Picture Updates - I added two large picture galleries.
Both are courtesy of Steve and Cindi Johnson. Check out more pics
from
St. Charles Best Invite and the
MSL
Conference meet.
History Updates - I updated our
Invitational Records
page to reflect our wins over the past two weeks. It is quite the
legacy of success over the last 7-8 years: 7 MSL titles and 7 IHSA
Regional titles are incredible accomplishments. I also added our
newest team picture to our
IHSA Regional
Champions page. Lastly, I am putting put together the table of
our best times for the year at Deer Grove East. I updated our
All-Time and
Career lists
for top times at Deer Grove East to reflect performances from Saturday's
Regional race.
IHSA Regional - Varsity Boys Place Seven in Top 19
Spots
We
really wanted to get back to running a smarter and more team-oriented race
on Saturday. Our race plan at the MSL meet was to attack early, but
it nearly cost us the meet as our guys fired too hard in the first 800
meters and proceeded to go backwards for most of the second half of the
race. We were still without the services of senior captain Jeff
Larson, but the rest of the guys ran well as they tried to take up the
slack in his absence. Jeff ran a great workout before the meet, and
he should be at 100% and ready to go for next Saturday's IHSA Sectional.
It seemed that we overcorrected our pace in the early going. Both
Wojdyla and Frey were way out of position and had to charge up through the
field. I also had a hard time finding A.J. and Timmy J, but things
started to clear up just before the mile. Alec and Chano had floated
up onto Fairleigh's shoulder, and to my surprise, Gregorio was right with
them. Just as he did a couple of times last year, Anthony took a big
risk early in the race and watched it pay off. I know that being our
conference's top sophomore has been one of his goals, and he was a bit
down after Barrington's Eric Peterson beat him by 18+ seconds in the MSL
the week before. Anthony locked into a great battle with Peterson
for the last two miles of the race and ended up running to a 6th place
breakthrough finish. If he continues to run with this level of
courage and confidence, we will become a dangerous team really fast.
Ahead of Anthony, Alec and Chano tried to make moves on Cary Grove's Phil
Fairleigh, but Phil answered Chano's big surge at about the 1 3/4 mile
mark and took control of the race from there. He recorded a 14:47
race winner on the sloppy Deer Grove East layout as our guys finished 2nd
and 3rd in 14:54 and 14:56. Anthony followed close behind Chano in
15:07 while A.J. got outkicked in the last 200 to finish 10th in 15:14.
A.J. looked much sharper this week as he was able to log 30 miles in
practice and run with much more rhythm and confidence. As he
sharpens up I think he will be able to team up again with Gregorio.
Any way you slice it, a 20 second 1-4 split is very nice and will get us
in front of most teams in the state. If we can get Jeff back inside
that gap, things may turn out really good for us in the bigger meets.
The other great story in this meet was our depth. Tim Johnson ran
in his first big varsity race, and I asked him to take a risky shot to run
with A.J. and Anthony. He did that for a long time and was still our
#5 man at the two mile mark. At that point Wojdyla and Frey surged
by him en route to great finishes of their own. Ryan finished 15th
in 16:21, Reuben was 17th in 15:22, and Timmy J held on for 19th in a PR
of 15:32. Tim hung on nicely, and the quartet of Gregorio (Soph
6th), Laskowske (Jr 10th), Frey (Jr 17th), and Johnson (Soph 19th) proves
that we have a great future ahead of us next year. We have four of
the top ten returnees in this particular Regional.
Overall, our split 1-7 was 38 seconds, and our 1-5 gap was 27 seconds.
We still need to do better up top, but I really think that a tight split
will be a huge advantage for us, especially if we are able to stay
together in the IHSA State meet (provided we qualify next weekend - knock
on wood). If we can get A.J. and Larson together on the same day and
up close to our top two, then things could turn quickly in our favor.
The other great thing about Saturday was how much we improved relative to
guys who ran better than us at MSL. All of our men improved relative
to the Barrington, Fremd, and Hersey guys who gave us such trouble in the
MSL a week ago. I hope that trend continues because Prospect will be
even better next week in the Sectional. Let's stay healthy and keep
building momentum. It is our time!
IHSA Regional - Varsity
Girls Win as Six Girls Place Top 12
Our
girls were looking to rebound from a sub-par race and a close loss in the
MSL conference meet last week. Prospect nipped us by three points in
that one, but our ladies used a strong race on our home course to renew
their confidence. We scored 27 points to win it as our top six girls
placed 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 12. We ran without junior Becca Sund, but
we received huge contributions from freshman Tess Wasowicz and sophomores
Laura Schweikert and Emily Schulte. Ruth Allen pulled back a bit to
run with Tess, and the result was a nice team race that saw both girls
moving up confidently through the field. Those two ended up in 5th
and 7th places in support of great runs from our junior tandem of Sarah
McIntosh and Courtney Brown. Sarah turned the tables on Buffalo
Grove's Olivia Jones for once, launching a devastating kick at 300 meters
out that took the kick away from the normally fast-finishing Jones.
Laura Schweikert also ran like a pro in her first ever varsity start to
finish as our #5 runner. What a treat to have our best sprinter on
the cross country varsity. Congrats ladies on another Regional title
win!
October 18, 2009 - Another Pirate Sweep of the MSL Conference
Titles
Yesterday may not have been our prettiest hour
of victory, but it was one of our finest and showcased the collective
strength of our program yet again. The boys won the varsity, junior
varsity, and freshmen-sophomore titles for the second consecutive year.
Conference foes Prospect and Barrington were 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in
each of the three races and showed that we will have no room to breath in
either the short or long term future. The varsity win was our
seventh consecutive title and eighth in school history. Our seven
straight wins tie the MSL record established by the great Fremd teams of
the 1970s. Our record in all three of the races over the last seven
years is 18 wins, 1 second (2006 junior varsity), and 2 thirds (2006 and
2007 frosh-soph). What a streak! See the pictures and rosters
of all our conference winners on the
MSL Conference
Champions page.
We
ended up with five varsity all-conference athletes. Alec Bollman
placed 2nd to take top honors for our squad and was followed by Chano
Bernardo (6th), Anthony Gregorio (13th), A.J. Laskowske (18th), and Ryan
Wojdyla (24th). Reuben Frey just missed out in 27th place.
Alec and Chano became three time All-Conference award winners, a feat
accomplished only by 10 other athletes in school history. Alec has
placed 24th, 5th, and 2nd while Chano has finished 7th, 2nd, and 6th.
Congrats boys!
The MSL does not technically award All-Conference honors
in the frosh-soph and JV races, but we still give out those designations
within our team. We had five men in the top 25 in the F/S and a
staggering eleven in the top 25 of the JV. Those award winners in
the F/S included: Tim Johnson (2nd), Marcus Garcia (3rd), Tim Meincke
(4th), Peter Tomkiewicz (7th), and Brian Smith (20th). In the JV
race we had Justin Smith (3rd), Brian Sund (4th), Erich Kuerschner (5th),
Zach Gates (6th), Tirth Patel (8th), Drew Shaler (12th), Lucas Roehrborn
(14th), Matt Baumgartner (15th), Kendall Cox (18th), Erik Bethke (20th),
and Ryan McGough (21st). Eleven guys in the top twenty-one is such a
testament to the collective hard work of the men in our program. I
am so proud of each and every one of you guys.
Varsity Race - Boys Gut Out a Narrow 63-67 Victory over Rival Prospect
I really can't speak for Prospect, but this race ended up being one of the
weirdest MSL races I have ever seen. Neither Prospect nor us ran
remotely near the way we have been running all season long, and the result
was a rather messy race. Just like the 1983 White Sox, I called it
"winning ugly." We have usually run a 25-30 second split, but our
split and our normal pecking order were in complete disarray on Sunday.
Prospect has also been running a 35 second split with a tight pack in the
results I have seen, and they appeared to be a bit off of their game as
well as they posted a 69 second split. We certainly left the door
open, but we got lucky on this day that Prospect didn't walk through it.
I expect a much more difficult test as we meet them again in the IHSA
Sectional and State meets. The final scores ended up being Palatine
63, Prospect 67, Barrington 101, Fremd 104, and Schaumburg 116.
This week has been a weird one for us as Jeff Larson came down sick on
Wednesday, and A.J. Laskowske had been off of running for 10 days as we
worried about a stress fracture in his lower shin. Both are troopers
though and gave their gamest efforts on Saturday. Fresh off of a
negative MRI on Thursday, A.J. spiked up and got it done as best he could
on Saturday. He had only run 4 miles since the Monday before St.
Charles, but he stuck it out to an 18th place effort that ended up being
our winning margin. Prospect beat us on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd runner,
but A.J. got their #4 by 7 spots and that ended up being the margin we
needed. Hopefully, he will get back up into his normal #3 man
position up by Chano and Alec and help us out even more next time.
Larson gave a gamer's effort to the two mile, but faded badly in the last
mile to end up in 34th. I was proud that he toed the line, and I
hope that this flu/cold that he has goes away, and we get him back to full
strength by the weekend.
The true essence of a team is what occurs when
adversity strikes. We needed others to step up and do better, and we
certainly got that on Saturday. Bollman ran his best race of the
season to place 2nd, and I thought we might have stolen 3rd when Chano
broke away from everyone else just past the two mile. He ended up
being unable to finish and was broken up by kicks from Lesiewicz, Peterson
(a very impressive Barrington soph), and Prospect's Ciolek. We have
got to find a way to get him to the line without giving away these points.
Anthony Gregorio also stepped up huge to grab a 13th place finish.
I'd like to say that I am surprised, but he ran his typical strong race.
To show how off we were of our normal team race, remember that Gregorio
has not beaten A.J. or Larson yet this season. If we can get our
guys back in their normal gaps, things will swing back in our direction
even more than they did on this Saturday.
The other great story in this
race was the performance of our #6 and #7 men. Ryan Wojdyla simply
went out there and saved our MSL title. No one ever expected an
All-Conference finish, yet no over ever measured the strength in his
heart. He mixed it up all race long, and when Reuben and Larson
started to fade in the last mile he picked up the slack and took us home.
He finished in 24th while Reuben just missed All-Conference in 27th.
More importantly, Wo-Ho beat Prospect's #4 and Reuben beat their #5.
These necessary bump points were crucial in a 4 point win. I am so
proud of both of these young men!
In the end, sloppy team race or not,
we prevailed in a race that both Prospect and us dearly wanted to win.
We have been on a collision course all season and that inevitable
collision will happen again in Rounds 2 and 3 of this season's fight.
Remember how we beat Prospect last year in the first three rounds of the
fight, but got knocked out in the state meet? Coach Stokes always
has them ready to go at the end, and we will get a much better race next
time around. It will be fun to see two groups of hard-working and
competitive guys get after it the rest of the season.
Freshmen-Sophomore Race - Sophomores Lead the Way to a Dominating
Win
I
expected to dominate this race with so many of our best sophomores running
down and that was exactly the way of things. Timmy J and Marcus have
been coming on strong the last three weeks, and both guys delivered
beautiful efforts on Saturday that would have placed both of them on every
other varsity team in the field. With Meincke and Tomkiewicz in tow,
our front end went 2, 3, 4, and 7 to crush the field. Brian Smith
ended up as our 5th man in 20th place to seal the win. Final totals
were Palatine 36, Prospect 52, and Barrington 95. This was
Prospect's full F/S team, but both Barrington and ourselves had young men
competing on the varsity. Barrington will be particularly dangerous
in the future as their top two sophs placed 4th and 28th in the varsity.
We still will add Gregorio to this mix so things between the two of us
should be tight for the next couple of years.
Tim Johnson dominated most
of this race as he finally decided to go after a competition from the gun.
It was the first flash of his incredible talent, and I can't wait to see
him develop as a competitor. We all know that he has the ability to
be an elite athlete, and I loved that he showed the mental fortitude to
seize this race. Prospect's Josh Campos has been the #6 man on his
team's varsity all season long, and he looked great in kicking to victory
over the last 200 meters. Timmy J laid it all on the course, though,
and his 16:21 time would have placed him as our #6 man and 27th in the
varsity race (right with Reuben).
The other great story of this race was
the aggressive front-running from Garcia, Meincke, and Tomkiewicz.
Marcus is improving week by week as he returns from injury, and he ran
with fire in his eyes. I chided him at one point to not drop off the
Prospect twosome, and he got right back in it and powered by those guys.
He is the ultimate competitor and his 16:38 showing easily secured his
place on the top 12 roster. Tim Meincke suffered a bit from the
quick early pace, but he rallied in the last 40 meters to hang onto 4th
place. Peter Tomkiewicz also put forth an admirable effort, pushing
hard in the middle of the race and playing to his strength. He will
never beat many guys in a kick, and he gave away a couple spots in the
last 100 meters, but his 7th place was huge for our team. Ryan
Blihovde also had a great race to finish in 63rd as our #5 sophomore
finisher.
The story after our four super-sophs was the solid learning
experience for our freshmen. We only had Brian Smith (20th) finish
with All-Conference honors, but our boys did well and flashed their
potential for the future. Remember, Gregorio, Meincke, and Garcia
were only 22nd, 23rd, and 27th last year while Tomkiewicz was too hurt to
race. This year our freshmen grabbed 20th (Smith), 27th (Zambrano),
31st (Jarrett), 36th (Stella), 41st (Mars), 49th (Clingerman), 51st (Vanderwiel),
and 56th (Mundeep Bawa). All of these guys and perhaps a couple more
could be competing for All-Conference next year in this race. As a
bad 1980s song once went, "the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."
Check out how our sophs and frosh chart against the other guys in their
grades:
Junior Varsity Race - Eleven Men Finish in Top 21 Places
The
coup-de-grace, the finishing stroke, had to be a great performance in the
JV race, and the race went pretty much according to form. I knew
that Prospect would have a couple of top-notch guys because I had not seen
Pat Ford, Vince Tagare, or Greg Netols in their varsity results all
season. Ford ended up in the varsity race, but Tagare and Netols
were formidable foes. Both ran on Prospect's 6th in state team last
year, and Tagare was varsity all-conference as a junior before battling
injury for much of the year since then. I knew we would have a tough
time matching them up top, but I was pretty sure our depth would prevail
over the rest of their guys. Thankfully, I was right.
In
his first race back after a nasty bout with the flu, Justin Smith battled
those top two Prospect guys until just past the two mile mark. He
gave way a bit after that, but ran himself right onto our state top 12
with a 3rd place effort. The pack behind them grouped up and did the
job, grinding down Prospect's JV crew to deliver a 26-35 victory.
Our pack of Brian Sund (4th), Erick Kuerschner (5th), Zach Gates (6th),
and Tirth Patel (8th) all finished within seven seconds of one another to
bring us to victory. We also got a crucial bump on their #5 runner
by Drew Shaler (12th). Roehrborn (14th) and Baumgartner (15th) also
ran well to press up inside of their scorers. Baumgartner ran the
greatest race to get up inside our pack. He was left out of the
results for a bit, but we found his race number on the backup tape from
the timing company, and he ended up with his well-deserved award and place
in the results.
A trio of juniors, Kendall Cox (18th), Erik
Bethke (20th), and Ryan McGough (21st) also took top 25 honors.
Eddie Kovach ran a solid race in coming back from a back injury this past
week, and I loved the competitiveness we got from Alberti (51st), Alvaro
(57th), McCall (59th), and Pasowicz (61st). These guys have been the
heart and soul of our training group all season, and I couldn't be more
proud of their racing or their contributions to our program.
Our JV title was our 6th in the last seven years and is
always the best indication of our program's overall strength. Let's
keep this string going next year!
October 11, 2009 - Pirates Sweep All Three Races at St. Charles
Best Invite
Our program's full strength was on display Saturday
as we dominated the St. Charles Invite by running to victories in the
varsity, freshman-sophomore, and open races. We ended up taking 18
of 30 possible medals and all three team trophies.
It is always great to see our hard work pay off, and the most tangible
evidence of it was in the open race where we took the top nine spots.
Our varsity put six in the top eleven even as we held out our 3-4-5
runners to train, and our frosh-soph ended up with five men in the top
twelve overall. We snuck out a 42-43 win over Sandburg in that one.
Ironically enough, this invite title was the first of our season
despite such a strong top five and an undefeated slate of dual meet wins.
I guess that speaks to both the toughness of our schedule and our
inability to break into the top three teams so far. We'll hope to
reverse that latter trend as the postseason kicks into high gear over the
next four weeks.
Varsity Race - Strong Depth Leads to a Dominant Win
We decided to turn this race into a run-off for out top seven at the MSL
conference meet. We pulled Larson, Laskowske, and Gregorio and had
them workout and pulled Tim Johnson and Tim Meincke up from the sophomore
level. They ran as our #8 and #9 runners at the
Barrington-Schaumburg triangular so we let them have a crack at pushing
Wojdyla or Frey out of the top seven.
Our other goal was to get solid races out of Chano and Bollman, and
they obliged by finishing first and second. I would have liked a
stronger middle race from Chano, but Alec looked tough on Saturday and
cruised to a 15:45 victory on a sloppy course at Leroy Oakes. The
good news is that both guys improved their times and places from last year
when they finished 2nd and 3rd to Evanston's Matt Marol in times of 15:58
and 16:01. Alec dropped thirteen seconds down to 15:45 while Chano
was eleven seconds better in 15:50.
The secondary goal was to establish
the roster for the MSL varsity conference. I love to have the guys
on our roster challenge our varsity, and it proved a valuable tactic as
Reuben Frey responded with the best race of his CC career. He ran
16:10 to finish fifth overall. The twenty second differential back
from our #2 was his closest split of the year and proves that his 14:25
time in the 3 x 1600 on Wednesday was no fluke. He is talented and
starting to peak at the right time. Ryan Wojdyla also secured his
spot with a solid run in the second half of the race. Meincke and
Johnson were pressing him going into the woods, but Wo-Ho flashed the
strength that has carried him throughout the season to finish seventh in
16:20. In their first varsity invite races ever, Meincke and Johnson
finished 10th and 11th in solid times of 16:29 and 16:33. Both of
them ran over 18:00 last year so their improvements were incredibly good,
especially on a wet course.
October 8, 2009 - Impressive Results from Annual 3 x 1600 Workout
We always do an all out 3 x 1600 workout during this week, and this year's
gang easily recorded the best team workout in the seven years that we have
been recording results. Even with Justin Smith and A.J. Laskowske
not toeing the line, we had nine guys average under five minutes per
circuit, and our top six all averaged 4:53 or better. When we
include the three sophs who ran under 5:00 pace for their 2 x 1600
workout, we have a ton of talented, healthy, and hungry guys ready to go
into the championship phase of the season.
Check out
full results from the workout.
The real highlight of workout had to be the re-emergence of our
frontrunners. Alec and Chano attacked the workout with a purpose and
recorded the #2 and #4 times ever. Alec recorded a sweet 4:34, 4:35,
4:36 sequence while Chano was just a bit off of that in 4:35, 4:36, 4:36.
Mat Smoody's 13:36 from 2007 set the bar as the record while the only
other guys under 14:00 have been Kevin O'Brien (13:46 in 2007) and Steve
Finley (13:53 in 2005). Those three guys placed 4th, 18th, and 1st
in the state meet so I hope that this marks one of many turning points
from our front two guys. Behind them, Larson, Frey, Gregorio, and
Wojdyla recorded the best times ever for positions 3-6.
It was a great workout any way you slice it as more than 30 men ran
their all-time best for the 1600 in at least one of the reps. Reuben
dropped his PR from 4:50 to 4:43 while Gregorio went from 4:49 to 4:44.
Larson's 4:42 was an all-time best as were the reps recorded by Wojdyla
(4:49), Cox (4:57), Alberti (5:24), Baumgartner (5:11), Erdmann (5:28),
Garcia (4:51), McCall (5:33), Norris (6:34), Pacheco (6:02), Ruston
(5:58), and Zubach (6:18).
In addition, every single freshman on the
team set a PR. Our top guys included Christian Zambrano (5:00),
Brian Smith (5:01), Zach Stella (5:05), Jordan Jarrett (5:15), and Adam
Vanderwiel (5:16). If you want to look at past workouts, take
a look at our Workouts page.
October 3, 2009 - Pirates Win 8th Consecutive MSL
West Title: The Streak Hits 49
As usual it
has been one of our goals to extend our streak and win an MSL West title.
MSL dual meets are the reason that this conference is the best in the
state, and I think that the constant sharpening we get in these tough
local races is a huge component of our program's success. You just
can never let off the gas and expect to win. We faced Schaumburg and
Barrington on Thursday night, and those are two programs that you take
100% serious every time out due to their coaches and traditions.
In the end our men showed up to play in the rain and mud,
and the race was not close. Schaumburg's Pat Lesiewicz showed his
state champion-level form as he ran to a 15:12 victory (on a somewhat
shortened course). Our guys slammed the door after that, taking
second through sixth places to put a 15-47 victory on Barrington and a
20-41 win on Schaumburg. I was really proud of the team because we
got off the bus on about 15 minutes of warm-up and cranked one out of the
park. When all of the distractions of weather, pressure, homecoming,
and a short warm-up were introduced, we ran with a ton of poise. We
just focused on executing the race plan and running with teammates.
I wish all of the alums could have been there. It was a
quintessential Palatine win.
This meet also
concludes Coach Miller's dual meet record as a coach. I will have to
look through a couple of old books to see his record as head coach in
1992-1993, but we ended up 51-3 over the last nine years with the three
losses all coming in 2001. The frosh-soph proved equally dominant in
that same period, going 50-4 since 2001. I know that Fred takes a
ton of pride in seeing guys approach training and racing the right way,
and he will leave us at the end of the year proud that Palatine boys
continue to run with the toughness and fire that Joe Johnson taught him.
September 28, 2009 - Sophs Win at York F/S Invite,
Freshmen Third
We continued our recent run
of success as a program by going into York and winning the sophomore race
at the tough York F/S Invite. We had not won any level of this meet
since Coach Miller took Tony Rakaric and Co. to victory in the freshman
race in 1997. Congrats to our sophs for pulling off a tough win!
Anthony Gregorio took the overall win in 9:51, which had to be a really
solid time in the blustery conditions. Tim Johnson showed that he is
rounding into form at the right time with a 6th place finish in 10:03, and
he was followed by Tim Meincke (10th in 10:16), Marcus Garcia (17th in
10:22), and Peter Tomkiewicz (24th in 10:43).
Our
freshmen took third behind a nice pack effort. Host York won with 40
points and Naperville North was second with 95. We totaled 105
points behind a tight pack in 17th, 18th, 21st, 22nd, and 25th. Our
five scorers were Brian Smith (17th in 10:47), Christian Zambrano (18th in
10:49), Jordan Jarrett (21st in 10:53), Adam Vanderwiel (22nd in 10:55),
and Joe Mars (25th in 11:05).
It is always good to
perform well at this meet because I think it showcases the best young guys
from the four best programs in the state right now: York, Naperville
North, Neuqua Valley, and Palatine. Over the last five years these
four schools have performed the best on a consistent basis in the state
meet so it is great to be way up in the mix with their young guys.
The next couple of years should be a lot of fun.
I
updated the info below on the Conant Dual races and also added a bunch of
pictures from the Palatine Invite to the main page. Enjoy.
September 27, 2009 - Boys Place Top Three on All
Four Levels at Palatine Invite
As usual
the Palatine Invite was one of our highlight races for the season, and I
can report with great satisfaction that our guys achieved at a high level
in all four races. We placed 2nd in the freshmen race, 3rd in the
sophomore, 3rd in the varsity, and 1st in the junior varsity. I can
say with great enjoyment to all of our JV guys past and present that we finally did it!
Every year the JV get all hyped up to go out and beat York's JV, and every
year we get 2nd. We have been 2nd or 3rd in the JV for six straight
years so it was a huge victory for our program to get our next wave of
guys the championship after so many years of trying.
The varsity ran better than last week and still did not
manage to crack Loyola Academy or York. The final scores ended up
being Loyola 47, York 56, and Palatine 85. Neither the guys nor I
like to lose, but we have to look at the positives we can take away from
this race. A.J. Laskowske returned to full strength and ran right
off of Alec and Chano, Gregorio ran the fastest sophomore time of the
entire day, and Ryan Wojdyla continued his magical season by running
15:10. Still, it was not enough, and we will need to continue
working hard to crack that tier of top three teams and win a state trophy.
We have been beaten now only by Loyola, York, and Neuqua Valley. At
least we distanced ourselves from the rest of a tough field. Lyons
placed 4th with 179 points.
We had 14 guys run
under 16:00 for the 2.92 mile layout. This was the most we have ever
had. I put together a
Program Strength
Chart for the Palatine Invite so you can compare our top 20 times
versus our other teams since 2002. We also look to have one of
our fastest teams ever returning for next year. We have Laskowske
(14:45), Gregorio (15:05), Frey (15:29), Bethke (15:44), McGough (15:45),
Johnson (15:47), and Meincke (15:51) leading the way as our top seven
candidates for next year. Way to go guys!
Palatine Invite - Boys Excel on All Four Levels
We
knew that this varsity race was going to be a tall order, but we
approached the opportunity to run the two best teams in the state with a
lot of enthusiasm. Deer Grove East is our house and the Palatine
Invite is our show so we wanted to have our best effort. We
certainly ran well and have a lot of room to keep improving. Our top
five ran fast (14:42, 14:42, 14:45, 15:01, 15:05), and we finished with a
sweet 23 second split.
Obviously, short
splits can be deceiving and often indicate that a team's front runners may
not be getting it done. Chano and Alec certainly ran better than
last week, but they need to keep working to jump in with the top 10-15
caliber guys that we see each week. They placed 8th and 9th in the
same time to give us a solid 1-2 punch, but the times they ran indicate
that they will be at the margins of All-State. I know they will keep
coming on as the season progresses so this was a solid step forward.
A.J. Laskowske returned to top form after being
sick the week before, and his emergence has certainly made us really
strong in a big meet. Now, the trick is to get A.J. and Jeff to run
great on the same day so we can have a chance at beating the very best
teams. At Peoria Notre Dame, Jeff ran outstanding to finish in 15:15
while A.J. was just solid in 15:22. At Palatine A.J. had the great
race (14:45) while Jeff just ran solid (15:01). Imagine what the
team can look like if they both run 14:45-14:50 on the same day! We
can make that happen on the right day.
The other
trick we need to pull is getting our #5 runner right on top of Larson when
he has his best day. Gregorio (15:05) and Wojdyla (15:10) are both
on extreme upswings as they continue their breakout years. I love
nothing more than a top notch sophomore during the championship part of
the season, and I know that Anthony can get up with A.J. and Jeff.
Does anybody reading this who knows Ryan "Wo-Ho" Wojdyla believe what is
happening? Dilla has the magic this season, and he continues to
astound. Every year our program produces one of these guys, and my
pride in his emergence knows no bounds. What a testament to hard
work and belief in oneself.
The other fun thing
about this season is seeing our guys compete to get into the top 7.
Reuben held that spot with a 15:29, but Smith (15:43), Bethke (15:43),
McGough (15:45), Johnson (15:47), and Meincke (15:51) are hot on his tail.
Any one of those guys could taper big and get way up in the mix. It
is a luxury to have so much depth at our disposal. This will also
serve us well as we try to win all three levels of the MSL for the second
year in a row.
Conant Dual - Palatine wins 18-38
There
isn't much to report on this one as we were able to get past Conant
without running three of our top five guys. I challenged the JV and
back end of our top seven to go out and get us a win, and they certainly
got it done. The lead pack of Jeff Larson, A.J. Laskowske, Reuben
Frey, and Ryan Wojdyla finished 1-2-3-4 as all four ran course PR's
ranging from 15:28-15:30. Erik Bethke broke 16:00 for the fifth time
to serve as our 5th man. Conant was able to put four guys in front
of him though and served notice that they will have some tough men to
contend with in the near future.
September 20, 2009 - Pirates Place 2nd at Peoria
Notre Dame
We knew that Loyola Academy would provide us with a stern
test on Saturday, and after the race I am not sure we could have done much
more to beat them on this day. We certainly did not run our best
race, but they delivered the best performance in the history of this
Invite in my mind: 14:35, 14:42, 14:45, 15:05, 15:37 is incredibly good
for September 19. The final margin was 79-133. We outdistanced
third place Oak Park-River Forest (158) by 25 points, but that is also
deceiving because they had a young man win the F/S race in 15:31.
Had he been in the varsity race, we would have ended up in a tie.
We had more bright spots than not, but three of our top
four can run significantly better. Both Alec and Chano need to do
more for us up top (especially Chano), and I think A.J. was still a bit
off after being sick for much of the preceding week. Jeff Larson's
race was the brightest spot - he ran 15:15 to record a massive PR and show
that he is ready to step up and take his running toward an All-State
level. He will keep coming as we head toward the taper.
Sophomore Anthony Gregorio recorded a 15:27 in his first varsity invite
ever and ended up as our fifth man. Ryan Wojdyla (15:44) and Reuben
Frey (15:56) ran solid races as our 6th and 7th to give us all seven guys
under 16:00.
I think our finish was absolutely impacted by the way I
had us run the race and by the events preceding the race. We just
looked flat in the second half of the race and part of that comes from how
hard we attacked in the opening and middle. Our guys probably were
out over their heads, but I like it that way in September. Chano and
Alec (2:15), Jeff (2:17), A.J. and Anthony (2:19), and Wo-Ho and Reuben
(2:23) all overcooked the first 800 a bit, but those are the splits
they'll need to be able to run in the state meet so that doesn't bother
me.
All of our guys were under 5:00 at the mile with our
lead three being through in 4:47-4:49. We came by the 1 1/2 mark
with our top five all under 15:00 pace, but we still weren't winning the
race as a team. Loyola had their #4 right on Larson while Chano and
Alec failed to make the jump to get into the lead group of 9 guys.
Had they moved to get with Loyola's #3 their races may have turned out
differently. Certainly, they will need to be more assertive and get
in the right competitive groups from now on. It was a bit
disappointing to see two veteran CC guys miss a break like that. We
had Loyola's #5 by a lot in the back loop, but he closed up on our guys by
the finish. Anthony only got him by 10 seconds and that wasn't
enough to make up for losses at all four of the other scoring positions.
Fremd Dual - Varsity Boys Keep the Streak Behind 5 in
Top 7
Our guys put the pedal to the
metal and the race became a very fast one from the gun. We had 8
guys by the mile in 5:01 or better and 15 under 5:06. The strategy
worked. We threw a couple of Fremd's top six, Ricketts and Smaga, off the
back of the real race by that point and isolated Fremd's top four against
our top seven. We had our back end barrel in the second mile, and we
had seven in the top eight by just past the two mile mark. I shut
Bollman and Chano down with 800 meters left, but to Fremd's credit they
never shut it down and competed all the way into the line.
Fremd's Spiros Angelakos is a very tough runner, and we
knew he would be a tough customer in this dual meet. He clawed his
way back into the race and caught not only our #3, Jeff Larson, but went
up and passed Andy Mack, Fremd's #1, on the way into the finish.
Coach Bruce told me that no Fremd guy had ever run under 15:40 on this
course, and two of them would do so on this day as he and Mack finished in
15:35 and 15:39. Still, it was not enough. Alec and Chano
finished in twin 15:31's while we shut the door behind them very quickly:
Larson 15:43, Laskowske 15:48, and Gregorio 15:52. The score ended
up Palatine 21, Fremd 38 with us going 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10. Reuben
Frey ran a beautiful race to not only hold off their #4 guy, but also to
secure a spot on our PND trip. Jeff Larson also ran an admirable
race as he tried to distance himself from Fremd's kickers. Ryan
Wojdyla also ran a great race to nearly catch Aaron Ferst, who was Fremd's
#3 runner on this day. Overall, we took it to them, dictated the
pace of the race, and ended up with a big win.
September 12,
2009 - Results from Hoffman Dual and The Palatine
Hoffman is always a team to be
respected, especially since they have pumped out a number of tough front
runners in recent years. They returned Kyle Gonzales, 13th in the
MSL last year and a 9:40s two miler, so we wanted to be ready to meet his
challenge. Our race plan was to follow for the first mile and then
try and run under 5:00 for the second mile. Gonzales let a couple of
his teammates lead through a pedestrian 5:35 first mile before we opened
it up.
We shot to a 1-6 lead just after the mile,
and our guys kept pulling away as we crushed the second mile. Chano
split a 4:49 to lead the charge, and it became apparent in the back loop
that Gonzales' fitness was not where it has been in the past. He
faded as our guys kept charging and we ended up 1-10 by the end.
Ryan Wojdyla and Justin Smith continued their runs of success by finishing
in 15:52 and 15:57, and our split from 1-5 looked pretty: Chano 15:27,
Bollman 15:36, Larson 15:43. Wojdyla 15:52, and Smith 15:57 for a 30
second gap. Note as well that Laskowske sat out sick and that
Gregorio ran in the under-level race. That probably puts our gap at
30 seconds 1-7. Obviously, Chano and Alec can run much faster (they
both ran slower than at Hinsdale on a short course), but I also think our
back end can turn it way up. To become a really dangerous team, that
split needs to be in the 20-30 second range when our front runners are at
their best. I think we can do it.
September 7, 2009 - Hinsdale Results and More
Pictures
We had a solid meet today at the
Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invite. We placed fourth on the sophomore
level, second on the varsity level, and fourth in the freshmen race.
Overall, the meet was very fast this year with fifteen guys under 15:50 in
the varsity race. Aaron Beattie of Neuqua Valley won the varsity
race in 15:08 while Mike Fahey of Glenbard East took the sophomore race in
15:56. The freshman race was very fast and deep. We had eight
guys run 12:00 or better and got fourth. Our frosh ran way faster
than most every class we've taken there in nine years but walked away
without a trophy.
I was really pleased with our
overall effort. Our varsity ran well. Any time that we have
four to five guys under 16:00 at this meet, we end up in contention for a
state trophy. Other than 2004's great run (minus Finley), this team
probably performed better than any of our other squads. We finished
in 15:24, 15:25, 15:30, 15:57, and 16:01 and got beaten by 20 points.
My conclusion? We are good, but Neuqua is just better at this point
in the season. Hopefully we can give them a better run when we meet
again.
September 3, 2009 - Boys Sweep Wheeling to Pick Up
First Win
We finally got to compete on
Tuesday night after another long summer of training, and the results were
impressive on both levels. The varsity boys swept the first 16 spots
to achieve a perfect score of 15-50 while our F/S won handily behind the
1-2 finish of Tim Meincke and Tim Johnson. After a rather hilarious
and embarrassing detour on the course, our girls varsity also managed to
go 1-6 and win the race. We roll into action again on Saturday at
the powerful Hinsdale Hornet-Red Devil Invite against national and state
power Neuqua Valley. There should be good races on all levels.
