March 9, 2010 - Bollman, Bernardo, Johnson Lead Solid Distance Effort at York

The York Invite is always our first real test of the track season, and it is always a bit shocking to head inside to a big meet and see how we look against teams who are a lot sharper than us.  We run everything on neighborhood streets so we tend to lag behind some of our rivals with field houses.  Still, we held our own, and I was quite happy with where we are at this point in the season.  Our upside is always huge from this point on, and I was proud of how we fought up and down the lineup with most guys setting huge indoor PRs.

Miles Update - I posted the Miles for Week 5 as well as the Mileage Progression for the track season thus far.

Performance List Update - I added times from the York Invite to our Leaderboards.

York Invite - Bollman's 4:22.8 Highlights a Nice Opening Invite

1600 meter run - I usually go in the order of events, but this race was by far the most exciting of the day.  York's Jack Driggs is certainly a favorite for the 1600 state title this year if he chooses that race, and he has been running really well indoors.  This was only Alec's second meet of the season (he was ill for our opener) so we knew he would lack some of Driggs' race sharpness.  Driggs took the race through a solid opener (65.5) and a pedestrian second split (69.3) for a 2:14.8 halfway split.  He looked nice and was just cruising with Alec relaxed and in tow behind him.  We had decided before the race to try a move at the 1000 and then try and drop the tempo each 200 from there on out.  I thought that Alec might lose running this way, but it seemed our best bet due to our lack of speed fitness.  He took the lead at the 1000 and then Driggs tucked in as they hit 1200 in 3:23.5 (68.7).  At 250 meters out, Driggs put his head down, and everyone could feel that electric move coming.  He went for it all out, and I was right in Alec's face telling him to shift.  He did.  At 150 out, Alec buried it and the two went side by side down the backstretch.  Bols kept charging, but Driggs broke him 25-30 meters out to win by half a second.  Still, Alec's 4:22.8 was a five second lifetime PR indoors and was a time he did not equal until April 17th last year.  Even without any real speedy work, he closed the last 400 meters in 59.3!  I was really proud of his competitiveness in this race - he ran it all the way to the line - and Alec ended up with the third fastest time in the state currently.

The other huge story in this event was the inevitable breakout race for Tim Johnson.  It has been a not so guarded secret around our camp that Tim was coming on all winter long, and he simply demolished his 4:48 lifetime best in running 4:33.9.  This is the best sophomore indoor time I've had a guy run since Mat Smoody ran 4:30.  My goal with Tim is to get him to see how good he really is (and will be) so I gave him a simple race plan: stick at the front end of the race until 1200 meters and then see what he could do.  He executed perfectly, hitting splits of 65.8-2:15.7 (69.9), 3:25.3 (69.7), and 4:33.9 (68.6).  He was right in it with one of the Hedman twins from York and Prospect's Ken Halloran until the quarter to go mark.  This time puts Tim up there as the third best sophomore time in the state at the moment.  Edwardsville's Garrett Sweat has run 4:30 and change for the apparent state lead.

4 x 800 meter relay - As usual I pulled all of our top guys into the open events and left the 3200 relays to our JV, frosh-soph, and cross country varsity.  We have an excess of really good 3200 meter runners so Gregorio and Laskowske both ended up in our B relay.  Those guys ran 9:00 behind solid splits from Andrew Clingerman (2:15.0- 65.8 + 69.2), Anthony Gregorio (2:14.4 - 63.9 + 70.6), Lucas Roehrborn (2:13.6 - 64.0 + 69.6), and A.J. Laskowske (2:17.1 - 66.8 + 70.4).  Our freshman Clingerman was running in his first 800 meters ever, and he will have a really bright future in this event and many others.  He later recorded a 57.2 4 x 400 split.  The latter three guys were all coming back from injuries and getting in a rust-buster for the coming weeks.  It was good to see Laskowske race at a controlled percentage after missing two weeks of training.

In the A relay, I gave a number of guys a chance to earn future 4 x 800 spots, and everyone in the relay ran a lifetime indoor best.  Zach Gates dropped six seconds from the previous week (2:09.5 - 60.0 + 68.6) and was followed by Erich Kuerschner (2:13.8 - 62.2 + 71.6), Ryan Wojdyla (2:09.6 - 60.4 + 68.2), and Drew Shaler (2:12.9 - 64.3 + 68.6).  Gates and Wo-Ho are really rounding into shape quickly, and I expect all of their times to keep dropping as we finally get in some speedier work on the track.

3200 meter run - Chano Bernardo has a lot of drive in his heart for redemption this season after back to back track and cross country campaigns that didn't meet his expectations.  Saturday's race was certainly a step in the right direction as he ran 9:39.7 to place fourth overall in a solid field.  His race goal was to relax in contact with the top group through the mile and then try to negative split on the way in.  York's Andrew Smith dueled with Naperville North's Bob Guthrie throughout the race as they attempted to run 9:20, and Chano folded in nicely to a chase pack comprised of Hoffman Estates' Kyle Gonzales and Prospect's Chris Spudic.  That group hit the 1600 in 4:47 and Chano really went to work in the third half.  He and Gonzo dropped Spudic and kept surging up toward the two leaders.  Chano ran the third half in 2:23.8 to get onto the tail of the two leaders at the 1 1/2 mile mark, but then they started racing rather than pacing and Chano suffered in the close.  He managed a 2:28.8 to finish off his race.  Most importantly, Chano raced with both intelligence and fire, and recent workouts suggest that he is primed for even better efforts.

Jeff Larson got a real raw deal as his 10:10 entry time left him two seconds out of the fast heat.  He ended up in the slower heat where he was the class of the field by far.  I made him go out with the group for 1200 meters before sending him to the front.  He ran an 80 and a 79 on the 2nd and 3rd quarters before hitting the mile in a pedestrian 5:10.  He negative split 5:06 from there to finish with an indoor PR of 10:16.9.  I am pretty sure that he will smash that time on Friday night as we run most of our varsity team in this race at Proviso.  Check out this Friday's 3200 lineup: Bollman, Johnson, Larson, Meincke, Laskowske, Gregorio, Wojdyla, and Frey will all try to work together to break 10:00.

800 meter run - I must say that this race was a bit disappointing for two factors.  One, we just always lack the speed work to run the 800 meters in a competitive way.  Two, neither Ryan McGough nor Tim Meincke listened to the best way to pace an 800 at this time of year.  Both Ryan (2:06.9) and Tim (2:10.8) ran indoor lifetime bests, but our splits show a lack of patience in how to manage this tough race.  Ryan's splits were 28.6-31.2-33.5-33.7 while Monkey ran 29.1-31.9-34.2-35.6.   Both went out way too hard and suffered a ton as a result.  They'll both handle that opening speed better next time around, but we need to show a little more patience at the outset in the 800.

600 meter run - Kendall Cox delivered one of the most satisfying and hopeful efforts of the night as he knocked 5 seconds from his previous 600 meter best to record a 1:33.7.  Kendall is one of those guys who works his tail off and does all of the little things right, and I am hoping to find a spot where he can score points for this track team.  It looks like the 800 might be a place for him to do so if he can keep improving and hang on for another tough 200 meters.  Tirth Patel also ran a solid race for a long distance guy, running 1:39.7 to record a lifetime best.  Okay, I know it's the only time we've ever allowed him to run it, but a PR is a PR.  Oh yeah, Tirth beat three people too.

February 28, 2010 - Bolingbrook Dual Results, Miles from Weeks 3 and 4

Our track season is finally getting into gear after the long winter, and I walked out of Bolingbrook much happier and excited than I did the previous week at St. Charles.  We got Bollman back from his bout with the flu, and a number of our other walking wounded got back into action.  Teamwise, we lost 80-61 in what is usually an awkward match-up.  Bolingbrook excels in the sprints and the jumps while we are usually stronger in the long sprints and distance events.

Performance List Updates - I put all of the times from Saturday on our leaderboards.  Our sophs are doing a lot of damage already as they push the older guys to step up.

Miles Update - I posted the Miles for Week 3 and Week 4.

Bolingbrook Dual - Meincke and Chano Battle to the Wire in Sweet 1600

3200 meter relay - I put together our best lineup for a bit of a workout in this one, and they ran well in what amounted to a solo time trial.  We emphasized running in rhythm and trying to run even splits and save some energy for each guy's individual race.  Ryan McGough cruised a nice 2:10 and was followed by Zach Gates (2:15), Tim Johnson (2:12), and Alec Bollman (2:09).  Our 8:48 was a solid time and bodes well for our near future in this event.

3200 meter run - I had planned to pair Anthony Gregorio and Marcus Garcia in this race, but Marcus came up hurting on Friday morning so I had to scratch him.  Anthony is still returning to form from his late CC injury, and I thought he did well to time trial a 10:42 all by himself.  I know that he was disappointed, but his time will drop a ton in the next two weeks as he gets used to racing again.  The most impressive effort in this race had to go to Jake Alberti.  Jake dropped down to 11:25 from a lifetime best of 11:50.  His hard work is really starting to pay off.  Adam Vanderwiel recorded an 11:23 finish in his first 3200 ever and looked solid.  His times will come down fast as well.

800 meter run - Tim Johnson didn't end up having a ton of competition in this one, but he came back to run 2:11 and lower his time from his 4 x 800 effort.  Tim is in great shape and ready to pop a great 1600 next weekend at the York Invite.  Kendall Cox and Erich Kuerschner also improved relative to a week ago to take 2nd and 3rd places in 2:17 and 2:19.

600 meter run - I usually have our best 800 and 1600 meter guys race a 600 at this meet, and we ended up with a bunch of nice results.  Andrew Clingerman ran 1:36.1 to win the F/S heat and his second race in two weeks.  In the varsity, Alec ran 1:28.6 to win the race and better his time from a year ago (when he opened fresh in the 600 without a 4 x 800 first).  Ryan McGough also continued his nice early season roll.  His 2:10, 1:31, 56 triple blew away his 2:14, 1:39, 64 clockings from last year.  Zach Gates was our third varsity guy in 1:38.3.

1600 meter run - As with last week this ended up being the race of the day.  Our F/S guys kicked things off strongly as Christian Zambrano, Zach Stella, and Noah Brown battled with a game Bolingbrook runner throughout the race.  In the end we placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, but Little Z and Stella ran 5:04 and 5:05 in their first ever cracks at the high school 1600.  We are going to lose Noah to volleyball in a week, but his 5:12 was a real eye opener and shows that he would have a solid career as a track athlete if he ever chose to go that way.

I am still buzzing about Tim Meincke's stellar 1600 a day later.  Our race plan was to have Chano take it out in 68-70 and try to run level splits.  He executed the race plan perfectly, and it ensured a good race for all of our varsity guys.  Meincke was supposed to ride on his heels to the 1000 meter mark and then try to come around and make it a race.  Did he ever.  He pushed Chano into another gear at the 1000 and the two battled tightly for the last 1/3 of the race.  I thought Chano was going to break him at the 300 meter mark, but Tim fought hard and launched a kick in the last 100 that threatened to take it the other way.  For the second week in a row, Chano dug down and found some finishing speed as he breasted the line an inch or two in front of the challenging sophomore.  I gave both of them 4:41.5 as a finishing time.  For Tim, that is a four second PR from the last meet of outdoor last year.  For Chano, that is two straight narrow wins and thrilling races.  Behind the front two, we recorded a ton of nice times: Wojdyla (4:52), Frey (4:54), Larson (4:57), Bethke (5:00), Tomkiewicz (5:03), Shaler (5:03), and Baumgartner (5:13). 

1600 meter relay - This race usually ends up being a barn-burner as the two squads match up in an event where we are pretty equal in terms of talent.  Not so this year.  Kyle Marrison ran a spirited race on leadoff, keeping his inside and keeping it close versus Bolingbrook's best guy.  Terry Halloran then ran a beautiful 55 second leg to give us a lead we would never relinquish.  McGough (56) and Bollman (54) extended the lead as we finished in a solid 3:43.2. 

In the distance 4 x 400s, we overwhelmed the facility with our 8 teams and had to do battle in two separate heats.  In the end Sebastian Ramirez was the hero of the day as he anchored the unit of Zach Gates, Alvaro Colin, Christian Zambrano, and himself to victory. 

February 20, 2010 - Results from Track Season Opener

We opened our track season as usual with a low-key dual meet at St. Charles East.  We always treat this one as a workout within the distance group, but we still managed to run some nice times.  We lacked a little intensity early in the meet, but picked things up nicely in the last half.  The varsity lost 79-61, which was expected seeing that we were missing more than 50% of our points due to injury, suspension, illness, and other sports.  The F/S won 68-63 (or thereabouts) after winning the 4 x 400 meter relay.  I updated all of the 2010 Performance Lists for the distance events.

St. Charles East Dual - Johnson, Wojdyla, and Bernardo Impress

3200 meter relay - Yeah, this one was pretty ugly.  Our guys started this meet like we were running a workout or something and weren't really ready for the competitive shock of track racing.  The only split I care to talk about is Chano's really solid 2:10.9.  He brought us back from a big deficit into the lead.  Zach Much started what would be a great night with a 2:33.0 PR, and both Noah Brown (2:24.5) and Mundeep Bawa (2:34.9) had nice starts in their first high school races.

1000 meter run - I set this up to be the highlight event for our night, but Bollman managed to throw up on Thursday night at our track "Meet the Team" night so McGough, Johnson, and Meincke went at it without our fastest guy.  I was home ill with the flu on Thursday night myself, but I guess I missed a rather incredible Bollman CIA in front of 250-300 assembled folks.  Anyway, Coach Bosworth told me that he was putting his best guy in this race, and he turned out to be named...Tim Johnson.  Unlike our two sophomores, Ryan McGough got after it from the gun, actively challenging the lead through 500 meters.  Our Timmy J decided to make a huge move at that point to try and get in the race, but it wasn't enough.  He and Meincke will need to learn to stick their noses up in the front of races.  In the end, St. Charles' Tim Johnson won in 2:45.4 while our Timmy J closed in 2:48.3 with McGough (2:51.7) and Meincke (2:54.6) closely in tow.  Tim's time stacks up really well with a couple great efforts we've had at this meet.  Alec ran 2:45.0 as a junior last year en route to 8th in the state 1600 meters while Mat Smoody clocked a 2:45.9 his junior year en route to a state title in the 800 meters.  Good company, especially since Tim is just a soph. :-)

800 meter run - Despite some fast times in the 1000, I was still pretty unhappy with the way we had competed in the meet thus far.  Ryan Wojdyla changed all that in a hurry.  I expected Drew Shaler to be our top guy in this one, but he challenged too early and was out of it by the 500 meter mark.  In contrast, Wo-Ho stayed within himself, stalked the lead just past the quarter and ran away with this one in a sweet lifetime best of 2:12.5.  Ryan's been battling an IT band issue, but he once again showed that we can always count on him for an intense and championship-level effort.  In the F/S race, Zach Stella delivered an eye-opening performance by clocking a 2:20.0.  Not bad for a first race.  Christian Zambrano began his rebound from some hip flexor soreness with a solid 2:26.4.

400 meter dash - We planned to unveil one of our secret weapons for the future in this one, and Andrew Clingerman did not disappoint.  Coach Miller and I had been telling him since August that he would make a great track man, and boy did he come out of the gates firing.  In a heat with four other juniors and seniors, Andrew blasted away to victory in a really sweet 58.8.  That is quite a run for a freshmen on a 160 meter track in his first high school race.  Zach Gates also came back in this one after a lackluster 4 x 800 leg to run a respectable 59.2.

600 meter run - I hoped that Kendall Cox and Erich Kuerschner would be able to grab some points for us here, but it wasn't in the cards on this night.  Cox's 1:38.7 was our top time in the event.

1600 meter run - Chano Bernardo delivered our best race of the night in this one.  He went out on level pace through the 800 and tried to pick it up from there, but a determined St. Charles East runner made this into a great race.  They went into the last lap side-by-side, and I thought that Chano might get the hammer dropped on him like usual (in an all too familiar scene from last year).  Instead, he fought him on the first curve, kept him out on the backstretch, and then blasted home the last 80 meters to run 4:42.7.  Outside of Sagar Patel's 4:40.1, this is the best time I've ever had a guy run in my nine seasons at this meet.  The second best effort in this varsity race has to go to Jake Alberti.  Jake is one of our most passionate JV trainers, and his hard winter training got him within one second of his lifetime best in 5:26.1.

The other highlight in the 1600 was Zach Much's determined come from behind effort in the slower of the two sections.  Lacking confidence, Zach went out way too slow, but he started to move up just before the 400 meter mark.  I told him at that point that he was going to win the race, and he kept on trucking until he moved up on the lead.  I loved the hard pass and hard straightaway move he threw to finally break his foe, and he hung on for victory in a lifetime best of 5:37.  Lucas Bombal (6:04.4) also recorded a lifetime best in his first high school track race.  Other than that, the rest of our guys looked a bit tired and were pretty far off of their personal bests.

1600 meter relay - This is usually a highlight race with both teams, boys and girls, lining up on opposing curves, but we ended up running away with both races.  Freshman Ulises Alcaraz led off our F/S relay with a really nice 59.3 split, and Tim Johnson (59.1) and Tim Meincke (60.6) kept adding distance as we ran away to an easy win and a F/S meet victory. 

In the varsity, I warned McGough that St. Charles was leading off with their best guy, and he might need to be ready to go catch their second leg from behind.  That's exactly what happened as Alfonso Butera tied up in the last 50 meters.  Ryan ran a beautiful tactical race staying within himself to stalk the lead and then blowing by his adversary to claim a lead we would never give away.

February 15, 2010 - Miles for Weeks 1 and 2

The first two weeks of winter track training are in the bag, and the group as a whole is doing well.  We have a lot of aches and pains, especially with those guys who laid off more than usual this winter.  Hopefully, those aches work themselves out as we get into the competition phase.  We run a dual meet at St. Charles East on Friday night.  If you want to know your work load, check out the Miles for Week 1 and Week 2.

February 1, 2010 - Track Season is Here

The track season is upon us, and our team is looking fit and enthused for another great campaign.  A number of our guys had great winters of running and look to be ready to take major steps forward this spring.  Our #1 track returnee is senior Alec Bollman, who placed 8th in the state 1600 last season.  His PR in that event is 4:16.8, and he is certainly looking to improve both time and place this season.  Our team will be buoyed as well by A.J. Laskowske and Marcus Garcia as they chose to run track for the first time this season.  Our distance group should have really nice depth and a combination of younger and older guys contributing on the varsity level.

Our team as a whole also has a ton of potential to be great this year.  We are committed to qualifying a number of events to the state meet and believe that an MSL title is a realistic goal.  Our team is anchored by more than 30 seniors, most of whom have given four years to the track program.  Look for big contributions from Tyler Jones and Chad Bobbit (throws), Mykyta Cheshko and Manny Del Rio (jumps), Dan Schweikert, Alfonso Butera, Steve Schall and Kyle Marrison (sprints), and Terry Halloran (hurdles and sprints).  I love our depth and work ethic and hope that this becomes another classic season for Palatine track and field.

NXN Regionals - Boys Place 10th in First Attempt at National Qualifying

For the first time ever, we traveled to Terre Haute, IN to run in the Nike Cross Regional meet held at the Laverne Gibson Championship course.  The Division I national title meet in college is run at this course so it was a real treat to see our guys run at the same place.  We finished 10th overall, but only eight points out of seventh.  We also had two guys finish in the top 13 in the open race where our team finished 5th overall.  I started lists for NXN Midwest Regional Team Finishes and Top Performances.  Check 'em out.