April 27, 2010 - Pirates Win Varsity and F/S MSL West Titles

We had a really great team night on Monday as we won both the varsity and F/S titles in the six team MSL West meet.  More to come in the next day or so...  I did update the leaderboards with some new PRs so you might be able to figure out how some things went.

April 25, 2010 - Too Much Track: Results from Four Meets in Five Days

I never thought I could approach a track breaking point, but this week might have been it.  We had four meets in five days due to a couple of F/S meets thrown in on Monday and Wednesday.  On top of that, my wife and I sold our town house and began to frantically look for somewhere else to live.  Oh yeah...my kids are throwing up and sick.  Up next is the MSL West Division meet tomorrow night at Conant.  Come out and watch the boys try to win the regular season MSL West title.

Performance Lists - We had a ton of all-time bests and season bests this week.  I'm pretty sure I captured everything in the updated distance leaderboards.

Alumni Updates - It's been on the LetsRun.com message board since yesterday, but Steve Finley's University of Virginia 4 x 800 meter relay team won the Penn Relays and ran the fastest time in the world this year.  He ran third leg in a shade over 1:50 and then got the stick to freshman sensation Robbie Andrews, who kicked down 2008 800 meter Olympian Andrew Wheating of Oregon to take the win.  I included the FloTrack video of the race below.  In other news, Coach Miller told me that Mat Smoody ran 48.36 in the open 400 meters this weekend at ISU and was also on their winning 4 x 400 team.  This shows that Mat is ready to run that first breakout 800 meters of his collegiate career. 

Finman the Younger also gets some interview time in the post-game.  Check it out:

This one's a bit more informal, but a lot more fun.  Just think about how much fun it would be to win a stacked 4 x 800 in front of 20,000 fans who had shown up to see Usain Bolt run!

Wheaton Warrenville Red Grange Invite - Bollman, Meincke Run to 1600 Meter Wins

4 x 800 meter relay - Per our usual, we gave our JV guys a chance to run in this relay as our front-line runners went after seed times and PRs with fresh legs.  We ran in the 8:40s with some solid efforts.  Drew Shaler's 2:08 split was the top time of the evening.

3200 meter run - We scratched Tim Johnson from the A heat here due to a tender hamstring so that basically imploded our lineup.  Tim is fine and will run on Monday, but his absence resulted in Anthony Gregorio moving up to A, Ryan Wojdyla jumping into the B heat, and A.J. Laskowske retaining the C spot in his first race back from a stubborn quad injury.  A.J. was able to get through the 1600 in 5:02 before it became apparent that he simply lacks the fitness and sharpness he needs to break 10:00.  He faded to 10:27 and 4th place, but seemed to recover well afterward and show little effect from his injury. 

Ryan Wojdyla had a great chance to win his heat, but ran out of gas in the last 800 meters after pushing pace in the third half mile.  He hit the 1600 mark in 4:56 among a group of five leaders.  I yelled at him to push pace and try to break them, but he just couldn't get rid of them before the kick started.  He hit the 2400 mark in 7:27 before scratching and clawing all the way to the line to get third in a new PR of 9:59.4.  Everyone who ever thought Dilla would break 10:00 should raise their hand proudly.  It'll be a small crowd.

The fast heat was a bit of a weird race for Anthony since it lacked a good group of middle-class racers.  One of the Waterman twins from Wheaton North battled it out with Naperville North's Bob Guthrie as the pair ran right on the meet record.  I'm pretty sure that Waterman broke it by .01 of a second in running 9:20 while Guthrie was a close second in 9:23.  Anthony did well to stay out of that race early on, and he came from behind nicely to get up for fourth place in a new PR of 9:52.  His splits were a solid 4:51-4:59, and I was really proud of his patience and mid-race perseverance.  He had a great mid-9:40s clocking going until the last half.  Hopefully we can add the finish as we sharpen up.

800 meter run - I screwed things up in this one.  This meet has gone C-B-A in its heat order every year that I have gone, but it turns out that they inverted it to A-B-C this year.  I had Marcus Garcia heading to the line getting ready to compete in the C heat when all of a sudden I see him running frantically across the field.  He figured that all of the big and fast- looking kids were not a part of his race.  He was right.  Ryan McGough sprinted across the field tearing his sweats off as he went as Sheehan tried to stop the starter.  Ryan got about 5 seconds of relief on the line before the gun.   Disaster should have ensued, but McGough still managed a 2:01.2 lifetime PR.  He wasn't able to compete at the front end of the race like we'd hoped, but I was proud that he could run so well despite my blatant mistake.

In the B race, Zach Gates got spiked really badly at the 120 meter mark and never really recovered from the shock.  He still had the shoe-print of a fellow competitor outlined on his quad the next morning.  He managed a 2:07 time that got him an earful from some mean coach, but I hope that he earned a valuable lesson about positioning.  Those gaps that stay open on the F/S level get closed a lot quicker in a varsity race.  In the C division, I gave Marcus Garcia a shot even though he had never broken 2:14.0 this season.  He came through with a nice 2:09.0 PR that should bode well for his near future in the 1600 and 3200 meter races, which are his specialty.

1600 meter run - Alec and I have talked all season about developing a variety of race strategies so that he is prepared for championship racing.  I wanted him to take this on level 64 second splits from the gun to 3:12, but it just didn't happen.  The weather was perfect, but Alec just wasn't ready yet to run that kind of pace from the gun all by himself.  He hit the 400 in 65, gapped the field with a 66 (2:11.1), but then settled in a bit much in hitting 3:17.4 at the 1200 meter mark.  By that point, Waterman from Wheaton North had caught him, and he had Prospect's Albert Ciolek in tow.  What ended up materializing was a near repeat of last year where Alec held off Waterman in a race all the way to the line and won in 4:23.9.  The good news is that he repeated the feat this year, but in 4:17.8 (4:18.01 FAT).  Neither of us was blown away by the race tactics, but I was very proud of his competitive spirit.  Alec is clearly in better form at every checkpoint than a year ago, and he ran 4:16.8 and 4:18.1 in the IHSA State Prelim and Final then.  Hopefully, I can help him to peak out just as hard and go for even bigger hardware this year.  There's still 4-5 weeks left so a lot can happen in what is always one of the best events of the AAA boys meet.

In the B and C divisions, we were trying to complete the sweep.  I wanted Chano Bernardo to go after the field at level 66-67 pace, but he was much too passive and gave the race away to a quartet of kickers with lagging laps of 68-71 for a 2:19 800 meter split.  The rest of the race played out like too many Chano races - a valiant middle surge that was easily covered and immediately followed by a frenetic kick that he can rarely match.  Chano needs to run to his strength in these races to have a shot to win.  In the C heat, Tim Meincke chilled through 600 meters before I gave him a verbal nudge to get out of the pack and take the lead.  He promptly did that and proceeded to string out the field to the 1300 meter mark.  A couple of athletes made a game run at him from that point on, but Monkey withstood all charges to take the win in 4:36, tying his season best.

Other - We didn't hit the ball out of the park as a whole, but a number of great efforts stood out.  For me, Mykyta Cheshko's 6' 3" and 21' 9 1/4" double in the high jump and the long jump was our performance of the meet.  Mykyta pulled the Bob Beamon-style PR as he had never jumped over 20' and completely jumped over that mark to nearly get into the 22' range.  He placed second in the A level in both events.  Some other good marks included a 23.4 placing effort from junior Will Stein in the 200 meter dash and six medals for our throwers in the shot put and discus.  I don't think that any of them set PRs, but medals in all three divisions of each were quite impressive.  On the track, Eric Debellis managed a medal in the 110 high hurdles with a lifetime best while we had a nice season best of 44.5 in the 4 x 100 relay. 

Libertyville F/S Relays - Four Super Sophs Demolish 30 Year Old 4 x 1600 Record

4 x 1600 meter relay - We set out to break the meet record in this race even when we had no idea what it was.  When we got to the meet, it turned out that the record was 18:55 by a quartet of Libertyville runners in 1980.  That meant our foursome of Tim Johnson, Marcus Garcia, Anthony Gregorio, and Tim Meincke would have to average 4:44 per guy with much of the race being run time-trial style and out in space.  Their orders were to run level 70 second splits until a lap to go and then try to kick from there.  The first three executed to perfection.  Johnson hit the 1200 in 3:30 before turning in a 64 second split to finish in 4:34.9.  Marcus was up next, hitting splits of 2:21 and 3:32 en route to a finishing 4:44.9.  Anthony Gregorio put a great charge into breaking 4:40 for the first time as he aggressively charged to 3:28 before finishing in 4:40.9.  Tim Meincke got a little ambitious with a 66 second opening circuit and he suffered through a 74 second third lap before recovering nicely to run 4:42.3.  Our time of 18:42 destroyed an old record and shows once again what a special group of sophomores we have.  We are so good right now that our #5 man - Peter Tomkiewicz - was left off the relay even though he ran 4:48 the night before.  Congrats!  I should soon have a picture of the guys (courtesy of Steve Johnson).

4 x 800 meter relay - I was hoping to pull off the distance double with an entirely fresh crew of guys in this one, and our boys did not disappoint.  Zach Stella led off in 2:10, and we didn't look back from there.  Peter ran 2:15 to extend our lead on second leg, and then got it to Christian Zambrano and Jordan Jarrett, who ran 2:15 and 2:14 splits, respectively.  Our time ended up being 8:55.

1600 medley relay - Andrew Clingerman anchored this one for us in an okay 2:13, but we got beaten from the gun in this one.  Freshman Rob Hank ran a PR 55.7 on leadoff, but was smoked by a frosh-soph guy from Waukegen who ran 50.8!  We ended up fourth overall.

Other - We set the shot put relay record for this meet with a solid 121' 8" total distance.  It's only the second year that they have done the field events relay style, but we'll take it.  The highlight throw of the night was certainly Prentice Brooks' big PR of 42' 9".  He should be a force for us in the weights over the next couple of years.  He also recorded a 106' 6" discus toss as we placed fourth in that event.  Our other sterling performer was Andre Adams who was solid in the long and high jumps, but also popped a 37' 9" effort in his first attempt at the triple jump. 

Conant, Rolling Meadows Triangular - PR Avalanche Highlights Great Night for Running

4 x 800 meter relay - We ran a lineup in here that gave a couple of guys shots to earn MSL Division spots.  Both Lucas Roehrborn and Kendall Cox responded by setting new PRs of 2:08 and 2:09.  The other highlight of the relay was that John Pasowicz finally dipped under the 2:30 mark for the first time in his career with a scorching 2:28.2 final leg that pulled us all the way up into...well, a PR anyway. 

3200 meter run - McGough and Gates weren't sure if I was being mean or making them pay penance for some past distance-running sin, but I entered both of them in the 3200 for the second time in three weeks.  The 800 meter specialists don't ever understand that all they need to do is run something respectable (Brian McLain, if you're out there lurking in State Department land, I still am looking for one from you) in the 3200 meter run.  McGough decided that he'd earn only fast guy spots the rest of the year by running a mostly solo 10:10 effort that demolished his 10:28 PR.  Zach Gates also got me off of his back (as in, how does a 4:41 1600 guy who runs cross country run 10:51?) with a nice new PR of 10:23.  Drew Shaler also proved to be a man after my heart by not only volunteering to run this race, but also by knocking a bunch of time off of his PR to finish in 10:25.  Matt Szablowksi wasn't so happy either about running his first 3200 race, but I love his competitiveness, and he battled the whole way to an 11:00 clocking that gives us 5 freshman at that mark or better.  Other PRs included Eddie Kovach (11:31), Harmeet Bawa (11:40), and Spencer Much (11:53).

800 meter run - Ryan Wojdyla doesn't get a chance to run an open 800 much, but he responded on this night with a nice 2:07.2 clocking that suffered just a bit from over-aggression early-on.  Brian Sund also ran a solid 2:11 PR.  The other highlight PR was Brian Smith who joined a club of seven freshman with PRs in the 2:10-2:16 range. 

1600 meter run - We had a number of guys run well in this race, but Reuben Frey's solo 4:39 might have been the race of the night.  Meadows' Photis Karkalis and Conant's Sean Reddington battled up at the front, and Reuben was left alone to run level 69-70 pace the whole race.  His time demolished his sophomore PR of 4:50.  Lucas Roehrborn continued a series of frustration with this event as he ran his 4th or 5th career 4:50 (he later crushed that on the following Saturday with a 4:45 time trial).  Wojdyla ran a slight PR of 4:46 doubling back from the 800, and Erich Kuerschner managed to break 5:00 in his return from injury as he recorded a solid 4:57.

Other - There weren't a ton of top tier track performances on this night, but we did get some outstanding results from our throwers.  Tyler Jones crushed a 162' 9" discus throw to win the event and move to #4 on our All-Time list.  He was followed in short order by Chad Bobbit who threw 52' and change to move up to #8 on our All-Time list in the shot put.  I think that Chad, Phil Howe, and Nick Pomella also threw 148', 138' and 131' in the discus as well.  Coach Bobbit really has this group rolling this season!

Barrington Freshman Invite - 4 x 800 Emerges Victorious Among Other PRs

4 x 800 meter relay - We are really deep at the 800 meter distance on the freshman level, and we ended up winning this one by a huge amount.  Andrew Clingerman seized the lead with a sweet 2:10 split, handing off to Joe Mars 10-15 meters clear of the field.  Joe had run 2:24.0 in his only prior 800, but he demolished that mark in running a 2:15 that blew the race wide open.  From there, Matt Szablowski (2:21) and Rob Hank (2:25) ran relaxed races to hold on to a big win in 9:05.  This proved to be our only event title of the night.

3200 meter run - I ran Brian Smith and Adam Vanderweil in this one, and it turned out to be a pretty loaded field.  Stella and Zambrano had run 10:37 and 10:47 the preceding Saturday, and the goal was to advance the 3200 times of our freshmen class while also collecting some big team points.  We succeeded on the time end of things as the guys grabbed new PRs of 10:47 and 10:52, but we got outkicked badly in the last 400 meters and ended up in 7th and 8th places overall.  Neither guy was that far out of the win, actually, so more hard work will help us get better in the near future.  Barrington's tough frosh Ryan Burgoon took the win in 10:20 high or 10:30 low.  These two new PRs give us four freshmen under 10:52.

800 meter run - I had gotten on Jordan about a lack of competitiveness in his race the preceding Saturday, and I could not have been more happy with the fight he showed in this race.  He dropped his PR down to 2:14, but more importantly he ran with spirit and fire in the last 200 meters.  The Fremd kid took the lead for good at 150 meters to go, but Jordan fought hard in the last 100, kicking all the way to the line to hold off a hard charge.  Mundeep Bawa also ran a great new PR of 2:20. 

1600 meter run - One of our constant themes this year has been intelligence and patience in the first 200-300 meters of a 1600-3200 meter race.  Zach Stella and Christian Zambrano applied that theme to perfection in this race.  The race went out blasting in 30 seconds, and our guys folded into the last two spots.  Zambrano moved up nicely through the 400, though, and was joined by Stella in the 5-6 spots by the 500 meter mark.  Our even pace running paid off in the middle of the race as both our guys ran down the field.  Stella pulled briefly into second place at 300 meters to go before being outkicked.  He finished in a great new PR of 4:49.9 to finish third.  Christian followed closely on his heels to finish with a track PR of 4:56 and fourth place. 

April 18, 2010 - Results of 6 Star Invite Plus Hersey, Hoffman Triangular

It is refreshing for the calendar to turn to April and finally get to some track meets that matter.   We have been biding our time and training in preparation for these big outdoor meets, and this week is the start of our real racing season.  We have four meets in five days this week followed by the MSL West Division championship and the Palatine Relays the week after.  Two of our meets are F/S affairs this week while the varsity headliner is the always competitive Wheaton Warrenville South ABC meet.

Performance List Updates - I added all times from this week to our leaderboards.

Video and Picture Updates - I included a couple of pictures below from our signing day at Palatine.  As I mentioned last week, Alec Bollman signed a scholarship to Iowa State, and we all celebrated in a morning signing ceremony in the cafeteria.  Also below you will find a YouTube video of our indoor school record in the F/S 4 x 800 meter relay.  Thanks to Tim Meincke and his parents for the Flip camera and Liz Cox for shooting the video.

Above: Coaches Matt Sheehan, Chris Quick, and Fred Miller pose with Alec after signing.
Below: Coach John Nalley and Alec celebrate his scholarship to Iowa State.

Video: F/S 4 x 800 meter relay school record at Proviso Classic 

6 Star Invite - Tough 1600 Meter Efforts Highlight a Solid Day

Open 1600 - We take pride in the depth of our distance group, and this race is always a big opportunity to show off just how many good guys we have.  For the second year in a row, Ryan Wojdyla took the win, clocking a lifetime best 4:47.  Lucas Roehrborn ran 4:50 and change for the second time in a week while Brian Sund also set a slight PR with his 4:54.

Other PRs were turned in by Alvaro Colin (5:23 - nearly winning his race), Matt Baumgartner (5:11.8), Chris Ruston (5:47.2), Zach Scheve (5:31.8), Harmeet Bawa (5:21.2), Emanuel Rosales (5:33.7), Brian Smith (5:05.3), Matt Szablwoski (5:05.8), Adam Vanderweil (5:04.8), and Kyle Norris (6:25.3).  We now have seven freshmen under 5:10 and 29 guys total under 5:15.  We'll work in the next two weeks to get most of those guys under 5:00.

3200 meter run - This event was the story of two races.  The F/S section was inspiring while the varsity did not meet any of our expectations.  Tough winds destroyed most of the distance times all day long, but I hoped that we could still run some PRs.  We ran three freshmen in the F/S section and ended up placing 2nd, 4th, and 5th overall.  Zach Stella continued his recent upward swing with a strong 10:37 time in his first ever attempt at this event.  Despite battling with some bad knees for the last month, Christian Zambrano clocked a beautiful 10:47 to drop his PR another 13 seconds.  Mundeep Bawa also advanced his PR from 11:25 to 11:08 in another smart and tough race.

The varsity section ended up being a big mess.  Chano had been out of school mid-week after getting the flu, and he raced like he was sick.  He couldn't give much to Alec in the way of pace-setting, and Alec floundered badly in the wind.  He ended up winning in 9:49, but Chano was outkicked for fourth and ended up running 9:53.  Not our finest hour.  Reuben Frey also battled through tiredness to record a 10:15.

800 meter run - I had only tried Tim Johnson in one open 800 all year so I gave him a second opportunity, this time at the varsity level.  He placed a close third after a late surge to drop his PR down to 2:06 and change.  He will have to continue to hone his speed to get his 1600 meter time where he wants it to be.  Drew Shaler placed fifth overall in a new PR of 2:07.9 while Kendall Cox ran right on his best in 2:09.5

In the F/S section, Andrew Clingerman led wire to wire to win in 2:14.4 while Jordan Jarrett was third and tied his PR in 2:17.4.

1600 meter run - We ended up running four sophomores and two juniors in our six allotted spots, and our performances here ended up being the best of the meet.  Tim Meincke has been battling fatigue and a cough all week long, but he ran a beautifully paced race that saw him sprinting all out from 200 meters to go with Fremd's Aaron Ferst and Glenbrook South's Zack Avila.  Both of those seniors nipped him at the tape, but Tim's 4:36.7 was a five second PR.  Zach Gates and Ryan McGough hit the tape together in 4:41.2 and 4:41.0.  That was a huge season best and lifetime PR for Gates.

In the F/S section, our three sophomores battled with Taras Didenko from Buffalo Grove throughout the race.  Didenko caught a nice ride and came by Marcus and Anthony at the 400 meter to go mark.  Anthony lit up a strong kick into the last 300 meters, but couldn't get him.  We settled for 2, 3, 4 in the race with solid times: Gregorio (4:42.2), Garcia (4:45.3), and Tomkiewicz (4:50.1).  That gave us seven CC returnees at or under 4:50 on the day, and that did not include Johnson, Laskowske, and Frey (all of whom ran varsity this year).  The future looks bright.

Other - I just wanted to highlight some other performances throughout the meet for our fans.  Our best effort in any event all day was Tyler Jones' 159' throw in the discus.  Chad Bobbit (142') and Nick Pomella (131') backed him up with solid efforts.  When we include Phil Howe, that gives us four guys over 130' this season.  In the shot put, Chad Bobbit threw 50' 4", and we also got a sweet new shot PR from Prentice Brooks, who threw 42' 4" to advance his best three more feet.  In the pole vault, Hiro Hoshi cleared 11' 6" for the first time ever.

On the track, we placed second in the 4 x 400 and won the 4 x 200.  Alphonso Butera contributed on both of those relays, anchoring the 4 x 200 and subbing in for Willie Filian with a 53.1 split in the 4 x 400.  Alec Bollman recorded the fastest split in there with a 51.8.  In the open 400 we got a nice surprise when freshman Rob Hank ran 55.8.

Hersey, Hoffman Estates Triangular - 3200 Team Race Produces Many PR's

4 x 800 meter relay - I set up two strong freshman relays to run each other, but neither group really fired.  They ran 9:16 and 9:24.  A number of varsity guys got an opportunity to drop their 800 PRs, but no one really did.  We finished 3rd in 8:53.

3200 meter run - I conscripted Alec and Chano to pace out a 9:50 for their workout, and our goal was to try and end up with seven guys under 10:00 in the same race.  It didn't quite work out that way as we only ended up with two, but we gave it a great run.  Alec and Chano both gave up their 9:50 finishes by dropping back and trying to help their teammates PR in the last 800 so I was proud of their leadership.

The great news here was that both Tim Johnson (9:54.4) and Anthony Gregorio (9:55.0) broke under 10:00 for the first time.  Having two sophomores that fast at this early point of the outdoor season is a great sign of our program's health.  Behind them, we finished with Ryan Wojdyla (10:03.9) and Reuben Frey (10:07.8) in spitting distance of the mark while both Tim Meincke (10:19.3) and Peter Tomkiewicz (10:22.7) faded after being on pace.  In fact, we had seven guys through the 2400 meter mark in 7:30 or below, but Frey and Meincke just couldn't finish it off on this day. 

Behind the front guys, we ran a load of PRs.  Seniors Brian Sund (10:42) and Tirth Patel (10:49) both set personal bests while junior Lucas Roehrborn finished in 10:36.1.  Our freshmen also started to make some progress as Brian Smith (10:55.7) and Adam Vanderweil (10:59.3) both improved 12-14 seconds to get under 11:00 for the first time.  When combined with our runs from Saturday, that gives us four freshies under 11:00.

800 meter run - Neither Zach Gates nor Ryan McGough had run the open 800 in awhile, and both guys looked great going 1-2 in this one.  Ryan really put the hammer down after a 61.5 opening quarter, and he neared his lifetime best in a runaway 2:03.5 win.  Zach Gates chopped another two seconds from his PR to finish in 2:06.6.  Other PRs included Kyle Norris (2:56.1), Zach Scheve (2:34.7), Mundeep Bawa (2:23.1), and Tyler Squeo (2:45.9).

400 meter dash - Brian Sund ran our group's best time in this one with a 58.2, but the highlight race of the day had to be Peter kicking down Tony 62.7 to 63.6.  I know that drove Tony nuts, and Peter will be talking and talking and talking about it for years.

1600 meter run - The highlight in the F/S was certainly Marcus Garcia's win and return to health in 4:49.1, but I also loved Zach Stella demolishing the 5:00 barrier with a 4:54 clocking.  Other PRs included Spencer Much (5:27.7), Jordan Jarrett (5:09.1), Matt Szablowski (5:07.2), and Sebastian Ramirez (5:31.3).  Our varsity guys did not put out their best effort as many were doubling back from previous races.

4 x 400 meter relay - We won the varsity race in 3:31 and change, but the highlights from our group certainly were McGough's 53.0 PR and Alec's 51.2 anchor split.  Both looked very fresh and fast and ready to rip great 800 meter races sometime soon.

April 7, 2010 - Outdoor Track Opens with Barrington, Schaumburg Triangular

The turn away from indoor season has been a pleasant one, and our distance group has been able to get in some great work and get healthy all at the same time.  We are still training through our early triangular meets with a goal of being ready for the prime competition season that kicks off with the Wheaton South ABC meet and then continues straight into the MSL West Division meet and the Palatine Relays.  We experienced a ton of positives in our first outdoor meet while also seeing a lot of holes that will need some quick fixing if we are to achieve our team goals for the season.

I'll get to the reporting in a bit, but I just wanted to drop a quick word about Alec Bollman.  Alec signed his National Letter of Intent last week to attend Iowa State on an athletic scholarship.  I am very proud of Alec's hard work and commitment to our program, and he is a deserving scholarship recipient.  To punctuate his signing week, Alec also decided to destroy our workout record for "The Palatine."  The new mark now stands at 27:55!  If you have ever run "The Palatine," you know how difficult that is.  I'll give the full run-down and splits a bit further down, but it suffices to say that Alec now owns all three of the Grass Loop records, including a 4:50 final grass loop before a 5:07 1600 meter closer on the track.  The grass loops are exactly 1500 meters so that means he closed the last 3100 meters in 9:57.  Very wicked.  This also shows that his recent (and future) race results are no aberration.

Performance List Updates - Check out new season bests from our first outdoor meet.

Barrington, Schaumburg Triangular - Solid 800 Meter Times Headline First Meet

The team story in this meet was the continued emergence of our field event crew and the return to action of a few of our injured seniors.  Tyler Jones had a huge impact in his first meet of the year, throwing 154' in the discus and 46' 7" in the shot put.  The weight crew dominated in general with 5 guys over 40' (Chad Bobbit 49', Adam Dreger 44') and three guys over 130' in the discus (Jones 154', Howe 137', Bobbit 134').  Senior Mykyta Cheshko also got into the act, winning the high jump in 6' 1" and posting a 19' 4" jump in his first-ever long jump competition.  David DiCristofano bettered that as he launched a solid 19' 9" leap.  We also had guys clear 10' 6" and 11' 0" in the pole vault.

4 x 800 meter relay - We used this meet as a workout, and both Chano and Alec kicked off their busy night in this relay.  I had them both working on their speed by running the 4 x 800-800-400-4 x 400 combo.  Alec looked smooth and in control en route to an unchallenged 1:57.1 split, and the race was ours from then on out.  Reuben Frey dusted off some rust with a 2:12 split and was followed by solid workout runs from Anthony Gregorio (2:11) and Chano (2:07).  Our frosh-soph crew got lost in space with Mundeep Bawa running 2:26 for the best split of the foursome.

3200 meter run - Coach Gorman loaded this race with a ton of his promising returnees for next season as well as his senior star Chris Cogswell.  Schaumburg countered with 800 meter specialist Connor Prizy.  Both teams should have paid us to rabbit this race since we ran a tactically poor group race, taking the pace out way too fast in the first 200 and 400 meters, and the end result was a disappointing group of efforts.  We need to be more patient and remember that the 3200 can't be won by running all out from the gun.  Tim Johnson finished third to match his PR of 10:03 while Ryan McGough ran a 10:28 PR in his first (and he hopes only) shot at the distance this season.  Prizy kicked away to win the race in a solid 9:52 clocking.

800 meter run - I gave Alec the same challenge that I used with Mat Smoody during his last two years in high school: go out and break 2:00 every time you run an 800.  He responded admirably to the challenge, doubling back from his sweet relay split to hit 1:59.8 and win the open.  Behind him, Drew Shaler ran a fabulous race to lower his open 800 PR from 2:12 to 2:08.1.  Chano finished third in 2:09, and Peter Tomkiewicz also destroyed his 800 meter PR in dropping down to 2:15 from 2:24.

The other great story in this race was the continued emergence of our freshmen 800 meter runners.  Clingerman provided the first piece of the puzzle with his sizzling 2:06.9 split at Proviso in our school record 4 x 800, but a bunch of other pieces started to fall into place last night.  Zach Stella dropped his PR from 2:20.0 to 2:12.8 while Rob Hank (2:16), Christian Zambrano (2:17), Jordan Jarrett (2:17), Matt Szablowski (2:18), and Adam Vanderweil (2:23) all dropped time and looked great.  Rob and Jordan were running their first open 800 races in high school, and I also think we have two other  potentially great youngsters in sprint guys Ulises Alcaraz and Antonio McBean.  Joe Mars also joined the track squad two weeks ago (after a long courtship), and I guarantee that he has some massive speed to burn as well.  I love building depth at this event, and the Holy Grail for us this season will be the 8:32 freshman school record set way back in 1973.  Can you hear us knocking Chuck Bell?

400 meter dash - I brought back a ton of guys into this race for the workout part of the meet, and Alec (54.8), McGough (55.3), Clingerman (56.8), Gates (57.0), Chano (59.2), and Joe Mars (59.3) all shined. 

1600 meter run - Schaumburg brought most of their distance guys back from the 4 x 800 into this event while we did not so the results were a bit lopsided.  Our best run of the night certainly came from Anthony Gregorio as he improved his lifetime best to 4:43 and placed fourth behind Lesiewicz, Prizy, and Perry from SHS.  Reuben Frey ran a solid 4:50 in his first meet in over a month while Peter Tomkiewicz (4:51) and Brian Sund (4:55) ran lifetime bests.

In the F/S race, a ton of our younger guys ran big PRs.  The three big barrier crushing races were delivered by Emanuel Rosales (5:34), Tyler Squeo (5:48), and Lucas Bombal (5:49).  All three broke under 6:00 for the first time.  Other PRs came from Mundeep Bawa (5:10) and Harmeet Bawa (5:26).  Kyle Norris neared his 6:26 PR from CC season in his first race of the season, clocking a 6:33 in his return from injury.

Other - I just wanted to say a few words about Kendall Cox's night.  Kendall runs both distance and hurdles, and he had one heck of a night.  He tied his 110 hurdle PR with a 17.5, broke under 45 seconds in the 300 intermediates for the first time with a 44.7, and then demolished his 400 PR with a 55.8 split in the 1600 relay.  Another performance of note for the team was Willie Filian's 53.5 open 400 time in his return from injury.  It is great to have one of our best competitors back in play.

The Palatine - Bollman Demolishes the Overall Record with a Stunning 27:55

And we all thought he was hard to live with before.  Tons of All-State runners have taken a shot at Jorge Calvillo's disputed 28:39 (I didn't used to set up cones, thus leading to some possible "soft turns") from the 2003 track season, but to no great success.  Glenn Morris, Kevin O'Brien, and Mat Smoody all clocked in the 28:40 range in their best attempts, but no one could ever quite unseat Calvillo.  One caveat is that I don't run The Palatine during track as much due to the hectic spring field schedule and the sloppiness of the terrain.  On Saturday, though, Bollman put it down from the gun and broke the record by a ridiculous 44 seconds.  He broke the records for all three of the 1500 meter grass loops, including a ridiculous 4:50 on the last one (that time might be off - a 2:50 on the track and then a 4:50 1500?).  Hard to believe.  Splits included:

3:47 (1200) - 5:05 - 76 (400) - 5:00 - 2:50 (800) - 4:50 - 5:07 (1600)

The rest of the workout was solid, highlighted by the fact that our sophomores finished 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th to claim spots 2, 5, 7, and 11 on the all-time sophomore list.  Anthony Gregorio became only the second soph ever to break 30:00 with his 29:56 clocking.  With Marcus Garcia quickly returning to health, that will give us five dangerous weapons in the soph class.  We also had top ten times on the freshman list from Brian Smith and Adam Vanderweil.  Reuben Frey was our top junior with a time of 31:18.

For more in depth results check out the Workout splits and then see the updated All-Time bests and the Best of the Rest along with the lists for Career, Senior, Junior, Sophomore, and Freshman times.

March 31, 2010 - Proviso Classic, Top Times Updates

This past weekend marked the end of our indoor campaign.  The track season is a marathon rather than a sprint (a bit ironic, eh?), and you have to take that into account when evaluating performances.  We are more low key during indoor season.  After Alec ran a solid, but not spectacular, race at Illinois Wesleyan this weekend, I looked at the date on my watch and realized that he still had two months - nine weeks of training and racing - before he hit the state championship meet.  Hopefully, we make some huge progress in our outdoor races and come firing on all cylinders by the end of the outdoor season when the meets matter the most.  Our lists look very solid for an indoor season, especially one where we've been able to run on a track for only 2-3 weeks.  I'm excited and ready to see both our distance group and our team as a whole start to come together.

Performances Lists - I updated our lists to include Proviso and IPTT action.

Illinois Prep Top Times - Bollman Places 3rd in 1600 Meter Run

We qualified for this meet in the 4 x 800, the 3200 meter run, the 800 meter run, and the 1600 meter run, but I decided to leave the rest of our guys behind and just let Alec take a rip at our school record in the 1600 run.  Chano tweaked a tendon in his ankle at the MSL meet so I had him train and rest rather than accept his 3200 bid.  Leaving the 4 x 800 home proved a good decision as our sophomores were able to focus on the Friday night meet.

1600 meter run - Alec set his indoor PR at York early in March, and all I was looking for in this one was some progress in his fitness.  I left the race plan up to him and wanted to see how he'd react against a tightly-bunched field, some athletes he had never raced before, and our conference foe Angelos Karkalis of Rolling Meadows.  Angelos certainly got the best of Alec on Saturday, running a huge PR of 4:14 to win the race and take the early mantle of favorite for the 1600 meter outdoor title.  Nico Composto from Loyola was second in 4:17.81 while Alec settled for third in 4:18.91.

Alec looked a bit flat coming back from his race on Friday night at Proviso, and he never quite got into the thick of the lead pack.  He trailed through the 800 in a 2:11 split and was not close enough to react to Karkalis' big move just past the 800 meter mark.  Alec stuck around in a group of guys competing for 3rd, 4th, and 5th before digging down and unloading a 30 second final lap to seize third place.  He finished only one second behind Composto, yet it took a big kick to even get that close.  I'm glad we raced on back-to-back days, and I was really proud of Alec for kicking at the end even when he had struggled a bit during the race.  I'll bet that he runs better the next time around.  His splits were 65-65-64-62 with all of the tenths added on.  Mat Smoody's school record of 4:17.1 lives on, but Alec clearly put himself in the same equation with other Palatine greats.  Jon Cermak, Mat Smoody, Steve Finley, and Mark Visk all ran 4:17-4:18 indoors their senior year before grabbing big hardware in the outdoor state meet.

Proviso Classic - School Record in F/S 4 x 800 Highlights a Solid Night

I had a much more positive reaction about our team's effort both during and after this meet than I did the week before.  Chad Bobbit came up huge in winning the shot put with a lifetime best of 50' 11 1/2".  Mykyta Cheshko cleared 6' 1" in his first meet of the season to get us second place in the high jump, Trevor Peters cleared 11' 0" in the pole vault, and Manny Del Rio scored some triple jump points with a jump of 39' 2".  It was great to see our field event guys starting to pull more points, and we ended up sixth out of fifteen teams.

F/S 4 x 800 meter relay - It's a bit odd to say, but we set this race up as the marquee event of the night.  With Alec running the 1600 only at the Top Times meet, I decided not to field a 3200 meter relay there and run our top sophomores in a school record attempt at Proviso.  Luckily for us, York showed up with their best four and the intent to run fast.  Throw in Buffalo Grove who was gunning for their 8:34 school record, and the conditions were ripe for a demolition of our 8:37.4 school indoor record.

The race played out beyond my wildest dreams.  Although York nailed us behind an impressive anchor run from their freshman star Alex Mimlitz, our 8:28.28 FAT clocking improved our school record by nine seconds.  After a timid start, Tim Johnson recovered and got us up near the lead, running a 2:06.4 lifetime best.  He handed off to our freshman wild card, Andrew Clingerman.  Clinger has been training and racing with the varsity since day one of this season and has taken his share of lumps early on.  His PR was only 2:15 before this, but he ran a perfect race to record a 2:06.9 split, which was beyond my wildest dreams for this race.  I could not have been prouder of Andrew's competitiveness and poise.  He proved that learning lessons can only be done through racing and that sooner or later you figure out how the 800 can be run.  What a leg.

Andrew handed off to Anthony Gregorio, who switched out of long distance mode long enough to destroy his 2:14 PR with a strong 2:08.8.  Tony ran a competitive and gutsy race, battling York's guy throughout.  At no point in any of the four legs did a York or Palatine guy have any more than a 1/2 to 1 second advantage.  Tony got it to Tim Meincke right on the heels of York's anchor, and Tim relaxed and rode behind him for 600 meters.  At that point, he made a huge surge to take the lead.  Only a tough final charge from Mimlitz could stop us from winning, and we settled for a 1/2 second loss behind Meincke's sweet 2:05.8 split.  All four guys ran lifetime bests.

Varsity 4 x 800 meter relay - I gave four of our varsity and JV guys a chance to earn future open 800 spots in this one, but no one had a particularly great race.  Wojdyla, Shaler, Roehrborn, and Kuerschner all ran between 2:10-2:12. 

3200 meter run - I had planned to run Chano and Jeff Larson together here, but I really didn't want to test Chano's achy ankle on an indoor track.  I plugged in Peter Tomkiewicz in his spot.  Neither guys ended up with a lifetime best, but Jeff did record a new indoor PR of 10:12.  I thought both guys fought hard, but the early pace was much too fast for the entire field, and our guys suffered badly.  A 31 second opening lap and 66 second opening quarter doomed both of our guys to running backsliding splits - the kind where every quarter gets a bit slower than the one before.  Peter ended up out of the points in 10:28, but Jeff scored a fifth place finish for the team and seems to be on the edge of breaking out with a little bit more patience and attention to proper pace.

800 meter run - Alec's goals for the weekend were twofold.  I wanted him to experience running on back-to-back days to simulate the state meet, and I hoped that he could win an 800 meter race.  He came through the quarter at 58 and looked solid, but he shifted into a relaxed miler mode in the third 200 and let a speedy Batavia runner stay around long enough to use his speed in the last 100 meters.  In the end, Alec ran an indoor PR of 1:58.01, but lost at the tape by .05 seconds.  It was a good lesson that good milers are not always as fast as good 800 meter guys, and Alec will have to work harder on mid-race pacing to take the kick out of speedier runners.

In the second heat, Kendall Cox ran a solid race to establish a new PR of 2:09.  He was much more controlled early on than in his previous 800, hitting splits of 30 and 32 for a 62 second opener.  He relaxed a bit too much in the third 200 before coming home nicely in a sweet new PR.  Kendall's times are dropping each time out in this event, and he should contend for key 800 and 4 x 800 spots as the year goes on.

600 meter run - Zach Gates and Tim Johnson both ended up in the middle heat of the 600 so it was a bit of a challenge to grab big points.  Zach looked smooth early, taking the lead just past the 200.  He relaxed too much while on the lead, but unleashed a nice kick to run 1:32 and take the win.  Tim Johnson engaged in a spirited race in the last lap after shadowing Gates, and I was proud of the fight he showed in the last 50 to take second in the heat.  Our two guys both scored points as they placed 6th and 8th.

1600 meter run - Ryan McGough is going to run a great 1600 meter race this season, and I thought his effort in this one was a step in the right direction.  Ryan hasn't run that many 1600 meter races in his career, and his 4:39.7 was good for a four second lifetime best and placed him fifth overall I believe.  A 62 second opening pace really played havoc with his race, but I was proud of his fight and of his regrouping for a hard finish. 

I doubled Tim Meincke back in this race after his stellar anchor leg in the F/S 4 x 800, and I expected a solid effort.  He did just that.  I could tell that his earlier race left him flat, but Tim ran 4:44 to finish off a solid 2:05-4:44 night.  Both he and Ryan nipped at the heels of the front pack for much of the race, but neither had the great legs to make a push for the win in this one.  It was a great learning experience for both.

March 25, 2010 - Updates on Recent Distance Action

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.