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2001
L-R (front) Rob Long, David Krist, Nick Dunn, Greg Wittendorf
L-R (back) Dan Box, Ben Barron, Evan
Roberts Our first team
to qualify for State was in the fall of 2001, the 3rd year with seniors on
the team (NVHS was founded in the fall of 1997). We easily qualified by placing 5th in the
Rich East Sectional meet, beating Andrew by almost 40 pts. Ben Barron, our #2 runner, had a serious
sinus infection and the State meet was his 2nd race back. We were determined to turn it around after
others on the team also battled illness earlier in the year. It was the leadership of Greg Wittendorf and the determination of Evan Roberts that was
largely responsible for the turn-around.
We beat 3/4 teams that beat us at Sectionals to finish a very
respectable 10th. 2002
L-R Kevin Pojman,
Nick Dunn, Ben Barron 2nd row: Rob
Long, Dan Box
3rd row: Will Fortin, Bryan Kruszka This team
started off the season ranked 4th in the State! And, unlike the year before, we almost won
the Rich East Sectional title while being edged out by Naperville North by 4
pts. At the very least, we were hoping
for a top 7-8 finish. Obviously, this
did not happen. The men can attest
that I have never been more disappointed after a race. Ben and Nick ran great and the other five
had very poor races. It was because of
this race that we were determined to turn it around the following year. Ben Barron was our first all-state runner
and Nick Dunn passed 80 guys the last two miles to almost finish
all-state. |
2001 - 10th
place – 326 pts.
2002 – 15th
place – 368 pts.
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2003
L-R: Dan Box,
Geoff Houtman, Nick Dunn The seniors on this team
were determined to do great things. Junior
Joe Bergelin had recovered from last season’s
stress fracture, senior Geoff Houtman was learning
how to run xc, and senior Rick Burke ran an amazing
race to become our 5th man. The season
was defined by senior Dan Box’s determination to not let history repeat
itself. Senior Nick Dunn was our most
vocal and effective leader to-date and senior David Krist
rebounded from a leg injury to give us momentum going into the State
meet. We were conference champions
and ran a phenomenal race at Sectionals after a poor showing at Regionals the week before. Naperville North again beat us for the
Sectional title but we beat them at State.
2004
L-R: Joe Bergelin, Eric Olen, Matt Britten, Mike Winek, Mike Nutt, Alake Kashyap,
Ryan Miller, Kevin Pojman, Spenser Murakami The 2004 team had no
superstars. They lived via a strong
pack and they worked their tail-ends off under the leadership of senior Kevin
Pojman. Our
1-5 split was 20 seconds!!! We
returned 3 guys from our 4th place 2003 team, but the evil IT Band Syndrome
prevented seniors Joe Bergelin and Ryan Miller from
doing their best. Add a bad sinus
infection to Kevin’s plate, and this team did not have any full-strength
returnees from the year before. A core
group of juniors and senior Mike Nutt stepped up to lead us to a 14th place
finish. We almost stole the
conference crown that year with Kevin running the race of his career. Junior Spenser Murakami emerged to become
our #1 man through the State series.
The State meet temperature was relatively warm and the ground was very
soggy; subsequently, the times were slower than most State meets. 2005
Seniors on the 2005 team. L-R back:
Ryan Donahue, Brian Rooney,
Matt Britten, Ali Kagalwalla, Steve Arves, Joe Murphy, Mike Winek,
Andrew Heinz, Sean Parker, Dan Murphy, Jon Peters, Eric Olen, Alake Kashyap, Andrew Dunham, Andrew Donivan,
James Nuxoll
L-R front: Zach Splan, David Duncan, Spenser Murakami, John Rusch. The 2005 team was led by
the closest and largest group of seniors to date. Their presence was felt as this team
surprised everyone. Senior Mike Winek came down with a stress fracture in late June but
seniors Matt Britten and James Nuxoll trained hard
during the summer and became consistent top-5 performers. Sophomore Chris
Derrick mimicked their work ethic and improved by over 3 minutes from his
freshman year to emerge as our number one man. The conditions were ideal for the race with
temperatures in the high 40’s. Chris
Derrick ran an extremely gutsy race and senior Alake Kashyap
took a chance and pushed the 2nd mile.
The greatest mystery was Spenser’s inability to get out of the race
doldrums, but his work ethic will rank him as one of our all-time
greats. 2006
L-R: Jimmy Riddle,
Mike Ruff, Danny Pawola, Chris Derrick, Kevin
Grady, Josh Budnik, Brian Morenus Wow, what an amazing
performance considering we only returned our first man from the prior year
(Chris Derrick). Senior Tony Parast (5th man on the 2005 team) injured his hip early,
and was never able to contribute. We
had two All-State performances and four of our top five set pr’s to enable us
to finish 9th. All seven men return
for the 2007 season! Junior Chris
Derrick ran a perfect race to finish 3rd overall running the fastest time
(14:21.6) in District 204 history by 25 seconds! Junior Jimmy Riddle also broke the all-time
District 204 mark by running 14:44.2. Jimmmy came down with the same virus as other team
members, but still managed to run well.
Junior Kevin Grady and sophomore Danny Pawola
were on their way to recovery while junior Josh Budnik
still had the virus during the race.
Sophomore Brian Morenus had the greatest
improvement from early season meets, running a solid 5th man for us. Junior Mike Ruff ran a great race to finish
under 15:30. We won Conference in
dramatic fashion 3 weeks earlier, only to have WV and StCN
kick our tails by taking 5th and 2nd respectively. As I preached to the guys through the
State series, “anything is possible in one week”. Regardless, I was proud of our effort on
this day, especially when I reflected on how far we had progressed in one
year. 2007
2007 State Champions. L-R (front) Luke Verbus,
Bryan Winek, Jimmy Riddle. L-R (back) Coach Vandersteen,
Mike Ruff, Coach Rohde, Brian Morenus, Connor
Shields, Robert James, Kevin Grady, Josh Budnik,
Aaron Beattie, Chris Derrick, Danny Pawola, Coach
Rossi, Coach Saul, Coach Janota A storybook season! We worked our tails off during the summer and
entered the season with optimism after some of the guys put up some great
times during the track season. We
started the year off with a bang, winning the Hornet-Red Devil and Peoria
Woodruff Invite in convincing fashion.
We then encountered the obstacle of not running with our number two
guy, Jimmy Riddle, who was diagnosed with a stress fracture. Aaron Beattie, a sophomore, took his place
and we rolled through the season without a loss. At the Conference meet, we went 1,2,3,
against WV and StCN who would later finish 4th and
6th at the State meet. Jimmy ran in
the State meet but ran out of gas the last 300m. Luckily, Josh ran his usual steady race and
we were able to out-distance York by 19 points. Three guys finished all-state and Kevin
Grady ran the race of his life to narrowly miss this honor. Chris Derrick was also the individual
champion, running one of the fastest times ever run at Detweiller. 2008
Danny Pawola,
third from right, battles for the lead at the State meet I
learned a lot as a coach during this season.
I learned one can never take anything for granted and I was reminded
that hard work has no substitutes. We
finished this season as possibly the best fourth place team in the history of
Illinois. Again, we ran this race with
our second man running his first race in over a month. This time, it was Aaron Beattie who was
overcoming IT issues. He still managed
to run 15:03. During the season, we
won three major invitationals and repeated as
conference champions. We raced
inconsistently throughout the season.
Luckily, we did what was possible on the day of the State meet. We were only 4 points out of first at the
two mile mark but faded to finish a distant fourth. No regrets.
We competed but a trophy just was not in the cards this year. Danny Pawola
finished fifth overall to earn his second all-state honor. Only he and Chris Derrick have ever
achieved this distinction in our program. 2009
Front row (L-R):
Billy Klimczak, Alex Merkley. Second row:
Jaffar Mahmoud,
Josh Ferguson, Matt Hill, Jordan Lagomarcino, Josh Antonson, Aaron Beattie.
Third row: Coach Javaherian, Coach Janota, Coach
Vandersteen, Coach Saul, Coach Rossi. Fourth row:
Luke Verbus, Carlton Folster,
Andrew Tout, David Wing We gathered at the River
Run subdivision country club house in early June to talk about why we train
the way we do and to establish some common goals. Repeatedly, I heard the guys say, ‘we want
to win the State championship’. We
trained smart and consistently all summer and the team bonded like no other I
have ever coached. Running Times magazine decided to
follow us throughout the season and a story appeared in their magazine and
updates were provided online. Before
our first race we made a commitment to run in a pack. At the Hornet-Red Devil Invitational, the
guys ran well and won the meet, but we did not run together. We re-committed ourselves to doing so and
at the Peoria Woodruff Invitational the next weekend we had 6 guys within
arms length of one another at the two mile mark (Beattie was in the front
pack). From there on out, we ran as a
TEAM. We made history by placing 1-7
at the Upstate Eight Conference meet and that momentum carried us through the
State series and some illness to the State meet. Loyola ( |
2003 – 4th
place – 195 pts.
2004 – 14th place – 435 pts.
2005 – 10th place – 313 pts.
2006 – 9th place – 300 pts.
2007 –
2008 –
2009 –
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