IHSA Class 1A 

Cross Country Sectional Championship 

hosted by Lisle H.S.

October 28, 2017 

I know that some people might feel like today was a defeat, but it was anything but that!  Our varsity boys came together and performed well in many ways:  

• 4 out of 7 got their PR for the season

• Everyone got their PR for this course (that's significant because comparing times between Lisle and EPHS - a very FLAT course - is like comparing apples to oranges!)

• Our split between the top 5 runners was only 46 seconds (only 1 second slower than last week, but we also had a very small field last week compared to today)

• Our scoring runners were all within the top 36%

• As a whole, the team took 4 minutes and 19 seconds off their total time from last week

All this IN SPITE OF THE FRIGID WEATHER!!!

Our guys didn't do anything wrong; they did great!  The only "problem" was that there were a lot of other great teams and individuals out there today, too. Not everyone can win, but our guys surely deserved to.  You've done us proud, men!!!!  You're a young team.  I know you'll be back at Sectionals next year and I have no doubt that you'll be back at State again soon!

Here's today's story in pictures...

(Banner wanted me to tell you that he's proud of you, too!)

While yes, this is a beautiful picture, about half an hour earlier, this photo would have shown SNOW falling!  It was THAT cold!

Ready to run!

(I'm never quite sure of what caption I should put for Jacob's expressions!)

154 runners...last week there were only 78

 Up the big hill...

 (Jacob, my apologies....I did not see you going up the hill.  

Did you take a short cut???)

  At the beginning of mile 2...

The boys did a great job of staying close together for most of the race.

 

 

 The final mile & finish...

Darryl was 30th overall (in the top 20%) and finished with a time of 17:20.  This was a PR for him.  In spite of the cold, he shaved 26 seconds off his time from last week. 

Jacob (in 42nd place) finished in 17:47.  This was 24 seconds faster than last week's race, giving him a new PR.

  

Christian (54th place) crossed the finish line in 18:05.  While missing his PR by only 1 second (and again, not a fair comparison because he ran 18:04 at EPHS with  no hills), this was his PR for this course, cutting off 22 seconds from last week.

 

Julio, though listed as 55th place, completed the course in the same amount of time as Christian (18:05).  He ran faster at EPHS, but took 21 seconds off his time from last week, making this his PR for this course (all in spite of a nasty head cold).

Nate, our final scoring runner, was next to cross the line (56th place), finishing only 1 second behind Julio (18:06).  He took 25 seconds off his time from last week, making this a PR for this course.

 

Quang crossed the one in 18:41.  This was a seasonal PR for him!  He took 41 seconds off of last week's race!

Steven (who someone had mistakenly, yet probably appropriately, called "David Wagner") stepped up to the plate to fill in for David's absence.  He finished in 18:45, cutting 10 seconds off his previous best time at EPHS, making him another Bronco to get his PR at this race.

The more I looked at the stats, the more impressed I was.  Guys, you all did a fantastic job today and should be VERY proud of yourselves.  Looking forward to celebrating a great season with you at the Team Banquet next month.

IHSA REGIONALS

Hosted by Lisle (Lions) High School

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Another beautiful day!  They say it's fall, but the colors are holding out and there's still more green than gold, but we'll take it!  Knowing there is rain in the forecast later this weekend, we were happy to have another dry, sunny day.  It's been such an interesting year with more injuries than we'd like and while as individuals we have been consistently improving over the season, we haven't had a decent team score yet on a consistent basis, so we weren't 100% sure of what to expect.  But Coach Goffron gave his instructions and the guys did what they had to do, and boy, what an exciting day it ended up being!

Waiting for the big race:
Some traditions have no explanation whatsoever...

The course is actually quite a beautiful one.

Coach's family also came to cheer on the team.

Are we ready?   I mean, we ARE ready!!!!

Our Varsity Team

 Final Prepping...

And there they go!

About 3/4 of a mile into the race, the big hill needs to be conquered...

 Throughout the race, the top five boys played around with their order, keeping all of us on our toes.

 

 Into the 3rd mile...

And then into the final 50 meters...

Darryl was first for our team and 8th place overall, finishing with a time of 17:46.

Jacob was our 2nd place runner for the team, finishing behind Darryl with a time of 18:11.

Julio was 3rd for the team and 12th place overall.  His finishing time was 18:26.

Then came Christian, finishing in 14th.  His time was 18:27.

Nate pushed through the pain of shin splints to finish in 16th place (yes our top 5 were in the top 16!!!).  His time was 18:31.

Quang was 27th overall and completed the course in 19:22.

David was 39th, ensuring that all of our runners finished in the top half of the field (in spite of his painful foot and intermittent nose bleeds)!  His time was 20:25.

"And in case you're wondering, yes, I did pass that Timothy Christian runner at the finish line!"

Then it was time to wait...

We knew we had run well, having our scoring runners in the top 16, but did we do well enough to keep the Regional Championship?

(This is about the time someone's grandson got ahold of the camera for the following 2 pictures!)

Then it was finally time for the awards ceremony (though somebody leaked the news ahead of time, but we won't mention any names, right, Nate?).

 We did it!  Back to back to back Regional Champs!!!

(The magic of photo shop)

That's one proud coach!

Ironically, NOBODY ran their personal best today.  Not a one!  But it didn't matter.  Everyone found the spot that they needed to make it happen.  Each of you worked hard all season making yourselves better runners so that today would be possible.  

Great job, Broncos!!

Go Walther!

See you next week...same place 

(probably the same time!).