the race. The pace went out really hard
- 64 through the 400 and 2:12 through the 800. The second tier pack of
Roberts, Wisser, Spain, and Patel came through at 2:15-2:16 and hit
3:23-3:24 at the 1200. Havel and Achtien had already run away.
Sagar went through the 1600 at 4:35.6 and proceeded to battle really hard.
As usual though, he could not gap the group enough and suffered in the last
300 meters with a lack of leg speed. He ended up seventh at 9:29.2
after getting passed by Steve Sulkin of York in the last 150 meters.
Once again, he just missed out on the fast heat and will have to lay
down the best mark he can in the slower heat.
800 meter run - Smoody expected one
heck of a race from Kuczwara, but it never materialized. Kucz anchored
York's 4 x 800 and looked like he was simply running to qualify. I
know that he dropped his best race of the year last year in the Sectional
(1:52.5 or so), but suffered the next week in the open 800. My guess
is that he contained himself and will come full force to win next week.
Smoody ran a basic and controlled race to finish in 1:53.0 Splits were
26.5, 54.4 (27.9), 1:23.4 (29.0), and 1:53.0 (29.6) for a 54.4-58.6 split
time. I was very pleased with his control and poise and cannot wait to
see what happens when someone else gives him a race into the last 300
meters.
1600 meter run - Matt Dettloff ran
4:22 in the middle of April, and I just felt that he was primed for a
breakout performance. He qualified to state by running 4:22.3, but he
also learned a lot about how to run in traffic. Kevin Havel and York's
Mike Fry gapped the pack just after the 500 meters after taking the first
400 out in a pedestrian 65.6. That slow pace let a ton of guys into
the race, and Dettloff spent much of his energy jockeying for position and
spurting in and out of lane one traffic. I know that he can run
faster, but he did do a good job of getting outside in the last 200 meters
and finishing fourth overall. He has made a ton of progress since last
season, and I am so proud that he qualified and look for him to run even
better next week.
4 x 400 meter relay - I have been
telling the boys that we could run 3:20 since back in the fall. Well
call me prophetic now because we ran exactly 3:20.0 to win the Sectional.
We talked a ton about the 4 x 400 when Terrence, Mookie, Telly, Schweikert,
and Faber came out for cross country to start a fall track group last
season. To see many (but not nearly all) of their aspirations come to
fruition made me proud as a coach. The race panned out exactly as we
planned. Terrence led off for us and put us right in the race.
He ran 51.4 to get us into third at the exchange. We put Tim Williams
second because we knew he could either catch us up or blow open a big lead.
His 49.8 personal best split brought us to the lead, and Chris Norman
battled throughout his leg to hold of Barrington's All-Stater Brian Leseur.
Leseur got by him at 200 meters, but Chris fought hard in the stretch to
keep it really tight and finish in a personal best 50.6 split. It all
came down to three stud anchors - Marino Jozic from Maine West, Nick Magiera
from Barrington, and Smoody. Smoody had run down Leseur at the
Palatine Relays, but Magiera is a totally different competitor. Smoody
stuck close to the two sprinters through the 200, but Magiera threw in a
huge surge to gap him at the 150 mark. Smoody matched that move and
came down the last 100 driving with that 800 meter strength to seal the win
3:20.0 to Barrington's 3:20.3. What a great race! I am sure that
both of these teams want to move on to bigger and better things next week.
Long Jump and Triple Jump - I wish
there was a lot to report here, but Tim Williams only jumped twice.
His first long jump was 23' 6, good for another new school record and for
the longest jump in the state,. He then came out and hit 45' 4" on his
first triple jump. With his qualifying secure, he went on with his
business in the 4 x 400. What a great execution of his events!
