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September 14, 2008 - Boys and Girls Win at Schaumburg

We only had one competition this week so the emphasis was on training hard and staying healthy for the run of big invites and duals coming up.  We run most of the best teams in the state at the upcoming Peoria Notre Dame and Palatine Invites.  It is time to get a mid-season view of how good we are, and our boys on all levels are excited about their prospects.  This team is close and hard-working, and I have a great feeling about the guys as we move forward into the prime part of our regular season schedule. 

Above: The varsity team poses after placing 2nd at Hinsdale.

The boys and girls each had great performances on both levels in our Thursday dual with Schaumburg at Hoover Elementary School.  The ladies put seven in the top nine as Sarah McIntosh ran to a dominating victory.  They also went 1-5 in the open race.  Our F/S followed suit by sweeping the top six spots and eight of the top ten, winning 15-48.  The varsity race was even better.  Schaumburg’s Pat Lesiewicz won the race in a course record time of 15:42, but we took the next ten spots to win handily by a score of 20-43.  Lesiewicz’s run was so impressive and a privilege to watch.  Twenty years of great Schaumburg guys have run there, but he broke the record by seven seconds and looks as if he is moving into state title contention individually. 

Miles Update – I updated the Week 5 miles and the season Mileage Progression.  We have nearly twenty men who have averaged more than 50 miles per week over the first five weeks of the season.  I am particularly proud of our JV guys.  In most programs it would be unheard of for the JV to be running so much, but your commitment reaffirms how much of a TEAM sport this is.  I am so proud of the commitment that our athletes from top to bottom, fastest to slowest have made this past summer and this season.  It is enriching as a coach to see that commitment begin to pay off for so many of you.

Picture Update – I am still waiting on pictures from Erik and Adam Bethke from Thursday’s dual with Schaumburg.  I have pics of the F/S, but am waiting on some from the varsity race.  I did put up a new gallery of pictures that Marcin Zuberek took at the Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invite.  Thanks Marcin!

Schaumburg Dual - Boys Win 20-43 and 15-49 on Var, F/S Levels

Varsity Boys – The Pack Swarms to a Dominant Win

Our goal in this race was to work on hooking up as a team, especially in the first mile of the race.  Chano and Alec were going to try and go with Lesiewicz, but that plan quickly dissolved as Pat went out after the course record.  Chano hung near him through the mile, but Bollman fell off early and had a sub-par race due to feeling ill.  I am glad that he sucked it up and ran his best.  After it was clear that Lesiewicz would win, I shut Chano down for the last mile.  He still finished in 16:33, which is a great time at Hoover. 

Bollman faded back through the group and ended up having to kick to end up as our 5^th man.  Bethke, Laskowske, Perez, Larson, and Baran hooked up nicely through the mile along with 3-4 other teammates who were closely in tow.  That group ran so well, grinding on Schaumburg’s #2 for awhile before extending away pretty easily past the mile.  I shut the entire group down with a mile to go, and Lasko, Adam, and Juan finished three across the line in 17:17.  Alec was next (17:23) and was followed by Baran (17:26), Larson (17:32), A.J. Laskowske (17:40), Kierys (17:49), and Olson (17:51).  I really loved Olson’s race.  He could have shut it down when we had the race well in hand, but he dug deep to race with Allman and ending up out-kicking him into the chute.  To put ten guys in front of any team’s #2 runner in any race is a grand accomplish.  More importantly, we ran as a team and fed off of each other.   

If we can run the same way in bigger races, this team will be happy with the results.  Watching Tommy Lasko come back from so much adversity has been a joy.  Not only did he endure a year of recovery from a pelvic stress fracture, but he also had to deal with hernia surgery only three weeks before practice started.  What a fighter!  Having Juan back in the lineup gave us a boost, and I was much more happy with how Jeff got in with our group and improved relative to last Saturday’s run.  Other kudos must go out to Eric Blyth, who finished in front of Schaumburg’s 3^rd and Justin Smith who beat their 5^th man across the line.  The times were slow as usual for everyone involved (except Pat Lesiewicz), but Hoover just is not a fast course and never has been.  Coach Macnider says that only 50 guys or so have ever broken 17:00 (from all teams) so that puts both Chano’s and Pat’s runs in perspective.  Only three guys now have ever broken 16:00 there – Lesiewicz (15:42), Mike Spain (15:49), and our own Tony Rakaric (15:57).

F/S Boys – Erik Bethke and the Pack Group Up to Victory

I moved A.J. up to get him some varsity experience and Lucas Roehrborn and Reuben Frey were out with lingering injuries so I was interested to see how our guys would respond.  In particular I challenged our top freshmen to become scoring factors.  They ran admirably, and I am so excited to see such a strong group dynamic forming between our frosh and soph athletes. 

Individually Erik Bethke dominated the race, taking control at the 800 meter mark.  Erik is working on controlling himself early in the race and keeping his form together.  I think he looked strong and fluid in this one as he ran away to a 25 second victory.  The other big story in this race was the aggressive running of freshman Anthony Gregorio.  He took a leap of faith and went out hard.  He hung on for third place as it came down to a kick between members of our pack.  Our 2-6 runners battled Schaumburg’s freshman Anderson throughout the race, but they drew away to win handily in the last 400 meters.  Check out this group: McGough (14:53), Gregorio (14:56), Kuerschner (14:58), Meincke (14:59), Johnson (14:59).  Our split from Bethke (14:32) to our 6^th man was only 27 seconds.  That is the type of running that usually wins a ton of CC races. 

A bunch of other guys in the lineup had solid races.  Kendall Cox (15:30) and Peter Tomkiewicz (15:39) ran well as they battled with Schaumburg’s 2-4 men and ended up in 9^th and 10^th.  Peter in particular moved up well throughout the race.  Another guy I was really proud of was Ryan Erdmann.  Ryan has only been running for three weeks, but is quickly rounding into shape and competing well.  He fought with two guys the entire race, passing them numerous times and battling in the kick all the way to the finish.  He did not beat his guys, but he ran the right way – with a lot of heart.  Zach Scheve also launched a great kick to keep his spot. 

Varsity Improvement Charts – I just did not have a chance to put this data together on the web site, but we did manage to improve in so many ways from Hinsdale last year to this year (despite all races being slower than normal).  Only three guys failed to improve from last year, and a ton of you were faster from Tuesday’s opener to this invite.  That is notable because our course is much shorter in length.  The data in comparison to Prospect tells a couple of interesting stories.  Almost all of the people who ran blockbuster races in the heat on Tuesday were significantly worse on Saturday relative to those who just ran mediocre or under-performed.  Also, the seven men who ran the two loop tempo on Thursday averaged 29 seconds slower from Prospect to Hinsdale.  Those who ran just the one loop tempo averaged 7 seconds faster between the two.  My take: varsity guys were a bit tired and looked it in Saturday’s race versus Neuqua.  We were blown out, but it is a long season and we can run much better. 

Sophomore Improvement Charts – These sophs all ran in the 2.0 mile freshman race last year so it isn’t possible to compare actual times to one another.  What I did though was project a three mile time by extending their pace from the two mile race last year.  For a man to improve, he would have to run an extra mile at a faster pace than he could run last year for two miles.  It’s not hard to see who had the best races.  Laskowske is greatly improved, and Kuerschner ran the race of his life to finish as our #3.  Alberti also pulled the trick of running a faster pace for an extra mile of distance.  I also compared the times to Tuesday’s dual, which was run at a 2.45 distance.  The average increase for the extra distance was somewhere around 3:35.  Check out Kuersch!  He was only 2:32 off of his first race, showing two things: 1) he ran like a champ at Hinsdale and 2) his first race was clearly not up to potential.  Anyway, enjoy the stats. 

September 7, 2008 - Boys Take Three Trophies at Hinsdale

The boys and girls teams opened their invite season on Saturday at the Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invite.  Both teams competed well even though we did not win any of the five levels in which we competed.  The boys placed third in the sophomore race, second in the varsity race, and second in the freshman race.  Neuqua Valley won all three levels and looked great.  The girls placed second in both the varsity and the open races behind Hinsdale Central.  I put links to official results of all races on our Results page.

Varsity Race - Bernardo and Bollman Finish in the Top Seven

We faced a tall task in going up against Neuqua Valley in this one.  They won the state and national meets last season and returned Danny Pawola and Aaron Beattie, both of whom finished All-State last season.  Our goal was to make a strong challenge to the two mile mark and then try to hang on.  Things did not really turn out that way...

Chano hooked up early with Beattie (4:52) while Bollman hung back off of Neuqua's #3 man with Bethke (5:01).  As we hit the mile, another pack of guys including Jeff Larson, Colin Morlock, Luke Kierys, Tom Laskowske, Matt Baran, and Vlad Novikov formed off of Neuqua's #5-#7 guys (around 5:10).  Our plan was to charge hard to the two mile mark, but everything splintered apart much too early.  Bethke lost Bollman as Alec moved well in the second mile and ended up in no man's land when Larson was not able to get in.  The result: we perished out there as individuals rather than flourishing as a team.  I may have expected a bit much from 5-6 guys who were running in their first varsity invite.  Certainly, we need to work on keeping our poise and working together when things do not go as expected in a race.

In the end we simply got blown out by a better team on the day.  Chano and Alec placed 5th and 7th and then we landed a huge pack in the 20s and 30s as Laskowske, Bethke, all came in within 10 seconds of one another.  Morlock and Kierys also ran better than Tuesday to finish as #6 and #7 for us.  Our times can improve a great deal, but most of the coaches were in agreement that Legge ran much slower than it did a year ago.  Coach Vandersteen thought times were 10-15 seconds slow based on some of his kids' efforts.

I certainly think we can give Neuqua a much better run than we did.  Juan Perez sat out for precautionary reasons, and Chano ran while sick after missing school on Thursday and Friday.  I also sensed that Thursday's really hard tempo did in quite a few of the top seven.  Still, those are all just excuses, and we will need to work better as a unit to challenge any of the top five teams in the state.  Most programs would be happy with getting second at an invite like this, but your goals for this season are much higher.  I was more upset about how we raced than with the end result.  We'll fix things up and get back to business versus Schaumburg this week on Thursday.  Heads up, boys.  Next race.

Moving on to the positives, nearly every man on the team ran faster than he did last year in this race.  Bogs and Pass ran more than 6:00 faster than a year ago!  Those boys have been working their tails off, and it was great to see them rewarded.  Other mega-improvers included Eddie Kovach, Ryan Wojdyla, and Alvaro Colin.  Improvement tables will come later this week - I left my clipboard at school.

Sophomore Race - Kuerschner's Huge Run Keys Solid Team Race

Our sophomores faced a taller task when Lucas Roehrborn came up a bit gimpy on Thursday with a strained hip flexor.  Lucas ran as our #3 in the first meet, but sat out on Saturday.  We knew Neuqua would offer a tough challenge so they key was for some others to step up.

We ended up finishing third as a team behind Neuqua and New Trier, but I was pretty pleased with the efforts our guys gave.  A.J. Laskowske had another strong race to place 5th overall in a lifetime PR of 16:43 for three miles.  Erik Bethke faded after going out too quick, but Erich Kuerschner picked ran the race of his life to pick us up.  I could not believe how hard Kuersch charged in the middle of the race.  He ran 17:21 and nearly caught Erik!  I was so proud of his effort. 

The other big story was that Ryan McGough, our transfer from Jacobs, ran really well in his debut as a Pirate.  Ryan was our 4th man in 17:38 and showed that he will be a huge factor this season (especially after he showed his strength in Thursday's tempo run).  Kendall Cox and Reuben Frey were our #5 and #6 sophs at just over 18:00 while Berti and Gates finished just over 19:00.  Kyle Norris beat a bunch of people in his first three mile race, and I was proud of his aggressiveness.

Freshmen Race - Tomkiewicz and Yosif Help Seal Runner-Up Finish

Above: Tim Meincke, Anthony Gregorio, and Tim Johnson finish as a three-headed monster versus Prospect.

Every year our junior high coaches seem to think that they have little talent to send our way, and every year we work with kids over the summer and come in to Hinsdale and win a trophy.  None of our top three guys broke 5:30 for the 1600 in junior high, yet all three approached that pace for two miles on grass after a consistent summer of work.  Meincke, Gregorio, and Johnson finished within two seconds of one another in places 10, 11, and 12 (11:12-11:14).

The trick to doing well at this meet though is depth, and we got a nice spark from Peter Tomkiewicz, who made a huge impact by running 11:47 and finishing as our #4.  Noah Yosif also stepped it up to be our #5 scorer and run 12:05, which is really solid considering he has only been training for two weeks.  Other nice efforts included an aggressive and gutsy run by Ryan Erdmann as well as solid first efforts from Zach Scheve, Ryan Blihovde, and Jack Bobus.

Overall, we placed 2nd behind Neuqua Valley, who had 40-50 freshmen compared to our ten.  We seem to do well despite our lack of numbers, but we will really have to improve a lot to be on par with a program like Neuqua in the future.  Way to go freshmen!

September 3, 2008 - Pirate Boys and Girls Win Openers

We finally got to kick off our season last night in a dual meet with Prospect.  The heat was brutal with the temperature in the low 90s at race time with the heat index in the mid-90s.  Despite the heat, the boys ran impressively, winning 19-41 on the varsity level and 20-39 on the F/S level.  Prospect is a talented and tough team who will be much better down the road when we meet again.  A couple of their key guys were out last night so I am sure they will be ready when the big meets come around at the end of the season.  Our girls also ran well.  I don't know the final varsity score, but we went 1-3-4-5-6 for 19 points.

Baby Christopher's First Pictures - For Friends and Family

Since Madeline got her own photo gallery on PalatineCC, I thought I would make sure to put Christopher Dunbar Quick's first pics out here as well.  He was born on August 4, 2008 at a weight of 9 lbs 9 oz and was 22 inches long.  At that weight he will be bigger than me soon.  Meri is okay now, but it was a tough birth since he was a week overdue. 

We debated about names for a long time (years in fact) and we finally decided to use two family names: Christopher is my first name obviously and Dunbar is Meredith's maiden name.  Rejected choices included John Kenneth Quick (sorry Lancaster), Augustus, Robert Dylan, and thousands of others.  Enjoy!