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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. |
2003 – 4th
place – 195 pts.
2004 – 14th place – 435 pts.
2005 – 10th place – 313 pts.
2006 – 9th place – 300 pts.
2007 – 1st Place – 86 pts.
2008 – 4th Place – 146 pts.
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