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Paul Vandersteen – Head Coach paul_vandersteen@ipsd.org Jaime Janota – Varsity james_janota@ipsd.org Steve Saul – Sophomores steve_saul@ipsd.org Mike Rossi – Freshmen michael_rossi@ipsd.org Arnoush Javaherian – Freshmen arnoush_javaherian@ipsd.org Registration
for Summer Cross Country found HERE Our
Mission and Values Efficient Running Stride Animation
Neuqua Valley Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field Facebook Page Summer
Running 2010 With the loss of the majority of students from our best feeder school (Scullen Middle School) to WV, I prepared myself for a reduction of men participating in our program. To my delight, we established record numbers this summer with 175 runners! Our sophomore class jumped from 18 at this time last year to 41 now. With the help of great assistant coaches, alumni, and other guys like NCAA Division III national champion Kyle Brady, I have plans to do some serious marketing next spring to see if we can break the magical 200 mark. Sometimes I find this hard to believe. In the summer of 1997, I once went to a summer running session and one guy showed up! Most days, we had 6-8 guys in attendance. Joe Sabah once said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great”. We have had some key seniors step up their training the last three weeks. The State has never heard of some of these seniors but it is obvious that they are determined to be known. Only time will tell. I am also proud of our leadership thus far. Joel Lynn, Hirsh Gaikward, Jon Stricker and Josh Antonson have stepped up to lead this team. I am sure I will witness others doing the same as the summer unfolds. IHSA State
Meet – May 28 and 29 I have to give our guys credit. They competed and left everything on the track. We finished third as a team while dealing with quite a bit of adversity. Two years in a row we have received a trophy - no small accomplishment considering the depth and quality of the track and field teams in this state. I really enjoyed the chess game that went with this meet. All six coaches sat in a room on Friday night to figure out how we might win the State championship. We figured we would need at least 52 points if Lake Park’s guys were on. After the coaches met, we met with the guys and talked about what we had to do the next day. We were very close to being dead on. Lake Park would win the state title with 50 points with three guys scoring in four different events. One of the decisions we made was to put our eggs in the sprint relays basket to see if we could score big points there. By not going for the 4 x 800m relay, we could save Aryan and Steve Carron’s legs for the open 400m. However, it would have been fun to see how fast they would have run. Nonetheless, our 4 x 800m guys that did run ran a fantastic race. They were in the race the whole way. Cale Brown showed that he has a real future in the 800m next year at Carthage by running a 1:55.0 anchor leg to lead us to a very close seventh place finish. Jordan Lagomarcino capped off a great senior year by running 1:56.0 in the second leg. After the 4 x 800m, it was Aaron’s turn. I knew he was in trouble when no one wanted to close the gap that Fenwick’s Grady put on the field. Aaron was caught in a no-win predicament. If he tried to close the gap himself he would have used up a lot of energy, but sitting with the chase pack he was falling into the hands of the big kickers. Aaron ran a 61 last 400m, but it was not enough to catch Grady and the other three guys who kicked the last 400m faster than him. He finished fifth and capped a career of many State medals that may never be surpassed by another distance runner in our program. In fact, he has probably won more state medals than any non-swimmer in NV’s history! After the 3200m, we needed big points in the sprint relays to have a chance. As it turned out, we didn’t have enough to score high in the 4 x 100m. We finished sixth. At this point, I knew it was probably going to be a battle for second. A glimmer of hope appeared when Aryan and Steve finished second and fourth in the 400m. However, Aryan was dq’d for a lane violation and now the team was feeling down. Coach Saul called me. I left the stands and found them in the field house with their heads down and not saying a word. I explained to them it was not possible to win the state championship (Lake Park had scored 50 points) and that Aryan’s disqualification was not going to cost us a State title because even with his 8 pts., we could only score 44 pts. I then challenged them to make a statement with the race they had left. I challenged them to make history. The other coaches did the same after coming back from the officials’ area. The guys met the challenge. We won the 4 x 400m in a school record (3:17.0 FAT) with Aryan anchoring it in 47.95. Sophomore Jake Bender ran 49.5 for his leg. What a great day. We dealt with adversity and learned many life lessons. We had fun. What more could one ask for? Ok, a state championship, but that was not in the cards this day. What was in the cards were memories of a lifetime. We will talk about this day for a long time. For me, the character that was shown by our guys was more important than anything else. I could not be more proud of a group of men. I could not be more proud of NV as a community. We had a huge crowd of parents, fans, administrators, teachers, and teammates that made the trip down. Collectively, it is hard to argue that we were not champions together J IHSA
Sectional Meet – May 22 The meet was delayed from the night before and run on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at West Aurora. We came to compete but so did everyone else J I thought we looked sluggish and a different senior schedule this week could easily explain this. Thankfully, the graduation was Sunday so now we can focus on the task at hand. We have many options and as long as the guys embrace the events we choose, we will be in good shape come Saturday.
Sophomore Jake Bender anchors the 4 x
400m in 49.2 I thought Aaron Beattie ran a very smart race to win the 3200m in 9:16x. He ran just hard enough to win over a much improved Guthrie from Naperville North. David Wing struggled a bit (9:27x) and will have to have a go at it in the slow heat down in Charleston. Distance runners at this Sectional were at a definite disadvantage time-wise compared to the cooler and calmer conditions most had on Friday night. Steve Carron was the definite horse in this meet. He ran a 1:56.6 leg on the 4 x 800m, was second in the open 400m in 49.02 FAT, and then led off our 4 x 400m relay in 49.7.
Steve Carron (right) runs the lead-off leg of the 4
x 400m I am looking forward to a great State meet. It is time for us to take care of the
little things and not worry about ‘winning a State championship’. If that happens, great, but we cannot
control points and places. We can only
control getting ready and giving it our best effort in the events assigned. Upstate
Eight Conference Meet – May 13, 2010 Not a whole lot to report with this meet. We won easily (results) and the wind was blowing at a constant 15-18 mph so the times suffered. The meet reminded me of our 2007 team in the fall when we competed at Regionals. We simply went through the motions knowing the real excitement was coming down the road. Wing looked good in the 1600m and he and Beattie held off
Krauss (LP) and Johnson (StE) to go 1-2.
I liked Alekh’s competitive spirit in the fr/so 1600m. With a summer of consistent training, he
has a shot at being a top 7 contributor this fall. Robbie Hohlman’s 800m was fun to
watch. He is not afraid to stick his
nose in there and with a summer of training, he is looking like a top 7
runner at the f/s level this fall.
Probably the most impressive performance of the day was sophomore Jake
Bender’s 400m split in the 4 x 400m.
He ran 50.1 in non-ideal conditions and his 200m on the 4 x 200m was
impressive. I look forward to having
Jake with us this summer and fall.
10k Article –
Sub 27:000, an elite club Unless you have been living in a cave, you know that Chris
Solinsky recently became the first American to break 27:00. Only 31 guys have accomplished this feat –
ever! This is a great article – worth
a read. Red Ribbon Invite – May 1, 2010 We loaded our sprint relays for this meet and gave some
other guys an opportunity to run in the distance races. The highlight had to be the 4 x 400m relay
where we dropped the baton on the last leg, ran back 5 meters to go get it,
and still broke 3:20! Mark Derrick and Taylor Soltys both ran 2:03 and 2:02 on their respective legs on
the fr/so 3200m relay. Matt Hill continued to improve his
3200m time and is starting to look like a viable top 5 guy this fall. Junior Vincenzo
DalPozzo continues to impress after taking almost all of the indoor
season off. He ran a 2:00.5 split on
the 3200m relay. And, last but
definitely not least, was sophomore Jake
Bender’s 400m performances. He ran
a 50.3 open 400m and then repeated this performance as the anchor of the
school record f/s 4 x 400m relay. His
open 400m broke Zach Splan’s school record.
I would love to see him train with us this summer! Pictures are on our
Facebook page. Updated times are in the chart on this
page. NV, WV, MV Triangular I am not going to add a lot of comments to save a little time but even though the weather was far from ideal, we had some great distance performances. Check the performance chart for improved times. Sophomore Taylor Soltys’ and Mark Derrick’s 3200m times were definite highlights. Order a T-Shirt! Traditionally, we award our athletes who qualify for the
state meet with shirts. In support of our team this May, we're making another
version of the shirt available to anyone affiliated with our program for
$10. In the event that we've got athletes running in the state finals, it
would be a tremendous sign of support to see a section of the bleachers
packed with our fans decked out in gold and blue shirts. The back of the
shirt has the year 2010 made up of the names of each member of this year's
squad - a symbol of our collected efforts. Please consider purchasing one,
especially if you are planning on going to the state meet to cheer.
Otherwise, be sure to wear blue and gold! Orders must be in by
the end of the day on May 9! DGS Bob Cahoon Invite – April 22,
2010 Chad Witmeyer
once said, “Hope never dies where faith is strong, and faith grows strong in
the presence of hope.” Through four
years of training, disappointment, and some glimmers of hope, Jordan
Lagomarcino persevered. He started off
as our third man this past fall only to get the flu and a nagging shin injury
that did not allow him to perform at his best. Well, he made up for it and more this
night. Lago ran with purpose and
confidence. He challenged the State’s
best (Smith, Llamas, Beattie, Schrobilgen, etc.) until he was simply
out-gunned down the stretch by the speed of Smith and Llamas while still
running 4:19.8. But, watch out because
we have six weeks to go and he just keeps getting better every week. What a great
night for our team. We again loaded
our lineup for this meet and over 100 of our guys showed up to support our
varsity. Check out our Facebook page for pictures and video. We now have many options for our 4 x
800m. We put together a completely
different lineup and still ran 8:03.
Verbus, Ferguson, Brown, and Folster got us the points we were looking
for and Brown showed us he is a very viable option for State in this race by
running 1:58x. Carron and Krist both
broke 2:00 in the open 800m too.
Carron takes off a second every time he runs the 800m. Pembrook was a machine! He ran 15.1 in the highs, 40.2 to win the
300 hurdles (he was seeded seventh going in), and was third in the high
jump. And, what about Beattie? He ran one of greatest doubles in our
history by going 9:08 and 4:21! Wing
ran well too. He lowered his time to
9:27.5 and with some more rest, I see him dipping under 9:20. Another young man to watch is sophomore
Jake Bender. He is one of the
smoothest runners I have seen in a long time.
It would not surprise me to see him work his way into our State lineup
in something other than the 4 x 200m.
He has already run a 51.4 open 400m and we have yet to see what he can
really do in the 800m. It was a perfect
night to run and we had some great times to show for it. The highlights were Mark Derrick’s 1600m
(4:30.8), Matt Hill breaking 10:00, Jon Stricker and Adam Maltby running
under 10:10, and Ben Lin running almost a minute faster in the 3200m. Jordan Lagomarcino’s 1600m (4:25.6) and
Vincenzo DalPozzo’s 800m (2:03.6) were also highlights. The performance table has been
updated. We now have 30 guys under
5:00 for the 1600m and 27 guys under 10:40 for the 3200m (11 under 10:00). An Evening with Adam and Kara
Goucher Thanks to Nike
and Naperville Running Company, we had a great evening at Franscesa’s in
downtown
Junior Hirsh Gaikwad with elite runners Kara and Adam Goucher West Aurora Invitational – April 17,
2010 It was not an ideal
day to run, but we still put up some solid times. Avant and Carron went 1-2 in the open 800m
with 1:59.7 and 2:00 times. The other
two sprinters that make up our 4 x 400m relay (Brown and Morrison), ran their
respectable legs in the 4 x 800m in 2:01x.
The most entertaining race of the day was the 1600m. Aaron knew that Llamas of DGN has great leg
speed and he had a plan with this in mind and the 15-20 mph winds. Aaron’s plan was to put in a surge at the
700m mark to create a gap going into the wind so the other guys would have to
also fight the wind and not draft off of him.
He implemented his plan to perfection.
However, to Llamas’ credit, he responded to Aaron’s move and stuck on
his shoulder. Aaron cranked the last
400m in an attempt to shake him, but it came down to a kick and Llamas edged
him at the line. Aaron was
disappointed he lost but he has nothing to be ashamed about. It is a long season and we just started
doing intervals. I think Aaron has a
sub 4:14 in him J
Signing Day! We started a new
tradition at Boys Track and Field Aryan Avant > Alec Gleason > Parker Howard > Washington and Lee Thaddeus Johnson > St. Ambrose Boys X-Country/Track and Field Aaron Beattie > Billy Klimczak > Jaffar Mahmoud > Luke Verbus > David Wing > Boys Basketball/Track and Field Kyle Pembrook > North Central Below are the
pictures of the men committed to run cross country/track. Also pictured are Mike Kennedy (left), the
head men’s track and field coach and Paul Vandersteen, the head men’s cross
country coach. I also updated
the table to reflect the
Aaron Beattie signs with The
University of Washington
Billy Klimczak signs with Butler University
Carlton Folster signs with
University of Wisconsin Lacrosse
David Wing signs with Miami
University in Oxford, Ohio
Jaffar Mahmoud signs with Drake
University
Luke Verbus signs with Western State
College in Gunnison, Colorado Possibly the most
interesting commitment was made by Luke Verbus to attend Western State
College in Prep Top Times, Bolingbrook Invitational,
We had our ups
and downs at the Prep Top Times meet.
Aaron Beattie’s victory in the 3200m and Steve Carron’s continued
improvement were the highlights, with our 4x400m false start being the low
point. However, I always look at any
false start before the State series as a lesson to be learned so it is less
likely to happen when it really counts.
Aaron’s victory and time in the 3200m (9:12.1) was a big confidence
boost and we all know the key is for him to do his exercises and stay healthy
from here on out. If he can be
‘moderate and consistent’, he has a great chance of dipping under 9:00 by the
end of the year. He knows that even though
breaking 9:00 would be nice, he can only control his training, nutrition,
sleep, and strategies and the times and places will take care of
themselves. I remember having this
discussion with Chris Derrick, when he was a junior, and he would not speak
of the 9:00 barrier. He only wanted to
talk about what he could control.
Mark Derrick leads Connor Prizy in the 3200m at Schaumburg Steve Carron
continues to amaze us. A senior out for
track for the first time, he ran a 50.3 open 400m at Top Times, and in our
first outdoor meet vs.
David Wing and Andrew Tout in the early stages of the 3200m at
Schaumburg We had a lot of
highlights at I decided to just
combine the indoor and outdoor pr’s in the chart. It is less work for me and it gives an
accurate account of personal bests regardless of the venue. Varsity and F/S Conference Meets Winning our
eighth straight indoor conference meet at the varsity level was a great
accomplishment. This was done without
trying to maximize our point potential because we want to make sure we are
not over-doing it during the indoor season.
For example, we did not ask Aryan or Aaron to double up in their
specialties. This philosophy also
gives other men a chance to compete and develop. We were fortunate enough to place first in
the 1600m and 3200m at both levels with four different guys. Times were far from fast due to the slow
track at St. Charles East. However, we
competed well and that’s what matters most.
Sophomores Mark Derrick and Taylor Soltys are starting to show greater
confidence and promise. Both of these
young men are looking like top 5 contributors next fall and both have the
potential to break 15:00 at Detweiller with a solid, injury-free summer. Josh Antonson also showed us some hidden
speed in the 800m, David Wing’s confidence continues to build, and freshman
Alekh Meka ran a very solid 3200m on that track. He very well could break 10:00 outdoors and
the last freshman to do that was a guy named Aaron Beattie J The
latest updates are in the chart. DGS Relays and We had a solid 4
x 800m relay at Lewis at the DGS meet and some great performances from
underclassmen at Proviso and I was in northern
Morton and DGS Meet It is sometimes
hard to judge performances on tracks like Morton and DGS. Morton is a 170 yard carpet and DGS is also
170 meters with somewhat square turns.
Regardless, we produced some great times for this early. I updated the table to reflect the best
times from the athletes thus far. The highlight for
me was the 1600m at DGS. Both the f/s
and varsity races were very competitive.
The f/s 1600m was the most fun race to watch. A pack of DGS guys and one Sandburg runner
took the early lead through the 800m.
Mark Derrick and Taylor Soltys gradually caught the pack and took the
lead with about 3 laps to go. Going into
the last lap, it looked like Mark and Tryout Meet, January 29, 2010 We made our
annual trek to Westwood Sports Complex in What impressed me
most about this meet was the camaraderie shown by this team. It is a close team and it is obvious we are
very hungry to do some damage at the State meet this year. We had several guys run at a level we have
never seen before at this time of the season.
For example, we had 7 guys run 55.0 or better in the 400m! Our distance crew also looked great with
several guys under 10:30 already.
Beattie was on a college visit so he did not run. Nike Cross Country National Meet –
December 5, 2009 What an
incredible experience – again! This is
a dream of many a cross country team in the country and we have been
fortunate enough to experience it twice.
We finished a respectable 12th.
We were not hitting on all cylinders like we were at the State meet
but then again we did not run poorly overall.
The flu and a knee injury put David behind with his training, Jaffar
had the flu (Beattie was the only runner in our top 12 that did not get sick
this fall), and Personally, I had
a great time in Chris Derrick takes third at NCAA’s! Chris ran
a solid race to take third overall at the NCAA’s. I know he was disappointed in the team
finish but the team is young and they will come back with a vengeance next
year. To finish third in the NCAA’s as
a 19 year-old sophomore is nothing short of amazing. However, what matters to Chris is his
team. I know he will do everything in
his power to lead them to a successful championship finish next year.
Craig Virgin offers some words of encouragement to Chris after
his race NXN Regional Meet – November 14,
2009 Well, it was
ugly, but we qualified. We did not run
particularly well, but our team depth showed up again as our #6 and #7
runners from the State meet, were our #4 and #5 guys in this race. Luke Verbus had the flu all week and I was
surprised he even ran.
The men jump for joy when their name
was announced as a qualifying team I was very
encouraged by what I saw in the Open race.
We ran separate teams in this race and had we combined everyone, we
would have won the team championship easily.
Juniors Andrew Tout, Matt
Hill, and Josh
Ferguson ran
together the whole way to finish 2nd, 4th, and 5th. Sophomore Taylor
Soltys came from
way back to finish 7th. I look forward
to these guys and others running together next year like we did this
year. There is no reason these guys
cannot run with Josh Antonson to form a new pack. A healthy Hirsh
Gaikwad and a
developing Mark Derrick, Kyle Blacker, and Alekh Meka will also help. And, we can
always count on someone contributing that we cannot for see doing so at this
point.
Juniors Matt Hill, Andrew Tout, and
Josh Ferguson model the pack running of the varsity Hopefully,
we can get all the sickness out of the way before the National meet. David Wing came down with the flu this
week. I think every guy but two of our
top twelve have been stricken with whatever is going around. To put things in perspective, no guy in our
top twelve the last two years has gotten the flu in the post season. Naperville
Running Company and Nike are sponsoring a special viewing party on a huge
screen for our team on the Saturday of the national meet. With over 200 of our team members, girls’
team members, and parents cheering the guys on, the guys are extra motivated
to do well. Coach Kennedy (men’s head
track and field coach) and I are heading out to
Sophomore Mark Derrick runs in the
Open race
The athletes and coaches celebrate our State championship I don’t
know where to start. It was a surreal
weekend to say the least. We had a strategy
going into the meet, and as usual, the guys implemented it to perfection and
we were fortunate to come out on top.
I could not be more proud of a group of guys. We sat together in early June and made a
commitment to one another. There was
not one time during this season where I saw that commitment not being
upheld. We were driven to do
everything possible to be our best and we focused on what we could control,
nothing more. I know
that most did not believe we could do this.
Even the guys that graduated last year were overheard as saying last
winter, ‘I am not sure they will qualify for State’. What most did not realize, is this group of
young men believed in one another and most importantly, trusted the coaches,
especially when we asked them to run as a pack. However, in order for this to work, there
had to be the commitment from each guy to do their part. Each meet brought on a new role for each
guy and each guy made the adjustment without batting an eye.
This picture from
Running Times
magazine shows the guys running together at the 2.2 mile
mark. At this point, they were in the
low 40’s place-wise. I guess
what I am most proud of is the class this group showed all year long. The seniors were extremely supportive and
reached out to the underclassmen like I have never seen before. This was a goal of the team in early June
and I applaud them for working hard to establish these positive
relationships. The On to IHSA Sectional Meet – October 31,
2009 Aaron
Beattie joked 10 minutes before the race, “It is Halloween and we have
We managed
to win a Sectional title without two of our normal top
five guys, Carlton Folster and Luke Verbus.
Josh Antonson and Jaffar Mahmoud, two guys who were not scoring
factors for us two weeks ago, finished 10th and 11th overall to seal the team
title for us. We keep getting better. Video of the finish. Jordan
Lagomarcino ran a very gutsy race and finished 21st. We are
obviously looking forward to next week.
We have been through a lot together as a team and have overcome many
obstacles that the outside world is not aware. Next Saturday is the ultimate challenge we
have been waiting for…… IHSA Regional Meet – October 23,
2009
2009 IHSA We won the second Regional title
in our history on our home course (new layout). We scored 22 points while placing 1, 3, 5,
6, 7, 9, and 11. Aaron Beattie was the
individual champion in 15:29.5. We had
a typical day, with our 1-5 split at 27 seconds and our 1-7 split at 39
seconds. Jaffar Mahmoud filled in
nicely for Jordan Lagomarcino, who had the flu earlier in the week. Jaffar was our fifth man today. We ran in our usual pack with all six guys running
negative splits for the last mile. All
six guys were together at the 2 mile mark.
The guys run together as they enter
the woods at the 800m mark Links to news stories will come tomorrow. Upstate Eight Conference Meet –
October 17, 2009 I am not
sure I will see what I saw today ever again in my coaching career. Remarkably, we took the first 7 places in
the varsity race against some solid teams (
Our guys run in a pack with Kyle Zankowski of StCN Aaron Beattie was the individual champion in 15:12.
He led from the very beginning and ran a smooth race. This was the fourth straight year we had
the individual and team champion in this race. We also won the fr/so race with Taylor
Soltys winning
by 7 seconds. And, we dominated the
Open race by taking the first 11, and 16 of the first 17, spots. Jaffar Mahmoud looked strong in winning the
race in 15:52. This would have placed
him 9th overall in the varsity race!
By my estimates, the course ran about 10-15 seconds slower than last
year. We will
run this coming Saturday at
The varsity guys cheer on Jaffar Mahmoud to his convincing
victory in the Open race Chris Derrick wins Pre-National
Meet! Chris went
around Sam Chelenga, the NCAA runner-up from last year, with about 800m to go
to win the Pre-National
White race in
Chris Derrick finishes strong at the Pre-National meet in Yes, it’s
been awhile since I last updated this site.
I have been extremely busy with preparations for our annual AP
Environmental trip to northern I will
start with the Lockport Invite and seeing that I was not there to
witness it, I pasted what Coach Janota wrote in his e-mail to the list serve
below. Naperville Sun
article #1 Naperville Sun article #2 Running Times article The Frosh / Soph
squad, without Taylor Soltys and Mark Derrick who were moved up to
Varsity, finished third behind champion Wheaton North and runner-up
Naperville North. Freshman Alekh
Meka was the #1 runner for the squad at 7th palce with a time of
17:49. Sophomore Kyle
Blacker also finished in the top 10 with a 9th place finish at
18:00. Had Taylor and Mark competed in this race, they would both have
finished in the top 10 with
Tout, Verbus, Soltys, Klimczak, Antonson, and Wing
still together at 2 miles The
highlight of the Plainfield South Invitational was Jaffar
Mahmoud’s effort in
the varsity race. He ran 15:49 to
finish second overall. This was pretty
impressive considering this was his first race of the year. We finished second as a team to Plainfield
South (30-38) without our top 8 guys running.
I conservatively figured that this course ran 20-25 seconds slower
than Detweiller. Other great
performances were turned in by James Krist in the Open race, and Brendan
O’Connor and Shelton
Boclair in the
open f/s race.
Freshmen Brendan O’Connor and Nick Rouches run 1,2 at the two
mile mark We were
2nd in the sophomore race and 4th in the freshman race at the York
Invitational. This one hurt a
little bit because we did not perform up to our expectations. We have a lot of work to do if we are going
to pass up some of these teams in the future.
The freshman tem huddles up before the York Invitational At the Tuesday
conference meet at Rob Covington Interview Rob
Covington, one of our senior leaders, was interviewed by Running Times
magazine. See the interview here. This meet
provided another good measuring stick for us as won the team title. We had a couple nice surprises in Carlton Folster (15:08) in the varsity race and Sophomore Taylor Soltys
(15:41) in the Open race to go along with many other
solid efforts. The heat got to
L-R: Seniors David Wing, I was most
proud of how we approached this race.
Our plan was to let Beattie do his thing and pack the other six guys
up until at least the two mile mark.
We implemented the plan to perfection and had 6 guys within an arms
length away from one another at two miles (10:10). It was the first time in my coaching
career that I have had 6 guys run together so well. To me, this was more important than times
or places. We added 7 guys to our
all-time top 50 list! Top 50 all-time at Detweiller. I am
really enjoying coaching this team because they are starting to really
believe in themselves. As Aaron was
puking before the start of the race, the other six assured him with, ‘we got
your back’, and reminding him that he was not a one man show. Aaron was able to shake the pre-race
jitters and turn in a great performance.
I told him to chill out the first two miles and then go if he felt
good. He responded with a 4:48 last
mile after coming by the two mile in 9:56.
Aaron Beattie sprints to the finish
to win his second race of the season Now that
we have tested our fitness a little, it is time to focus on training
again. Pawola,
Rooney, McNichols, and Shields run great races For more
details, go to the Alumni Page!!! Hornet-Red Devil Inv. – Saturday,
September 5th 2009 For the
13th year in a row, we had a sunny day at this invitational. We took first in the varsity race and we
were second in the freshman and sophomore races. For the third year in a row, we were the
team varsity champions and had the individual champion. Aaron Beattie won this year’s race in 15:09.
Results. Naperville Sun
Story. Feature on Naperville Sports Weekly. Our
varsity team ran an average of 15:27 with a 29 second 1-5 split and a 45
second 1-7 split. We put eight guys
under 16:00 for the second time in our history. The 2007 team had eight guys under 16
(counting Beattie’s time from the sophomore race) but that team also had two
guys under 15 (Derrick and Riddle).
However, two guys from that team, Jimmy Riddle and Mike Ruff, did not
score or run for us in the State meet and we still won the State title. A lot can happen between now and early
November. Hopefully, we see some great
improvements from our guys before the State meet. I am looking forward to seeing how we fare
next week at Peoria Woodruff against some more great competition. Alekh Meka won the freshman race in the fastest time in our history running
10:47. He would have run about 5
seconds faster if he would have found the chute earlier J Running Times magazine continues to follow
our progress. The latest update can be
found here. Alumni Update The list
of alumni running in college has grown with the 2008 class having
representation at Another Successful Run-a-thon –
Saturday, August 29th We had our
best attendance ever at our annual run-a-thon. There were well over 250 men and women
running on the track. Our varsity pack,
made up of 15 guys, ran 6:00 pace for the whole thing while running under
11:00 minutes the last two miles. We
have had amazing depth on our team before, but never to the degree we have
this year.
Vincenzo Dal Pozzo, Billy Klimczak, Alex Kotsovos, Jaffar
Mahmoud, and We are
very fit and are ready to test our training this coming Saturday at the
Hornet-Red Devil Invitational. I have
never had a team that has embraced pack running like this team. We just don’t run in a pack, we encourage
each other and there is genuine caring for each other’s well-being. I watched our guys take turns leading and
slapping hands when a guy took over the lead.
My experience tells me that greatness is defined by intangibles such
as these. 144 Men out for the 2009 Team Despite
the decline in enrollment with the opening of Running Times article The
September issue of Running Times magazine will hit the stores soon, but I was
able to get a look at the article about us and Naperville North at Naperville
Running Company. Kris Hartner, the
owner of the store, was able to get an advanced copy and has it posted on the
bulletin board in the store. An online version is now available on their home
page. The webpage also features some
great articles on other topics. One in
particular, is on post-workout nutrition – check it out! Registration for NV Athletic
registration is now online. You will still need to bring a copy of a current physical or
proof of a current physical. An
$80 participation fee, check payable to "IPSD #204", will be
collected by the coaches on the first day.
See the practice schedule in
the box to the right. 47 men
enjoyed a great experience at our 11th annual
Alex Podsedly and Luke Verbus dual it out on the log roll at
Lake Louise
The guys pose with part of their sand city. 2nd Annual NVXC Co-ed Picnic Thanks to
Coach Saul’s amazing organization, we again had another successful picnic
with the women’s team. There was
plenty of food and co-ed ultimate Frisbee was a big hit. We have also made tentative plans to have
another picnic after the Hornet-Red Devil at
Seniors at the 2009 Picnic, L-R: Lauren Goodman, Becca Cowen,
Billy Klimczak, Alex Kotsovos Twilight Meet a Huge Success – July
16, 2009 We had a
great meet on Thursday night as the huge storms that hit the area, split, and
missed us all together. As Coach
Rafferty said, ‘someone was looking out for us’. We had 3x the participants as last year
(approximately 210 athletes) and the 5,000m was another huge success at the
end of the meet (75 participants). We
had several guys tempo the 5k and look really good. We hope
other area high schools start track and field age-group programs next
year. It was great to see Brian Morenus Starts Boot Camp Recent
graduate, Brian Morenus, is now in full training at
Running Times magazine will feature a story
on our program in their fall cross country edition. The issue is scheduled to come out August
29. Writer Brian Metzler flew in from
Boulder, Colorado and spent two days with us during the heat wave the third week
of June. Chris Derrick is 3rd in NCAA
Championship 5k! Chris
continued to impress us all. Links to
interviews, video of the race, and results can be found here. 167 Signed up for Wildcat Summer
Cross Country Camp! We have record numbers signed
up for our camp despite the decline in enrollment for next year. Our track and field numbers are at 180
participants.
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Summer/Fall Schedule 2010 Thurs., June 3 – Retreat at Community
Christian Church; 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Mon., June 14 – First Day
of Summer Training – 7:15 a.m., Knoch
Knolls Park Sun., July 25 –
Wed., July 28 – Oregon Camp; Lorado
Taft Field Campus, Oregon, IL. Wed., Aug. 11 – First
Official Practice; 7:15 – 9:30 a.m., Knoch
Knolls Park. Sat., Sept 4 – Hornet/Red
Devil Invitational; 9:00 a.m., Katherine
Legge Park, Hinsdale Sat., Sept. 11 – Woodruff
Invitational; 9:00 a.m., Detweiller
Park, Peoria Sat., Sept. 25 – Plainfield
South Inv., 9:00 a.m., Hammel
Woods, Shorewood Mon., Sept. 27 – York F/S
Invitational, 4:30 p.m., Newton
Park, Elmhurst Sat., Oct. 2 – Lockport
Invitational, 9:00 a.m., Dellwood
Park, Lockport Sat., Oct. 9 – Blackhawk
Stampede, 9:00 a.m., Waubonsee
Community College, Sugar Grove Sat., Oct. 16 – Upstate
Eight Conference Meet, TBA Sat., Oct 23 – IHSA
Regional Meet, TBA Sat., Oct 30 – IHSA
Sectional Meet, TBA Sat., Nov 6 – IHSA State
Meet, 2:00 p.m., Detweiller
Park, Peoria
Aaron
Beattie (rt.) runs with the lead pack at State
The
guys on the award stand after wining the State title.
The
cover of our 2009 post season booklet
Fall Schedule Sat,
Sept. 5th 9:00
a.m. – Hornet Red Devil Inv., Sat,
Sept. 12th
11:30 a.m. – Woodruff Inv., Tues,
Sept 22nd DuPage River Park, Naperville–
5:00 p.m., Conference quad meet Sat,
Sept 26th – 9:00 a.m., Mon,
Sept 28th – 5:00 p.m., Tues,
Sept 29th – 5:00 p.m., Lords Park, Elgin,
Conference quad meet Sat,
Oct 3rd – 9:00 a.m., Sat,
Oct 17th – 9:00 a.m., Upstate Eight Conference
Meet, TBA Tues,
Oct. 20th – 5:00 p.m., Sat,
Oct 24th – IHSA Regional Meet, TBA Sat,
Oct 31st – IHSA Sectional Meet, TBA Sat,
Nov 7th – IHSA State Meet, 3:00 p.m., |
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