Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Westmont High School

It's debatable whether this is a 3 mile race or a 5K (depends on who you talk to!); in the past we've been told it is a 3 mile course, but we have consistently produced times across the years that make it feel more like a 5K.  Either way, it's part of our training for the races that really count (this one doesn't!).  Fall is beginning to show itself evident with a slight drop of the temperatures and just a hint of color.  It was a beautiful day for our last race in the month of September.

Unless you make your way to the back of the school's property, you never know the natural beauty of the surrounding area.






First up: The Girls








(Addy ended up not being able to finish the race.)


Claudia had a good hussle at the end, finishing nearly a minute faster than her earlier 5K in WI.  Final time was 25:55.
Race #2:  The Boys
 
 



 


The Pack
 
After the pack, everyone else seemed to run in pairs.
   



The Finish Line...





Jack appears to run better with his tongue out.  Is it a Michael Jordon thing?  Who knows! But he crossed the finish line first for his team, finishing in 8th place overall with a time of 17:56, quite a bit faster than his first 5K of the year.  Well run!

Julio finished in 11th place with a time of 18:26, and Jaylin was 2 places behind him with a time of 18:29.  Way to go, guys!

Luis was in 14th place, completing the course in 18:35.
 


Nate was our 5th scoring runner.  He finished in 19:43.

Gus was right behind Nate, finishing with a time of 19:47.

Darryl was only two places behind Gus, finishing in 20:02, two plus minutes faster than his first 5K.
Aaron's final time was 20:38, over a minute faster than his earlier 5K.

Isaiah crossed the finish line in 21:19.

Xavier had a strong push at the end, completing his course in 22:23, which is nearly 5 minutes faster than his first 5K.  Rafael finished in 22:25.

Quang was right after Rafael, finishing in  22:38.

Trevon came in at 26:22, fighting a bad stomach cramp, but finishing strong anyway.

 Out of five teams, we were right in the middle:

Westmont:  40 points
Seneca:  52 points
Walther:  67 points
Lisle: 82 points
Plano:  112 points

Great job, everyone!

Next up: The Mane Event at Lisle High School 


Monday, September 26, 2016

2016 Charger Classic Invitational 
Blue Division
Oakhurst Forest Preserve
Aurora, IL

Better late than never, right???  

This was definitely one of the larger meets so far, but it's a good practice for our upcoming Regionals (assuming it's in the same place as usual).  Overall, we did very well, especially if you look at the improvement over last year's times at this race.  For many it was a first time here.  It's a nice non-repeating course for the runners and a little bit shorter than normal (2.95 miles), but it's not very spectator-friendly in that there are only a few times we are given to cheer on the runners.  The trade-off though is that it's a beautiful setting.

The results are posted on www.kompusport.com, in case anyone is interested, but for whatever reason, a lot of our runners were listed as "unknown athlete."  Hopefully I'm able to match up the runners with their correct times since I wasn't there in person that day.  Feel free to e-mail me any corrections if I've made any mistakes.

Thanks to Mrs. Viise and Mrs. Simzyk for forwarding me their pictures!  Unfortunately I was unable to edit them, so they'll have to be posted "as is."

Enjoy!





 First up were the Frosh/Soph boys:







 
Sorry, Isaiah, but I don't have a good picture of you for this race.  But that didn't stop you from having a great run.  Isaiah finished in 20:24, which was almost 2 minutes faster than last week's rime.  He was the first to cross the line for the team!  Impressive!


Quang was 2nd to cross the finish line for Walther.  His time was 21:38, which is one of his best times so far for the season.  Great job!
Luke was next to finish, only a few seconds behind Quang.  His finishing time was 21:42, which is three minutes faster than last week's race.  Wow!!!

Xavier was only 9 seconds behind Luke, finishing in  21:51, finishing about 2-1/2 minutes faster than last week.  Impressive!

Rafael finished in 22:08.  That was also a major improvement on his previous times.  Amazing!



Trevon crossed the line in 23:56, which is more than 3 minutes faster as well.  Somebody lit a fire under these boys this week.  Way to go!

 Next up, Varsity girls: Claudia and Addy:


Claudia continues to improve with each race.  Her finishing time was 25:44.  Last year at this course it was 26:09.  Way to go, Claudia!


Addy completed her course in 27:23.  This is a big improvement from the Elmwood Park race 2 weeks ago.  Hopefully that means the shin splints are gone!

 Finally, the Varsity Boys ran:





Sorry, Luis.  This is the only pic I have of you!  If you squint real hard, you might see him! Luis finished in 26th place overall with a time of 16:33, which is by far his best time of the season this year, and also faster than his run at this course last year.  Great job!

Julio, Jaylin & Jack stayed quite close most of the race.  Julio finished in 17:05, Jaylin in 17:10, and Jack in 17:33.  It was a PR for Julio and Jaylin.  It was a minute and a half improvement for Jack compared to last year's race here.  Congrats, guys!
Nate was our #5 runner today.  This was a huge PR for him as well, taking off more than a minute from his best time so far.  Because of his improvement, he cut the spread between runners 1 and 5 down to 1:46.  Wow!!!
Gus was our #6 runner, finishing in 18:31.  He also got a PR and took off a huge chunk of time from his best race this season.  Awesome!
 
Aaron and Darryl fought it out for spot #7.  Aaron finished in 19:06 and Darryl was just 4 seconds behind him!  Each of them accomplished a very impressive PR today!

Steven is finally back after suffering an injury earlier in the season.  He finished in 19:56, which is significantly faster than any of his times from last year.  What a great improvement!

Great job, everyone!  Sorry I missed your awesome performance.

Hope to see you all on Tuesday at Westmont!
 
 ***
 Question of the Week:  Is Eric yawning, shouting, or singing?