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Monday, October 8, 2007 - St. Charles, Marathon Updates

Well, I will be home for most of the day convalescing after yesterday's brutal edition of the Chicago Marathon, so I thought I'd update the site.  We had a sweet momentum-building trio of wins at the St. Charles Best Invite on Saturday, and the team is looking forward now to the MSL Conference meet to be held this coming Saturday at Deer Grove East.  If I get time today, I will also give you a mile-by-mile recap of my long marathon journey.

Picture Update - I added a new gallery of pictures from the St. Charles meet.

St. Charles Best Invite - The P-Ville Pack Sweeps All Levels

Boys Varsity - Smoody, O'Brien Lead the Way with a 1-2 Finish

We wanted a mentally easy sharpening race on Saturday and that is exactly what we got.  The weather was hot, and we challenged the boys to get the job done without the entire varsity unit intact.  Chano and Alec ran down to help the sophomores, and Eddie Lopez had to sit out the race.  Thus, we added top JV guys Juan Perez, Adam Bethke, and Colin Morlock to the existing varsity mix of Smoody, OB, Ammo, and Kwak with hopes of pulling off a win.  It worked.

Smoody and OB ran side by side through the two mile mark and then kicked in to take the top two in 15:24 and 15:34.  Alex captained the back end pack through the mile and then made a huge surge to get up into fourth place.  He ended up dropping to sixth in the kick, but ran well.  Can you guys believe that Kwak placed top 10 in a varsity invite?  He got 9th, and neither Miller nor myself are shocked by the things he can do anymore.  Kwak is legit.  Juan closed the door for us in 14th place while Adam Bethke and Colin Morlock placed 24th and 25th in their first ever varsity invite action.  The final score was 32-50.  Not bad for keeping the sophs down and running without Eddie Lopez.

Boys F/S - Bernardo and Bollman Throttle the Field

The story in the F/S race was much the same as the varsity.  Our top two runners dominated from the gun, and the rest of our guys packed it up and ran well as a unit.  Chano and Alec had not run down on F/S for awhile, and they had to be shocked at how far above that level they are now.  Chano beat third place by a minute (running easily), and Alex was another 41 seconds up on third.  Behind them, Erik Bethke continued his stellar freshman season with a fifth place and was quickly followed in by Justin Smith (9th), Brian Sund (16th), and Reuben Frey (18th).  Mike Grobner placed 27th in his return from injury.  We won the team title 33-51 over Sandburg.

Boys Open - Pirates Take 7 of the Top 10

Our goal was to take the top 10 places in this race, but various things conspired against us.  A couple guys sitting out with injuries caused a reshuffling of our lineups, and Evanston's guy who placed second ran a strong race (and is their normal #4 on varsity according to their coach).  Still, we 7 of the top 10 and 10 of the top 14.  They don't give a team title (as usual in these JV affairs), but we would have scored 22 points.

Luke Kierys claimed the overall win with a time of 16:39.  That would have put him right in front of Morlock and Bethke in the varsity race.  Eric Blyth continued his great rookie season with a third place finish.  Then came the P-Ville Pack - Matt Baran, Lewis Conley, Steve Repking, Lucas Roehrborn, and Tirth Patel finished in places 5-9.  Just outside of the top 10, we placed Sean McCauley (11th), Matt Baumgartner (13th), and Jacob Starcevich (14th).  I don't have time to recap every guy, but it suffices to say that there was some strong Palatine domination going on in this race.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007 - 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...

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...

Palatine Invite - Varsity Boys Win 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.

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.

Peoria Notre Dame Invite - Varsity Places a Strong Second

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.