May 29, 2011 - McGough, Kuerschner, Gates, and Johnson Earn All-State in 4 x 800

In a satisfying conclusion to another solid track season, seniors Ryan McGough, Erich Kuerschner, and Zach Gates and junior Tim Johnson earned All-State honors by finishing eighth overall in the 4 x 800 meter relay in a time of 7:52.78.  In addition to placing well in a really fast final, the same quartet narrowly broke a thirty year-old school record in the prelims by running 7:51.50.  We have been after that record for some time now, and it was gratifying to squeak under the previous mark of 7:51.55 set by Scott Grimes, Brian Thron, Greg Nowacki, and Tom Barrett.  In a season dedicated to Coach Joe Johnson, it was fitting that we ran with the same guts and desire as the fastest distance relay of his career.  Final results can be found on the IHSA web page.

The rest of our state finalists did not fare as well.  Nick LaRocca was able to clear 14' 0" in the pole vault, but he needed to break our school record again by going 14' 6" and couldn't quite manage it.  He ended up in 10th place.  Both Reuben Frey and Anthony Gregorio were a bit off of their games in the 3200 meter run.  Reuben ran well for six laps before fading, and Tony lost the group on lap five and could never recover.  He'll need to gain both fitness and poise in the next year to compete in a meet of this magnitude. 

Cross Country Updates - Our cross country sign-up meeting will be after school on Wednesday, June 1 in Room 216.  Come and hear about our summer training plans to prepare for another championship season.  Bring some new friends!

History Updates - It's always a great honor to put anything on our All-Time list in any of the track events.  I updated our 4 x 800 meter relay list to reflect our new school record, and I also added McGough, Kuerschner, Gates, and Johnson to our list of Distance All-State Athletes.  Since 2006 we have broken or tied all of the outdoor school records in the distance events.  Our records now stand at:

All told this season we added the #10 and #12 times on the varsity 3200 meter list, the #1, #11, and #12 times on the varsity 4 x 800 meter relay list, and the #2 time on the frosh-soph 4 x 800 meter list.  We only count the best time of the year from a foursome so it was impressive to have three separate combinations break 8:00 and find their way onto the list. 

The All-Time and Career lists for my coaching tenure also saw significant alterations.  Check out the final All-Time lists (800, 1600, 3200) and Career lists (800, 1600, 3200).  We are up to 96 separate guys breaking 5:00 in the last 10 years. 

IHSA State Finals - All-State Honors for Three Departing Seniors

Man, I really wanted our guys to get All-State.  We qualified into the final in 10th place on the back of a school record run, but I tried to keep the guys level and focused on the ultimate goal.  It's not always emotionally easy to qualify with a fast time and then come back with a performance of equal or greater value (ask our 3200 meter guys about that).  Every year I watch teams bomb in the final of this event because their performances in the prelims were so mind-blowing.  One of the things I have learned through several hard lessons along the way is that Prelims and Finals are two separate dynamics.  Prelims are about executing precise race plans to secure spots into the final.  They often require fast racing, but not a full emotional investment.  Finals have nothing to do with time.  They are all about the emotionally engaged racing the moment requires.  To prepare for this I stayed subdued after our qualifying effort the week before and then brought our guys back in on Saturday morning and had them run an all out 600 meters in spikes.  They might not have liked it then, but that run set the tone.  We were preparing for two days.  Not one.

The only worry I had heading into the final was the health of Zach Gates, our third man.  Tim Meincke has run well this year in this event, and it was in my head all weekend that I might need to use him if we qualified to Saturday.  Zach suffered what we believed to be a stress fracture in his tibula in early April and had struggled to get healthy ever since.  The injury proved to be a bad calf strain that impacted his bone, and I knew that he was going to be hurting.  I looked him in the eye soon after the Prelim, and he assured me that all was well.  I had to trust him, but it didn't end my anxiety.  Still, we decided heading into the weekend that we would dance with our seniors.  Kuerschner and Gates gave four years of their lives to run for Palatine, yet neither guy had received the big payoff.  Both were on the state cross country roster.  Neither guy ran at state.  Gates has endured multiple stress fractures and injuries as well as a difficult sophomore year dealing with his grandfather's death.  Kuerschner hardly competed last track season.  He was injured throughout the season and spent even more time away from the team after his father Vaughn suffered a heart attack.  Sometimes loyalty matters the most in performance so now was not the time to pull a senior.  I knew that Gates' leg (literally and figuratively) would decide our fate.

As the teams came out onto the track, we received a couple quick hits for our confidence.  O'Fallon had run to a faster time than us the day before, but they had to run their senior star, Michael Scolarici, on anchor to do it.  He opted to run (and get All-State) in the 3200 meter run and had to be replaced.  I also knew that seniors Peter Hogenson and Brendan Donley were potentially waiting in the wings for Oak Park-River Forest.  Neither was in the relay as Coach Reyes stuck with his crew from the day before.  The top nine teams earn All-State honors so I hoped that Ryan would once again put us into the thick of the race.

Before the guys left to go into the tent, I asked Ryan to try and run the incredible split, to take a risk in the biggest moment of his running career.  I wanted him to try and run a 1:53-1:54 split and get us clear of the field into the lead.  He broke well in the first 200 and was off to the races, refusing to settle back.  He hit the 400 in a quick 54.8 after an opening 200 that was sub 26.  I knew that he risked blowing up, but he was still clear of the field at 1:23-1:24 at the 600 meters.  From there I hoped for the improbable, but Ryan faded in the last 100 as the field came swinging by.  Still, he hung on gamely to finish sixth at the exchange and put Kuerschner into the thick of the race yet again.  Our joke all year has been that Ryan McGough is at his best when he is at his worst.  Throughout his career he has rebounded from a myriad of health issues to deliver champion-level performances.  In this one he didn't need to be sick, sore, or blind.  He just needed to fulfill the potential I saw in him as a galloping, erratic freshman running the 4 x 800 for Jacobs at the Lisle Invite.  To see him go from a gangly freshman running 2:20 to leading off the 4 x 800 relay at the state meet was a truly great coaching moment. 

Kuersch has not failed our squad once the entire year when he has been hooked into the race.  He told me three weeks ago that he didn't know how many good 800 meter races he had in his body.  I told him on the way to the tent and the night before that I knew the answer: he only had one more.  On the way to the tent he showed me the spot where he had apparently Chucked It All (state CIA club for Kuersch by the way).  He said he planned to be on his hands and knees after this race too.  I'm not sure how that all turned out, but Kuersch sure had one last great race in him.  He didn't exactly run down the field.  At times I thought they might break him.  At the 600 meter mark, at the moment of truth, he fired one last time and got us right up into sixth place at the second exchange.  Like Wojdyla, Kwak, and a host of other guys, he will go down as a Palatine program champion, a man who used the strong culture of our group to turn himself into a runner beyond even my expectations.

Now we faced our make or break moment.  Gates certainly engaged better, hitting the 400 in a strong 56.6, but he couldn't quite get us up into the top running group.  That would have been a tough task even with a healthy pair of legs.  What Gates had, though, was one last great Palatine surge.  He gave it at the 150 meter to go mark and managed to keep us hooked in the race just enough.  Losing the group is doom in the state final.  Zach's last gutty performance of his career was a testament to his belief in the program and his friends.  I told him three years ago when he played baseball that I was disappointed because I thought he could be a great 800 meter runner for the track team.  He bought into that vision as a sophomore, endured some tough times en route, and finished his career as an All-State athlete.  I love it when guys make me look good by fulfilling the potential I see in them.  In the end the biggest coaching trick is getting them to see how great they are.  Zach certainly came a long way from a tiny freshman with dreams of becoming anything but a runner.  I'm really proud he came our way and gave us three great years.

At this point I had a lot of confidence that we would get all state, and I turned my attention to how high we could get.  The top six teams were well clear of us.  Most of them had incredible anchors so the odds were thin that we could run them down.  I turned my focus to an odd coincidence: the only team in sight was our conference foe, Hersey.  Tim Phillips and Jay Renaud had done a great job all year to steward this relay team to the state finals so it was a bit ironic to see them racing against the son of a Hersey legend.  I'm not sure who Steve was cheering for in the stands, but I bet he was pleased as punch to see his son battling his alma mater with the assurance that both would get All-State barring a major collapse.  Tim had to work to catch Jack O'Neill, and the anchor leg turned into a side-by-side dual between the two for the entire last 100 meters.  O'Neill managed to edge Tim right near the tape to send us into eighth place.  After the most disappointing moment of his running career thus far, it was sweet to see Tim earn his first All-State honor by dedicating himself to our relay.  He has the potential to become one of the finest All-Time Greats in our history over the next year.  I can't wait to see him train and race with the urgency of a champion from now on.  Splits:

In the end the race was won behind a 1:51 split from Minooka senior star Joe McAsey.  As usual the race thrilled the crowd as five teams hit the stretch drive together.  Our MSL rivals Prospect ran 7:46 and finished fifth!  What a field.  The All-State honors were divided evenly between the MSL and the WSC after Minooka: Lyons, York, Downers North, and OPRF from the West Suburban and Barrington, Prospect, Hersey, and Palatine from the MSL.  I've got to give some major props to Coach Gorman and the Broncos for putting all their eggs in one basket and finishing second in a huge new school record of 7:44.87.  Coach Stokes' crew once again upheld the Prospect tradition by placing well and running their second-fastest time ever.  They have been All-State eight of the last nine years in this event.

IHSA State Prelims - Senior-Driven Quartet Breaks School Record

We were serious underdogs in this relay heading into the state meet.  We ran 7:58.9 early in April to turn some heads and then disappeared from the radar after never putting our best lineup together again.  Meet cancellations had much to do with that, but we knew that we could have a good relay if we wanted it.  After Tim Johnson failed to qualify in the 1600 meter run, we dedicated ourselves to placing in this event.  Even before the IHSA Sectional, I determined that we would have a great state meet strategy in this race, but we had to endure some shaky racing in the qualifying race to get to state.  Ryan McGough's 1:55.4 got us there, and it became obvious that Johnson had to run.  In a tough coaching decision we decided to go with seniors Erich Kuerschner and Zach Gates in the middle legs with junior Tim Meincke serving as the alternate.  Kuerschner has simply given his heart and soul throughout the season, and Gates had experience from running in the relay last year.

We also decided to switch our order and run our best runner, Ryan McGough, on leadoff.  We had debated all year whether Ryan should run the relay or the open 800 so we decided that his open race would be in the leadoff leg.  The biggest mistake a team can make in this event at state is to get out of it early.  Running Ryan would ensure that we would be in or near the lead and allow Kuerschner and Gates to run more relaxed in the first 200 meters.  Then, it was going to be up to Tim Johnson to drop time and secure our finish.  To make things a bit easier on the nerves, Heat 2 of the prelims was an MSL slugfest with Barrington, Prospect, Schaumburg, and Palatine all together.  How's that for making the state meet feel like a Tuesday triangular?   

All the changes we made and all the highly specific race pace intervals paid off for us in the biggest moment of the season.  We worked on specific splits for the first 200 and 400 of each guy's optimal race at this distance and hoped that we could execute.  Ryan McGough did just that.  He avoided an early box, broke cleanly down the backstretch and took it through the quarter in 55.9.  All season that opening split had been his sweet spot.  He held form nicely until 100 meters to go when it turned into a three horse race between Ryan, Barrington's Eric Schneider, and Prospect's Matt Ashton.  We handed off in a close third place, but we were home.  Kuersch was able to relax and manage his speed in the first 200 meters as he slowly closed the gap.  He then fired like a champion in the last 200 taking us right to the shoulder of the lead at the second exchange.  Zach Gates was down a little but seemed to relax and pace too much in the first 200 instead of racing.  Still, his opening times were good.  The field was just loaded.  Zach got us into the last exchange in third place with a PR split of his own.

Tim Johnson faced a pretty important moment of truth in this leg.  Timid racing had cost him a trip downstate the week before in the 1600 meters, and he was facing a sizeable gap to the front running group of four heading into this leg.  I heard that Coach Nalley about popped a blood vessel after Tim ambled through a 29.1 opening 200.  Tim must have felt this too because he shifted gears and went to go get the leaders.  By 350 meters he had hit the jets and moved us to the lead.  The move was much too abrupt, but was psychologically big.  Tim Johnson decided to be aggressive and engage.  By the 600 meter mark, that move started to cost him, but in a race for time he had done his job.  I screamed like crazy the last 100 meters because our school record was there for the taking and Tim's last desperate surge got it for us: 7:51.50.

We ended up placing fifth, but we were in the right race.  Six teams from Heat 3 were going to have to run 7:51.50 to displace us from the final and that was highly improbable.  The only thing that appeared less probable heading into the state meet was us running a school record with a lineup of Ryan McGough, Erich Kuerschner, Zach Gates, and Tim Johnson.  We ended up qualifying as the 10th team, and the team's mood in the field house afterward was jubilant.  Once again, a crew of Palatine guys answered the call.  They demonstrated a perfect mix of precise execution and passionate racing.  As a coach, I can only help teach them how to run the event.  The rest was up to them, and I will be able to count this race - the one to qualify and break the school record - as one of my proudest moments as a coach.  When intense preparation meets guts and desire, good things happen.  Check out our splits:

May 25, 2011 - Updates to Running the Pirate Way

I'd been sending updates into ESPN Rise throughout the outdoor season, but the guys had been too busy to get them up.  Check out my new excerpt on the Palatine Relays. 

We head to the IHSA State meet tomorrow with the boys.  If you can get to a computer, try to watch the Prelims and the Finals online at IHSA.org.  I was fortunate enough to tune in for the girls meet last week and catch Sarah McIntosh run one of the great races in Palatine history to win the state title in the 1600 meter run.  Sarah led wire to wire and capped off a great career with her biggest win ever.  Congrats Sarah!  She and the ladies placed ninth overall behind All-State finishes in the 4 x 800 meter relay (3rd), the 400 meter dash (6th, I think), the 1600 meter run (1st), and the 4 x 400 meter relay (8th).  This is the ninth straight year that our girls have placed in the top ten.

May 22, 2011 - Pirates Advance to IHSA State in Four Events

This was one of the more nerve-wracking Sectional meets in years.  IHSA official Ron McGraw and Meet Director John Polka railroaded a number of ridiculous alterations through the Track Advisory committee in an attempt to shrink the size of the state track meet.  Now, distance guys are required to run 1:56.6, 4:21.6, and 9:28.8 to make it in the the 800, 1600, and 3200 respectively.  Those are fantastic times, and unfortunately the reduction in the times will do nothing to save time at the state meet.  They still divide the distance races into three heats each on Friday and there will always be the same amount of races on Saturday.  So, the IHSA made a fundamental alteration that altered nothing.  The only thing altered is that phenomenal athletes - 4:22 milers, 9:30 two milers, and 1:57 800 meter guys - woke up on Saturday with no state meet in their near future.  Not fair for good kids around the state.

With that said, we ran well at the Sectional save one critical race and are advancing our 4 x 800 meter relay, two 3200 meter runners, our 4 x 400 meter relay, and a pole vaulter.  All qualifiers got through by meeting the standards rather than securing a top two position so you can see why I said the meet was nerve-wracking.  We knew that we would have to run the times and our guys stepped up and did just that.

History Updates - Tony and Reuben are now the #10 and #12 3200 meter runners in Palatine history with an opportunity for each to move up next week at State.  The 4 x 800 meter relay moved into the #11 spot with a lot of room to move up next week.  I would love to take down that 7:51.4 time.  We've been after it for years.  I also updated all of the lists for times run during my coaching tenure.  Remember that All-Time lists are the best performances run - they include tons of repeats since they are cumulative lists (800, 1600, 3200).  The Career lists chart just the best time a guy ran at Palatine (800, 1600, 3200).

IHSA Sectional - Stellar 3200 Meter Racing Highlights a Solid Night

4 x 800 meter relay - We took a calculated risk in this race by pulling Tim Johnson, our second fastest 800 meter runner, to keep him fresh for the 1600 meter run.  Instead, we lined up the quartet of Tim Meincke, Zach Gates, Erich Kuerschner, and Ryan McGough in hopes that we could still run the qualifying time.  The first three have all run 1:59-2:00 while we all knew that Ryan was sitting on 1:54-1:55 fitness.  The competition was tough as Barrington and Lake Zurich both loaded up their best squads.  Erik Peterson decided to run anchor for Barrington as our conference rivals began an all-out assault on a state championship.  Lake Zurich's crew featured 800 meter superstar Alex Brend so beating each of those teams was going to be a tough task.  We figured we needed to run under the time.

Tim Meincke led off and looked good through the 600 meter mark.  I hoped he would be able to budget his energy and rally by teams in the last 100 meters, but the exact opposite happened.  He faded badly to a 2:01.2 and forced our interior legs to once again overextend themselves to get back into the race.  Zach Gates came out firing to a 1:27 600 meter split but tied up badly even as he got us back in the thick of it.  He ran 2:01.5.  Senior Erich Kuerschner has given this team everything all season, and he once again rescued our relay with a PR split of 2:00.7.  Kuersch had to floor it out to a 56.1 to get into it, but he ended up getting us in the race.  I can't say enough about the heart he has shown this season.

We still had a pretty tall order when Ryan got the baton.  Our 3/4 split was a not so fast 6:03.0 so Ryan had to run a lifetime best of at least 1:56.8 to take us home.  He came out blazing but under control, hitting the quarter in 55.9 (perfect execution).  Peterson and Brend were long gone by then, but Ryan cleared the other teams and ran largely solo in the last lap.  He finished with a PR 1:55.8 split to get us in with time to spare: 7:58.8.  I can't say I loved the first parts of this race though, and we will make significant alterations for next week as we attempt to make the final and achieve All-State status.  We certainly will be underdogs, but we have only run our best team in this event one time this season.  Hopefully we can do something with our dark horse status.  We'll be in Heat 2 next week in what will be a pretty piece of coincidence: we're in the same heat as Barrington, Prospect, and Hersey.  All MSL all the time.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

3200 meter run - The changes to this standard have freaked me out since the start.  I wasn't so worried about getting our guys fit enough to run.  We usually take care of being in shape.  What I worried about was the weather, and we were blessed with great temperatures and low winds.  One of these years it will get windy for the Sectional nights and most of the best runners in the state will end up sitting at home.

The seeds for this race were phenomenal.  Reuben was the last competitor into the fast heat with a seed of 9:39.  After three scratches 11 men toed the line with realistic chances of hitting the standard.  We had to make a tough decision here as Marcus Garcia and Peter Tomkiewicz sat on the bench as Tony and Reuben earned the spots.  Marcus showed the collective fitness of our 3200 runners the night before by running a 9:34.0 in our final team time trial.  His run gave me confidence that Reuben could run the time since Reuben has consistently outrun Marcus in our training.  Still, you have to run the race.

Everything that happened in this race adhered to a well-drawn plan.  Our 3200 group had run at 70 second pace for weeks and weeks to anesthetize themselves to the type of pacing necessary to qualify.  All that was left was for the group to work together and execute.  Most of the coaches agreed that we would try to get the group to run at level 70 second pace to at least the 1 1/2 mile mark.  Then it would be every man for himself.  The group executed this plan perfectly through opening splits of 67-2:17-3:28-4:40.  I told Tony to help the group move pace if necessary, but Reuben was supposed to do nothing but ride in the pack and run as relaxed as possible.  The pace slowed a little in the middle to a 5:51 and 7:02 but it was clear that any man who could finish with some competitive fire was going to make it.  Stevenson's Kevin Wood took the lead driving at the 800 meter to go mark and was followed out by Lake Zurich's Ryan Moncrieff and Tony.  LZ's Victor De la Torre tagged in to that group as did Reuben and Highland Park's Ari Rothschild.  Reuben hit the moment of truth on the backstretch during lap seven.  If he went with the group at this move he was going to make it.  All of his steady execution paid off in that moment because he had the oxygen to fire and move with the race.  From there it was all heart.

I really expected Tony to have some better legs in the last two laps, but he just didn't look right on this night.  He fought gamely to get to the line just in front of De la Torre, but he just didn't have the legs to go out and get a winnable race.  He settled for third place and a near PR of 9:23.4 (just .2 shy of his indoor PR from earlier this year).  Reuben never has much of a kick, but he brought it home in 69-70 to finish sixth place in a qualifying time of 9:26.4.  It is simply staggering how fast you need to run to qualify to state.  Reuben's time was #12 on our All-Time list, moving him ahead of the PRs by guys like Jon Cermak, Mat Smoody, and Andy Estes.  It's staggering that you have to be that good just to qualify to the slow heat at the state meet!  Reuben just missed the fast heat cutoff, but that might be better for him in the long run.  He'll be in a really nice race that may fit his pacing style better.  Tony ended up qualifying as the #16 seed and will get to run with the big dogs.  No matter how it turns out, this will be a great experience for him.

800 meter run - Not much to say here.  We reserved a spot for Ryan McGough in case the 4 x 800 didn't qualify, but we scratched him after it did.  Our only entrant?  Marcus.  He is certainly no 800 meter ace (coming in with a 2:04.4 PR), but I did appreciate one thing about his race.  He told me that he was going to run on the qualifying standard as deep into the race as he could.  While a bit suicidal in a racing sense, it just speaks to how Marcus thinks about racing.  He made it 500 meters and set a 400 meter PR in the process.  Out in 57.8 he ended up  fading to a 2:05.0, but our timid milers (see my later comments) could learn a great deal by studying a man who runs with some urgency and aggression.

400 meter dash - Since we loaded up for our 4 x 400 meter relay, the open 400 spots were wide open and went to our up and coming sophomore tandem of Jordan Jarrett and Andrew Clingerman.  They were well-positioned in lanes 1 and 2 and ran solid PRs of 53.6 each.  These guys both get to make the trip downstate as alternates and will be major players in our varsity next season.

1600 meter run - Whereas our other races were studies in poise and execution, this one was a mess from the start.  With both Peterson and LZ's Pat Juras in the race, I knew there wasn't anyone who would really scorch the pace.  It hasn't been in either runner's DNA yet to push pace early so it was going to have to be in ours.  It wasn't.  Both Tim Johnson and Tim Meincke gave away great opportunities to qualify for state.  Johnson ran 4:22.4 to narrowly miss while Meincke showed little fight en route to a 4:36.  My parents taught me that sometimes it's best to say nothing so I'll leave it at that.

4 x 400 meter relay - The Best Race In All Of Track, the Four - By - Four!!!  I know I'm a distance coach, but my love affair with this race has been forged by watching one too many Olympic finals, state finals, NCAA Division I finals in my short but blessed life.  I think I probably like it best because this race typifies American dominance in track and field.  The Kenyans have their steeplechase, the Eastern Europeans have their throwers, but no one can run with America in the quarter mile.  That exuberance and dominance extends all the way down to the high school level, and nothing is quite as fun at a track meet as a good 4 x 400 under the lights.

We stacked this one up with a lineup of guys whose season best was 3:25.2: Kendric Cornelius, Terry Halloran, Will Stein, and Ryan McGough.  We laid out on paper the types of splits we would have to run, and it was obvious that big Will was going to have to drop some time after coming in with a 53.0 PR.  The race was certainly right as a ton of teams came in with PRs in the 3:22-3:24 range.  We drew lane two which ended up being perfect.  Kendric was seeking some redemption after a rocky MSL meet, and this was his last chance after our two sprint relays ran PRs (43.3 and 1:30.7) but couldn't make the state cuts.  He ran relaxed and fast through the 200 meters before blasting the curve and taking it to the house in 50.5.  We weren't quite in the lead, but Kendric stuck us in the race and Terry Halloran was in a brawl.  Lake Zurich cleared the field early, but Terry battled a trio of competitors to a new PR split of 50.7.  Before the race started, Tony Gregorio looked at me and reminded me of our motto from earlier in the season: "Where there's a Will there's a way."  For all you alums, that a perfect John Nalley motto, right? 

Well, we needed Will to come through and he did.  We didn't quite get an incredible split, but his 51.7 kept us in the race and was just off of the 51.5 we had written down for him on the pre-race board.  For the first time in a big 4 x 400 all year, the guys got Ryan hooked into the race.  We tagged in a bit off the back in sixth place, but McGough clearly was close enough to sniff the race.  He was still in arrears at the 200 meter mark, but got to the shoulder of fifth by the end of the curve.  I just lost it, leaning right into his ear at 150 to go, screaming "Walk 'em, walk 'em!"  Nothing gives a distance coach more satisfaction than seeing a distance runner overcome the superior speed of the sprinters and bring his strength to bear on their sorry souls.  We don't spend all our time running manic speed endurance sessions and long runs just to beat other distance guys, right?  It's more a sad effort to get fast without having the fast twitch.  I think I set a PR for the 100 meters running down the middle of the infield to see Ryan take it to the line.

The last 100 meters was another moment of Palatine greatness in the 4 x 400 meter relay.  Ever since 2006 we have made this event a priority.  Doug Finley and I worked tirelessly to get a team down in that year with his son on anchor, and the tradition has been rolling ever since.  Ryan got the outside shoulder of the fifth place team by 80 meters out and put the hammer down into overdrive.  Fifty meters from the finish, Zion-Benton's anchor tied up badly and faded as Ryan kept the hammer down.  He got by Fremd's David Ferguson and Barrington's Eric Schneider as the clock digits slowly ticked away.  He made one last surge at the line to try and nail second place, but fell just short.  49.3 and 3:22.4.  That time is good for fifth on the All-Time list in this event and adds to an incredible run that has seen us claim the #2, #3, #5, and #6 times in the last six years.  What a great end to the meet!

May 14, 2011 - Palatine Pirates Finish Third at MSL Outdoor Conference on Both Levels

The MSL Outdoor meet is always a special one, full of great performances, tension, and sweet racing.  We didn't quite have our best meet last night, but our effort was solid and led to a third place varsity finish with 84 points.  The kudos have to go to Prospect for scoring an unbelievable 171 points to take their first conference title in 40 years.  We have big respect for their program and want to congratulate Coach Kamedula, Coach Stokes, the rest of their staff, and the amazing group of seniors that brought home the hardware.

Host Fremd ended up second with 114 points so they obviously outperformed us across the board.  Still, I was proud of our guys for stepping in and giving it our best shot.  Distance-wise, our group scored 30 points which is in keeping with recent years.  Our goals were to score 35 points and place every one of our entries in the distance races.  We scored in every opportunity last year for the first time in my tenure and would have had that mark again save Tony Gregorio's fall in the 1600 meter run at the 1000 meter mark.  Tony still got up and nearly placed, showing the heart of a champion with a ninth place finish.  Our biggest highlight was Ryan McGough's win in the 800 meter run, giving us the conference champ in this event for the fifth time in the last six years.  Our other two highest finishes were a pair of third places from Tony in the 3200 and Timmy J in the 1600.  Both guys fought hard, but lost close battles for points in the final 50 meters.  In the end, I really appreciated our efforts and thought that our guys ran with the brains, guts, and desire that we have come to expect in MSL meets.

Up next, we are hosting the IHSA Sectional at Palatine this coming Friday night.  Despite the ridiculously revised 3A standards across the board, we have a number of great shots at getting into the state meet and doing some damage down at Eastern the next week. 

I realize that I haven't given a ton of updates lately so be prepared for the ridiculous amount of writing in this one.  Most of our guys have unleashed great performances in the last week so I want to give everyone some props for their great efforts.  I'll give a fuller run-down of the two MSL meets, but I also need to say some things about last weekend's two varsity invites - the McCarthy Invite at Hinsdale and the Carlin Nalley Invite hosted by Lisle - as well as results from our Friday JV meet and this week's set of time trials.

Practice Schedule - Week 16

History Updates - Two big updates this week.  Ryan McGough's win in the 800 meters puts his name on the MSL Distance Champions list.  The incredible 8:20 run by our F/S 4 x 800 relay last weekend also got their names on the All-Time list in that event.  Only the 8:17.0 run from 2006 surpasses that time in school history.

Performance List Updates - Everything has been updated through the MSL meets and our recent time trials.  We have reached many of our depth goals this season, but we still have some work to do this week at the Naperville ABC meet and the IHSA Sectional.

Alumni Updates - Steve Finley has been on fire lately.  At the Stanford Payton Jordan Invite, he ran 8:36 in the steeple to finish as the top collegiate in a professional race.  His time is the best in the nation thus far.  Then, he came back yesterday and won the Pac 10 title and scored ten vital points for the Oregon Ducks as they won the conference title.  It's pretty sweet to see Steve's bold move paying off.  Check out this great article all about his season as a 5th year transfer student at Oregon.

Picture Updates - Mr. Lajiness took a ton of pictures at the Palatine Relays, and I have compiled the best of the best in a new photo gallery.

Varsity MSL - Boys Place Third Behind the Prospect Juggernaut and Fremd

In my first year as distance coach in 2002, my distance runners scored 1 point in the MSL Outdoor meet - an 8th place finish in the 4 x 800 meter relay.  Ever since then, I have learned to have the utmost respect for this meet.  You need to earn every point you score in an MSL meet because everyone wants it just as bad as you.  This year's meet was no different.  I'll do distance recaps as well as highlights from the rest of the meet.

4 x 800 meter relay - We knew that getting into the top three would be a tall task with Ryan McGough sitting out fresh for the open 800.  Prospect, Barrington, and Hersey have all run sub-7:56 this season, and we certainly will need all hands on deck to run that time.  Tim Meincke led off for us and ran a capable leg.  He didn't quite get us into the thick of it, but his 2:00.7 split got us within 10 meters of the lead.  Zach Gates has flirted with a nasty lower leg injury all outdoor season, and this race was going to determine whether we kept him in for the Sectional or shut him down.  Gates ran with the pride and drive of a senior, going out in 54.8 (near his 400 meter PR) to reach the back end of the main group.  He hit 1:26.0 at the 600 before tying up badly and splitting 2:01.0.  I was really proud of his race.  He did what the moment required.  So did Erich Kuerschner.  He again had to jet out the first 200 to try and stalk down the leading group of three.  He was 55.8 at the quarter to nearly match his 400 meter PR and was 1:26.8 at the 800 before hanging on for a PR of 2:00.5.  He paid the price afterward, barfing some grotty red stuff on hands and knees for 15 minutes after the race.  He literally pulled himself inside out to get us to 6:02 at the 3/4 mark.  We had determined before the race that we would shut Tim Johnson down if he didn't have a realistic chance of improving our scoring.  With Prospect's Kellan Strobel and Eric Schneider already leading him, Timmy J only would've had a chance at Hersey's Nate Knautz so we shut him down at 50 meters and had him rhythm run for fourth place.  He did that well and coasted in with a 2:03.4 split for a collective time of 8:05.  It's nice to know we could've run 7:58-7:59 without or best 800 meter runner.

3200 meter run - As I've told the guys many times, we are only going to go down in an MSL race running our race.  If we are going to be beaten, then we are going to be beaten while running to our strengths.  Two moments from our track season decided the race plan here: Greg Netols from Prospect had destroyed Tony in the last 400 meters of an indoor 1600 at Proviso while Andy Mack from Fremd had done the same to Tim Johnson in the MSL West 1600 meter run.  Neither Tony Gregorio nor Reuben Frey are that fast in a sprint so we knew we had to break them before the ending surge of the race.  We decided to pursue an insane pace on a windy night and make it hurt from the gun.

The goal was to hit a 4:40 1600 meter split regardless of conditions, and Barrington's Erik Peterson did his part to help us out by taking the first quarter out in 65 and change.  Tony took over from there to drive it to a 2:16 split before giving way to Reuben.  We wanted to trade leads as long as we could, but Reuben's irrational move in the third lap destroyed him and the field.  He clocked another 69-70 and strung the entire group out.  From there, Tony took over and drove it away.  By the 1600 only Peterson and Buffalo Grove's Jereme Atchison were still around.  It was now a guts race, and Erik Peterson has those in spades.  He moved away with seeming ease and took the win in 9:24 or so.  By the 1 1/2 mark Tony was battling with Atchison as Mack, Netols, and Schaumburg's Tyler Anderson started racing their way up toward the top three.  Reuben had fallen off, but he was hanging on to seventh place.  In the last lap, Atchison took a huge shot at 300 meters to go, but Tony saw his move and made one himself at 150 meters out.  I thought he would take that to the line for second, but Atchison rallied one more time from 80 meters out to take the runner-up spot.  Tony was dying badly after so many moves, and he ended up outlasting Mack and Netols (the kickers) by .6 and 1.4 seconds respectively.  It was not a pretty race, but it was the only way Tony was going to get top three in this field.  I loved our heart and our execution.  We determined the race and picked up 8 points.

800 meter run - We bet big on Ryan McGough in this race by holding him out of our 4 x 800 meter relay.  His teammates came through with a solid fourth place finish so it was up to him to score the big points.  Tim Meincke joined him as he doubled back from the relay.  The main competitors were fresh runners from Prospect and Rolling Meadows: Matt Ashton and Brendan Thielsen.  Ryan broke well and avoided getting boxed even as the field was a relatively pedestrian 28.7 at the 200 meter mark.  He moved the pace at the 300 meter mark and came through at a lagging 58.1 before cranking up the intensity as Thielsen came alongside to challenge.  After a brief fight down the backstretch, Ryan pulled into the lead at the 600 meter mark and was never seriously challenged the rest of the way.  Ashton tried to come get him in the last 100 meters, but the easy early pace left him with a lot in the tank.  Ryan's 1:57.2 was a PR and was the third consecutive wire-to-wire win he has had in this event.  If we ever get some good temperatures and a great race, Ryan is ready to run 1:54-1:55.

The other story in this race was the resurgence of Tim Meincke.  Some weak racing tactics and a nagging knee injury had held him back in recent weeks, and both he and I had been frustrated.  While his 4 x 800 leg was solid, this was the race that impressed me the most.  Tim competed with the heart and fury of a Palatine champion.  The 800 is not his main event, but he scratched and clawed for his team from beginning to end.  At the 100 meter to go mark he was in fifth place and held that position until just before the line when he got nailed by two runners - one on each side.  He finished in eighth place, but pulled off a tough double and helped us finish with 11 crucial points.

1600 meter run - This race was supposed to be the cap on our great night.  It didn't quite turn out that way.  We competed hard but couldn't quite pull off the big finishes we wanted - a championship for Tim Johnson and a top five finish to Anthony Gregorio's double.  Again, we ran as a team to try and control the race.  Tony took the early lead and moved the pace through at 64 seconds.  It relaxed a bit too much from there as the 800 meter split was only 2:12-2:13, certainly slow enough to let most everyone into the race.  Tim and I had planned on him making a move to win the race at 1000 meters.  Just as he moved into position to go for it, Tony Gregorio got tangled up with someone in the tight pack and went down hard.  He got up quickly after a sideways roll into the infield, but he was in last place. 

Johnson's big move got the real race going, but both Schaumburg's Travis Morrison and Connor Prizy and Barrington's Erik Peterson got back on him by the 1200 meter mark.  Prospect's Kellan Strobel looked dead in the water at this point, but you never count him out.  My instinct was right.  At 250 meters to go Strobes started a furious kick that got him to the shoulder of the lead by 180 meters to go.  Tim's second big move had given him separation from the two Schaumburg runners, but it couldn't shake the unflappable Peterson.  He and Strobel went by Tim at 150 out and it was a three way fight from then on.  Tim tried to move back outside, but he couldn't catch either guy in the kick as the two champions battled to the line.  Peterson once again proclaimed himself top dog in the MSL by winning both the 3200 and 1600 meter runs.  This is a rare feat for anyone in the MSL, much less a junior.  None of the great runners I have seen in this conference have pulled it off during my time here.  What a star.  We ended up with only 6 points after hoping we would pull double that number in this event.  It was disappointing not to score the points, but Tim was beaten by the two best guys in the conference after running what we thought was his best chance to win.  We'll see if we can get them next time.

The final story in this race was the toughness of Anthony Gregorio.  After watching him get up, I quickly turned to the action at the front of the race and frankly forgot about him.  I never thought he could get back in it.  He did.  After watching Johnson finish, I turned around and there was Tony streaking by people in the final 100 meters, chewing on his tongue and pounding it to the line.  He ended up ninth, but was only two seconds out of seventh place.  He is simply one of the most physically and mentally tough guys I have ever coached.  The epitome of guts and desire right there my friends.

Other highlights:

F/S MSL - Strong Distance Scoring Leads the Way to a Third Place Finish

We placed third overall behind Conant and Fremd in this one, and it looks like those two MSL West teams will be our main adversaries for the MSL title in the next couple of years.  Conant has a number of nice sprinters, and Fremd appears to have a really well-rounded team on the way as they scored well on F/S and had three or four key parts up on the varsity level.  Next year should be a fun meet.

4 x 800 meter relay - Every year I like to take a shot at winning this one, which is the inverse of the strategy we usually try on the varsity level.  This year's sophs came close to winning this race last year as we had four freshmen finish second to Prospect.  This year we returned with a vengeance and grabbed the title over Buffalo Grove by running 8:30.  This time was impressive considering that we shut Jordan Jarrett down to conserve some energy for his other two races.  Zach Stella ran a solid 2:06 on leadoff, but some early tactical mistakes stuck us in third place.  The real highlight leg here came from Joe Mars, whose 2:07 PR gave us a huge lead.  Zambrano was solid in 2:08 before Jarrett just maintained our spot with a 2:10 and change.

3200 meter run - This race reprised the battle from the MSL West meet as it became clear from lap five on that the title would go to one of Barrington's Ryan Burgoon, Schaumburg's Juan Barajas, or Palatine's Brian Smith.  Smith took the lead a couple of times in here, but he never could make a decisive move off the front to gap his adversaries.  Both guys kicked him down in the last 200 meters as they did two weeks ago.  B. Smitty ended up third, though, with a new PR of 10:09.  Tyler Squeo got stuck in no man's land for the entire race and ended up finishing just out of the points in ninth place.

800 meter run - We held Andrew Clingerman out of the 4 x 800 to stay fresh for this race, and we hoped that he would be able to double our pleasure and give us a clean sweep of the 800 meter events.  Instead, he made a tactical mistake at the 500 meter mark by not going with the leaders when they shot.  Clinger closed hard, but could never quite get into the race.  His 2:05 was a PR, but that was only good for third.  Eddie Graham set a PR of 2:15 in the slower section.

1600 meter run - Both Christian Zambrano and Zach Stella doubled back from the 4 x 800, and they ensured that this was an exciting race.  Z shot to the lead at the 1000 meter mark after a solid 2:20 opening pace, and the race quickly turned into a contest between our duo and Barrington's much improved Mike Rappleye.  Z made another big move down the backstretch on the final lap to try and consolidate his lead, but Zach "Goose" Stella was battling hard with Rappleye and the two got near Zambrano's shoulder by 100 meters to go.  Christian really showed the heart of a champion by holding off both guys - you could see in his eyes that he really wanted to win this one.  He managed to just barely hang on for the win in 4:42.0 as Rappleye (4:42.4) split our two guys.  Stella's 4:42.6 was a big PR.  It's kind of weird, but Christian is the first athlete I have ever coached to win a F/S MSL title in the event.  I know that I've helped coach kids to state titles in the 800 and 1600, but now the monkey is really off my back.  Check one off of my lifetime to do list.

400 meters and 4 x 400 meter relay - With Cam up on varsity, most of the 400 meter duties fell to guys in our group.  Jordan and Rob Hank drew lanes 1 and 8 in the final and promptly raced like a couple of outgunned, meek and mild young men.  I chided them afterward for a lack of confidence and aggression.  Next time we'll show a bit more fire.  I think Jordan was the only one of that duo to score points.

The closing event quickly turned into a duel between Palatine and Conant.  Conant has a nice looking pair of twins who starred in the open 400 and were the bookend legs in this relay.  The first twin gave them a nice lead despite Clingerman's 54 second split.  Strong legs from Rob and Joe Mars put us right into it, but Jordan couldn't get over the top of the other twin in the last 100 meters despite running a nice 53.9 split.  Nevertheless, Jordan had a really solid night of sprinting as he placed in three races and learned a lot about managing three races in a big meet.  The best is yet to come for him.

Carlin Nalley Invite - Garcia and Tomkiewicz Run to Huge PRs

Just highlights for this one:

Hinsdale Central McCarthy Invite - F/S 4 x 800 Highlights Night of PRs

Distance highlights:

Palatine JV Triangular and Team Time Trials - Rosales Breaks 5:00!

May 5, 2011 - Six Meets this Week and We're Halfway Home

Due to the worst spring of weather I've ever experienced in ten years as a coach, we have rescheduled almost all of our meets into a nine day period.  We have six meets this week and another JV makeup meet on Monday at Prospect.  The front half of our week that just concluded involved a F/S and JV meet at Fremd, the Hersey Frosh-Soph meet, and the Barrington freshman and sophomore meet.  Tomorrow, the varsity heads down to the Hinsdale Central McCartney Invite while the F/S and JV are at home with Prospect and St. Viator.  Then, the varsity crew gets back into action on Saturday at the Carlin Nalley Invite, which is being held this year at Bolingbrook rather than Illinois Benedictine.  Whew.  When coupled with my AP research papers being due on Monday and the AP English Language test next Wednesday, I must say that everything is a blur.  At least with the high stakes test and the high stakes meets approaching I have an adrenal rush of anticipation going.  No rest for the wicked.  All new season bests have been entered in the 2011 Performance List.

Hersey F/S Meet - PRs in 3200 and 1600 Highlight a Third Place Team Effort

3200 meter run - Everyone had gotten pretty stale with a ton of training and not much racing so it was good to get our frosh-soph guys into some events they had not tried in awhile.  I was especially psyched to see Zach Stella and Christian Zambrano in the 3200 meter run.  Both guys had suffered due to poor pacing in the York Dual way back on April 9.  Since then Z has run 4:38 while Zach broke 4:50 in a windy and tactical affair at the MSL West division meet.  This race was there for the taking, and I was happy that both of our guys ended up with PRs, but a bit disappointed they couldn't move more off a fairly relaxed opening pace.  Both guys rode the lead through the 1600 at 5:06 before Z made a move to take the lead just before 1200 to go.  The move was solid and gapped the field by five meters or so, but it ended up being too timid and lacked in determination.  The field stuck around and Christian ended up pacing them into the kick.  Z just had nothing in the last 400 meters but dropped his PR from 10:40 to 10:09.  Zach ran competitively to record a new best of 10:15.  If either of these guys starts to run this race with the body language and confidence they demonstrate in the 1600, watch out.

800 meter run - Rob Hank didn't end up sixth in this one because he didn't try.  He actually tried one of the most aggressive moves I've seen from one of our guys all season.  After chiding him for his timidity in this race all season, Rob over-corrected by going out in 28.7 and 61.0.  Then he started to pay.  The field moved hard down the backstretch, but Rob was still ahead by 10 meters or so at the 600 in a split of 1:35.7.  Then it all caved in and he ended up with a dying 2:12.8.  Not exactly how we drew it up, but as I've always said, "The best mistakes are mistakes of aggression."  If we mediate that opening pace, 2:05-2:06 will be right around the corner.

1600 meter run - It seems like eons since Brian Smith ran this race, and I was excited to see if he could advance from his 4:47 PR set back in March during indoor season.  I also threw Joe Mars into this one to convince him that he can run events other than the 400-800.  That might be a bit of a long process, but Joe is at least willing to try.  Injuries have just kept him out of so much training and racing that it hasn't made sense to move him up yet.  Needless to say, no man who runs cross country and can run 57.0 and 2:10 should ever have a PR above 5:00.  To the race...  The opening pace was just flat out stupid as the leaders hit 29 at the 200 and 63 at the 400.  Smitty showed some racing acumen by laying well off the pace through a 68 second opener.  He moved up gradually from there to make it into the top four at the halfway point.  From there he threw some big moves and got up as far as the shoulder of second place.  He couldn't quite get to the lead, but his 4:42 was a nice improvement and bodes well for the great 3200 that is looming in the near future.  As for Mars, he didn't quite show the conviction he needed, choosing to disconnect from a great running group of 5-6 guys who were on 4:45-4:50 pace.  He ended up kicking hard at the end to run a new PR of 4:54, but wished afterward that he would have mixed it up.  Both guys progressed a ton.

Barrington F/S Meet - Big Personal Bests Abound on Both Levels

We added this meet for our second stringers after the Barrington Freshman meet was cancelled, and it allowed our freshman and deeper sophs to record a number of PRs.  Some highlights (I wasn't there unfortunately):

Fremd JV Meet - Strong Runs for Cornelius, Tomkiewicz, and Garcia

We ran some of our varsity guys in this race because it is so hard this season to make our invite team.  Having to sit Marcus Garcia, a 9:50 two miler, at the Palatine Relays was an odd experience.  It's hard to keep motivated when you're stacked up and waiting your turn behind great teammates, but both Marcus and Peter Tomkiewicz unleashed a good one on Monday in the 1600 meter run.  We'll start there.

1600 meter run - Knowing that competition would be a moot point in this meet, we set up a scheme with two pacers.  Erich Kuerschner probably sacrificed his own race (he'd finish in 4:45) to take the pace through the 400 in 66-67, but I was really proud of him for showing some true senior leadership.  Marcus took lap two and drove the pace through the 800 at 2:13-2:14.  From there, it was Peter's job to blast the third lap with the idea being that he and Marcus would race from there.  That race never materialized as Peter's move was too tough, and he ended up going solo the last 800 meters to a new PR of 4:31.  Marcus hung on gamely to set a track PR of 4:36.  Also in this section, I must admit that I felt a ton of pride in the finishes of both Zach Much and Alex Zubach.  Neither guy has ever broken 5:20, but recent road runs and workouts proved they were ready for more.  They hunted 5:00 pace through the 800, but ended up with huge new PRs of 5:11 and 5:12.

The other story in this meet was the race from senior leader Jake Alberti in the slower section.  If I could film a video to define what Palatine distance running means to me, Jake's race would be on it.  Here's a guy who has never run under 5:23-5:24, coming off a stress fracture in cross country that shattered his dreams of a great senior season, who still makes it into May and lays it all on the line.  A Fremd runner established a big lead early, but Jake worked his way up by the 600 meter mark and started giving him the business.  Three separate times he threw hard moves at the guy, but all of them were answered.  Jake's intensity got everyone's dander up and both myself and his teammates were jogging all over the infield giving him some cheers and energy.  At 500 meters to go he reached back and unleashed one more move.  That was the one.  The other guy broke and Jake went on to grab his first outdoor win ever in a sweet new PR of 5:17.  I love that Peter ran 4:31 and all, but this race was worth every step of my run over to this meet.  A forever moment for me.

Behind Jake a number of our guys set all-time bests.  Nate Ruzicka returned from injury to shock even himself with a huge new PR of 5:32 while Chris Lewis shattered the 6:00 barrier with an aggressive race that yielded a new 5:49 PR.  Chris Ruston ran a season best time of 5:38 that neared his all-time best.  Most impressive of all, Will Padilla beat somebody to set a new best of 6:49.  He and Rushi Patel also got into a sweet kick with a Fremd runner that was blood and guts all the way to the line.  The Fremd runner prevailed, but no one gave up.  I love when our guys - from top to bottom - run their races all the way to the line.

800 meter run - We only entered two guys here, but this race was significant on a varsity level.  Kendall Cox attempted to drop his PR from 2:07, but ended up with a 2:10.  More importantly, he set a solid early pace for junior sprint star Kendric Cornelius.  Kendric ran the 800 a bunch last year as a sophomore in Louisiana, and I have been drooling at the prospect of having him insert his 50.7 second 400 meter speed into our 4 x 800.  It looks like that experiment may continue after Kendric ran a solid time of 2:04.4 in a mostly solo run with splits of 29.1, 61.0, 1:31.5, and 2:04.4.  We'll see this weekend what Kendric looks like when given some competition in this event.

3200 meter run - Most of our guys have not had nearly enough opportunities to run this event due to the weather.  I set this one up to be an even-paced affair set to drag our guys toward 10:40 pace.  A pack of Fremd runners went out much faster than our group, but I loved the patience of our guys as they clicked off splits: 78-2:39-4:00-5:20 for our lead group of four.  After the halfway point, Tyler Squeo took charge and led our pack through the Fremd guys to the lead.  He ended up destroying his old PR and replacing it with a solid 10:45 PR.  Behind him three of our freshman also broke under 11:00 - Eddie Graham (10:50), Emil Kozakiewicz (10:53), and Marco Chilelli (10:54).  Adam Vanderweil also neared that barrier for the first time this year with an 11:04.  Most everyone else ran a PR in this race.  Check the Performance List for the full rundown of new season bests.

May 1, 2011 – Boys and Girls Both Capture Team Titles at the 79^th Palatine Relays

In a day full of emotion where we honored recently deceased Palatine legend Joe Johnson, both the boys and girls teams ran to victory.  The girls scored 132 points to grab the win while the boys were able to defeat cross-town rival Fremd by a score of 118-94.  The boys claimed championships in the 800 meter run (Ryan McGough), the 3200 meter run (Tim Johnson), the 400 meter dash (Kendric Cornelius), the distance medley relay (Reuben Frey, Will Stein, Erich Kuerschner, Tony Gregorio), and the 4 x 200 meter relay (Terry Halloran, Jeff Winters, David DiCristofano, Kendric Cornelius). 

Aside from our team performance, the highlight of the day was the incredible turnout for this year’s Alumni Mile tribute to Joe Johnson.  Alums flew in from all over the country to honor Coach Johnson, and it was truly stirring to hear both Chris Wheaton and Mark Visk speak about the influence Joe had on their lives.  My favorite line came from Mark Visk (by way of his wife).  He said that Coach Johnson “spoke belief into our lives.”  That’s a simple phrase, but an incredible tribute to the power a coach and teacher can have in the lives of young people.  As I stood there alongside so many of my recent alumni, I had to fight back tears when reflecting on how much they all meant to me and how many of them had made an effort to be there.  To be congregated with many of the greatest runners and coaches in Palatine history was an honor.

After the tribute at mid-field, the assembled alums gave one final tribute to Coach J by running in the Alumni Mile.  Seeing so many All-Time Greats line up for one last repeat together was incredible.  I was honored to be a part of it and want to thank my friend and mentor Fred Miller for putting it all together.  His wife, Karen Brookwell-Miller, also sacrificed a ton of her time and effort to make this day happen, and I couldn’t be more proud to have the opportunity to keep extending the many great traditions that Joe and his alums started at Palatine.  I know our recent alums and current boys carry this same pride as well.

Practice Schedule – Week 14

There are six meets this week so make sure you know which ones you are participating in and which nights you will be staying home to practice.  Coach Nalley handed out sheets detailing lineups for all three of the meets on Monday and Tuesday.  Varsity lineups for the weekend will be forthcoming.

History Updates – I updated all of the pages associated with the Palatine Relays, including all of the new event champions, the G.A. McElroy winners, all new additions to the Top 10 lists, and the team champions. 

Performance List Updates – Not a ton of PRs on a windy day, but I did add what I could to the 2011 Performance List.

Palatine Relays – Strong Team Performance Brings 28^th Palatine Relays Title

After a tough loss on Tuesday night to Fremd in the MSL West Division meet, our boys responded with increased intensity and competitive fire.  I was proud of our team from top to bottom as it was apparent from early on that we brought our best on Saturday.  I’ll go event by event since there are so many heroes to talk about:

300 meter intermediate hurdles – We didn’t score in this one as Kendall Cox was not able to replicate his PR effort from Tuesday night.  He hit the first two hurdles and never quite recovered. 

F/S 1600 meter medley – We spread our best resources across both F/S medleys so it made it difficult for us to contend for the win in either one.  We hoped to score points in both, though, and we had a solid effort here.  Andrew Clingerman anchored us home in 2:05.7 for a season best 800 meter time, but our combined effort was only good enough for 6^th place and one point.  Rob Hank’s leadoff of 55.8 was solid but not quite fast enough to get us into immediate contention.  The 200 meter legs in the middle from Roberto Sotelo and Kevin Hilmer were solid, but a botched handoff cost us some time.

F/S 800 meter medley – Jordan Jarrett has been our best F/S 400 meter runner all season, and he didn’t let us down in this race.  Freshman Chaka Kelly returned from a recent knee injury to give us the lead at the first exchange while Alex Nawrot and Puwanjit Dhaliwal were solid in their legs to keep us near the lead.  Jordan got the baton in fourth/fifth and was able to move us up to third with a PR leg of 53.0.  He also was able to pass Fremd on the way in to shift some points in our direction.

Long Jump – We expected big points from this relay, and our guys did not disappoint.  David DiCristofano led the way with a 21’ 4” and was ably supported by Kendric Cornelius and Jinho Kim, both of whom jumped over 19’.  These eight points were huge in helping us build an early lead.

Pole Vault – We expected the pole vault to be a duel between Fremd and us, and that is exactly what transpired.  They were clearly heads and tails above everyone else with a 38’ 3” total.  Our guys responded well though with Cam Kuksa clearing 9’ 0”, Hiro Hoshi going 10’ 9”, and Nick LaRocca once again soaring over 13’ 0”.  I don’t know the exact vaults but our 33’ 6” total was good for second place and eight points.

800 meter dash – We have owned the 800 meters over the last five years with Mat Smoody delivering three titles and Alec Bollman winning last year.  Ryan McGough has been fighting illness with a fever and cold this week, but I asked him to provide the team with some momentum.  He certainly did it.  He took the lead at the 300 meter mark into the teeth of the wind and never looked back.  By the top of the backstretch, he was clear of the field and exploding with the wind at his back.  He held his form together in the last 150 to win in dominant fashion.  His 1:59.0 was not a shockingly good time, but winning from out front on a day where the wind was gusting 25-30 mph was very tough.

3200 meter run – Tim Johnson was stung a bit by his late loss in the 1600 meter run on Tuesday night to Fremd’s Andy Mack.  I chided him to show more of a killer instinct and to stop edging by people when he made moves in races.  Tim is still learning how to race like a champion, and his win in this race was as dominant as any performance I saw all day.  I asked him to ride the leader through six laps and then make an explosive move at 700 meters to go.  At times he looked bored and antsy as the leaders started to lag in the wind, but he stayed patient.  When he decided to move, it sent an electric shock through the crowd and the infield.  It was the kind of move that turns heads.  Tim closed in 2:13.1 to win by 16 seconds and establish a new PR of 9:33.7.  That was simply an incredible performance on a day where the wind badly muted times across the board.  His splits were great: 4:51-4:42.  If he wants to, Tim could have a great future in this event.

400 meter dash – Our wins in the two distance events sent a surge through the team as we awaited the quarter.  Kendric Cornelius has been coming on strong in the last week (especially with the advent of warmer weather, a plus for this Louisiana native).  At the beginning of the year he charged so hard in the first 200 meters that he had trouble closing in races, but lately he has been measuring the first 200 better before making huge moves in the third 100 meters.  He executed that race plan to perfection on Saturday and ran away to victory.  His 50.7 PR barely held off athletes from Prairie Ridge and Fremd (50.8 each) and truly indicated that our team was on fire.

Discus – Right before the quarter Brad Walls and Ryan Dreger came up to me, and I sent them out to “bring me good news from the discus.”  Did they ever.  Our discus boys came through huge as all three young men threw PRs and ended up in second place overall.  I don’t have the exact throws, but Julian Turner, Andrew Wundsam, and Nate Gerdes all threw in the 124’-125’ range to record a collective distance of 372’ 5”.  Even better they managed to nudge out Fremd after surrendering an 18-1 loss in this event on Tuesday at the MSL West meet.  What a great demonstration of good technique and competitive fire by these boys.

Distance Medley Relay – Now I knew we were on a role and could close out the morning session with 48 points in five events if the distance guys executed their best races in the DMR.  Reuben Frey led us off and played real well early on, taking the lead at the 400 meter to go mark.  He lost steam from there though and labored badly into the wind in the last 100.  His 3:23.4 split left us in fourth place at the exchange.  Will Stein ran a solid 53.0 split in the 400, but was unable to improve our position so our fate was left to Erich Kuerschner and Tony Gregorio.  Kuersch has answered the bell time after time this season in the 800 meters.  He did it again on Saturday.  His 2:02.2 split was solid and he pulled us within 15-20 meters of the leg going into the final leg.  From there it was all up to Tony.  He exploded through the first 400 meters in 60 seconds and change to get right on the heels of the leader.  He rode for a little bit and then attacked with vigor into the wind at the 700 meter mark.  This move broke his two closest competitors and one more move down the backstretch on the next lap sealed the deal.  Splits of 60-69-69-69 are no way to really run a mile, but Tony executed a perfect race to win this one for his relay.  His 4:28.7 split was a champion’s run and allowed us to end the morning session on a roll.

Alumni Mile – Most of the guys were just running the alumni mile, hoping to make the four laps without keeling over.  Ever since Joe Parks came to Palatine, though, this has become more of a serious race.  Parks has broken 4:30 in the 1600/mile every year since he was a 15 year old sophomore in high school, and the Palatine Relays open 1600 has become his yearly platform for keeping the streak alive.  He hooked up with our alumni coach, James Macatangay, and the two apparently enjoyed a spirited battle throughout.  James threw a move just before 400 meters to go to try and win it, but Parksey ran him down and took the win in 4:25.  James approached his high school PR of 4:25.5 with a sweet 4:27.

As for me, I wasn’t quite sure how fast I could run.  I have really neglected my training lately, especially after a March/April fraught with sickness in my house.  I was pretty psyched to run against my recent alums, though, and I talked boatloads of stuff before the race to John Pasowicz, Tim and Brian Brodeur, and Chano Bernardo.  I hit solid splits of 73.4 and 2:30.1 before starting to suffer a bit in the third lap.  I moved past both Brodeurs and got clear of most everyone only to suffer heading into the wind all by myself.  My 1200 split was 3:48 so I thought a 5:00 mile probably wouldn’t happen.  Then, I saw Chano fading up ahead of me and put my head down and charged.  We fought a spirited duel down the backstretch, and I ran as hard as I could to stop the clock at 5:01 and some change.  I was pretty pumped about such a solid time in the wind.

440 high hurdle shuttle – I honestly did not see this one as I went and grabbed a quick bite to eat after my race.  The boys did run well, though, and placed fourth overall.  Fremd finished second to chop into our lead a bit.  Our splits were Kuksa (17.5), Cox (17.2), Baumgartner (16.7), and Jump (17.4)

100 meter dash – Terry Halloran was a busy man on Saturday and ended up with four medals for his efforts.  He was not able to have his best race of the season in this one as his 11.5 effort was good only for sixth place and one point.

4 x 800 meter relay – We never seem to be able to field a great team for this one since so many of our best guys are usually coming back from events earlier in the morning.  If we are going to win team titles, we will always be gutting it out in this race with some tired guys.  Tim Johnson took the stick on leadoff after his win in the 3200 meter run and looked a bit flat.  His 2:02.0 split was good enough to put us into second at the exchange.  Zach Gates tried to go out and catch Barrington, but managed only to maintain our place with a 2:06.2.  With only one entrant in the longer events, Peter Tomkiewicz was forced into the relay and was not the right man to go out and catch somebody in the lead.  He ran right on his PR with a 2:05.9 but did not have near enough speed to get us to the shoulder of the lead.  Ryan McGough gave a game effort in his second 800 of the day, but his 2:01.0 split ended up getting us third place in 8:15.3.

4 x 100 meter relay – We needed to run well here as we started to see Fremd gain some points on us.  They ended up winning this race to put some pressure on us while our foursome of Terry Halloran (11.2), Will Stein (10.6), Jeff Winters (10.8), and David DiCristofano (11.7) managed only a fourth place effort with a 44. 2.

1600 meter run – We were really expecting some big points from a fresh Tim Meincke in this race, but he made a tactical error early on and suffered greatly when the race started with 400 meters to go.  He faded badly and ended up way out of the big points with his 4:36.1 good only for fifth place.  Tim will need to race smarter and consider the conditions when he is racing for points.  His desire to lead the entire race into the wind set him up for a weak finish.

4 x 200 meter relay – We were hemorrhaging points to Fremd at this point after Andy Mack placed second in the mile.   We needed to outscore them in something to rebuild our lead so we turned to our hottest athlete on this day: junior Kendric Cornelius.  Terry ran a nice 22.8 leadoff split before giving way to senior transfer Jeff Winters.  Jeff (23.2) rocked the stick in the last 50 meters to bring us to the lead.  David DiCristofano did not have his best race with the wind at his back (23.6) and gave back our advantage, but Kendric was not to be denied.  He ate up the other competitors on the curve and brought us home to victory in 1:32.6.  Fremd finished second.

Triple Jump – We knew we had an advantage over Fremd in this event.  A great PR from emerging sophomore star Cam Kuksa made that advantage grow even more.  Coming into the meet Cam’s PR was a solid 40’ 7”, but he bounded out to a 43’ 5” on Saturday to not only lead us to a fourth place finish, but also put himself at #3 on the All-Time Sophomore list in this event.  He now trails only All-Time Greats Chris Hercules and Tim Williams.

Shot Put – Behind the leadership of Coach Jim Aikens, the throws are always one of Fremd’s strengths.  That strength was on display again as Fremd senior star Brian Bobek threw a massive PR of 60’ 3” to lead his team to the win.  Bobek moved to #5 all-time on the prestigious list of Fremd shot putters and will play football next year for Ohio State.  When combined with his 156’ toss in the discus, Bobek was named the G.A. McElroy Athlete of the Meet.  I know our guys had solid but unimpressive days to manage 127’ 11” and fourth place.  Senior Tyler Farris led the way with a toss in the 45’-46’ range.

200 meter dash – It turned out that we had the meet well in hand by this point, but we still wanted to close the day out better than we did on Tuesday at the division meet.  Late wins in that meet had brought Fremd victory, and I thought our guys competed with more grit in the late stages of the meet on this day.  Will Stein finished third here in 23.0 to minimize the damage caused by Fremd’s Justin Wallace finishing second in 22.3.

1600 meter relay – This event has been Fremd’s forte in the past two years, and they did not disappoint in this one.  The quartet of Wolski, Lewis, Vail, and Ferguson led them to the win in a season-best of 3:23.5.  We ran a tired group of guys in here to close out the day, and I was impressed by our grit and desire.  Kendric led off in a 50.8 split to get us near the lead before giving way to solid legs from Terry Halloran (51.8) and Jordan Jarrett (53.2).  They got us into third place.  Ryan McGough anchored in a season PR of 51.1 to lead us to a season-best time of 3:26.9 and a third place finish.

Overall, we got up off the mat from a bruising defeat on Tuesday night and answered the bell.  Our guys competed with great passion across the board, and I am proud of our renewed competitive spirit and toughness.  Hopefully we continue to peak as the post-season looms.

MSL West Division Meet – Fremd Wins by a Score of 144-134

The Fremd-Palatine track rivalry will take on an even more heated flavor next year when we begin to run a yearly dual meet to determine the “King of Palatine.”  This meet felt like a preview of that one and the sting of defeat was even worse because it came at the hands of our crosstown rivals.  This meet was full of back and forth momentum surges and big performances by kids on both teams.  It was a lot of fun, but I wish as always that we came out on the right side of things.  I’ll just do the distance races for this one since I wrote too much already about the Palatine Relays.

4 x 800 meter relay – We wanted to win this one without requiring the services of senior ace Ryan McGough.  We almost pulled it off.  Tim Meincke had a tough task leading off against senior stars Eric Schneider (Barrington) and Connor Prizy (Schaumburg).  He was unable to respond when they threw their moves down at 300 meters to go and struggled home in fourth place.  Erich Kuerschner quickly changed our fortunes with a great 2:01.1 PR to get us into second.  Peter Tomkiewicz also delivered a PR of 2:05.5 to keep us in second before Tim Johnson delivered a tough 1:57.0 effort to try and chase down Barrington’s star sophomore Ryan Skelly.  We ran 8:06.4 for second place but just couldn’t catch a quick Barrington quartet.

Our best sophomores were spread out across the open races and the varsity lineup so I lined up four freshmen.  For the most part they responded well as they all ran PRs.  Eddie Graham delivered a big 2:17 PR in our most stirring performance, bringing us into second place at the exchange.  We ended up fifth in 9:28 but were only seven seconds out of the win.

3200 meter run – With the wind humming up to 30 mph gusts, this was not a day to run fast.  Our duo of Reuben Frey and Tony Gregorio had the tough task of upending Barrington’s star junior Erik Peterson.  They let Peterson lead through a pedestrian 5:02 split before jumping the field at the 1800 meter mark.  That move immediately chopped the scoring group down to our two, Peterson and Dockery from Barrington, and Tyler Anderson from Schaumburg.  Dockery blasted to the lead soon after we moved, but this move fried him and our guys drew clear from everyone but Peterson by two laps to go.  It was all down to the kick from there and Peterson rocketed away for the win in the last 100 meters.  Our guys finished in 9:47 and 9:48 to score 14 points.

In the F/S section sophomore Brian Smith snapped out of his recent funk with a courageous effort to win the race.  I asked him to ride the pace through the mile and then make a concerted bid to win the race.  He blasted to the lead and opened a 15 meter gap but could never quite lose Barrington’s Ryan Burgoon or Schaumburg’s Juan Barajas.  He ended up in third with a great 10:15 PR on a windy day.  Tyler Squeo gave a game effort as he tried to score for the team.  He actually ran a PR of 5:13 in the first mile of the race before fading to an 11:03 finish.  Despite an epic fade I loved his desire to run only to score.  This instinct will serve him well in the future.

800 meter run – Eric Schneider doubled back after his nice relay leg, but he didn’t have near enough to get Ryan McGough on this day.  Per usual, McGough was sick, running a fever and badly congested, but answered the bell.  As I tell the boys, “McGough is at his best when he is at his worst.”  I’ve rarely had an athlete with such ability to battle through adversity.  He took this one wire to wire in 1:58.7 to grab 10 team points.  Behind him, Zach Gates shaded the scoring group in a return from a possible tibia stress fracture.  He showed true Palatine guts and desire in the last 200 meters as he moved up to fifth place to score two vital points.  What a gutty run.

In the F/S Andrew Clingerman and Joe Mars showed that they are quickly returning to form after suffering from various injuries early in outdoor season.  Clinger has a ton of potential and varsity dreams, and I thought his 2:08.0 effort for second place was a step in the right direction.  He ran to win and suffered at the end, but the finish will come with further conditioning and racing.  Mars looked like he would be fourth, but he fought like crazy in the last 100 meters to run down a Fremd runner for third place.  His 2:10 was a season best and really near his PR from last May.

1600 meter run – This race ended up in disappointment, but it will certainly be something we learn from in the future.  Andy Mack from Fremd had placed third in the 800 meter run, and it turned out that he was the best runner in the MSL West on this night.  After no one wanted to drive the pace into the wind, he exploded in the last 200 meters to take a narrow win over Tim Johnson.  Tim left the race too late and fell prey to Mack’s superior speed – we’ll have to work on our tactics a bit more next time.  Tim Meincke rallied from behind to finish tough and get us fourth place points.

The F/S section was all Palatine as we held Christian Zambrano and Zach Stella out fresh.  They made some great moves on Barrington’s Ryan Burgoon and ran to a 1-2 finish in 4:48 and 4:49.  Zambrano was especially impressive as he made one big move to clear the field at 800 meters before blowing up a big kick from 300 meters out to stay clear of his hard-charging teammate. 

April 24, 2011 - Wheaton South Results, Palatine Relays Updates

This week is the official start of the championship phase of our season with both the MSL West Division championship and the Palatine Relays on the schedule.  The 79th Palatine Relays will be an emotional one with a ton of All-Time Greats in attendance to honor recently deceased Palatine coach Joe Johnson.  It should be a great weekend with the semi-promise of some good weather.  Tuesday night is the MSL West Division meet so come out to Barrington and support the boys as they attempt to win the regular season title.

Writing Updates - You alums are going to like this week's edition of Running the Pirate Way.  It's a love letter to our favorite run of all: The Morning Loop.  Read the entire article detailing Tony Gregorio's pursuit of Glenn Morris' 27:20 record clocking from 2005.

Performance List Updates - I put all seasonal bests run at the Wheaton ABC meet into the 2011 Performance Lists.  The cancellation of three meets in the past week has put a brief halt to our PR parade, but we can get things back on track next week with 6 meets of various levels on the revamped schedule. 

Practice Schedule - Week 13

Wheaton Warrenville South "Red Grange" ABC Meet - 3200 Results Highlight Solid Day

I left Thursday's meet with a complicated mixture of emotions about the current state of both our distance group and our team as a whole.  We had some real highlights, but there were far too many holes and sub-par efforts for my liking.  Hopefully, we can correct the deficiencies as a team and come together in a much more powerful way on Tuesday.

4 x 800 meter relay - With the varsity guys all running fresh in open races, this one was left to our four best F/S guys.  While no one ran a particularly great time, I thought all four guys competed hard en route to a fifth place varsity finish.  We ran just over 8:40 as the team of Jordan Jarrett, Zach Stella, Christian Zambrano, and Andrew Clingerman all averaged around 2:10.  The times certainly could have been faster, but the race as a whole was not that quick, probably due to windy and cold conditions.

3200 meter run - The B and C divisions of this one were a bit of a joke this year given the firepower we were able to bring to this meet.  Both Marcus Garcia (C) and Reuben Frey (B) were able to cruise to massive victories after having to run the last seven laps all alone.  Marcus ran a time-trial style PR of 9:50 and looked very good in setting a C division record.  Reuben ran even more impressively, setting a 5 second PR of 9:39 as he was the only athlete in the B division to break 10:00.  Both of these guys won by more than 25 seconds. 

In the A division, a duel quickly unfolded between Tony and Glenbard West's Mike Lederhouse.  Prospect's Josh Campos hung on gamely through six laps and ended up with a big 9:44 PR, but the real race here was between the two star juniors.  Tony basically lead through 6 1/2 laps and then was blown off the track by Lederhouse's winning move.  Tony certainly can go faster, but has struggled when required to take the entire pacing load.  In both of his great races in the 1600 and 3200 this season, Tony has been able to follow and hang on to a quicker pace.  He will need to figure out how to make moves and finish hard when in the lead if he wants to be a champion runner in this event.

800 meter run - Ryan McGough ran to a second place finish in this race, but he certainly will need to show more tactical acumen and late-race fight if he wants to accomplish his goals in this event.  Prospect's Kellan Strobel jumped him between 400-500 meters, and Ryan did not respond even though the first 400 was run in a relatively pedestrian time of 60.2.  He'll have to be more tactically sound off of a slow pace.  Even better, Ryan will learn to put the race out at a pace that leads to a faster time.

In the B and C, we were solid but a bit uneven.  Erich Kuerschner had one of the best races of the night to equal his PR of 2:03.2 and nearly win the B class.  He made a great move past 600 meters to take the lead, but couldn't hold it all the way to the line.  Noah Brown was promoted to the C race after we decided to keep Zach Gates out of the meet and responded by equaling his PR in finishing fourth.  The place was solid, but Noah has some work to do if he wants to make the varsity lineup for us.

1600 meter run - I don't have many comments here.  Tim Johnson finished fourth in class A with a 4:27 while Tim Meincke was second in 4:34 in B.  You can probably figure it out from there.  Peter Tomkiewicz ran a huge PR in the C division, but finished second to Prospect's Mike Thill.  Peter's 4:34 was an eight second improvement over his 4:42 lifetime best and was our most competitive effort from the three 1600 meter runners.

Overall, this meet showed that we have a ton of work to do if we want to be a respectable track team.  Far too many opportunities passed without our guys seizing the moment to get better.  Much will need to improve for us to have a fighting chance at Tuesday's MSL West Division meet, and I trust that we will give a much better group effort. 

April 15, 2011 - Manderson Invite Pictures, Libertyville and Triangular Results

Track season officially got busy this week just in time for me to get sick with strep throat.  It's been a difficult month at the Quick house with strep throat and flu going through our family so I am absolutely looking forward to great track meets and spectacular spring weather.  Oh wait...  It's 45 and raining out right now and tomorrow's 6 Star Invite at home is in serious danger of cancellation.

The official meet start time has been moved back to 11:00 am, which moves the distance runner report time back to 9:30.  If there is not a meet, we will have a brief practice.  If you happen to look at the web site tonight, please spread the word through texts, phone calls, and Facebook.

As for our results this week, we had a great night at the Libertyville Relays on Wednesday with the frosh-soph and a rather so-so performance on Tuesday from our crew.  The varsity is in a bit of a rut right now as we train hard and await the big meets of the track season.  Our frosh-soph is a bit fresher, and it showed in their meet results.  By far the biggest result of the week was Christian Zambrano running 4:38.4 to lead-off our 4 x 1600 meter relay at Libertyville.  I knew he had the talent, but I had never seen Z race that way before.  His race was an inspiring beginning to a great team effort that saw the F/S win the relay-style meet 118-112 over Lake Zurich.  It felt great to finally go to a track meet, load up our lineup, and go for the win.  There's more of that to come soon Varsity guys.  Let's keep those attitudes straight and the pedal to the metal heading into Wheaton ABC next week.  For highlights of this week's meets, skip past the Manderson pics.

Writing Updates - It took a little while, but my most recent excerpt, entitled "The Mid-Suburban League" is now up on ESPN rise - Illinois.

Practice Schedule - Week 11

Performance List Updates - All times from the Hersey/Rolling Meadows Triangular and the Libertyville Relays have been recorded in the 2011 Performance Lists.

1st place - The Running Hobos (Captain Tim Meincke)

2nd place - Sheehan's Little Helpers (Captains Zach Gates and A.J. Laskowske)

3rd place - The Barbara Powell Experience (Captain Marcus Garcia)

4th place - Brownie Bites (Captain Peter Tomkiewicz)

5th place - Too Much (Captains Tim Johnson and Reuben Frey)

6th place - The McTools (Captain Ryan McGough)

7th place - The Bloody Nips (Captains Erik Bethke and Anthony Gregorio)

York Dual - Strong 4 x 800 and 3200 Performances Highlight First-Year Dual

This meet was interesting from a number of perspectives.  After all, York won this year's cross country state championship while we were some 25 points in arrears in fourth place.  Outside of York's Jack Driggs, though, there isn't much that separated us from them.  Driggs' second place finish in cross country was the obvious differentiator between our two squads so I expected some great racing.  Driggs cruised a 9:30 or so 3200 meter run to take the win (he was pacing Ron Hedman) before proceeding to take a race preparation effort in the 1600.  His goal for track is to break 4:00 for the mile so he ran the first 1000 meters of the 1600 at that pace.  His splits: 29, 59, 1:30, 2:00, 2:31.  Pretty impressive and more proof of the power of expectations.  Jack may not run 4:00, but you have to admire the aspiration.  We certainly have been building that level of expectation, and I hope our tradition keeps pushing our guys to aspire in a similar way.  The races...

4 x 800 meter relay - 7:58.8 Time Puts Palatine in the National Top 10

There are probably some national results floating around out there from the weekend that will push us down the list a tad, but our effort was clearly a high caliber one.  As I said before, York shifted their lineup around to make this a great race, and it certainly paid off.  We lined up McGough, Meincke, Gregorio, and Johnson against Adamyk, Cooney, Glaubke, and Simo.  This certainly isn't York's A team, especially with Nick Gornick sidelined with a sprained ankle.  Driggs will probably not run this one at the end so these are certainly some of their parts for this season.

McGough versus Adamyk was a good matchup on leadoff.  Adamyk is moving up to the 800 after running some great 400 and 600 meter times indoors.  McGough took the pace through 57 for the first time this year and did well to hold form through splits of 1:27.9 and 1:58.7.  He ran well but certainly has more in him.  He handed off to Meincke who never has a problem with aggression.  Tim was 58 or so at the 400 before hitting 1:28.3 and 1:59.6.  He looked solid after struggling with a sore knee all week and dipped under 2:00 for the first time ever.  Tony has struggled the last 10 days with a sore calf in the aftermath of his IPTT race.  He was not at his best in this speed setting, but did an admirable job of not letting Glaubke get too close.  He split 59 high, 1:31.3, and 2:02.7.  The race then came down to Tim Johnson versus York senior Matt Simo.  Simo cruised up to Timmy J by the 200 mark and the two locked up en route to a 57 second first lap.  After that, it got hot.  Simo pushed to Johnson's shoulder as Tim passed 600 meters in 1:27.6.  From there it was a real war.  Simo gained an edge at the 100 meter to go mark and grabbed lane one.  Timmy J tried to come back inside, but broke stride.  All looked lost at that point, but Tim gathered one more time and drove it through the line for the win.  His 1:57.7 split was a huge PR, and I was even more happy about his competitive spirit.  I challenged him to train and race with greater urgency after a lackluster indoor campaign, and the results have been impressive thus far.  He won all three races he entered this week.

Overall, I was pleased as punch.  I usually don't like diminishing chances in individual races by committing to a relay, but these guys may be too good to pass up.  We also have a couple more bullets in our gun and will see how we could continue to strengthen the lineup in the coming weeks.  Sweet start to outdoor season.

3200 meter run - Tomkiewicz Grinds to Huge New Lifetime Best

Everyone in our group knows that Peter is on a mission after a breakout cross country season.  The man's commitment and diligence have been unbelievable, and I am so proud to see it pay off in his results.  This race set up nicely for Peter and Reuben as Driggs was attempting to pace Ron Hedman to a 9:30 clocking.  The early pace was much too easy as they fairly waddled through splits of 74 and 2:26.  From there Driggs dropped it progressively and things got rolling.  They recovered to hit 4:47 at the 1600 which was perfect for both of our guys.  I had them keep following another two laps to take it through the 1 1/2 mile mark in 7:14.  From there, Reuben took over.  He has been unable to train much after tweaking a muscle in his glute, but he did well to break the pace and gap Hedman badly during lap seven.  Peter hitched in at the moment of truth, and it was a race between senior and junior after that.  Peter moved outside at 150 meters to go and finished strong through the line to run 9:42.9, bettering his 9:55 PR from indoors by a cool thirteen seconds.  Reuben ran a slight lifetime best of 9:44.2 despite looking a little flat.  Behind the top two, both Much twins broke under 12:00 for the first time with Zach running 11:46 and Spence running 11:53. Chris Ruston also ran near his PR with a solid 12:16.

The frosh-soph race ended up being a bit of a mess for our sophomores.  I loaded up with six of our most promising guys, and York promptly showed us how much work we have to do over the next two years to reach their standard.  Scott Milling, a 15:00 guy in cross country, ran away with the win in a new PR of 9:40 while Baughman (9:55) and Mroz (10:04) also ran well.  To tell you the truth, everyone in this race except Milling suffered after a too fast early pace.  The first 400 at 69-70 threw our guys into oxygen debt, and it was a fade-fest thereafter.  Back to the drawing board for Smith (10:30), Zambrano (10:41), and Stella (10:49).  Our pack behind them fared better because they ran their own race.  Eddie Graham, Tyler Squeo, and Emanuel Rosales all dipped under 11:00 with nearly identical clockings of 10:59.  That is a big PR for both Graham and Squeo.  Lucas Bombal also ran a huge new best of 12:07.

800 meter run - Erich Kuerschner Goes Wire to Wire to Win

The open half was mostly vacated as the top distance guys concentrated on the open 3200 and 1600.  This gave Erich Kuerschner a nice opportunity to run fast and gain confidence.  He seized it.  After moving through the 400 at 60 and the 600 at 1:32.0, he held on nicely to run 2:03.2 and set a massive PR.  Kendall Cox also ran a new best in 2:07.5 while Noah Brown dropped nearly six seconds off his best to run 2:10.4.

In the F/S section, we had to scratch Andrew Clingerman with a sore Achilles tendon so Jordan Jarrett had to go it alone.  He ran solidly, but was disappointed after the race that he did not engage more with the varsity guys.  His 2:12.0 was a six second drop from his opener two weeks ago so we are certainly making progress.  Look for him to become a player on the varsity level before all is said and done.

1600 meter run - Tim Johnson Finds Another Kick

The varsity race here was a bit bizarre.  Driggs was out front from the start running a 1000 meter time trial at 4:00 pace while everyone else was left to race behind him.  From the start, Johnson, Meincke, and Gregorio hooked up with Tom Hedman and Carlos Vega from York.  The pace dawdled with no one willing to push off the front on what was becoming a hot day.  They hit the 800 in 2:16 high before Meincke assumed the lead and pushed pace.  This move dropped Vega and Gregorio as both Hedman and Johnson hitched a ride.  The 1200 split was 3:23 so it was clear this could only be a good time with a big kick.  Meincke faded badly in the last 400 so it was left to Johnson and Hedman to finish it.  Tom exploded to the lead at 200 to go, hoping to shock Johnson into quitting by building a quick gap.  I turned my back for a moment to run to the line, and when I regained the race Johnson was on top of him and flying.  Hedman tied up after moving too soon and Johnson took the win in 4:26.1.  Vega split our other two guys who looked sapped and tired after their earlier 4 x 800.  Both Tim and Tony will have to be able to double back much better than 4:35 and 4:36 later in the season.  In other news, both Lucas Roehrborn (4:50) and Erik Bethke (4:59) broke 5:00 for the first time this season while Alex Zubach crushed his PR with a 5:21.6.

The F/S race was bound to be a tough one after I committed so many sophomores to the 3200 meter run, and York once again flexed their coming depth on this level.  These sophs have been hands down the best in the state since they hit high school, and they proved it again by running a ton of good times: 4:37, 4:43, 4:45, and a bunch in the low 4:50s.  Even more impressive, all of these were different guys than the ones in the 3200 meter run.  We have our work cut out.  The brightest story for us was Marco Chilelli running 4:58.2 to break 5:00 for the first time.  He ran with a lot of guts and desire and had the varsity buzzing after the meet.  Other big PRs were turned in by Emil Kokakiewicz (5:04.5), Sebastian Ramirez (5:18.8), Harmeet Bawa (5:20.7), Adam Brauer (5:27.9 - I told you that you're good at this!), Ryan Brown (5:34), and Gabe Flores (5:46.7).  Gabe just crushed the 6:00 barrier for the first time after a near miss on Tuesday afternoon.

4 x 400 meter relay - Sprinters and Distance Guys Combine for Two Great Wins

Our team spirit was up for this one as the seniors got the field run going full strength with 100 guys.  We had to scratch Clinger in the F/S race and insert McBean, but all four guys competed like crazy anyway.  Rob Hank opened in 55.1 to get us the lead.  Antonio fought hard enough to keep it close with a 58.5.  Soph Cam Kuksa had never really run the 4 x 400 before, and his performances on this day proved he is a star in the making: 9' 0" pole vault, 16.6 110 meter high hurdles, 40' 1/2" in the triple jump, and a 55.2 split that kept us within 10-15 meters of the lead.  It was now up to Jordan Jarrett to dig deep and go get it.  He ran the first 200 like a veteran, gaining gradually to get to the shoulder of York's anchor by 150 to go.  From there, this race was an absolute war and had everyone going crazy.  Both were locked up badly from 50 meters out, but Jordan edged ahead enough to take the win with a great 54.2 split.  Not bad for his first 400 of the season.  Varsity here he comes!

We loaded our 4 x 400 to try and get an early seed time in this event, but York had other plans and we ended up running alone.  Part of this was due to rising star Kendric Cornelius.  Kendric transferred to PHS from southwest Louisiana so he is no stranger to the track game.  This was his breakout race: his 51.1 on leadoff blew it wide open.  From there it was a time trial as we worked through middle splits of 53.1 (Terry Halloran) and 53.3 (Will Stein).  Ryan McGough has been sitting on a good 400 time for some time now, and his 51.2 close was a statement of good things to come.  These two great wins to close the meet did a lot to get all of the guys fired up for the track season, and we went to the bus with a little more strut in our stride.

Schaumburg-Hoffman Estates Triangular - Highlights Only

This meet was rather low key with both Schaumburg and Palatine sitting some key guys.  Sophomore Evan Prizy was out with a sore hip while Tony Gregorio ran a fartlek rather than test his mending calf strain.  Reuben also sat out as he continues to recover from a strained glute muscle.  Some highlights...

April 2, 2011 - Manderson Invite Results

We've got to give a shout out to the founder(s) wherever they may be.  Thanks to Matt Anderson and Tim Doyle we now enjoy a yearly respite from the rigors of track season where we get to go and frolic in the grass, if just for one day.  Manderson VIII was full of hijinks, pseudo-toughness, and juvenile ridiculousness.  This year's event included a petting zoo for the first time as well as semi-hot middle-aged women and college girls dressed up in Easter Bunny ears.  I wonder if the participants and organizers of the Bunny Dash 5K wondered who would dare run a race in uniforms that featured superhero underoos over compression shorts?  Or a bunch of mangy hobos with toilet paper beards?  Or an entire team of men with nipple holes in their T-shirts but nipple guards for safe-keeping?  The event once again did its founders proud, and we were proudly able to run like costumed fools in a battle...for the ages.

The smart money coming in was on The Barbara Powell Experience.  These men were dedicated to running well in homage to our favorite Nike Unleashed lady, and what can I say?  We fought the good fight.  The only thing we can blame for our narrow loss is the silly string and the simple fact that we were robbed.  Those damn hobos steal everything!

Final scores: The Running Hobos 67, Sheehan's Little Helpers 69, The Barbara Powell Experience 71.  I'm not sure I have the strength or time to type out the totals from the other teams, but you'll find all of the scores in the Manderson 2011 Results.  Pictures will follow soon courtesy of Mr. J and Gabe Flores.

April 1, 2011 - Manderson Invite Preview

For the unaware, the Manderson Invite has quickly become an instrumental part of the Palatine tradition.  Whether it means running in girls bikinis, donning huge Afros en route to victory, or chucking bananas and silly string at the opposition, the Manderson is a serious piece of business.  If you don't believe me, check out previous results and pictures:

For anyone interested in watching, Manderson VIII will occur at roughly 9:17 am on Saturday, April 2 at Deer Grove East no matter rain nor shine.  The teams:

Sheehan's Little Helpers (Captains Zach Gates and A.J. Laskowske)

I thought that all of Sheehan's Little Helpers were sophomore girls, but I guess I was wrong because this motley crew has been assembled to...I guess, help Sheehan's team win today?  Word is that a bribe to Kevin Yee kept Coach Jimmy out far past curfew last night while Coach Mark Hijack was taken over by a really set of rabid math problems in his sleep.  That leaves Berti to tote the load along with Argenis.  I guess Rosales might be of some assistance, but if Santa had this list of employees all of the kids would probably be getting boxes, bows, and wrapping paper for Christmas.  Odds: 7-1

Brownie Bites (Captain Peter Tomkiewicz)

Brownie is concerned about his image here, but we assured him that The Brownie Bites are delectable chocolate treats rather than an ode to his nastiness or a slur on his ability.  These guys should fill up on chocolate pre-race because they won't be tasting the fruits of victory anytime soon.  Sure, She-She will be good to go because he'll just have a salad and a Lean Cuisine, but this team is putting a lot of faith in a well-tanned Lucas Roehrborn and a Sicilian with a winning smile but not enough meanness to make anyone an offer they can't refuse.  It may come down to Harmeet coming through for them, but with his twin on the sidelines he'll lack the Wonder Twins power and be left standing there with a bucket of water.  Odds: 15-1

The Running Hobos (Captain Tim Meincke)

I'm pretty sure these guys will be sent packing early, but they don't have much to begin with anyway.  Whether they're running from the law or from their creditors, these hobos will probably be riding the rails out of town on the caboose.  The Monkey might be a fast miler, but as a draft captain?  Smitty's red-headed stepchild of a complexion will be threatened by the first ray of sun while Noah "Should we paint the ark?" Brown will be too busy flinging sweat from his elbows to really race.  They hope that Devo can whip it good with that bum hip, but this team's fate lies in the hands of Emil and Vandy.  These guys might get some early action, but when push comes to shove, they'll be pushing their shopping carts on to the next Wal-Mart down the line.  Odds: 4-1

The Barbara Powell Experience (Captain Marcus Garcia)

Let's get some things straight.  This team is gonna win.  Marcus saw fit to pick all of us and if Marcus thinks something is true then it is gonna happen.  Of course, Babs did say no to homecoming, but no mind, no matter.  This team has A) The funniest Ukrainian at PHS.  Our man Zubach may never groundscore candy or sell his stock in Clorox Bleach, but he is a silent assassin behind that winning smile B) None of the other teams has a dude with a mustache, and I'm pretty sure Miggy's Mexican stache is the best in the school and even more intimidating since he's a freshman. C) Jordan Jarrett is interstellar, sensational, and athletic (provided he knows that he's supposed to come to distance practice on Saturday morning).  Add to that a sneaky old man, a freshman who still thinks seven guys get to run in each track event, and Wolfgang Amadeus Sanchez?  Please...it's in the bag.  Odds: 1-1.

Too Much (Captains Reuben Frey and Tim Johnson)

The only people on this team who have had "too much" are all the half-milers crying for mama when the big pain hits past the two-mile mark.  T. Johnny and Reuben went for the early speed and the twin power, but I'm afraid they'll be the one's seeing double when the rubber meets the road late in the race.  Clinger may hold on to the pace longer than most, but Rob "Stop my tears with a" Hankie will be cryin' for mama and his soccer ball before too long.  Kuersch has shown some fire lately and will be a good #2 to Tim J, but I wonder: can you ever have too much of a good thing?  Brauer may pull a thespian act and try to sing his way into the fifth man role, but no ode from a nightingale will save this squad late in the race.  Even Two Muches can't stop the heartbreak.  Odds: 10-1

The McTools (Captain Ryan McGough)

Now the captain of this team might stand a chance of getting a date (so his Mom tells me), but these McTools are certainly not engineered for social destruction.  Luckily many of them can race since they can't convince a girl to go and sharpen their pencil or do their homework for them.  The plan was to draft enough crazy kids to annoy Squeo into a good race, and I think it might work.  Seabass is a volcanic Peruvian with guts streaming out his nose while Lucas Bombal is intent on destroying his quiet, nice guy image.  Add to that mix Zach "I'm Not a Grandma" Stella and Crusty the Clown, and these guys might just stand a chance.  Word is that they may have the shortest split because they're all going to jog together and carry Rushi in a suitcase.  Odds: 8-1

The Bloody Nips (Captains Tony Gregorio and Erik Bethke)

No, this team isn't named after a Scottish guy making a terrible slur against the Japanese.  Instead, it's an ode to Bethke's big saucers that have a nasty penchant for bleeding in the wind.  Hopefully, the band-aids will do the job on Saturday, but this team might need a hospital instead.  Little Z's been more like a little lamb with that icky IT band, and Coach Niggles' shin might explode upon impact.  At least this team has some sensational freshmen, but I'm not sure the law firm of Lewis, Flores, Padilla, and Ruzicka can win damages without a little more courtroom experience.  Tony could save them, but he'll be too busy kicking the bloody fence to nip anyone at the line.  Odds: 1,000,000-1