Best Bowler - Brian Sund took this award with a stellar 410 series that included games of 152, 123, and 135.  Second place went to Anthony Gregorio (398 - 109, 152, 137) while third place went to yours truly 390 (115, 141, 134).  I need to work on my game!
	Best Game - Tyler Squeo hasn't been to practice much this week, but he can sure bowl.  He rolled a 177 in his third and final game to take best game honors.
	Worst Bowler - Erik Bethke is by far the worst bowler.  His three game series of 178 (43 - 74 - 61) was only one pin better than Squeo's best single game.
	Worst Game - Harmeet Bawa welcome to your 36.  I once saw my brother Chad bowl a 110 from his wheelchair while rolling the ball down a ramp.  Congrats?
	Best Team - In the end Thug Life was just too much.  Ryan McGough appears to have spent some time at the bowling alley while growing up in Algonquin, and the spirit was so strong on this team that even Chano broke 100 in his final game (110 to be exact).  He thinks this might be a Mexican national record, but we are still trying to verify that at the time of this posting.  Even Kyle Norris got in the action to record a clutch 127 in his final game.  Their total pinfall was 1568.
	Worst Team - This dubious honor goes out to the cleverly named Jew-Man Group.  Alberti's crew of yarmulke-clad warriors just couldn't get the job done.  They carded a less-than-stellar 1351 .  The highest game for this entire crew was a 106 by Adam Vanderweil.

MSL Jim Nagel Invite - Bollman's Twin 800s Highlight Solid Night

As a full team we have a lot of work to do.  We placed 9th out of 11 teams with only 32 1/3 points and will need to be much more competitive and together as a team.  I hope that our weak showing as a group will serve as a wake-up call.  With so many guys hurt and others coming back from other sports we still have a lot of room to improve.

4 x 800 meter relay - I wasn't sure if we would send a relay team to the IPTT meet even if we qualified, but I wanted us to run under the 8:17.0 standard anyway.  I put our fastest four in here as well, and I was also hoping to pull off the win.  Neither Prospect nor Hersey ran their best four, but we ran a solid race to take the win in 8:12.  Ryan McGough led off in a ton of traffic as they ran one heat of 11 teams on the four lane Lewis track.  He split 2:05, but spent most of his time getting jostled and thrown around.  No one ran particularly well for any team on leadoff, and we quickly got in the thick of things with a nice PR leg from Chano Bernardo.  His 2:04.2 split brought us to the lead, and sophomore Tim Meincke had the responsibility of running a huge PR and keeping the lead.  Hersey and Prospect zoomed past us, but Tim stayed composed and dropped 3.5 seconds from his PR to finish in 2:07.3.  Here is where the real action started.  Alec hit the 200 in 27.7 but was under control and he came through the 400 in 57.3.  From there he stayed in rhythm, reeling in Hersey's anchor leg with 80 meters to go.  His scorching 1:56.2 split was a career best and showed that his speed is really starting to come around. 

3200 meter run - We had a great opportunity to improve times and compete in this one, but it just didn't happen.  Neither Anthony Gregorio nor Ryan Wojdyla had a good race, and both guys ended up out of the places and nowhere near their season bests.  Back to the drawing board.

800 meter run - Zach Gates had been sick much of the week, but he came back after one day of practice and set a new PR of 2:08.3 in the slower of the two sections.  He placed second in the race.  In the faster section Alec ran one of his better races ever to finish second in 1:59.4.  He was the only guy in the field doubling back from the 3200 relay, and I was incredibly impressed with his poise and competitiveness on 25 minutes of rest.  He couldn't quite hang with a fresh Angelos Karkalis, but Alec did well to fend off a couple of late charges from Prospect's Albert Ciolek.

1600 meter run - Our results in this one were mixed.  I had Chano come back after his sweet 4 x 800 meter leg, but I could tell right from the start that he was not right.  He grimaced his way through a 32 second opening lap, and I thought about yanking him.  He finished in 4:38 with a bit of an injured ankle.  I feared the worst, but it seems like he just had some tendon inflammation after his first race and didn't tell me about it.  The better story here was Tim Johnson's continued improvement.  Again, he put himself in the race through 1200 meters with Schaumburg's Pat Lesiewicz, Meadows' Photis Karkalis, and Prospect's Ken Halloran.  He hung gamely off the back of this top crew until 400 meters to go before hanging on and running 4:31.8.  Schaumburg's Mike Perry caught him right at the line, but I'll take a 5th place PR finish from a sophomore who only lost to seniors.     

Glenbrook South Triangular - Freshmen Drop Times in 1600 Fight

I sat a number of our better guys out of this one to keep them from being over-raced.  I'll just comment on the best efforts of the day.

1000 meter run - One of my goals for Ryan McGough is to see him improve as a distance runner and not pigeonhole himself as a 400/800 specialist.  His race here was a step in the right direction as he seized control of the race with a 31 second final 200 and cruised away to win in 2:43.  That is an eight second drop from his time a month ago.  Lucas Roehrborn also had a nice race in running a 2:53 in his first 1000 ever.  I'm expecting a nice drop in that 1600 time sometime soon from him.

1600 meter run - We make this race the emphasis each time we go to this meet, and this time was no different.  In the fastest heat, Zach Gates placed second in a big indoor PR of 4:48 and was followed shortly by Ryan Wojdyla in 4:49.9.  Zach still gets too comfortable in the middle of races, but he is gaining confidence and coming on quickly.  Drew Shaler also broke 5:00 for the first time this season.

In section two, we ran all of our freshmen against one another, and Zach Stella ended up being the star of the show.  He ran 4:59.9 to get under 5:00 for the first time this track season and was followed by Christian Zambrano (5:04), Brian Smith (5:07), Jordan Jarrett (5:09), Adam Vanderweil (5:09), Mundeep Bawa (5:14), Andrew Clingerman (5:20), and Harmeet Bawa (5:29).  We don't have a star in this group yet, but the depth keeps coming on.  I'm hoping we have 6-7 guys under 5:00 by the end of the season.    

We only ran one man in section three, and Matt Szablowski fit right in to our group by winning his first high school race ever in what was his first high school 1600.  He led the entire way and recorded a very impressive 5:18.  I definitely can see Matt breaking 5:00 by the end of the year, and I hope that he starts to see he may have a future in running.

March 13, 2010 - Distance Improvements Continue to Pile Up

We always have two meets on this weekend, and for most of our guys it is their best chance to run a fast time during the indoor season.  We run a competitive quad against Proviso, Lyons Township, and Prospect on Friday night on Proviso's 200 meter track, and then our frosh-soph squad comes back the next day to run in the MSL F/S Invite at Rolling Meadows.  I am extremely pleased with our improvement.  Recent runs and workouts suggest that we are fit from top to bottom, and we just got the snow off of our track.  As we add sharpness, the great times are going to come on both levels.

For our track team as a whole, we finally started to see some incremental gains across all event areas.  LaQuan "Q" Bailey had a fantastic night, clearing 6' 4" in the high jump, Chad Bobbit threw 49' in the shot put in his first meet back from basketball, and David DiCristofano jumped over 20' in the long jump for the first time.

Performance Lists - I updated our Distance Leaderboards to reflect all of our times from the weekend.  Our primary emphasis was on improving our 3200 meter times, and we can consider that mission accomplished.  The 3200 team race at Proviso didn't yield any stellar single time from the group (outside of Bollman's clearly strong 9:35.6), but it did set a solid early season bar for our guys to move beyond.

Proviso East Quadrangular - Bollman, Bailey, 4 x 400 Relay Achieve IPTT Standards

We have been debating about whether we want to go to the IPTT indoor meet in two weeks.  A number of guys grabbed qualifiers tonight so it is starting to look a bit more realistic.  If we qualify a 4 x 800 crew next week it could be worth the trip.

4 x 800 meter relay - I gave Kendall Cox a prime role in this relay after his solid 1:33 600 meter run last week, and he provided a solid PR anchor to a nice effort.  We won in 8:30 behind solid splits from Ryan McGough (2:04.9), Chano Bernardo (2:06), Zach Gates (2:09), and the aforementioned Cox (2:10).  We are finally going to assemble our best crew next weekend at the varsity MSL indoor meet.

3200 meter run - I stacked this race with most of our varsity cross country team in an effort to get a bunch of guys under 10:00.  I also put Alec Bollman in here with the goal of running sub-9:30.  He wanted to get out in 4:45, but that didn't happen as the early pace lagged and the top crew of Photis Karkalis from Meadows, Ken Halloran from Prospect, and Holt from LT hit the 1600 around 4:47-4:49.  Karkalis took off and gapped the field sometime in the next 800 meters, and I was a bit disappointed that Alec didn't try to cover the move.  As they went into the last 400, Halloran came on with a head of steam and put a charge into Alec with 150 meters to go.  Bollman kicked hard from there to finish in 9:35.6.  In the end Bols only lost by three seconds to an impressive 9:32.2 effort from Karkalis.  Halloran also recorded a huge PR in 9:38-9:39.

Behind the front pack we attempted to send 7-8 guys out together in 4:55.  The group got complacent early in the second 800, though, and hit the mile at 4:59.  I was hoping for a negative split race from there, but we just didn't look as crisp as I thought we might.  The group kind of "paced it rather than raced it."  Still, the strategy paid off as a whole because a ton of guys took the lead and forced pace and really worked together.  Holding the group together through 1 1/2 miles sacrificed some upside times for several in our crew, but it also assured everyone in the group of a good time.  In the end Tim Johnson was our #2 man in a 55 second PR of 10:03 and change.  He was followed by Ryan Wojdyla (Sr - 10:06), Anthony Gregorio (So - 10:08), Reuben Frey (Jr - 10:12), A.J. Laskowske (Jr - 10:13), Tim Meincke (So - 10:19), and Jeff Larson (Sr - 10:20).  If you take out the seniors, we run a 16 second 1-5 man split on the core of next year's CC team.  I really think that several of these guys could have run considerably faster in a more aggressive race, but I have rarely had this many guys near 10:00 at this time in a track season.  As we add faster work and more races, those times are going to drop dramatically.  Great group effort guys!

In the F/S section, we had to stash a couple of our older guys since the varsity heat was too big.  Erik Bethke ended up taking the win in 10:54 and was followed in short order by Christian Zambrano (Fr - 10:59), Tirth Patel (Sr - 11:01), and Adam Vanderweil (Fr - 11:05).  Mundeep Bawa also ran a great race to chop 35 seconds off his previous PR.  He finished in 11:23.

800 meter run - Due to our 3200/1600 emphasis, I only ran Andrew Clingerman and Alvaro Colin in this event.  Andrew recorded a 2:15 in his first ever open 800 and managed to place 6th overall in the varsity competition.  Andrew is going to be quite the 400-600-800 guy as he gains experience.  Alvaro finished in 2:31.

600 meter dash - Drew Shaler chose to run this race for the first time in his career and was able to run a solid 1:33.2.  That should translate into continued improvement for his 800/1600 times.  The other exciting thing about this race was the emergence of three new freshmen.  Jordan Jarrett ran a highly competitive 1:36 in his first high school race while Rob Hank trailed closely behind in 1:38.  Matt Szablowski also looked solid in his 1:41 effort.  All three of these freshmen will add a lot by the end of the year as they get into better racing shape.  All three have only been out a week.

1600 meter run - Chano was doubling back in this race and attempting to break 4:30 for the first time in his career.  Angelos Karkalis from Meadows was in here gunning for a time, though, and the pace was jacked from the start.  The lead came through in 61.4 and Chano was out in 64.4.  He doesn't usually handle early speed so well, and he ran some backsliding splits en route to a lifetime best of 4:33.2.  He placed fourth behind Karkalis, Sam Telfer from LT (4:27) and Chris Spudic from Prospect (4:30).

The other two great races in the varsity section came from Marcus Garcia and Lucas Roehrborn.  Marcus is a bit injury prone and has been on the shelf as of late, but he is a ferocious competitor who battled to a 4:46 clocking.  Not bad for a sophomore in only his second track race!  Lucas is also returning from injury and his 4:51 was only a couple of tenths off of his outdoor PR from last year.  The rest of our varsity struggled a bit.  McGough and Gates looked less than fresh doubling back from the 3200 relay, and Erich Kuerschner struggled with some dizziness and illness.  In the exhibition heat, we did get a nice 5:01 from Brian Sund in his return from an ankle injury.

In the F/S race Peter Tomkiewicz competed for the win with a lot of fire and ended up with a second place finish and a nice 4:54 lifetime PR.  Peter's long runs and workouts have been great over the last three weeks, and it's sweet to see his work starting to pay off.  Another young man who is just discovering his talent is Zach Stella.  He laid off the pace way too far in the first 800 meters, but he came on in the second half of the race to run a lifetime PR of 5:02.  Brian Smith went out hard after it in his first race back from basketball, and I loved his aggression en route to a 5:09.  Give him a couple weeks of running and those times will drop quickly.  Other big PRs were recorded by Spencer Much (5:39) and Sebastian Ramirez (5:37). 

4 x 400 meter relay - We had to take some lumps in the 400 and 200 as we stacked our 4 x 400 relay for a run at IPTT automatic qualifying.  We needed to run 3:32.0 to get in automatically.  Kyle Marrison was a bit bit overzealous with a 24.6 first 200, but he hung on gamely to finish in 53.7.  Terry Halloran ran the great split for us on second leg (Telly Halloran's old stomping ground by the way) as he moved us to the lead in a huge career best of 52.1.  Dan Schweikert lost the lead just past the 200, but he fought hard to get the stick to Alec just a step behind LT.  Bollman had to fire hard after LT's sprinter anchor, and he ended up ceding the lead at the 200 meter mark.  He built on him down the backstretch and catapulted off of the last turn to come by on the outside and win the race.  His 52.7 leg brought us home in 3:32.5.  That time will probably get us into the IPTT meet.  Bols' 52.7 split is a solid improvement over his 54.0 indoor best from last year at this meet. 

MSL F/S Invite at Rolling Meadows - Distance Crew Piles Up the Points

We ran all five of our best sophomores in fresh individual events in this one after they all ran hard the night before at Proviso.  Our goals were a bit ambitious considering the MSL competition: we wanted to win the 3200, 800, and 1600 runs.  In the end our adversaries from Barrington made that impossible, but we gave it a good run.

4 x 800 meter relay - I use this relay each year to get a bunch of developmental guys into another race, and this year was no different.  I ran four freshmen in here, and they managed to place fourth in 9:30.  Zach Stella dropped his 800 meter PR three more seconds down to 2:17, and he was supported by Adam Vanderweil (2:26), Christian Zambrano (2:23), and Brian Smith (2:22).  All four of these guys learned something about the intensity of running the 800, and it was great experience for all of them to feel the intensity of MSL competition.

3200 meter run - This race was a bit denuded of competition since so many of the best guys chose to run the 1600 instead.  That opened the door for Peter and Marcus to go 1-2, and they walked right through.  Their 10:24 and 10:27 clockings are the fastest times I have ever had guys run at this meet.  They got a game challenge from Barrington's tough frosh Ryan Burgoon, but our guys managed to work together and put some distance on him from 600 meters to go.  More importantly, these two times would have put both these guys in the 10:10-10:20 range had they been in the team race on Friday night.  That gives us seven returnees between 10:03 and 10:27.  Not bad for March 13.

800 meter run - Tim Johnson doesn't have a lot of experience running the open 800 so it was about time for him to get a big dose of it.  He did.  The pace lagged as no one really wanted to go for it, and Tim sat behind it rather than pushing (probably on some distance coach's bad advice...okay my fault).  When the move from Barrington's Nolan Wojtowicz came just past the 400 meters, he wasn't able to snap his speed like Nolan and Hersey's Chris Colletto.  Timmy J ended up third in a PR of 2:10.8, but he certainly can run much better and more competitively the next time around.

400 meter dash - Andrew Clingerman's 57.0 from last week got him into the fastest of five heats, and he made good on this seed time by finishing third overall in the conference as a frosh.  More importantly he equaled his PR from earlier on a smaller and tighter track.  Rob Hank also had a nice debut in this race, winning his heat in 61.1.

1600 meter run - This race was certainly the highlight distance event of the day.  Meincke and Gregorio matched up against Barrington's super soph Eric Peterson (4th in MSL varsity cross), BG's Jereme Atchison (CC state qualifier) and Taras Didenko (10:00 3200 guy as a frosh), and Hersey's stellar frosh Robert Somary (4:41 last week at York).  The race was actually quite comical because all of these guys have nice pedigrees, but none of them seemed to know what to do in the opening part of a big race against one another.  They all kind of fumbled through the 400 in 72 before coming through the 800 in a rather lackluster 2:25.  Hersey's Tim Phillips and I had a good laugh about how everyone looked so out of place being "the guy."  Trust me, all of these MSL guys will know how to be that guy before long.  In the end, Peterson moved with great authority at the 1000 meter mark to gap the field.  The 10 meter gap he built right there lasted the entire rest of the race as Tim Meincke could never get back to within more than 5 meters the rest of the way.  Gregorio and Atchison waged a spirited battle (one fought many times before in CC) as they finished in a near dead heat.  Anthony ended up 4th in 4:50 while Meincke's 4:48 was good for 2nd.

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. 

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.

Above: Anthony Gregorio is honored as one of the ten best frosh-soph runners in the Midwest Regional.  He had the 9th best frosh-soph time on the day.