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

Monday, September 24, 2007 - Pirates Win the Palatine Invite

I will have a ton of updates concerning the Palatine Invite as the week goes on, but I do not have a ton of time yet so you have to take some brief updates.  We won the boys varsity race for the first time ever (finally), and we placed 4th in the freshmen, 9th in the sophomore, and 2nd in the junior varsity.  I had a great time as always and enjoyed seeing our boys run well and all of our alumni coming back to see the team and each other.

History Updates - I updated all of the pages associated with the Palatine Invite and the All-Time lists for our course at Deer Grove.  The varsity race was the fastest in the seven year history of our meet at this course, and there were 14 new times put on the top 50 list.  Check out the All-Time Top 50, the Palatine career bests, the Palatine individual bests, and the Palatine F/S bests.  Also, all of the history pages for the invite have been updated with individual and team champions.  Check those out on our History page.

Mileage Update - I updated the Miles for Week 6.

Picture Updates - I put up a picture gallery of the Palatine Invite.  The photos are courtesy of Marcin Zuberek and Joe Schweikert.

Sunday, September 15 - Results PND Invite, Schaumburg Dual

This week was the start of a tough two week stretch for all of our boys.  On Wednesday, we ran Schaumburg in our yearly dual, which is always a tough fight.  We usually need to win it to have a chance at the MSL West regular season title.  On Saturday, we ran at the prestigious Peoria Notre Dame Invite against 64 other varsity teams.  This week we race Conant in our Thursday dual and then have the Palatine Invite on Saturday.  Overall, we did well, putting our full team together for the first time on the varsity level to win our dual 21-39 and to place second to Naperville North in Peoria.  We ran well in both races from top to bottom.  Everyone from fastest to slowest is bringing a ton of energy right now, and it is making this a really special team environment.  I speak for all the coaches when I say that we are having a blast coaching these guys each and every day.

Above: The smallest team in the state wins a big trophy at PND.

Palatine Invite Updates - The Palatine Invite will be held on Saturday, September 22 at Deer Grove East.  All parents or friends of the program are encouraged to come out and work or just to support your teams.  New parents to the team should volunteer to help and become part of a truly special event.  There will be nearly 2000 athletes in action and a similar number of spectators.  If you want to help, e-mail me at cquick@d211.org.

Picture Updates - I put together a gallery of photos from Peoria that come courtesy of my new camera and the photographic triumvirate of Marcin Zuberek, Jeff Larson, and Mark Long.  You will notice that most of the photos are of the F/S race (thank you Marcin).  The other two guys need to work on their photography skills, but managed a couple of decent shots.  Thanks guys! 

Mileage Updates - Miles for Week 5 have been posted.  I also posted the 2007 Mileage Progression finally.  Check out your work load.

History Updates - I updated a ton of our lists with recent runs.  Smoody put a time on the Top 50 DG East list, a ton of guys moved up on the Career List at DG East, four or five times were added to the Top 50 Palatine F/S Bests at DG East, and three of our varsity guys made it onto the Top 50 times list at Detweiller (Eddie was close at 51st).  Check out how you guys are rewriting school history.

Peoria Notre Dame Invite - Varsity Places a Strong Second

Varsity Boys - Pirates Turn in an All-Time Great Performance

Our goals for the varsity race were simple: run a great two miles and win the team race.  We did the first and almost accomplished the second.  Naperville North edged us 106-110 for the team title, but I could not have been prouder of how our guys ran the race.  They competed hard for each other and ran with great determination.  All athletes but Mat Smoody established new PRs on the course, and Mat's consolation prize was that he ran the fastest time ever by a PHS athlete at the Peoria Notre Dame Invite.  Mat eclipsed the 14:41 Steve Finley ran the year that he won the state title, and posted the #8 time in PHS history on the course.

We always use this trip to simulate the state trip and to work on the fine points of running at Detweiller.  Our guys ran a responsible first half, built to quick but controlled first miles, and put themselves in a position to win deep into the race.  We had three guys go through two miles under 10:00 - Smoody (9:35), OB (9:56), and Chano (9:58).  Eddie hit the mark at 10:05, and I'm not sure of the other three because Colish was not at the right mark.  We held onto the team lead until the last 400 meters when a couple of Naperville North guys nabbed enough team points in the kick to take the team title. 

Still, we ran a solid team race that shows that we have the potential to be a great team this season.  We ran a 48 second split to our #5 man off of a 14:37 from Smoody, and our 1-7 split was a stellar 63 seconds.  Kwak ran 15:40 to blow away his PR, and he defeated every #5 man in the field except for Naperville North's.  Ammo beat every #5 guy with his PR finish of 15:30.  This depth will help us all season long in close races.  OB ran well to finish in 15:02, but will need to close in on other #2 men on the best teams in the state.  Eddie Lopez closed his gap on OB from an average of 25 seconds a meet down to 13 seconds with his stellar 15:15 run.  The other obvious improvement outside of our time drops is the inclusion of our sophomores as the #3 and #5 men on the team.  Bollman dropped from 17:48 last year to 15:25 this year, and Chano ran a stunning 15:05 Detweiller debut.  If both can continue to improve as the season goes along, we will be that much tougher to beat.  When that 2-5 gap gets down to 15 seconds or less in a big meet, we will be a really dangerous force.

Check out the year-to-year progressions of our varsity seniors.  Both Kwak and Eddie demonstrate that you sometime have to be the fool who thinks something is gold even when it does not look so shiny. 

JV Boys - PHS Juniors Provide Total Domination

I'm not sure that I have ever been prouder of a group of young men.  The guys on my JV team are unique in that most of them have little shot of making the top 7 this year, but all of them dedicated themselves absolutely to the team this summer.  These guys know that they are the team of the future, and the juniors really delivered a dominating performance.  Check it out: Morlock (2nd, 16:07), Kierys (3rd, 16:14), Perez (5th, 16:17), Bethke (6th, 16:19), Baran (8th, 16:23), and Novikov (9th, 16:24).  We put six juniors in the top 9 and Laskowske didn't even run in this meet.  I remember back in 2002 when Lyons Township took the top six places in the JV race when they had a stellar varsity team.  The next year three of those guys ran top 7 on a trophy team.  Give it up for the team of the future!

Behind them, Lewis Conley (16:35), Justin Olson (16:44), Eric Blyth (16:45), Jacob Starcevich (17:25), Marcin Zuberek (18:06), Tim Anderson (18:25), Matt Wiggen (18:30), and Eric Rodriguez (18:35) all delivered personal best efforts.  Every single one of our athletes placed in the top half of the race.

As for how the race materialized, it was pretty simple.  Our guys blasted the first mile and held eight of the top 10 places at the 1 1/2 mile mark.  At one point we were in positions 2-8 in the race.  A couple guys got in there to break us up, but our boys showed that equal doses of courage and high mileage can produce championship efforts.  Can you believe that Morlock ran 16:07?  Or that Baran ran 16:23?  Unbelievable.  Matt Baran ran over 23 minutes here as a freshmen.  I am just so proud.

F/S Boys - Youngsters Place 9th Amid Tough Competition

With Chano and Alec up on varsity and Larson still nursing his leg injury, the task was a tough one for our frosh-soph team.  We still placed 9th out of 40 teams or so, but our boys lacked the fire that they needed to place well in such an imposing invite.  We ran tentative early, especially since many of our freshmen were in their first three mile race, and tried to play catch-up.  That plan failed as our top guys got caught up in traffic and couldn't make up enough ground.

Still, all of our F/S team ran course PRs.  Laskowske and Bethke both broke 17:00 to place in the 50s, and Reuben, Lucas, Sund, Tirth, Smith, McCauley, and Grobner all broke 17:30.  This is a deep showing for our team, but it will take some time for our depth guys to turn into the front-runners we need.  Our young guys gained valuable experience in how to compete hard in a tough race, and I know that they will do better this weekend at the Palatine Invite.  Comparisons for guys from last year:

Schaumburg Dual - Pirates Win 21-39

Varsity Boys - Sophomores Give Varsity a Huge Lift

The excitement in the air was palpable going into this meet for a couple of good reasons.  Firstly, we ran our full varsity lineup together for the first time all season.  Secondly, the meet was a reprise of an absolute classic race conducted last October.  We narrowly nipped Schaumburg by one point 27-28 to win the MSL West, but they came back and beat us when it mattered most at the state meet, seizing a third place trophy.  The Saxons lost more to graduation than us, but had placed 2nd to powerful Naperville North the week before at the Lake Park Invite.  On to the race...

Our plan was to make this a fast race from the start, and Mat Smoody ensured that by going out in a sickening pace of 4:36 for the first mile.  This fast early run affected him a bit in the middle of his race, but it had the effect of charging everyone out to fast first miles.  We threw our entire varsity by in less than 5:00, and only Rutz and Lesiewicz went with that pace.  Rutz showed his improved form from a year ago by dropping OB and Chano in the back loop, but this hard move past the mile by that group of three dropped sophomore Pat Lesiewicz.  Pat kicked valiantly but the top five went 1) PHS - 2) SHS - 3) PHS - 4) PHS - 5)SHS.

After that top five battle, our back guys took care of business in a big way.  Lopez, Ammo, Bollman, and Kwak placed 6-7-8-10 to preserve a big 21-39 win.  It is always a big deal to get a win over a top-notch Schaumburg program, but we learned last year that Schaumburg is able to absorb losses along the way and still win the war in the long run.  This rivalry will continue on throughout the MSL meet in October I am sure. 

F/S Boys - Pirate Depth Keys a 22-39 Victory

Our depth was the story in this one.  Schaumburg had one super-soph up on varsity and super-frosh Travis Morrison sitting out with an Achilles injury.  We had Chano and Alec up and Larson sitting out with his fast improving calf injury.  Schaumburg second tough freshman Prizzy took the overall win, but our guys ran great, taking 18 of the top 21 spots.  I was so proud of our boys.  A.J. and Erik ran 13:41 to move well up the all-time F/S list at PHS, and Justin Smith and McCauley also broke under 14:00 for the first time.

The key story of this race was that every F/S guy but three ran a season best on our course.  Reuben Frey nearly broke 14:00 for the first time, and I know that Kuerschner and Kwak were under 15:00 for the first time.  We just dropped a ton of time and enjoyed a nice team win.

Saturday, September 8 - Results of "The Palatine"

I'll be out for much of today, but I did post results of today's Palatine workout along with updated lists for All-Time, Career, Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshmen.  We ran four of the top 10 times ever today in the best team performance in Pirate history.  Mat Smoody ran the All-Time best time of 28:43 (sorry Jorge but that 5/7/2003 one was cut short).  Eddie Lopez ran 28:51 to match Sagar's time from last year, Chano Bernardo sliced nearly 70 seconds from Morris' sophomore best time (the year Glenn won the MSL Conference and placed 12th at state), and Kevin O'Brien ran 29:23 to move into the #10 spot all-time.  Wow!

Behind those front four, there were massive improvements all over.  Check out this table of drops from previous Palatine bests:

Barrington Dual - Pirates Depth Shows in 18-45 Win

Varsity Boys - Our plan going into this one was to work on the first mile in preparation for our two big invites coming up - Peoria Notre Dame and the Palatine Invite.  We hoped that this would shock Barrington a bit and allow some of our depth guys to jump inside their top five.  It worked to perfection.  Smoody took it out in 4:45 and threw many into early oxygen debt (including some of our guys).  OB hit the mile in 4:56 followed closely by Ammo and Eddie.

As the race progressed, our guys showed their strength, and I was pleased with their ability to go out hard and maintain pace through the second mile.  Eddie showed great momentum as he surged up to try and catch Barrington star Matt Barnes, and the rest of our guys set after Barrington's #2 man, Dan Quarfoot.  Dan certainly did not have his best race, but our guys really showed their strength.  Kwak, Perez, and Bethke all caught him to give us seven of the top eight spots.  Behind that front seven, Kierys and Baran then came in before BHS's third man.  What a showcase of our depth and hard work!  I was very proud.  Times were slow due to the 90 degree heat, but Smoody did happen to put a 15:17 up on the last five spots of the all-time list.  OB's 15:27 nearly missed making the list. 

Paul Kwak continued to impress, nearly catching Alex (who went out a bit too hard).  Matt Baran continued his phenomenal season by finishing 11th overall, missing the Herald box score in the last 400 meters as Kierys kicked by him.  Adam Bethke also had a great race to run 16:21 and put himself in top 7 contention.

Sunday, September 2 - Hinsdale, Wheeling Dual Results

The boys had another successful season opener Saturday at the Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invite against top notch competition.  The boys varsity finished 2nd to pre-season #1 Neuqua Valley by a score of 30-80 while our sophomores placed 4th and our freshmen won the whole thing!  Our soph race was marred by the absence of Chano Bernardo (missed the bus) and Jeff Larson (injured ankle), but the meet was a solid opener that also showed us that we have much work to do if we want to climb into state trophy contention by the end of the year.

Hinsdale Hornet Red-Devil Invite - Boys Place Top 4 in All Races

This opening invite is always a stern test, and we ran into some great teams this Saturday as we opened our invite season at Katherine Legge Park.  The boys ran well, but not incredibly while finishing second to an unbelievably tough Neuqua Valley squad.  After watching Chris Derrick and Co. run, I believe them to be one of the nation's best teams, and Chris may be a contender for the Foot Locker national crown.  His 14:30 effort broke Jon Popejoy's course record by 16 seconds and was a joy to watch as a fan of the sport.  Neuqua's team performance on Saturday surely ratifies many people's beliefs that they are currently the best team in the state.

Despite a rather wide 30-80 margin of defeat, we ran well and will continue to improve as our juniors gain experience and we move some key sophomores into the mix.  Any time that you break 16:00 at Legge to start the season, you are doing pretty well.  Our top four all broke 16:00, and our 5th and 6th men ran 16:20.  Our depth is starting to come along nicely.  Mat Smoody led the way with a 15:06 clocking that earned him 3rd place overall behind Derrick (14:30) and returning All-Stater Jim Riddle (14:56).  Riddle snagged Smoo last year at this meet by about the same margin so we hope to turn the tables on him again come November.

Behind Smoody, Kevin O'Brien ran a great race, clocking a 15:30 to place himself 8th overall.  Kevin battled with runners who will be looking to grab All-State honors later this year so he was in the right spot.  Alex and Eddie ran 15:56 and 15:59 to place 19th and 21st respectively.  More importantly, they executed a very aggressive race plan to the two mile, getting out in 10:24 and 10:25.  This will pay dividends as the races get faster in the next couple of weeks.  Paul Kwak (31st, 16:20) and Juan Perez (30th, 16:20) both ran great races as they continue to contend for spots within the top seven.

After our first six, a number of our juniors ran well to establish nice bests on the rolling hills of Katherine Legge Park.  Bethke (16:48) and Morlock (16:51) broke 17:00 while Kierys (17:00), Baran (17:08), Novikov (17:10), and Lewis Conley (17:19)  were close.  These guys will be the core of an outstanding JV team as the season moves along.  Here are the improvements from a year ago at this meet:

Wheeling Dual Results - Pirates Roll on Both Levels

It was nice to finally get a race in after a summer of tough training and dedication.  We had 10-15 guys run in excess of 800 miles, and it was time to see that work in action.  On varsity, we rolled to a 16-42 win behind a 1-4 sweep from our senior captains - Smoody, OB, Mourousias, and Lopez.  On F/S, we went 1-10 in a stellar team effort.  Our three sophomores studs, Chano Bernardo (12:46), Alec Bollman (13:01), and Jeff Larson (13:02), ran under under the best time ever by a Palatine runner.  Chano's 12:46 broke our PHS record by 17 seconds.