Highlights from Other Recent Meets
 

Vlad Novikov won the McCathlon with a solid time of

May 10, 2009 - Palatine Relays Update

I finally got around to giving a full story on the Relays along with pictures.  It was another great track meet that got close toward the end, but never turned into a real nail-biter.  We of course have had four meets since then, and I'll get around to the highlights from some of those since there were plenty.  But the Palatine Relays needs to get its due first.

We have the Varsity and F/S MSL meet on Friday at Conant.  Come on by if you want to see some great track.  The MSL boasts its usual cast of superstars, including a couple who are near best in the nation in Mick Viken (Rolling Meadows - pole vault) and Jeffrey Thode (Conant - 800, 1600, 3200).  There are of course a ton of other all-staters along with a bunch of emerging talent.  It should be another sweet night.  If it turns out anything like the girls MSL (which our ladies won handily), then it will be another one for the ages.  Buffalo Grove and Barrington are the clear top contenders, but we hope to make a dent in their title hopes.

Performance List Updates - I have updated everything to include times from Palatine Relays, Barrington Frosh and F/S Invites, Hersey F/S Invite, and the Carlin Nalley Lisle Invitational.  Check out the new lists.

Palatine Relays - Chano Bernardo and Pole Vault Relay Take Titles

The relays was full of huge PRs and breakout performances as the entire team got together and tried to pull of an upset to grab our third straight relays title.  Barrington had beaten us pretty soundly at the MSL West Division meet, but we were hoping some Relays magic would come our way.  In the end the defeated us 99-84.  Conant's Jeffrey Thode was the G.A. McElroy award winner for male athlete of the meet.  He ran 3:01 in the 1200 to lead off the DMR, ran 1:58 and change to anchor Conant to victory in the 4 x 800, and then cruised a 4:14.1 1600 to win and break Evan Jager's meet record.  What a stellar performance by a champion athlete!

My highlights:
 

Our pole vaulters came up big.  The team of Dan LaRocca, Trevor Peters, and David Stanton seized the win with D-Rock clearing over 13' and the others besting 10'.  I was so proud of Trevor.  I told him that I never thought he would make a Relays lineup when I saw him as a freshman, but he has sure found his niche.

 

	The same thing happened with our triple jumpers.  Manny Del Rio jumped 41' 5" to better his PR by three feet!  When combined with Ed Anderson's PR jump of 41' 3" we moved way up in the standings.
	Our long jumpers also came through.  Eddie was over 21' while DiCristofano (19'10") and Filian (19'6") both jumped PRs to move us into third place.
	Our high jump guys couldn't get past BG or Wheeling in this one, but Mykyta Cheshko cleared 6' 2" to help us into third place.  Anderson and Bailey both cleared 5' 10".

 

With Tyler Jones going down for the season, we had some big shoes to fill in the weights.  Our discus relay ended up placing in the top three behind PRs from Bobbit (133'), Howe (127'), and Eich (118').  They also scored in the shot put behind Chad Bobbit's first ever 50' throw.

 

Alec Bollman had a big day planned and came through to score his points.  He anchored our DMR to second place behind Conant after his teammates got the job done in front of him.  Tom Laskowske (3:26) got us into third, Kyle Marrison (53) improved our position a bit, and Luke Kierys (2:03) sent us into second).  From there, Alec burned through the 400 in 62 and shut it down to save for the open 1600, finishing 2nd with a 4:40 split.  In the open 1600, Thode ran away from the field at the 800 meter mark, but Alec stuck with it and kicked by a Huntley athlete to finish in 4:27 and score second place points.  Then, 20 minutes later he anchored our 4 x 400 in 52.8.  Not a bad day.

Chano Bernardo was one of our highest seeds, and he came through in a somewhat weak 3200 meter field to run away to victory in 9:45.  The strong winds kind of chopped down his time, but it was good to see Chano winning races again.  He later came back and ran a 2:06 split to help our 4 x 800 relay to fourth place.

 

	Our 4 x 100 relay team of Steve Schalla, Dan Schweikert, Willie Filian, and Alfonso Butera was a highlight for me.  The meet was getting close, and we needed these four juniors to score some points.  The came up huge.  Butera ran a great anchor leg to get us into fourth place in a season best of 44.6.
	Our F/S 1600 medley had a solid performance to finish in fourth place overall.  Ryan McGough ran a season best 2:04.4 split for 800 meters to get us third in our heat.

 

We had to cobble together a 4 x 800 team because we were short a couple of half-milers.  We saved Justin Olson fresh to lead this one off and then combined Chano and Colin Morlock in the middle to get us to Kierys on the anchor.  When a couple of teams stacked their relays, the best we were going to get with this crew was fourth and that is what we got.  Olson got us right in the race and everyone did his job.  Way to go Morlock!  Who would've thought Colin would score in the Relays as an 800 meter guy?

MSL West Division Meet - Bernardo and Gregorio Run to 3200 Meter Titles

We were two-time defending MSL champs, but knew that winning this year was going to be an uphill battle against a very deep and talented Barrington squad.  The Broncos started fast and hung on to win with 138 points.  Fremd placed second with 121 while we settled for third with 116.  The meet could have been much closer, but some things just did not go our way.  Terry Halloran fell with 100 meters to go in the 300 hurdles while running right on the lead, and our weight crew sorely missed Tyler Jones, our #1 thrower, who is now out for the season after arthroscopic knee surgery.  No excuses though.  Barrington seized it and beat us fair and square.  The only exciting thing left is that I still feel we have the talent to get closer to them.

4 x 800 meter relay - We hoped to score good points in each of these races, but we ended up running into some tough 800 meter guys from Barrington.  The F/S ended up in second behind the Broncos with several solid splits and a nice 2:16 PR from Kendall Cox.  Kendall filled in to help Roehrborn be fresh in the 800 and it paid off - Lucas ended up 2nd.  In the varsity race, we ran solid, but were outgunned by loaded lineups from Hoffman Estates and Barrington.  Third was solid, though, since we pulled Alec out of the lineup.

3200 meter run - Chano has been coming on as of late in both races and workouts, and this was certainly another step forward.  He dropped his season best down to 9:48 and did a great job of draining the field with a solid mid-race surge off of a slow opening half.  Jeff Larson ran 10:17, but he never really got in the race the way that I wanted.  In the F/S, Gregorio and Tomkiewicz showed that they are freshmen to be reckoned with.  Anthony ran the superb race I knew he had in him, running 10:18 to take the win.  Peter dropped his PR nearly thirty seconds to place fifth in 10:27.  Both are sweet freshmen times.

800 meter run - Alec hoped to give Barrington's Mangone a run for his money, and this turned out to be a sweet race.  The two dueled side by side for much of the last 100 meters.  Mangone prevailed in 1:57.8 while Alec took second in a new PR of 1:58.3.  In the F/S, Roehrborn and Gates did not PR, but they did place second and third to pick up 14 team points.

1600 meter run - Alec and Chano doubled back in this one.  With Conant's Jeffrey Thode not in the meet, Alec had a solid chance to win.  A huge late kick by Schaumburg's Pat Lesiewicz kept Alec from the win, but he did double back in 4:32 to place second, holding off Hoffman standout Matt Perez in the process.  Chano ran a valiant race, leading from the 400 to the 1000 mark, but he just didn't have the speed to close with the milers.  On the F/S level, Meincke and Johnson both ran PR's, but were not able to kick with the leaders.  They finished in 4:52 and 4:55, respectively.

Wheaton ABC Invite - Bollman Wins 1600 in New Personal Best Time

Despite some strong individual performances, I know the coaches and athletes were unhappy with our collective result at this meet.  It was nowhere near indicative of our potential as a group and served as a wake-up call for quite a few guys.  We will need to be more attuned to details and event-by-event performances if we are going to be the team we all know we can be.  Highlights:
 

Alec's victory in the 1600 meter run was certainly the highlight of the meet.  He tagged along on a windy night through a 2:14 opening half, built on the leaders by the 1000 mark, and then launched the best kick of his career to run 4:23.8 and win.  His last quarter was 62. Chano and Morlock both placed in their flights.  Morlock ran a valiant race, taking the lead hard at the 1000 mark, but getting kicked down in the last 100 to finish third.  Chano ended up fifth on the back end of a solid double. Our 3200 meter runners all scored.  Laskowske and Chano both placed 4th while Larson finished 3rd in the C flight.  The wind killed the times for all of the 3200 guys - few people ran anywhere near their PRs. Jolson and Kierys scored well in the C and B flights of the 800.  I think Kierys was third while Jolson finished 2nd.

F/S Libertyville Relays - 4 x 800 Gets a Big Win

We went after a fourth straight win in this meet, but we met up with a motivated, deep, and talented Lake Zurich team that went out and took it away from us.  We scored more than 100 points, but they won all but one track event en route to a dominating team victory.  Our guys competed hard, though, and I really enjoyed seeing our F/S bond as a group and go after a team title.

4 x 1600 meter relay - I wanted to win this one in the worst way, especially after Lake Zurich jumped us last year.  All four of our guys broke 5:00, but a 4:38 anchor leg by their anchor leg proved too much.  Gates ran a big PR 4:53 to try and bring us home, but it wasn't enough.  Reuben Frey finally broke 5:00, running 4:55 to bring us to the lead.  We placed third overall.

1600 medley - We ended up one-tenth of a second out of the win in this one because the first heat beat us.  Ryan McGough ran a sweet 2:04 PR to bring us from behind.  The anchor leg he ran against tried to push him out toward lane 2 or 3 (which is clearly illegal), and he cut McGough off pretty bad about 40 meters out.  Ryan rallied, though, and came back inside to run right by the guy.

4 x 800 meter relay - This relay was our only win and proved to be a nice showcase of our depth.  We brought back four separate guys while other teams had to double their distance runners.  Our freshman tandem of Meincke and Johnson failed to run near their bests with each guy clocking a 2:16, but Kuerschner and Roehrborn ran with great heart to bring us all the way back.  Roehborn ran a 2:10 PR to dominate the anchor leg and run away with the win.