Recent News and Updates - E-mail
cquick@d211.org
Tuesday, October 2 - Mileage, Picture,
Workout Updates
I have a ton of small updates as we prepare
for the St. Charles Best Invite and the MSL Conference. See below...
Workout Updates - We ran two of our
traditional workouts in this last week. The first was our now annual
5 x Mile @
threshold pace where everyone runs at their Daniels T pace for four
miles before kicking in strongly on the last rep. Our guys showed that
we are strong and fit because nearly everyone could have run much faster.
With the rest only at a lap jog, the boys showed that they are strong and
aerobically fit.
Tonight, we ran our annual 3 x 1600 workout.
Unlike the previous workout, the guys get full rest, and we ask them to
attack each rep all out. Mat Smoody and Kevin O'Brien delivered a
finish for the ages. Not only did they run the two fastest workouts
ever (bettering Steve Finley's 13:54 clocking - a 4:38 avg), but they both
closed the final rep in under 4:30. OB powered by Smoo at the 200
meter to go mark, before Mat turned it on to finish in 4:28. OB broke
the line at 4:29. What an epic dual! Smoody totaled 13:34 (4:31
avg) while OB totaled 13:46 (4:35 avg).
Behind them, we had four other guys run under
5:00 for all of the reps. We pulled Chano with tightness in his quad
after a 4:42 opener, but our 4-7 guys really got the job done. Ammo
ran 14:36 (4:52 avg), Bollman ran 14:40 (4:53 avg - only 6 seconds off of
Smoody's soph time), and Eddie Lo finished in 14:41 (4:54 avg). Juan
Perez ran 14:54 overall for an average of 4:58. Check the
full
results here.
Picture Updates
- There is a new photo gallery from the Hoffman Estates, Fremd triangular
courtesy of Marcin Zuberek. Check it out.
Mileage Updates - I updated the
Week 7 miles and
the Mileage
Progression.
History Updates - I updated the
MSL Division Title list
to reflect the titles won by Hersey and ourselves. We have now reached
20 MSL Division titles, the most of any boys team in conference history.
I also updated our
conference dual records. Our wins over Hoffman Estates and Fremd
put us at 101 total wins in the MSL West.
Hoffman Estates Dual - Boys Clinch MSL
West Title
Varsity Boys - 1-2-3 Finish Allows 37th
Straight Dual Win
Story coming...
F/S Boys - Youngsters Finish Off
Undefeated Dual Season
Story coming...
Wednesday, September 26, 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.
Palatine Invite - Varsity Boys Win for
First Time in School History
Boys Varsity - Varsity Beats York for
First Time in School History
Saturday's race was surely an exciting one
for all of us. In Illinois, excellence has been defined by the program
run by Joe Newton at Elmhurst York. Until Saturday, we had never
beaten York in a varsity competition, placing 2nd in the state to them five
times. Obviously, the true test of things will come on November 3 in
the state meet. York will be much better by then, but I hope that we
are too. Beating York is meaningless in the large scheme of things.
Attaining the same spirit of greatness that they possess is the big thing,
and I hope that we took a step in the right direction by winning this
Invite. They have not lost since the 2002 Sectional meet so I am glad
it was us to break the streak.
As for the race itself, it went out under
control with a ton of runners bunched up at the mile in a relatively
pedestrian 4:50-4:51. Our top three were all in contact with the lead
pack, and Alex and Eddie were tagging along right near the back of it.
I expected it to shoot right at the mile, but no one took the pace. It
kept moving at an even effort into the back 1000 loop. I yelled at
Smoody to take it and push the pace, but he just stayed with. Achtien
from York and Havel from Hersey started the final push just prior to the two
mile, and that finally broke up the pack. Smoody tried to go with, but
was quickly dropped.
Behind him, our guys were running
beautifully. OB and Chano hooked up again and were running with great
fire in the Twilight Zone. Eddie and Alex had both made moves to gap
York's 4th and 5th men, and both Bollman and Kwak were ahead of their #5 at
the two mile. Going down the hill past the Larson Turn, we looked to
have the race in hand. Our trouble, though, is in the finish, and I
had told Miller before the race that Thursday's tough race at Conant might
not climb on our backs until the last 800. It certainly did.
At the 400 to go mark, Achtien and Havel were
locked in a side by side dual to the finish. I yelled at both of them
to kick hard because each had a shot at Sean Macnamara's 14:00 course
record. Havel took control for a second just past the 300 to guy, but
I heard that Achtien had another gear in the last 100 meters of the race.
Their times of 14:02 and 14:04 are the #2 and #4 times on our course.
I got a chance to talk with Tom Achtien after the meet, and he was a real
humble and classy guy who sported a Finley Attack shirt to get his award!
Tom, if you read this, give me a shout out, and we'll see if you can hook me
up with a shirt.
As for our guys, things started to get really
tight in the last 400. Sulkin and Smoody were running side by side in
a really close race. Smoody nipped him right at the finish line to set
a new best of 14:13 and swing two points our way. That ended up being
the margin of victory. Sulkin's 14:14 is the fastest junior time ever
on our course, and he looks for all intents and purposes to be an early
favorite for next year's state title. What a tough runner!
The big story for us in the last mile of the
race was the continued emergence of Chano Bernardo. Kevin O'Brien held
his 11th place finish from the two mile in, but Chano just had sensational
late-race acceleration to come across a big gap and get a couple guys on the
way to an 8th place finish of 14:31. This is the #2 sophomore time
ever, behind only Kevin Havel's 14:26 from his sophomore year. This is
surely excellent company to keep.
Our 4-7 guys ran like warriors through the
middle of the race, but Alex and Eddie tied up really bad in the last 400
meters. York's #5 lit up a big kick to catch some guys, and Eddie lost
seven places all at once about 200 meters from the line. Alex gave
away some places at well. A big win turned into a nail-biter really
quick. These seniors run with absolute courage, but we will have to
find 400 more meters if we hope to contend in November. On the way in,
we did get a great kick from Bollman, who came back in the last 15 meters to
get York's #5 man. Kwak held on in front of that #5 until 200 to go,
but had to be satisfied with a massive 15:15 PR.
In the end, we won 77-79 over York with
conference foe Hersey third with 118 or so. The exciting thing is that
we did not unload our best race of the season to win. We can certainly
run much better in the back end and will have to in order to grab a state
trophy.
Boys Sophomore - 17 Second Pack Leads to
9th Place Finish
This group has had a tough task all year with
the best two guys promoted to varsity and Larson getting hurt. They
ran with a lot of early fire, but suffered due to the lack of a
front-runner. Steve Repking could have been that guy, but a rather
irrational first 200 meters had him out way too fast. He suffered to
hang on throughout the race, but finish in the mid-40s as our #1 runner.
We packed it up with a 17 second split from there, but our lack of low
numbers consigned us to a 9th place finish. We still had four guys
break 17:00 in their first shot at the longer PHS course though. Big
improvements were seen by Repking, Sean McCauley, and Ryan Wojdyla, who has
turned into a contributor in recent weeks. Good job guys, and we will
continue to work on becoming the team we want to be when F/S MSL rolls
around.
Boys Freshmen - Tight Pack Leads to a 4th
Place Finish
Our freshmen learned a valuable lesson in
placing 4th in this race. I wanted them to be aggressive, but they got
over-excited and used all of that energy in the first 300-400 meters of the
race. Erik Bethke went out in first at the 200 meter marked and had to
endure a painful lesson for the remainder of the race. Still, we ran
hard and packed it up nicely. Our top five guys all received top 25
medals and were under 14:00: A.J., Erik, Reuben, Bomber, and Lucas all
grabbed hardware. Sam Kwak also showed that he is coming around with a
14:02 clocking, and Will Allen and Zach Gates both ran excellent races to
finish in the top 50. To top it off, Jake, Zach Benzo, and Kelen all
worked together throughout to run near 15:00. Kuerschner also dropped
down into the 14:40s to set a new PR. Overall, these guys ran with
great intensity, but will have to learn that intelligence and discipline are
necessary when racing at a championship level.
Conant Dual - Pirates Win 21-38 to Clinch
Share of MSL West
Boys Varsity - Pirate Depth Keys a Hard
Fought Victory
We knew coming into the season that Conant
would be fired up to race in our dual meet. We had to travel down to
run their version of the course at Busse, and their top varsity guys had
phenomenal track seasons to get them primed for CC. We certainly
feared their speed and ensured that it would be a true CC race by taking the
pace out nice and hard. Smoody blasted the first mile and pulled the
race out while our 2-7 guys packed it up and sat on the Conant pack of four.
Our hope was that we could draw them into early aggression and then wear
them out in the middle of the race.
Smoody's win was a foregone conclusion from
the first 400 meters, but Chano, OB, and Jeffrey Thode from Conant hooked up
to race. Thode simply followed both of our guys and used his superior
speed to blow them out in the last 400 meters. I shut Smoody down at
the 1 1/2 mile mark so the final margin of one second over Thode was a bit
deceiving. The only other Conant guy to stay with the surge at the
mile was Tyler Fuchs. He hung on gamely for awhile, but Ammo and Eddie
wore him down in the middle. Only a game, late charge by their senior,
Hinckley, kept us from having five in the top six. Still, we placed
our top seven in the first 10 spots of the race and put together a solid,
workman-like victory.
Boys Freshmen-Sophomore - Bethke Nabs
First CC Win
Our emphasis in this race was to run
aggressively in the first mile. Our F/S need to learn how to mix it up
at the front of a race. The results were impressive. Erik Bethke
grabbed his first CC win ever to lead a 1-2-3 sweep with teammates A.J.
Laskowske and Steve Repking. Conant took 4th and we then filled up the
rest of the top 10 and 18 of the top 21 spots. Our depth has carried
us in these meets throughout the season, but we need a front-runner or two
to emerge if we are going to be factors come MSL time. At least our
depth has been enough to run pretty easily through the MSL West, but I am
afraid there are a couple of teams with big firepower over in the East.
We'll see in a couple of weeks.
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.
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.
Schaumburg Dual - Pirates Win 21-39
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.
nts 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.
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.
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.
