Today's event actually started last night...

Enjoying the pre-sectionals pasta dinner highlighted with the movie, McFarland, USA.

Bonding moments

Followed by...

 IHSA Class 1A 

Cross Country Sectional Championship 

hosted by Lisle H.S.

What a terrible day!

Excuse me, I was talking about the weather.   That was the only bad thing about it actually. Hmmmm, maybe I take it back.  It was not a good thing that Coach G could not be there, but we had a terrific substitute (Coach Simzyk) step into his place, and he obviously filled in the gap quite well!

Most of the autumn colors have fallen to the ground.  This was as pretty as things got!  It was gloomy, wet (very wet) and cold all morning long, never getting out of the 40's.  Did I mention it was wet? (That, by the way, is why most of my pictures are a little on the blurry side...the drizzle was continuous throughout both races.)

This was the most common view of the day as we travelled from site to site on the course...open umbrellas!

 

 We started our day by setting up the tent and then going inside immediately.  In retrospect, we should have never even set up the tent!  The initial goal for everyone was to STAY DRY AND WARM as much as possible.

Again, Tammy was our sole Walther female representative today.

Enjoying the warmth just a few more minutes before going outside for the first warm-up.

If were you fortunate enough to be able to purchase a Sectional shirt, you would be wearing the names of our runners!

Ale joined us again today.

Mr. Goffron giving his final words of instruction and encouragement via speaker phone (in the bus).

10:00

Girls Varsity

Chloe and Ale made signs for each runner.  It was too wet to bring them out for the race, but this seems like a good place to post them!!!

Jack did a great job of stepping in, encouraging the runners, and giving direction.  Anyone recognize the cap he's wearing???? 

Leading the team prayer.

 Tammy had a strong start at the beginning of the race.

 

Tamron finished 66th out of 129 runners in all with a time of 24:01.  It was not a PR, but she ran strong and looked great through it all.  It definitely was not the ideal running conditions today!

Congrats to Tamron for a great season!!!

 Back to the starting line for the Boys Varsity race at 11:00

Tammy trying to warm up with our two 2-mile time-keepers.

Final instructions from Coach Jack.

David also contributed a pep talk.

Team cheer time! (or should it have been, "Uno, Dos, Tres, Go Walther!!!! ?  You'd understand if you had seen the movie!)

 

Almost ready

A false start!

The second start was good.

 

 

(This is when the picture quality started getting really bad due to the rain.)  Eric and Luis battled it out 'til the end between the 1st and 2nd spots for the team.  In fact, when they passed the photographer as they headed toward the finish line, Luis was ahead by 2 places.  However, Eric pushed hard and edged out Luis by a second in the end.  Final time: 17:51.  Not quite a PR, but when you consider the mud and puddles throughout the course, it's a very impressive time.  He was in 16th place overall.

 

 

 Luis finished 2nd for the team and 17th overall with a time of 17:52, which is 2 seconds faster than his last Lisle race.  Luis did what he needed to do to keep the numbers low, because you know, "it's just like golf!"

 David was only 8 seconds slower than his last time here at Lisle, which is impressive considering the difference in conditions.  He broke away from the second group and made his way toward the front, finishing in 33rd place overall.  Doing so helped to lower our total points considerably.

Mitch was our fourth scorer today, completing the course in 18:47 and crossing the finish line in 43rd place overall, which is nine places better than last year's finish.

 Kobe was only 7 seconds behind Mitch, finishing in 18:54 and in 48th place overall.  He was the final scorer for the team.  Being 48th, that means the top five runners were in the top 32% of the field.  Pretty significant!  At this point we could only hope that it would be good enough to qualify the team for State.

 Jaylin had a nasty fall on the concrete, but amazingly he stayed the course and finished in 18:56 (2 seconds faster than his previous Lisle run!), in 50th place overall, just two places behind Kobe.

 

 Jose worked hard to do his part in passing as many people as he could.  He finished 68th overall  (top 45%) with a time of 19:24. 

AWARDS CEREMONY:  It was a little nerve-wracking while we were waiting and wondering (and trying to recover from the deep chill we all experienced from being outdoors in that cold rain all morning!).  But finally the results were announced:

             Team scores

1	Kankakee (McNamara)	108
2	Niles (Northridge Prep)	125
3	Melrose Park (Walther Christian)	137
4	Beecher	142
5	Elmhurst (Timothy Christian)	156
6	Fairbury (Prairie Central)	161
7	Chicago (Leo)	223
8	Westmont	229
9	Peotone	259
10	Gardner (G.-South Wilmington)	285
11	Manteno	289
12	Chicago (F.W. Parker)	307

The entire team, runners and cheerleaders included.

Today's runners

Our State qualifiers with Coach Simzyk.

 The purple card is a State Meet Parking Pass.  Only state qualifiers earn one.  I guess it's the next best thing to a plaque or medal! (This picture tells you who ended up with it, Mr. Goffron!)

So, what are YOU doing next weekend?  Hopefully you're going down to Detweiller Park in Peoria, IL, at 10:00 a.m. for the Class 1A Cross Country Boys State Finals!

See you there!!!!!