Boys Track Schedule
(home meets bold)
2-15 St. Charles Dual
2-23 Bolingbrook Dual
3-1 York Invite
3-7 Proviso Quad
3-8 F/S MSL Conference
3-15 Varsity MSL Invite
3-18 Glenbrook South Triangular
3-29 Top Times Invite
4-1 Schaumburg, Barrington Triangular
4-8 Hersey, Rolling Meadows Triangular
4-10 Barrington Freshman Invite
4-12 Five Team Invite @ TBD
4-15 Fremd, Wheeling Triangular
4-16 Libertyville F/S Relays
4-18 Wheaton South ABC Meet
4-21 MSL West Division Championship
4-26 75th Annual Palatine Relays
4-29 Hersey F/S Invite
5-2 Prospect, Viator, and Schaumburg JV Meet
5-3 Lisle Invite
5-9 Varsity and F/S MSL Meet @ Buffalo Grove
5-13 Naperville Central F/S ABC Meet
5-16 IHSA Sectional
5-23
5-24		 IHSA State @ Eastern Illinois University

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

Sunday, March 16, 2008 - Pirates Win MSL Indoor Invite

For the first time since I started coaching at Palatine, we won the MSL Jim Nagel Indoor Invite.  It was a bit of a hair-raising affair that came down to the last race, but we managed to win 92-90 over a very game Wheeling team.  Even though we sat out some key contributors that could have helped us out, I was really proud of the men who stepped up and helped us get the win.  No one (except for LaRocca) competed in more than two events.  Hopefully, this meet will help us work on our depth and prime us for a huge outdoor campaign when the competition will be much tougher than it was on Saturday.

Mileage and Performance List Updates - I put up the miles for Week 6 and Week 7 as well as the updated Mileage Progression.  We have run a little bit less than a year ago, but most of that is due to the weather situation and a bit more conservative response on my part to injuries.  Cross your fingers, but we have had no major injuries yet with 45 guys.  Let's keep working hard and staying healthy.  Performance Lists are updated to reflect races run at the MSL Indoor Invite.

Highlights from our MSL Invite victory:

bulletThe 200 meter dash was easily the gut check moment of the meet, especially after we failed to score any big points in the 1600 meter run.  I walked up to Sutton and Norman and told them we had to have a 1-2 finish.  Suttie blazed out of the blocks with aggression and fire in his eyes, and it was over.  Dan clearly had the best day of anyone on our team, finishing 2nd in the 55 dash and winning the 200.  Chris rebounded from a sub-par tactical effort in the 400 to run a great final curve and tie for second.  Those 17 points dug us out of a large deficit and put us in the lead.
bulletOur other big scoring event of the day was the 3200 meter run.  Kevin O'Brien ran a nice 10:07 in his first big race of the year to finish second.  Going out a bit too quick through the 400 hurt him in the second half of the race, but this is faster than OB ran last year and is on the back end of an intense 60 mile week in his return from swimming.  OB's 2nd place fit together with Morlock's 4th place to give us 12 points.  What else can I say about Morlock?  He has run every day but one for the last 450 days or so.  His 10:19 on the 150 meter oval was a 23 second PR and bodes well for his future track and CC goals.  I am so proud of his growth into a varsity level runner.
bulletTim Williams got lighter duty this meet since we only had him participate in both of the jumps.  By not running Mookie and sitting George Faber and Mat Smoody all together, we certainly left some points out there.  Mookie responded well to his jumps only assignment with two wins.  His 45' 5 1/2" in the triple jump set a conference record while his 21' 5" was good enough to win.
bulletIn the 800 meters, we only managed a 6th place finish by Matt Wiggen.  Wigs mixed it up a bit too much early on and ran out of gas while Luke Kierys just never got into the race.  Both of these guys will have to be more of a factor in the future.
bulletAlex Mourousias ran 4:49 in the 1600 to nab 6th place and a crucial team point, but we need more points out of this event in the future.  Paul Kwak placed 9th or 10th in 4:53.
bulletThe 4 x 800 relay team of Adam Bethke, Chano Bernardo, Lewis Conley, and Alec Bollman placed second in 8:48.  Wheeling took the title, and we were a leg off of being truly competitive for the win.  Bollman could have run much harder after getting the baton with a deficit.  He'll need to compete better from behind as he learns to be an effective anchor leg.
bulletI'm not sure if Nick Busch won or placed second in the high jump, but I know he cleared 6' 2" and scored some key points.
bulletOur 4 x 400 relay team of Matt Wiggen, Dan Scwiekert, Luke Kierys, and Diego Cortez won its heat and managed to hang on for a 5th place finish overall.  Fremd nipped Wheeling's time by .1 of a second and pushed them back to third, giving us the team title by the narrowest of margins.  

Sunday, March 9, 2008 - Proviso Quad, F/S MSL Updates

We had a solid two nights of racing this past weekend which showed that we are much improved from last year, but we still have a long season and a lot of work ahead of us.  LT scored more than its share of distance points, and our conference rivals from Prospect looked good in outscoring us in both the 1600 and 3200.  We ran big PRs, but need to score the points when the big meets roll around in May.

Performance List and Mileage Updates - I have been especially negligent about getting the weekly miles up.  Here are the totals for
Week 4, Week 5, and the Mileage Progression.  I will get Week 6 up after I get it all compiled.  The Performance Lists for the 800, 1600, 3200, and 3200 relay have been updated to reflect performances up through F/S MSL.  We are up to 10 guys under 5:00 in the mile, but we are looking for 20 more.  It is an incredibly difficult goal that no Palatine distance crew has ever been able to reach.  We have a lot of guys knocking on the door, though, and our freshmen are really starting to look good.

F/S MSL Conference Invite - Pirates Place Second Overall

This meet has diminished a little bit over the last couple of years as some of our more high profile teams have left for other meets, but 8 of the 12 teams still remained.  The competition was hot in the distance races as usual.  Hersey's Sam Zielke broke the meet record in the 800 with a pretty looking 2:04, and Mark Giannis from Buffalo Grove nearly broke Christian Escareno's 3200 record with a solo 10:07 on the 150 meter track.  Our highlights included:

bulletMykyta Cheshko comes out of basketball on Monday and clears 6' 0" in the high jump by Saturday.  When combined with Nick Busch (6' 5") and Ed Anderson (6' 2"), we will have one heck of a Palatine Relays outfit in the high jump.
bulletAlec Bollman and Erik Bethke ran the superstar distance races of the day.  With both coming off 3200 meter PRs from the night before, I wondered how they would react.  Alec's plan was to follow BG's Tim Marr through the 1000 meter mark and then make a decisive move to try and win the race at that point.  He conserved energy and followed, and then let it loose at the 1000, getting into a spirited dual with one of the Karakalis twins from Rolling Meadows.  Alec was gapped for awhile, but closed furiously to run 4:37 and nearly win at the wire.  His time was only 1.5 seconds off of the meet record and was 8 seconds faster than I have ever had anyone run.  Behind him, Erik Bethke fought hard and moved up consistently to place 4th in a career best 4:56.  The two combined to score 12 points for the team.
bulletThe other huge highlight for me was seeing Shaler and three freshmen place second in the 3200 relay.  Drew led us off into fourth position, and then Lucas Roehrborn (2:19), Erik Kuerschner (2:21), and Sam Kwak (2:16) all ran massive PRs.  More importantly, they competed like madmen and justified their selection to run the race.  All three freshmen seized an opportunity to help their team, and I was incredibly proud.
bulletWe placed 4th and 6th in the 3200 run behind an indoor PR from a resurgent Jeff Larson and a lifetime best from Justin Smith.  I admonished Justin before the race to race with courage and be in the point-scoring group.  He listened, fought hard, and picked up one point.  We only placed second by .5 a point so he definitely helped the team and ran a monster PR (11:04).  Jeff is quickly rounding back into shape after a devastating stress fracture in CC.  He recorded a 10:50 that saw him move up really nice in the second mile to snag some points.  His time was 13 seconds better than last year's indoor PR, and more importantly, he is starting to get some of his confidence and swagger back.
bulletThe 800 meters was disappointing not because our guys ran poorly, but because both men were in non-competitive heats.  Mike Grobner dominated his heat to win in 2:13, but placed 6th overall.  A closer race could have benefited him a great deal.  Sean McCauley also ran well to win, but his 2:31 was well below what he could have run with some competition.

Proviso West Quad - Team Places Second to Lyons Township

Friday night's meet saw a ton of PRs and some nice performances, but the team was overall a bit flat after running and jumping so well down at York the previous weekend.  We didn't run bad, but we just were missing that big spark.  Still, our guys broke two school records - Mookie Williams in the Long Jump (22' 7") and George Faber in the 200 meter hurdles.  Other highlights included:

bulletOur 4 x 800 relay was trying to qualify to the IPTT meet, but we fell just short in running 8:22.  I hoped for some good competition with traditional 3200 relay powers Lyons Township and Prospect in the meet, but both of those teams ran qualifying times in the seven days previous to our Quad.  We were at 4:05 at halfway thanks to Matt Wiggen (2:08) and Mat Smoody (1:57), but our back guys Chano Bernardo (2:07) and Luke Kierys (2:08) needed some competition to get it done.  Our speed is not at the point where our guys outside of Smoody can just ran fast all alone.
bulletThe 3200 meter run yielded a number of solid performances.  LT's sophomore start Robbie Keeler won the event in 9:44 while Prospect's Mike Styzek ran an IPTT qualifier in 9:47.  Our guys knew that pace was a bit quick, and our triumvirate of Alec Bollman (10:11), Adam Bethke (10:13), and Alex Mourousias (10:24) ran well off of a 5:02 opening split.  Alex ran decent after a week off due to sickness, and those are two huge lifetime PRs for Bollman and Bethke.  Behind them, a number of F/S guys ran well, including freshman Erik Bethke (10:39), Sean McCauley (11:12), Tirth Patel (11:23), and Jacob McPherson (11:33).  I really liked the aggressiveness of the latter three, who paid dearly in the second mile but recorded massive PRs in the end.
bulletThe 600 meter dash was in some ways the most impressive race of the night.  Telly Halloran ran a relaxed-looking 1:32 and nearly stole the race in the last 5 meters.  Diego Cortez showed a lot of aggressiveness and tenacity as well in running a nice 1:34.  Telly also recorded a 6.6 in the 55 meter dash to win that event.
bulletOur 4 x 200 relay team was hoping to qualify to IPTT, but we only ran 1:34.5 and seemed a bit off.  Hopefully, we get another shot at that race at Lewis in two weeks.
bulletThe 1600 meter run yielded a ton of PRs, but was also disappointing in that Smoody ran his worst race in the last two years.  He went out a tad fast (62) and was running off of a 1:57 from earlier in the night, but he did not meet the challenge at 1200 meters from three opponents and was a bit embarrassed  afterwards.  Even state champs have their bad races, and I know he will bounce back and remember that you have to work hard every race.  The team ran a ton of PRs behind him, including Chano Bernardo (4:38), Colin Morlock (4:47), Mike Grobner (4:55 indoor PR), Eric Blyth (5:01), Jeff Larson (5:03 indoor PR), Drew Shaler (5:04), Justin Smith (5:11), Lucas Roehrborn (5:12), Eric Rodriguez (5:20), Erich Kuerschner (5:21), Ryan Wojdyla (5:22), Zach Benzo (5:47), and Jake Bogdanowicz (5:55).  I think the team as a whole was most excited about Bog breaking 6:00 for the first time - I saw a ton of high fives all around after his great last lap kick.
bulletMookie Williams and Ed Anderson both set indoor bests in the long jump.  Mookie had only one legal jump, but 22' 7" was enough to qualify him to IPTT, set the school record, and jump up near the best in the state.  Ed jumped 20' 4" to continue his improvement.  He could be a huge scorer for us later in the year if he can get out around 21' 0".

Saturday, March 1, 2008 - York and Bolingbrook Updates

We just returned from the York Invite, and everybody is pretty pumped about our team effort today.  We placed second overall behind York and started to show a lot of the parts that will make this team a tough one to beat come outdoors.  All told, our boys set four York Field House records today en route to scoring 107 points.  York won the meet with 171 points.

All hail the Faculty King and Queen for Turnabout. Sheehan looks pretty good in that wee little crown.  What a lift it is to have the most popular, good-looking, and king-like individual helping us out.  Hail to the King!

York Invite Meet Results - Smoody, Busch Set School Records

We had a sweet meet from beginning to end, and nearly everyone ran or jumped career indoor bests.  Highlights included:

bulletMat Smoody established a new school, facility, and meet record by running 1:55.0 for 800 meters.  He looked in control and patient, and I was really pleased with his effort.  Seeing that we are still in our strength phase with little speed under anyone's legs, that is a really stellar time.  Splits were 27.9 - 57.0 (29.1) - 1:26.4 (29.4) - 1:54.9 (28.5).  Hersey's Kevin Havel ran a strong second with a nice-looking 1:57.6.  Luke Kierys came back from an early week illness to set a new indoor best of 2:09.3.
bulletNick Busch and Ed Anderson went 1-2 in the high jump to score us 18 points.  Nick continued his recent hot streak, clearing 6' 5" to break the school, facility, and meet record.  Ed cleared 6' 0" and also helped the cause by long jumping 20' 1" for second place overall.
bulletChano Bernardo ran a powerhouse time in the 3200 meter run, clocking a 9:34.7 to place third and qualify to IPTT.  Chano's run was one of the more impressive performances I have seen by a sophomore, but I can't say that it was not expected.  Monday's session of 6 x 1000 in 3:08-3:12 with two minute rest (in the snow no less) left me thinking that this run was in the offing.  He split 68.5 - 2:21.1 (72.6) - 3:34.6 (73.5) - 4:47.3 (72.7) - 6:00.2 (72.9) - 7:14.2 (74.1) - 8:26.3 (72.1) - 9:34.6 (68.3).  How is that for even splits - 4:47.3 and 4:47.3?  Chano did well to move up gradually, passing the two York guys just before and after the mile, and he got in a really spirited race with Naperville North's Dan Harper.  Kyle Gibson from NN won the race in 9:28.7.
bulletIn the slower heat of the 3200, senior Paul Kwak set a lifetime PR by running 10:24.1.  He split 5:08 and 5:15 and looked good early before lacking speed to finish in the last 800 meters.
bulletMookie Williams had a really busy day, winning the long jump and triple jump despite struggling to get on the board.  His 43' 8" was a facility and meet record in the triple jump.  Mookie also placed fifth in the 55 meters and ran a leg on our winning 4 x 400 (more on that later).
bulletIn the 600, Matt Wiggen continued to show improvement by running 1:31.8 for 8th place.  Mike Grobner also PR'd in the 600 by running 1:37.4.  When Wiggen gets in the right race and learns to pace the early part of these long sprints, he will become a really tough 400-800 meter runner.
bulletThe 1600 meters today was a great opportunity for both Alec Bollman and Adam Bethke to make their marks.  Adam ran a fine race, finishing in 4:43.0 to place third in his heat.  That constitutes a six second career best.  Alec ran 4:42.7 in the fast heat, but looked a bit like a sophomore out of his league in such a fast race.  The first 400 went out in 62 and that dragged Alec out a bit faster than he wanted.  Still, the 4:42 is a four second career best.
bulletGeorge Faber continued to show that he will be a scoring threat in the hurdles for the rest of the season.  He showed great composure in the high hurdles and ran 7.9 to win his first varsity hurdles competition.  He placed third in the lows. 
bulletOur 4 x 200 of Joe Schweikert, Chris Norman, Dan Sutton, and Telly Halloran won in a nice time of 1:36.0.  Norman cracked off a sweet 22.9, and Sutton showed that he will be a force to reckon with come outdoor season. 
bulletLast but not least, we qualified to IPTT and set a facility and meet record by winning the 4 x 400 in 3:29.7.  Smoody led off in 51.6, Telly kept a small lead with a 54.0, Norman ran a gutty 52.2, and Tim Williams brought it home in 51.8.  Tim ran a really smart anchor leg, trailing the York runner until the 300 meter mark and then building off the curve and running away in the last 50 meters.  Great job today boys! 

Sunday, February 10 - Mat Smoody Signs with Wisconsin

On Thursday this past week, Mat Smoody signed with the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  What a great opportunity!  Mat should fit in well with a track team that has won at least eight Big Ten track titles in a row (indoor and outdoor).  Furthermore, Wisconsin has seemingly shifted a bit more of its resources to middle-distance runners.  Just this past weekend, two Badgers broke 4:00 in the mile, Jacobs alum Evan Jager ran 4:03, and two Wisco redshirt freshmen ran 1:51 in the 800.  Mat should fit right in with his speed and versatility from the 400 meters to the 1500 and mile.  I congratulate Mat on his hard work and this great opportunity to continue his running career.

Above: Mat officially signs his letter of intent to Wisconsin.
Below: Mat poses with his proud family.

Other Potential Signings - All of our seniors are currently mulling their college options.  Tim Anderson looks like he will attend Eastern Illinois University.  He won't run there, but will be reunited with alums Alex Soto and Matt Dettloff.  Eddie Lopez looks like he might also be headed there and may walk-on.  Alex Mourousias has applied to every small Division III college east of the Mississippi and plans to run at one of them.  I have no idea where he will end up amongst the nine colleges he applied to.  I am not sure yet about Lewis Conley's college plans.  Last but not least, Kevin O'Brien will be attending the United States Coast Guard Academy, having made it through the Academy's incredibly rigorous selection process.  He will run for them and compete at the Division III level.
2008 Performance Lists
76th Annual
Palatine Relays