March 16, 2009 - Tons of Updates,
Results from Proviso and F/S MSL Invite
Important Message: Due to team
pictures we have morning practice for all juniors and seniors on Monday,
March 16th at 6:00 am.
We had another solid weekend of racing with
a ton of new indoor PRs and more than a few lifetime bests. I always
enjoy this weekend with the back-to-back meets. I am pretty sure
that we did not win our six team meet at Proviso on Friday, but I know
that we placed 5th out of 9 MSL teams at the F/S MSL Invite. Our F/S
team is a work in progress, but there were some nice pieces of potential.
Video of the Week: Alec
Bollman's Last 1600 of his 9:38.7 from Proviso.
Video Updates - Check out all of the
other video updates on our
YouTube channel. They include video of
the Proviso 3200 meter run,
F/S 1600,
varsity 1600, and the distance 4 x
400 meter relays as well as the
4 x 800 meter relay and 800 meter run from
F/S MSL. My thanks go out to Vlad Novikov, Zach Gates, and Jake
Alberti for their camera work.
Alumni Updates - Terrence Thigpen ran to his first ever All-American
honor this weekend at the NCAA Division III national meet. He ran
third leg on Wisconsin-Lacrosse's 4 x 400 meter relay that placed 5th in
the nation. This performances also ensured a tie for the team title
with Wisconsin-Oshkosh. John Lancaster was not quite so fortunate,
running 15:04 in the 5K to finish well back of the top eight.
Terrence's finish is the first All-America honor for any of my ex-athletes
so that makes me feel proud. Just think - I was there when he ran
59.8 at the Barrington freshman meet to break 60 for the first time.
Performance List Updates - I updated
all
performances from the two meets. We now have 10 guys under 5:00
- only 20 more to go to get our big goal. Who's next?
Proviso West - Bollman and the Dynamic Duo
of Freshmen Deliver Highlights
4 x 800 meter relay - We had to scratch Luke Kierys in this one due to a
tender hamstring so we were a bit off of what I had expected. Drew
Shaler filled in with his best time of the season in 2:14.7, but that is a
bit off of Kierys' 2:06 from York. Still, these guys ran 8:42 and
looked solid. Justin Olson ran a 2:09.1 to continue his bid for a
spot on the varsity 4 x 800. Adam Bethke was close behind with a
2:09.7. We ran a second relay that combined varsity and F/S, and
those guys averaged around 2:30 a guy. It was nice to see Matt
Baumgartner run again after more than a year off getting his grades
straight. I am very proud of his growth in the classroom, and it is
time now to get him back to where he was as a runner.
3200 meter run - This race was the most
interesting one of the evening for me. Alec has been demolishing all
of his previous lifetime bests all indoor season so I was hoping that he
would put a hurtin' on his 9:56 best from last outdoor season. He
did that and more, splitting 4:50, 4:48 to win the race and set a new PR
of 9:38.7. The race was a spirited one between a kid from Streator
(forget his name, two-time All-State in AA cross country) and Jack
Hostettler, a CC All-Stater from Lyons Township. I was proud of how
Alec ran proactively past the 800 to stay in the group and then brought
his speed into play in the last 400 meters. Steve Finley ran 9:37 in
this meet when he was a junior so Alec continues to keep good company.
Outside of Alec, other PRs included Lucas Roehrborn's 10:44 run as well as
John Pasowicz's monster 11:54 PR. Justin Smith cracked 11:00 despite
struggling throughout the week with a leg injury. Solid runs for a
lot of guys in this one.
800 meter
run - We had one lone entrant in this race, and Kendall Cox acquitted
himself well. His 2:21.0 was impressive after only seven days of
training from basketball. Kendall has gotten a lot stronger, and it
showed in his improved form and rhythm. He will be a
welcome addition to our F/S team in the coming weeks as he rounds back
into prime racing shape.
600 meter
dash - I put Adam Bethke in this to get some speed work, and his 1:34
result was a solid run for him. Our 3200 group has had the slows a
bit lately as we emphasize strength over speed, but Adam's 2:09, 1:34, 62
second night should help him in the races coming up.
F/S 1600 meter run - Rarely is the F/S 1600
a highlight of an entire meet, but our freshmen lit it up in this one and
got everyone all excited. Tim Meincke made an aggressive move just
past the 600 to take the lead and try to run away with the race. He
ended up getting second, but his 4:52.9 was a great freshmen time for this
early indoors. Anthony Gregorio fought through traffic early and
ended up pushing Meincke all the way to the line, recording a 4:54.0 to
demolish his previous best. Even better, Peter Tomkiewicz ran a 5:06
lifetime best after only 10 days of training after basketball. Wow!
We also got a host of strong performances from sophomores Ryan McGough
(4:58), Zach Gates (5:00.2), Erich Kuerschner (5:01.7), Jake Alberti
(5:34), and Juan Ramirez (5:47).
Varsity 1600 meter run - I challenged Chano to get in here and crank it
from the 800 to the 1200 meter mark. He tried to do that, but never
really got into the race with Angelos Karkalis from Rolling Meadows.
Chano then kind of fell asleep and was caught inside the last 50 meters by
Prospect's Ken Halloran, who is having a nice indoor season so far.
Chano's 2:08-4:39 double was nearly identical to his double from a year
ago so he is making steps in the right direction, but he still has a lot
of work to do and awaits a breakout race. Other solid marks included
a great run by Ryan Wojdyla (4:59), another PR from Colin Morlock (4:41),
a huge indoor PR by Justin Olson (4:50), and a six second lifetime best
from Jacob Starcevich (5:04).
4 x 400 meter relay - We loaded up our 4 x
400 and had a solid, but not spectacular result. Alec set a lifetime
best of 54.0 and Norman ran 52.2 on anchor, but Matt Wiggen (54 high) and
Dan Schwiekert (55) were either slower or the same as last week at York.
Still, we made progress and will continue to get better.
F/S MSL Invite - Distance Guys Score Well in
5th Place Team Effort
4 x 800
meter relay - We were aiming to win this one with our group of four
sophomores, but ended up in third place about 3 seconds out of the win.
Lucas Roehrborn (2:18) grabbed us the early lead, and Erich Kuerschner
(2:18) extended it about 5-10 meters. Reuben Frey (2:22) and Zach
Gates (2:20) couldn't quite hang on, but it was a valuable learning
experience for both of them. When Reuben and Zach put in a couple
more weeks of consistent work, they will drop a bunch of time.
3200 meter run - I had big hopes for both of our guys in this race.
We finished well with Anthony Gregorio in 3rd at 10:49 and Erik Bethke in
5th at 11:02, but were unable to score the big points up top. Erik
battled himself all weekend and will be back to form soon. I was
proud that he battled back in the last 200 to score some points, but he
will need to relax - in all senses of the word - to get his performances
back where he wants them. Anthony did well to run 10:49 in his first
ever 3200 (on a 150 meter track no less). He made a tactical mistake
in not going with the leaders just past the mile, but he ran fast and
learned a lot so all was good.
800 meter run - I asked Ryan McGough
to make a drastic move to the 600 meter mark and really put his heart and
soul on the line. He did exactly that and suffered a drop back from
2nd to 4th place in the last 50 meters, but his aggressive racing was a
victory in itself and will pay dividends sooner rather than later.
He has enormous potential, and his 2:09.8 time is the fastest I've ever
had a kid run at this meet. On a side note, the meet record from
last year went down in this one with Schneider from Barrington (a really
nice looking young runner) dropping it down to 2:03 and change.
1600 meter run - Tim Meincke was all
fired up to try and win this one, and I loved that the mistakes he made in
the race were ones of aggression. I asked him to follow the lead
pace and make a huge bid for the lead after the 800 meter mark.
Instead, he just floored it from the outset and led through the 600 meter
mark or so. Hersey's Ryan O'Donnell took the lead at that point and
ran away to victory in 4:46. Tim suffered a bit and got nipped at
the tape for 2nd. He ended up 3rd in a solid time of 4:56.9 - the
hard way. He will also learn from this race to not spend all of his
energy in the early stages before the real racing starts. Lucas
Roehrborn ran solid to finish in 5:04, but he was just out of the money in
7th place.
4 x 400 meter relay - We ran 4:02 in
this one to finish 5th overall, but I saw a lot of nice things as we ended
up second in our heat. McGough broke 60 seconds again for the
leadoff leg and John Hogan ran 59.2 in his first ever high school 400
meters. Erik Bethke (61.3) and Kendall Cox (62.2) also ran spirited
legs to help us score a couple of points.
Some Comparisons for the F/S Guys
Meincke, Gregorio, and Tomkiewicz put
themselves in some nice company with their efforts over the weekend.
Here are some comparisons to some of our past All-Staters and varsity CC
runners.
Name
Highest Honors
Frosh @ Proviso
Frosh @ MSL
Glenn
Morris
All-State
CC
10:14.7
4:47.2
Chano
Bernardo
All-State
CC
10:44.0
5:04.8
Mat Smoody
Track state
champ
All-State CC
4:50.2
2:10.4
Kevin
O'Brien
All-State
CC
DNR
10:48.9
Alex Soto
All-State
track
DNR
2:11.9
John
Lancaster
Two-time
track qualifier
Two-time top 50 in CC state
DNR
5:02.6
Smoody's 4:50.2 is the fastest I've had a guy run in the 1600 @
Proviso in eight years so Meincke is in good company. Gregorio's
10:49 matches up well with Chano's and OB's 3200 meter debuts in high
school. Other interesting comparison points include Dan
Rakaric's 11:04 clocking as a frosh at MSL - he made the CC varsity as
a soph as part of a trophy team. Also, Alec ran 5:15 in his
first 1600 at Proviso. Only two freshmen previously, Chano
Aniceto (4:57) and Mat Smoody (4:50), broke 5:00 at Proviso.
March 11, 2009 - Mileage and Video
Updates
I promised to get
the Mileage for
Week 5 up on Sunday and it took until Wednesday. Our volume was
down a bit as we consolidated our gains after four weeks of hard running.
It will be fun to see where we are over these two weekends of racing and
then get back to some hard work in preparation for outdoor season.
A Word About Wisdom
My freshmen Gifted class has been
ruminating on the difference between knowledge and wisdom this week, and
we have come to some really inspiring conclusions about the type of
learning we want to pursue. We have been discussing how we can find
more "soul" in our learning, an emotional connection that inspires us and
drives us forward. We have also addressed the idea that school seems
more about going through the motions than seeking a higher purpose through
our learning. We want to know: what larger, more human wisdom could
and should guide what we do within our school walls?
Of course, I thought about our team a great
deal during these discussions. At its best our team is a group of
inspired, connected, and truthful individuals. At its worst we go
through the motions and become self-involved. I think that many of
you might find this
video from Barry Schwartz interesting. It is a fascinating look
at how our culture could be so much more if we honed our moral skills and
moral wills and looked to glorify our moral exemplars. It is an
inspiring talk about not accepting mediocrity or what is "acceptable," but
instead searching for the "practical wisdom" in our lives. I hope
you enjoy it. It crystallized so many thoughts I currently have
about the roadblocks of modern life. For you parents out there in
bureaucratic corporate cultures, it is a fascinating call to "swim
upstream" against the current of rules and regulations to find the moral
truth in what you are doing on a daily basis. Enjoy.
PalatineCC.net Interview - Eric Rodriguez
The biggest news I received all week was
that Eric Rodriguez received a full-tuition scholarship plus cash stipend
from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was one of
only 12 freshmen selected for this new engineering program and will have
all of his expenses paid for all four years of his undergraduate study.
All of this goes to show that hard work, commitment to excellence, and
character pay off. E-Rod has improved tremendously as a runner from
freshmen year to now, and I could not be more proud of how he represents
our program within the school. He is also a respectful and dignified
young man who treats others well. He is an example for all of you
younger guys to follow. Check him out as he talks about his goals
and his scholarship:
Alumni Updates - Two big stories this
past weekend. Steve Finley finally had his breakout college race,
lowering his mile PR down to 4:06.45 at the Notre Dame last chance meet.
This only placed him 17th overall, but I know Steve has to be pumped about
this big step forward. Steve - I made you promise to get me a
picture next to that clock when you finally broke four minutes.
Don't forget about Quick! I'm going to need a picture for my wall of
fame. Good news part two is that Terrence Thigpen ran in the mid-49s
to help his Lacrosse 4 x 400 team run 3:18 and secure a spot in the DIII
national meet. Both Terrence and John Lancaster will be competing
for All-American honors this weekend. Good luck you guys!
March 8, 2009 - York Invite Results
We did not run nearly as well as a team as
our amazing performance from last year where our guys broke four field
house records, but our performances today showed a ton of hope and
improvement. We placed 6th of 11 teams with 47 points. MSL
rivals Hoffman Estates (74), Conant (61), and Prospect (55) were the teams
right in front of us. York and Naperville North placed first and
second.
We have an important week of racing ahead
of us as many of our JV guys get their only chance to compete on a 200
meter track on Friday while the F/S have the MSL Indoor championship on
Saturday. Let's keep building on these early season bests and head
toward the outdoor season with some momentum.
Performance List Updates - I added
all of
our performances from the meet into the lists. I am also
tracking 4 x 400 splits for the first time so check those out.
Mileage Update - I'll have Week 5
miles up sometime today.
York
Invite - Bollman, Wiggen Impress in First Runs
4 x 800 meter relay - York allows
teams to enter both an A and B relay at this meet so we used the
opportunity to run our best F/S team in the B relay. Despite a fall
from Lucas Roehrborn at the second exchange, we ran 8:58 and looked really
good in placing a close third. Ryan McGough led off in 2:13.0, and
Roehrborn ran a great leg to get us right into contention for second.
He would have split 2:11-2:12, but he collided with someone while in the
zone, fell, and sent the baton flying into the infield. Tim Meincke
rushed to pick it up and did a great job getting us back into third place.
Lucas ran 2:14 anyway with the fall and that included the time it took
Meincke to pick up the stick and cross the line. Erik ran 2:12 and
change to take a good shot at second place, but he went out in 62 and
really felt it in the last 200 meters. Still, this was a great run.
Our varsity relay should be renamed the
Coach Quick JV Honorary Sacrificial Lamb Relay. Ever year I run our
varsity in the their best individual events at this meet and reward some
of our hard workers with spots on the varsity relay. This team ran
well to finish in 9:09 with Baran running an indoor PR of 2:16 and Shaler
looking solid in the lead-off leg. Gregorio dropped his 800 best
down to 2:20 while E-Rod had to have set an indoor best with his 2:16 leg.
I was proud of how hard all these guys competed in a tough situation.
3200 meter run - I had lowered my
expectations for this one a bit since both Chano and Colin had been sick
during the week. If the race was anything like our Wednesday
workout, it was going to be a long 3200 meters. It was. The
race went out blazing as Steve Sulkin went after the York indoor record of
9:10. He hooked up with Tyler Jermann of Naperville North to drive
the pace through at 65 and 2:15. Chano got out in 67-2:18-4:45 and
just completely ran out of gas. It was one of those races where
every lap is slower than the one before. I know we were both
disappointed, but this race was the high point of his season last year
instead of the first building block that it will be now. Chano
missed most of the winter recovering from injury following CC and it
showed in his inability to handle the early pace. As for Colin, he
was in a tough spot. He far overmatched the abilities of the guys in
the first heat, but was overmatched in this one. He went out with
the early pace and never recovered, hitting the mile in 5:00 (the hard way
- out in 67) and finishing in a tired 10:29. In a more evenly paced
race he can run near 10:00 right now, but we will have to wait for a
better opportunity.
800 meter
run - I really had no idea what to expect from Wiggen in his first 800
of the season. All of his training has been great thus far, but he
has never been a great indoor runner due to his large frame. His
2:02.6 to finish 5th place was a pleasant surprise. We entered him
at 2:04.5, and he exceeded that expectation by running intelligently in
the first 400 meters. He was 59.6-1:30.8-2:02.6 on his splits and
competed well deep into the race. As his speed catches up to the
aerobic training he did in the fall and winter, he will be a dangerous man
in this event. Luke Kierys has also been steadily improving this
indoor season and was lucky to be the last man into the fast heat.
He had run 2:13 in his only previous half this season, but fought nicely
to run 60.2-1:33.1-2:06.2. The 600 split of 1:33.1 was faster than
his race at that distance a week ago. Both of these guys are coming
along nicely and form key parts of a solid 4 x 800 relay.
600 meter run - It is starting to
sound like a broken record, but Justin Olson keeps making me label him as
the athlete of the meet. I thought his 600 at St. Charles may have
been a team best performance, but his 1:29.8 run here (27.9-58.1-1:29.8)
to finish in 6th place was even better. Justin is just running so
controlled right now, staying up tall and relaxed and letting his speed
flow. On top of that he is competing hard and running with great
passion and pride. This run predicts a nice 800 meter run in the
near future. In the first heat Jacob Starcevich picked up a solid
win in 1:36.8 (28.8-60.9-1:36.8). This may have been his first race
victory, ever? If so, congratulations.
1600 meter run - Both Bollman and
Bethke made the fast heat here, and I have to say that I expected a ton
from Alec. We have worked his speed all indoor season to get him
ready to bump up to the mile. I hoped for a victory for him at this
meet (until I remembered that Conant was there). Jeff Thode is in a
league of his own right now, adding a 4:16.6 clocking to his 1:55.0 from
earlier in the day. The race behind him was a close one. Alec
tagged along at the back of a five person group that included Naperville
North's Bob Guthrie and Mike Herbert, York's Jordan Hebert and Jack Driggs,
and Hoffman's Matt Perez. I wanted him to be less complacent and
challenge the front of this group, but he instead sat and waited to kick
in the last 400. By 100 out he was on the shoulder of Herbert for
third, but Driggs lit up a fiery kick and drove away with it. Alec
ended up a close fifth: Driggs (4:26.33), Perez (4:26.94), Herbert
(4:27.41), Bollman (4:27.46). His splits: 67.3-2:15.8 (68.4)-3:23.7
(68.0)-4:27.3 (63.6). This was a 3-4 second lifetime best, but there
is a lot of ground for improvement. Adam had a tough task in this
field, but ran much better than he had two weeks ago at St. Charles.
His time of 4:47.9 was solid and included splits of 67.9-2:20.3
(72.4)-3:34.5 (74.2)-4:47.9 (73.5). It is clear that Adam and the
other two-milers are a bit slow right now due to lack of speed work, but
that will take care of itself as the season progresses.
Other Team Performances
Many of our best runs and jumps (and most of
our points) came from the other areas of the team. I liked some of
the distance times, but in the end we contributed only 12 points to the
team and 6 of those were from the B relay. Other great efforts:
Chris Norman had a great day. He
made the final in the 55 and placed 5th, ran a close second in the 200
in 23.31, and led off the 4 x 200 to a great positioning. Our
relay there bettered our time from a year ago and placed second.
Ed Anderson is coming on. He
jumped 20' 6 1/2" to finish 4th in the long jump. His 5' 10" in
the high jump wasn't particularly high but it tied for 4th.
LaJuane Bailey also continued his massive improvement to PR again at 5'
10".
Our junior sprinters are improved and
starting to make a varsity impact. Steve Schalla made the 55 final
and placed 7th. Kyle Marrison and Dan Schwiekert both ran nice
legs on the 4 x 200 and are proving to be key pieces on the 4 x 400 as
well. Their 4 x 400 splits were 55.1 and 55.2 respectively as we
placed 6th in that relay. It will be interesting to see what we
run when we put all of our best legs together next Friday night.
It will be some combo of Norman, Wiggen, Bollman, Marrison, and
Schwiekert.
Bolingbrook Dual - Tyler Jones and Ed
Anderson Lead the Way
I didn't
get around to a full write-up of this meet last week. Here are the
highlights:
Tyler Jones threw 49' 2" to set a
new personal best in the shot put. Coach Bobbit has him spinning
this year in the shot to enhance his discus technique, and T. Jones
can be a huge force when he puts it all together.
Ed Anderson jumped 6' 0" and had a
nice miss at 6' 2" with good hip height over the bar.
The feature distance race was a
showdown between Bollman and Wiggen in the 600. Bollman won the
race in 1:28.9 as Wiggen tied up pretty badly off of a 27.8 opening
lap.
Our 3200 meter guys all deserve some
credit. Bethke and Baran looked solid to go 1-2 in the varsity
in 10:29 and 10:37 while Tim Meincke (11:00) and Jake Alberti (11:55)
set lifetime bests. Jake's race was especially tough. He
didn't have a ton of comp but really pushed himself in the middle laps
to run a 4 second PR.
A.J. Laskowske thrilled all of his
coaches and teammates with a 4:51 mile in his only race of the year
before heading off to baseball. It was a really bright flash of
potential, and I hope A.J. can make all of that happen for real next
CC season. Our JV milers also looked good: Kuershner, Sund, and
Smith all ran between 5:10 and 5:16. Bogs also blew away his
indoor best by opening his season in 5:38. Last year he
struggled to break 6:00 indoors so maybe that 5:00 mile is in his
future.
