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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
Pictures
of the 2009 Season (password = wildcats)
Neuqua Valley Mens Cross Country and Track and Field
Facebook Page Tryout Meet, January 29, 2010 We made our
annual trek to Westwood Sports Complex in Sterling, Illinois for our tryout
meet. With over 190 guys trying out
for the team, we have no choice but to make some cuts due to space
limitations (we have no indoor facility).
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. I also neglected to
type in all the f/s 800m times because a bunch of them just ran it for a
workout.
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 Carlton just couldnt get it together in the post
season. Our guys ran hard but you
could tell that we had lost some of the mojo that enabled us to win a state
title. Congrats goes out to Loyola
who finished fourth and only one point out of third. Loyola, York, and we raced three times this
fall with each team earning a victory.
Personally, I had
a great time in Portland. Because I
could not coach the young men, it gave me an opportunity to check out the
Nike headquarters and get to know the downtown area well. I also got the chance to meet Vin Lananna (Oregon
coach) and Jason Dunn/David Vidal (Stanford coaches). And, what an honor it was to talk to Brad
Rowe, father of Garrett Rowe who finished 15th. Brad was the Indiana State Cross Country
Champion in the late 70s. Chris Derrick takes third at NCAAs! Chris ran
a solid race to take third overall at the NCAAs. 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 NCAAs 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. Carlton obviously did not hit on all
cylinders either. Luke did something
that was very courageous; he led the pack at 1.5 miles through their gradual
pick-up knowing he would not last.
This sacrifice is what enabled our guys to pick off enough men to
finish second. Without this effort, we
would probably not have qualified because we were a little too passive to
start this race. York showed everyone
that being physically and mentally ready is critical to success and that a
deep belief in ones abilities can go a long way. We learned that every guy counts but if we
are going to place well at the National meet, we cannot have an average or
poor race out of anyone.
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 (mens head
track and field coach) and I are heading out to Portland to watch. I cant wait
Sophomore Mark Derrick runs in the
Open race IHSA State Meet November 7, 2009
The athletes and coaches celebrate our State championship I dont
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 40s 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
Naperville Sun wrote a nice article describing the challenges of
this season and the adjustments we made.
On to
Terre Haute for the Nike Cross Country Regional qualifying meet. I wish I could still coach these guys but I
am confident they know how to be champions without me or the other NV coaches
J IHSA Sectional Meet October 31,
2009 Aaron
Beattie joked 10 minutes before the race, It is Halloween and we have box
13. We are not going to qualify for
State. He smiled a lot and the other
guys were focused and excited to run in the mud and take on the challenge
that is Dellwood Park. We had a plan
for this race and the guys executed it to perfection. In my many years of coaching, I am not sure
I have seen two teams (Lyons and us) each work so well together. Lyons had their pack in front of ours and
we were able to make a move at 2.25 miles to get by them. I thought both teams ran great team
races.
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. Jordan is a young man who can push his body
to the limit. We are glad he has
recovered and is feeling better. 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 Bolingbrook Regional
Champions! 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 (Lake Park and StCN), both being
top 15 in the State, and having guys who have run sub 15:10 at Detweiller
(Zankowski 15:09, Krauss 15:00, Jorgensen 15:05). WVs Groeber is no slouch either 15:29 at
Detweiller. Maybe we caught them on an
off day? Or, maybe we ran very well as
a team. It was probably a combination
of both. Our 1-7 split was 31 seconds! Naperville Sun
story.
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 Dupage River Park in the Bolingbrook
Regional.
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 Terre Haute. He led Stanford to the team title. Jimmy Riddle was Illinois 5th man in this
race.
Chris Derrick finishes strong at the Pre-National meet in
Terre Haute on his 19th birthday. Lockport Invitational, York Invite,
Tuesday Conference Meet, and Plainfield Invitational Yes, its
been awhile since I last updated this site.
I have been extremely busy with preparations for our annual AP
Environmental trip to northern Wisconsin.
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 Taylor likely winning the race.
Tout, Verbus, Soltys, Klimczak, Antonson, and Wing
still together at 2 miles The
highlight of the Plainfield South Invitational was Jaffar
Mahmouds 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
OConnor and Shelton
Boclair in the
open f/s race.
Freshmen Brendan OConnor 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 Lords Park in Elgin, we had some great performances
from our JV team. Junior Matt Coyne showed us the talent level he
possesses by running 16:12 to barely edge out senior Al
Merkley. Rob Covington Interview Rob
Covington, one of our senior leaders, was interviewed by Running Times
magazine. See the interview here. Peoria Woodruff Invitational Sat.,
Sept. 12 2009 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 Jordan
again. He smiled when I said, whats
the temperature usually like in early November? Sometimes the times can be misleading
because of the conditions, so I find myself looking at how we fared against
other runners. In this race, we fared
well against competitors that usually find themselves in the hunt for
All-State honors.
L-R: Seniors David Wing, Carlton
Folster, Billy Klimczak, and Luke Verbus 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 years 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 Beatties 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 Illinois State, Monmouth, and Penn State. Check out the alumni page for the most
recent updates. 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 Carlton Folster having fun J 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 dont run in a pack, we encourage
each other and there is genuine caring for each others 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 Metea Valley High School, we
are approaching record numbers for this years team. We have 144 guys that have consistently
been to our practices. We have 36
freshmen on the team, an increase over last years class. 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 Sauls amazing organization, we again had another successful picnic
with the womens 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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Neuqua
Valley State Cross Country Champions 09
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., Plainfield North F/S Inv.,
Hammel Woods, Shorewood 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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