2023 Coach's Comments

Nov 5, 2023

This year, we had an addition to the coaching staff when Emily Beedie joined as a second assistant. Emily was a member of the 2014 team that finished 12th place at the state meet (our best season to date). She was surprised to learn that now 28 teams made it to the state meet (4 sectionals 7 teams each). Her year, it was 25 (5 sectionals 5 teams). She commented on how this made it easier, to which I replied that in 2010, our first year making it as a team, there were only 20 teams (4 sectionals, 5 teams). There are several reasons why these increases took place, and the question emerges; has it gotten watered down? Is it too easy? But to quote Alfred Tennyson in the poem ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’; “ours is not to reason why, but to do and die”.  Perhaps a bit dramatic, but all we can do is qualify given the schemata laid out by the sages of the IHSA. 

After last year's quagmire of a course, we were treated to amazing temps at Detweiller Park when we rolled in just before the start of the 1A race. The foliage was on point, the sun was shining, it was going to be a great day. We brought 14 team members down with us, seven of these athletes had never been to the Cross Country state meet. Experiencing it all is part of the fun so watching the first two races is something we like to do each year. Once the boys 1A race wrapped up it was our turn to take our place in box 20. Four of our racers were freshmen; Sophia Towne, Allie O’Halloran, Julia Parkes and Ashley Kenna, their first time through this song and dance. The other three were veterans; Junior Sarah Owen running in her 3rd state meet.  Sarah joins Claire Ramsey as the only other 3 time state meet racer. Jane McNamara and Hannah McCarthy were taking their 4th crack at the final race of the season, joining Colette Kineslla as the only other athletes to make this claim. Emotions were running high as the athletes went through their pre race routines. I nervously paced and made small talk with fellow coaches. With 5 minutes to go, I took my spot 200 meters down the course to watch the start. The smoke from the gun flew and I started my watch. It’s hard to make sense of the sea of runners, but I looked for our postseason black. Towne got off to an aggressive start and was committed to pushing the tempo and her teammates got the message. At the half mile mark, I almost missed our pack by blinking.  We were less than 20 seconds apart, my text to Coach Gonzalez and Coach Beedie was ‘wow, great start, TIGHT.”

As the racers hit the mile marker, this gap was holding as I darted to my spot entering the triangle. I watched my watch and furiously texted;  30 second 1-5 split.  It is next to impossible to count spots at the state meet once you get past 15-20, there is so much congestion. My next text to the coaches was; ‘I have no context (of where our places were), but what an effort”. The triangle is about 600 meters and it is next to impossible to see developments, unless you are back there so I waited. My thought was that there was no way to hold that 1-5 gap. Towne came out first and I checked my watch, as my eyes returned to the racers, Allie and Jane were neck and neck 10-15 seconds off Towne. Hannah’s tall frame and curly hair was gutting out a chase on Jane, but where was Julia? As Hannah approached I had my answer, the shorter Julia was blocked by a racers from another school; Julia and Hannah were tied. The split held through the triangle. Sarah and Ashley rounded out our squad and they were grinding together putting forth a great effort that would be more important than they realized. Most often teams know their 1-5 and these 5 score, the 6&7 mainly serve as insurance policies in the case of an injury, but they can also serve as pushers if they come in before another teams #5, and there is always the tie breaker. In most cross country competitions, if two teams tie, they go to the #6 runners. So that one athlete that thinks ‘I’m #6, it doesn’t matter’ could cost a team dearly. EVERY SPOT MATTERS. 

I quickly got to the 2 mile marker in time to see where things were timewise. Sophia was 12:20, Jane & Allie 12:30, Hannah and Julia were 12:47. My next text was; ‘What a day’. I told the team on Friday that I would be at the 1K to-go marker and wanted to remind them that this was going to be it, there was nothing to hold back for.  I made it a point to make eye contact with all of them, they responded back with eye contact, all 7 of them and knew we were going to put in a proper finish. I had no clue where the scoring was at (live scoring is dangerous to look at), but I stopped caring, this was our best race, this was our peak moment, this was what we’ve been waiting for all season. Given the tightness of our pack, I was able to see a few of the girls push up the final hill and expend the last bit of energy in attacking the finish line. Where I choose to post up mid race, I can’t see the finishes, so I don’t have any context about how things finished up. My tact is usually to slowly walk up the hill, collect my thoughts and get ready to address the team one last time. The emotions start to come out on this walk. The season is over. Months of grind, early Saturday mornings, all kinds of weather, laughter, tears, injuries, illnesses, setbacks and breakthroughs; it's all over. 

At the state meet, I always have a few personal goals;  

• Beat every team you beat at sectionals 

• Beat at least one team from every other sectional to show that you belong

• Beat Mascoutah (don’t ask)

• Try to get 15th place (2023 goal)

• Savor the moment.

The post race scrum is quite crazy, but I’m tall so I can usually spot someone, but it was more difficult than usual. I also saw the live score board, we were showing 13th overall. I brushed it off as early returns, I knew we had a good day, but this didn’t seem like it would hold. I found the team and the emotions were pouring out. Hugs and tears were abundant. I didn’t quite know how to handle all this, so I went back to the scoreboard that was updating. We were still holding at 13th, could we really finish at 13th? We moved to more open space for the team talk and pictures. I kept checking the live results on the scoreboard and on my phone. We were now tied for 13th! I scrambled to check the finishing positions for the 6th runner of Champaign Centennial; 159th.  This was compared to Sarah; 151st, and even Ashley; 157th for good measure. EVERY SPOT MATTERS.   Barring some massive hiccup, this spot would hold. I tried to put our day into a mathematical context, but held off as we addressed the team one last time. As Coach Gonzalez took his turn, I looked out at the foliage, the faces of our team, the parents who support us, my wife and son, the score board. This was my ‘savor the moment’ moment. (Goal achieved).  We broke the huddle, did pictures and I went into number diving. We beat every team we beat at sectionals (and even beat a team that beat us)(goal achieved). Beat at least one team from each sectional. (Goal Achieved). Our friends from Mascoutah didn’t qualify (goal achieved). Try to get 15th place (goal achieved).  According to the mats on the course, we were 16th place at mile 2.  We crushed the last with the 5 scoring runners posting mile times of;  6:29, 6:25, 6:28, 6:27, 6:34. The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack. The 2014 team, which had coach Beedie as a member, finished 12th out of 25 teams.  2023 was 13th out of 29 (a tie at sectionals brought another team in). The 1-5 split in 2014 was 26 seconds, 2023 was 33 seconds. Head to head, 2023 beats 2014 27-28. Two great teams, two great packs, two great mentalities towards racing. At the final meeting, I thanked the seniors for their four years of service and being part of these 4 iconic teams. Jane and Hannah earned the distinction of being state qualifiers all four years, conference medalists all four years. Neeve Olson, Sam Rozmus, and Evvy Siffermann may not have run on this day, but they get to be labeled state qualifiers. These three were on the postseason squad all four years and their commitment to the team and each other is something that will be very hard to replace. Aside from thanking the seniors, we challenged the returnees to make a pact to get back next year and go for 6 in a row. It won’t be easy, it never is, if it was easy, everyone would do it.  If a day at Detweiller like this doesn’t fire you up, I don’t know what will.

Coach Wejman

Nov 2, 2023

When talking to friends who live/coach in other states, they always claim that Illinois has it backwards; Sectional should come before Regionals. And while I have never put much thought into it, it was always known that Sectionals is the gateway to the State competition (except for team sports that typically have a super Sectional). Regionals has always taken a backseat in terms of importance, save a few years, getting out of the Regionals round didn’t take much. Sectionals on the other hand is always what to look for. Where did you get sent? What odd geographic conclusions did the State make with the ‘rubber band’ policy? Once our Sectional was posted in mid September, our chances of making the State meet were all but secured. We are a strong team and we were placed in a Sectional with many teams that wouldn’t be able to battle our depth. Regardless, you still have to progress and improve and find that elusive consistency and have it play out on race. Consistency has been our key this season. We have never found that magic breakout moment (yet), but we have found a core that races eerily similarly week to week. And while we are (still) waiting for that break moment, we have embraced the consistency and feel great about our prospects heading into the Sectional meet at Lewis University.

We ran this course two weeks prior at our conference meet, but the layout was a bit different. We weren’t able to see the course in advance and after a week of steady rains, the course would be slick, much like it was at Conference. The gun rang out and the race was under way. The front pack of the race would do their thing, and for us the race would begin in the 10-25 places. Not having a low number does hurt a little, but as the meets get bigger, the tight 5 pack would be our strength. Coming through the first mile, our pack was a bit too separated for my liking, but this is what we’ve done all year, our consistency would shine through and getting a 25 second 1-5 split like Regionals would be unlikely. After mile 1, Sophia Towne was just outside the top 10 but was holding a good control in just her second race back from an ankle injury. Not far behind her was Senior Jane McNamara who employed an aggressive start. Being in her 4th postseason with dozens of races under her belt, Jane does her best work when starting aggressive and grinding out the middle portion of the race. Freshman Allie O'Halloran tended to sit back a little bit early and push later, so after mile one, Jane held a significant gap over Allie and heading into the cornfield, this gap was still over 15 seconds. Not concerning in the least bit, because it would be something that we expect to close. An even bigger gap was growing between Allie and Hannah McCarthy and this wasn’t just about time, the number of places between Allie and Hannah was not my expectation through mile one. But once again, this team has been consistent and even predictable at times. Since her freshman year, it became apparent that Hannah did her best work in the middle of the race, when most runners are at their most vulnerable.  How much would she be able to make up? Would she still be out of the top 25? Top 30? We would have to wait until the last half mile to see them again. While I have grown to trust the veterans, we are still learning how the youngsters handle things at this point in the season. Most freshman runners didn’t run this late into the season during junior high, or log this many miles. Julia Parkes had me a bit worried through mile one, as the gap from Hannah to her was over 25 seconds and this could easily balloon. If the gap grew, we wouldn’t be in danger of not qualifying for the State meet, but it would be a bad sign heading into next week.  Sarah Owen and Ashley Kenna kept close watch and were working well together. Given the make-up of this meet, they wouldn’t be able to push any of the teams ahead of us, but they would push the 3-4-5 runners of the teams behind us. Heading into the cornfield, the race hit a lull. It wasn’t really possible to watch the race from about 1.5 miles until 2.5 miles in. This would be 6-7 minutes of ‘radio silence’. Coach Gonzalez and I met up and stood on a high point in the thick prairie grass to watch the runners come through. Towne was the first to pass through and was chasing down a Benet runner for what would be 12th place. Towne is a fierce competitor and gave the push all she could, but was edged out by less than a second. An experience like this is so beneficial for a young runner at this stage. To push and get edged out will only fuel the engine for a strong finish next week and beyond. Twenty seconds later Jane McNamara and Allie O’Halloran emerged. Heading into the cornfield the gap between these two was large, but Allie grinded to get into Jane’s shadow. Jane was in no-man’s land for a good chunk of the race, but we had no doubt she’d use her teammate as a tail wind and these two pushed the pace holding off a runner from Payton. In my pre race notes, I made a best case scenario, it called for 3 in the top 15; Jane and Allie were 16 & 17, not bad.  We didn’t have too much time to enjoy that race as Hannah was less than 20 seconds off them, flanked by two DePaul runners. I knew that beating Depaul was a realistic goal on this day and the early returns had us in a close spot against the Rams. Hannah was in the late 20s heading into the cornfield and came out just under 25th, grabbing a couple spots. She was able to put in the Hannah ‘long kick’ to hold off both Depaul runners finishing in 22nd place. Waiting for Parkes was going to be a bit nerve wracking as she entered the corn too far off Hannah for our liking and this is the part of the race where Hannah shines, the gap was likely going to grow. But it didn’t, we may have found another mid race grinder in Julia as she came through less than 30 seconds off Hannah. She went into the field about 34th place and came out holding off a couple of Payton runners to secure 29th. All five in the top 30 was a good situation. It was going to be close with Depaul in a fight for 3rd place. Owen and Kenna passed by less than a minute later essentially running side by side, switching who was leading. Owen made the final surge to beat out her teammate, and made a couple of passes in the process. These two would be in before Payton’s 5 and Fenwick’s 4 & 5. There wasn’t much concern about losing to these teams, but you never want to count on anything before the scores get settled.  The live results had us VERY close to Depaul. When the dust settled they bested us by 1 point. Our 1-5 split was 77 seconds. Getting a 25 second gap like Regionals was unlikely again, but we will aim to split the difference at the State meet. We settled back at camp and told the team about the scoring developments, but more importantly that we secured a top 7 spot and qualified for the State meet for a 5th consecutive season. While it seemed routine and what was expected, it still feels good to secure the spot and be able to look back on the past few months and realize that it was all worth it. 

We survived the Regionals and held serve at the Sectional. It is now time to do our damage at the final meet of the season. Regardless of what Illinois calls the previous rounds vs other States, every high school student in the country aspires to finish their season at the State final. Feeling privileged to get to do it again. 

Coach Wejman

Oct 26, 2023

Since I began coaching, the post season has always felt different. Even when I didn’t understand all the advancement schemata or the numeric ‘strategy’, it just tended to have a different feel. Some years our route to the state meet has been more or less stringent and even regional rounds sometimes need the mentality of ‘survive and advance’. This year, the regional round wasn’t about “survive and advance”, we got what many will say is the ‘easy route’. Even with this being the case, at the coaches meeting, the reality of the day sank in.  Words like ‘advancing’, ‘moving on’, ‘getting through’ are used by officials and coaches, understanding rules to avoid disqualification that are often overlooked during the season also get mentioned. It is different, it is the state series and even if we had the ‘easy route’, we still have to do the small things to accomplish the big thing. 

Residual rain from before, during, and after the conference meet had left the course at Miller Meadow soggy, despite sun and warming temps. It wouldn’t be a total mud fest, but the course would pose some footing challenges. When the gun rang out, it was apparent that the meet would be a dual between us and conference foe Benet. With Benet resting one of their top runners and the scores would be tighter than a week prior. Could we grind through and have a race at a level that we are capable of? Sophia Towne made her return after a couple weeks off and was aggressive from the gun. She was closely shadowed by Jane McNamara, and if Jane is around Hannah McCarthy isn’t far behind. Allie O’Halloran and Julia Parkes rounded out the scoring 5 and if the first mile would be any indication, our 1-5 split was going to be strong. It was also apparent that we were going to need an epic final two miles to top Benet. Their 1-3 was in front of our top runner; we were clearly going to inflict some damage on their 4-5 runners, but it likely wouldn’t be enough due to the dynamics of the race.  

Heading into mile 3, our top 5’s split was well under a minute, and we had all settled for spots 6-10, with O’Halloran and Parkes pushing each other and making some key passes to get into that top 10 spot. Our top 3 was hunting down Benet’s third runner and if we were going to win the race it was going to take all of our 3 passing this runner (who was in the midst of a 50 second personal record). With a half mile to go, I yelled something to this effect to our top 3 to make this assault and all three responded, but ran out of time. Had the race been a 5k, maybe we would have made that up with an extra 200 meters. O’Halloran and Parkes closed the door and held their positions with O’Halloran gutting out a race dealing with lingering effects of a cold and Parkes continued to improve week to week, dropping a 20 second personal best. It is rare to get 5 in the top 10 and lose the day, but Benet was better, grabbing three in the top 5. We raced and competed well and our 1-5 split was less than 30 seconds, which will serve us well in a larger meet with more runners. Ashley Kenna and Sarah Owen rounded out the squad, offering depth and strength on the back end. Being in the ‘easy route’ does have its benefits, but it makes things easier with 6 & 7 runners that aren’t far off the number 5 runner in case someone goes down or can’t finish. 

In the end, we were 6 points shy of Benet. We survived and advanced. We got through. We advanced. All the things that are easy to take for granted, but we now  get to compete in the Sectional meet for the 14th consecutive season. We are still awaiting that ‘best race of the season’ as a team. We have preached all year that the best race of the season needs to come in late October/ early November. We are there now and it’s time to do it when it counts the most. This coming Saturday, the goal (or expectation) gets to be fulfilled for many teams. The weight of the day will feel different during the coaches meeting, the stakes will be laid out.  I now get the advancement schemata and the numeric strategy. And while we may again have the ‘easy route’  we will have to produce on race day and I will have my usual race day jitters, but these in the postseason just feel different. 

Coach Wejman

Oct 19, 2023

When we enter the postseason, the belief is that the races get bigger. And while they do in terms of importance, the races themselves get smaller in terms of competition in some respects. Some meets run 10+ runners for varsity and invite 20+ teams. That creates for crowded starting boxes and clustered races throughout. For our conference meet, we have 7 teams maxing out with 7 runners. I don’t need to do the math to figure out that most of our invites had larger fields than our conference championship. Thinner races do have some advantages, but it also forces runners to pick their pack early or risk being alone which is never easy.  

Due to weather, the conference moved the varsity races to the first slots to give them the neatest track possible. When the gun rang out, there were a mere 45 racers. And within the first half mile the packs had situated and those who didn’t have a pack might have to face the elements and the overall race struggle by themselves. We were in a spot again to sit out Sophia Towne to rest a tweaked ankle and not many teams can sit their top runner and still have an expectation of winning the conference. Regardless of this, we would still be measuring up against Benet and the team that we will see the next three weeks in the IHSA state series. I knew that the race up front would be between Benet and JCA for the race championship. After that it was going to open up and there would be some good competition. Allie O’Halloran and Jane McNamara were on the tail end of the chase pack. This pack wasn’t very big and gradually thinned out putting athletes in spots where there wasn’t much ground to pick up. Hannah McCarthy and Julia Parkes were in the next chase pack, which too was stretching out. Our final cluster of Sarah Owen, Alayna Plahm, and Sam Rozmus. Heading into the final mile, O’Halloran held her ground and while she was by herself for good chunks of the race, she maintained her position and didn’t let a trail runner or pack close in on her. One of these trailers was McNamara who had closed very well and ended up less than 10 seconds behind O’Halloran. I make a big fuss about gaps between scoring runners and this truly is what makes the difference in cross country races. Hannah McCarthy was well over 30 seconds off Jane and 4-5  spots off her. By the time the runners got to the final stretch parallel to the airport, she had dropped within 20 seconds of Jane and just two spots off. She was 15th heading into the last mile and ended up in 12th place. Parkes had done a good job keeping the gap between her and Hannah to 30 seconds but didn't have the last mile that Hannah did and ended up 50 seconds off the seniors to finish in 19th place, one off of All-Conference. Owen closed the door to secure a 4th place finish for us as a team. While it wasn’t the result/spot we had aspired for, it was a good test and a chance to learn and grow as we enter the state series. O’Halloran netted an All-Conference medal as a freshman and will have three years to join an elite club. McNamara and McCarthy are members of this club having earned All-Conference each of their four years, the 2nd and 3rd runners in program history to ever do this, joining Colette Kinsella. 

Frosh-Soph was next up and we had aspirations of taking home this team title due to our lower level depth. Through mile 1, it was apparent that the race was going to be won by Marist, but how could we battle? Some of our runners were gunning for post season roster spots and earning some medals. As previously stated, the varsity race had 45 runners, this one had a mere 32, a sign of the times in high school sports with participation on the decline. Ashley Kenna was our first runner through and she continues to improve her racing week to week. She got caught in no man’s land for much of the race, but she battled back hard to close the gap on second place, though she would fall a mere 4 seconds short, this was a good test for her as she gets set to run in the varsity seven at Regionals. Lexie Perfect, who may be the most improved freshman from our origins back in August, was our second finisher and had an amazing finish to take 9th place. Our scoring day closed out with a troika of runners clustered within 25 seconds of each other; Claire Sigmund, Lucy Jucovics, and Maggie Broderick. All of our top 5 finishers ended up earning medalist status, and it’s rare that you put the scoring 5 in the top 15 and don’t get the win, but Marist was the better team in this race. Mary Trayser and Addison Sloan rounded out the 7 racers for us and these two capped off strong seasons with their strongest efforts of the season. 

JV closed out the day, and this is always a bittersweet race because for pretty much all seniors, it will be there last. It was a source of pride to see the Nazareth white jerseys to be the most on display in the starting boxes.  Part of that is the 15 seniors we have on our roster, 12 in this race. Due to the conditions, the choice was made to combine the girls and boys, this could help prevent thinning of packs and keeping everyone with competition all around. Neeve Olson was the top finisher for us closing out an amazing career both as a racer and as a two year captain. She was followed by juniors Clare Sandoval and Erin Briars, these two will be primed to lead the team next year with their example of hard work. Four year varsity runner Evvy Siffermann ended her racing career with strong efforts over the last 2 weeks, always elevating those around her with focus and competitive drive. Seniors Stella Anderson and Maggie Olk were next, Stella was a 2020 ‘Covid Baby’ and left us for a couple of years to pursue volleyball only to come back for the senior campaign. Molk has been a great teammate and bringer of support and spirit for all of her 4 years. These scoring 7 just got edged out by Benet, by a mere 3 points. Clare Worley and Kate Mangan were the next two seniors through the chute for us. Clare being a 4 year team member, helping us define the term ‘girl boss’ and Mangan was a three year runner who brought positivity to all that she did. MJ Drabik was the next senior to finish, grabbing her best time in three years of racing. The remainder of the seniors were one year wonders; Bri Wolongowiecz, Ella Jucovics, Sophia Foltz, Georgie Nemeth and Sophia Valdez. Better late than never for these ladies, but running is a lifetime sport and hopefully they can take the lessons learned in these 3 months and use it going forward.  

We left Lewis University wet and cold, a tough way to end the season, but our sport has never been glamorous. We will never be the lead story or the main attention of the fan base, but we grind, we work, we push. It’s not an easy sport to do in any conditions, but if it were easy, everyone would do it. We now pare down the roster and gear up for the IHSA state series. The meets might not be bigger in terms of runners, but the stakes increase and now it’s time to handle hard as best we can, we have no other choice. 

Coach Wejman

Oct 12, 2023

I’ve long been a fan of classic rock and when I hear the term ‘bookends’ I tend to think of the Simon and Garfunkel album by the same name. In the context of our season, Elmwood Park is our bookends. We began this journey in August (albeit a week later due to heat) at the two mile ‘Trial on the Trail’ hosted by Elmwood Park. We end our regular season at Elmwood park at the Tiger Invite. Our team has long loved this course and with fall weather tending to be more friendly and our fitness is at its highest point, we tend to rack up seasonal and personal bests.

When the gun shot off for the varsity race, crisp temps and abundant sunshine were setting the table for what would be a good day for the Roadrunners. Barring any major mishaps, we were going to earn a program sweep on the day. Regardless, achieving consistency and tightening our gaps was the main focus. Through mileone, Allie O’Halloran and Jane McNamara were linked up and showing some real grit getting out. I’ve made much of the 4-5 gap this year, but we’ve had our share of small gaps from all of the 1-5 slots as most teams do. Seeing teammates be side by side is always a way to make for a happy coach. O’Halloran and McNamara would finish the race in 3rd and 4th place, separated by a mere 3 seconds. Hannah McCarthy was keen on not letting these two get away finishing 18 seconds off of her fellow senior to take 6th place. In her shadow was Julia Parkes who was our #4 on the day, a deviation from usually being our 5 as we rested Sophia Towne. In the last few weeks, Parkes has been keeping that gap tight. At Peoria, the gap was 80 seconds, at RB it was 50 seconds for the second consecutive week, the gap was secured at 30 seconds, which was good enough for 8th place. Rounding out our scoring squad was Ashley Kenna, Sarah Owen, and Sam Rozmus. These three have battled hard the last three weeks for the two remaining varsity spots come the postseason. All three posted seasonal best times and all clocked in under 21 minutes. Our scoring day was done and with 31 points, 1st place was secured. Despite having the scoring runners in, our varsity squad was still out there with Alyan Plahm posting a seasonal best time and Claire Sigmund showing continued growth as an emerging varsity runner. 

The JV race closed out our day and we were expecting to see some familiar faces up near the front. At the first pass, I noted to Coach Gonzalez that the ‘Great White Fleet’ was rolling. This was an homage to the fleet of ships painted white by Theodore Roosevelt to sail around the world announcing America’s growing navy. Nine white Nazreth racing jerseys were at the front after the first mile. The girls took turns leading, but heading into the final mile, Lexie Perfect was taking control of the race. We have been blessed with a strong freshmen class, some of which jumped immediately into varsity slots, but others have gotten their feet wet and taken their time to break out. This was going to be Lexie’s turn. Seniors Evvy Siffermann put forth her strongest effort of the season to be our second finisher. A runner from Leyden would break our perfect score by taking 3rd place, but 4-12 all belonged to the Roadrunners. Izzy Cervantes, Erin Briars, Clare Sandoval, Neeve Olson and Lucy Jucovics all came in clustered to close the scoring door and grab seasonal best times. When the 7th runner came in, our score was set at 18 points and another first place earned. 

Our day wasn’t done yet as we had four more runners break 23 minutes; Maggie Broderick, Stella Anderson, Annie Trayser, and Maggie Olk gave us a total of 20 runners under 23 minutes. I showed our team the other day how at this same race 4 years prior, we had 8 runners hit that mark, total. Really another illustration of our collection of talent and depth. The seasonal/ personal bests weren’t done as the next string of runners all hit this accomplishment; Clare Worley, Kate Mangan, Molly McGarry, Addison Sloan, Mary Trayer, Gianna Plescia, Ally D’Apice and Mia Duffy with Duffy dropping 2 minutes of time from her previous best. Senior Sophia Foltz and Sofia Arroyo each dropped over 2 minutes on their seasonal best. It is always a bittersweet time to see these improvements come in as we are ending the road on the season. But as we like to mention to athletes and parents, running can be a lifetime sport and the gains made and lessons learned can propel them to a long running life beyond high school.  

Some may consider the conference meet as part of the regular season, but I do not. Elmwood Park ended our regular season. This week is the week that essentially all teams put their best foot forward. No more resting, or running meets as workouts. This is the championship season. The sky will begin to turn a ‘hazy shade of winter’ (no one under 50 will get that reference), and it’s time to apply all the lessons we’ve learned all year into one more race.  

Coach Wejman

Oct 5, 2023

When I signed on as coach in 2008, the AD told me that it is probably best to keep the schedule intact for a few years and then make adjustments once you figure out what is best for your team. For much of the first decade, we didn’t make many changes. In the last five, we’ve really shaken things up, and for the most part, we have been very happy with our decisions. This year, we gave the athletes (and coaches) a weekend off. This was warmly received by all. Our big change last year was attending the Solorio Sun Warrior Invite held at Marquette Park Golf Course. This too was well received, so it was a no- brainer to go back. Much like last year, this race fell on our homecoming weekend and it was also a cool morning with temps rising with the sun. The Frosh-Soph race began the day at 9am. It was going to be hard to predict how the race would unfold with teams likely putting many of their younger racers in varsity. ‘Veterans’ Lucy Jucovics and Maggie Broderick led our team and ran together like they were joined at the hip, ultimately finishing within two seconds of each other and posting seasonal best times in the process. Addison Sloan was the next finisher and she had her best race of the season by far, running over a minute better than her best previous mark. This time of year is always fun as the runners, especially the newer ones, start to get things to click and Addison is a great example of this. Mary Trayser and Ally D’Apice closed out the scoring 5 and also posted seasonal bests. They were joined by Gianna Plescia, Elena Garcia and Sofia Arroyo in notching their best 3 mile mark of 2023.  

By the time the varsity race rang out at 10:10, the sun was starting to do its thing and there was little shade coverage on the course. We challenged our varsity squad to dig deeper, find the reserves within them and show out. We have had strong results so far, but we haven’t had our break out yet. By late September, coaches tend to know what directions things are going in and what October is going to look like. My impressions are that our direction is trending upward, but not with the urgency that I’d like. Our best races are ahead of us, which is exciting, but also a reminder that we don’t have many weeks left. My text to coach Gonzalez from my vantage point was ‘really great start’. We moved up front and held our ground in a field of high quality teams. Heading into the ‘back’ portion of the golf course the race thinned out and we held our positions.  Every season, our goal is to improve week to week but also keeping an eye on postseason rivals.

This year, much of our postseason forecast is essentially set, so we have been focusing on improving week to week but with extra attention on our conference meet in a couple of weeks. One of the teams we’ll be competing with for a conference title is Marist, and this will be our last chance to see them before the championship meet. We made defeating the RedHawks our mini goal of the day. When Sophia Towne came out as our top runner at the halfway point, I began counting spots between our white jerseys and their red.   Marist has had a tight pack all season and that requires spots to be taken early on. Towne held a small but controlled lead over Marist’s #1 and Allie O’Halloran did the same for the #2 spot. Marist’s 3 & 4 were packed in with our 3 & 4; Hannah McCarthy and Jane McNamara. We were in a dead heat heading into the #5 slot. Avid readers of this ‘blog’ know the importance of the #5 runner. This year I harped on the importance of the #5 spots and closing that gap.  I didn’t have to wait long for Julia Parkes to emerge.  The freshman has consistently dropped time off her PR, but has also gotten tougher in terms of racing tenacity. We weren’t done in pushing back Marist’s #5 as Sam Rozmus, Sarah Owen and Ashley Kenna clumped together and gave us some extra points in the final tally. Behind this crew was another trio of ladies who grabbed personal or seasonal bests; Claire Sigmund, Clare Sandoval, and Neeve Olson. The seasonal bests kept rolling in from Erin Briars, Lexie Perfect, Izzy Cervantes, Stella Anderson, Sarah Phillips, Bri Wolongowiecz, Natalie Gomez and Sofia Foltz. The warm temps probably kept more from hitting their season best times. I was able to get back and see a few of the finishes and by doing some quick math had surmised that we secured 3rd place and defeated Marist by a mere 10 points, which was good enough today, but the margins were razor thin. We continue to improve week to week, and we continue to trend upward, but I do feel as if there is more in the tank, there is another level of growth and I am optimistic that we will find this in the next two weeks. 

One change that we haven’t made to our schedule is finishing up with Elmwood Park, this flat open course is custom made for fast times. A solid chance to secure that PR/SR before we turn our attention to the conference championships. 

Coach Wejman

Sep 20, 2023

I often get asked; how do you coach runners during a race?  My snarky response is to simply say; ‘I just tell them to run faster.’  Once the gun goes off there really isn’t much we can do, but it’s more about what happens during the week. It is about the mental approach to workouts, learning to embrace the discomfort, and finding teammates to push you in workouts so you can use them during races. Race plans are also an aspect that we do try to instill, especially in the postseason, as the focus becomes much more direct.  Regular race plans are tricky in the regular season because teams don’t always run their top runners week to week, so looking for comparable racers becomes challenging. Some teams also run their races as workouts which can throw off the plan.  After a few races, our number one need was to shrink our gap from our #4 and #5 runners. On Friday, we spoke with the varsity racers about focusing on this. I never can tell how our Friday talks will translate to Saturday, so when the gun rang out at the RB Invite all we could do was to wait and see. I figured that we would likely take home 1st place in both races, but could we tighten our gaps and situate ourselves better as we make the turn towards October? As the runners approached the first mile marker, my question was answered. Our top quad of Sophia Towne, Allie O’Halloran, Jane McNamara, and Hannah McCarthy was clumped together in the area of the top 10.  A mere 20 seconds behind them was our next cluster of Julia Parkes, Samantha Rozmus, Ashley Kenna, Alayna Plahm, Evvy Siffermann and Clare Sandoval were a wall of white running together. These six heard the call on Friday and answered. The gap would likely grow and not all six would hang on, but I couldn’t be prouder of how this group committed to the plan and carried it through. At the mile two mark it was more of the same as Towne moved into the 4th place spot and was essentially in ‘no man’s land’ for much of the race.  O’Halloran and McNamara were in lock step and McCarthy was slightly off them. The chase pack began to thin out but the survivors held their gap at just over 30 seconds. Forty Five seconds was an arbitrary goal I was targeting and it would be tough to hit that, but the focus and competitive drive that would be learned today will pay dividends down the road. Towne was able to hold 4th place and learned some valuable lessons about racing up front. O’Halloran and McNamara came in at 7th and 9th, respectively. McCarthy just missed top ten with a 10th place finish. Much of the latter part of the race is deep on the course and hard to see. After numerous times of checking the watch and the final turn, Parkes and Rozmus emerged about 50 seconds after McCarthy to close the door and secure 1st place as a team.  There is much work to be done going forward, but today was a day of answering the call and following the plan. Kenna, Plahm, and Siffermann all posted seasonal bests on the day on a course that isn’t really made for these types of improvements. Final tally saw us score 51 points and win by 47, no small feat for a meet such as this, especially as we will see many of these teams again in the postseason. 

The JV race would finish our day and again, we were fully expecting to take first place, but execution would be the thing to look for today. The RB course is full of sharp turns, thick grass and uneven footing, so it isn’t ripe for personal or seasonal bests. The gun rang out and the race belonged to a runner from Ridgewood, but then it was all Roadrunners. Sarah Owen led our squad and was essentially running in no man's land from a half mile in. She continued to push herself and the pace, not giving the third place runner a chance to catch up. Equally good for us was the third, fourth, and fifth also belong to Nazareth in Claire Sigmund, Neeve Olson, and Lexie Perfect respectively. These three ran a clustered race and really used each other so set a strong pace and grabbed these top 5 spots, Sigmund and Perfect both ran seasonal bests in their rookie campaign. Lucy Jucovics closed the door with a 10th place finish, securing us first place with an impressive 24 points. Izzy Cervantes and Stella Anderson helped serve as pushers closing out our scoring 7; Anderson running this race for the first time since her freshman ‘Covid’ season. Down the road, Annie Trayser put forth a strong race grabbing a seasonal best as did Senior Clare Worley. Junior Sarah Phillips and Freshman Mia Duffy each posted personal bests in back to back weeks on a three-mile course. In scanning the results, while many runners did not hit personal or seasonal bests, many runners were within seconds of their times the week before. Detweiller is a notoriously fast course and the FTTF is a very fast race, so to do this at the Bulldog Invite is showing growth of physical and mental strength.  

We left Indian Gardens with plaques and medals, but we also grew as a team. Performances are getting stronger and confidence is growing. It’s a good news/bad news thing as we would love to keep racing and see our confidence grow and face new challenges, but is it time to throw a first time event on our schedule;  a Saturday off.  For the first time in my 16 years, we are leaving a weekend open on the calendar. Will the week off rest and rejuvenate us or dull us?  We shall see when we return to action at Solorio and face many future postseason foes. 

Coach Wejman

Sep 15, 2023

Coach Gonzalez and I have begun really immersing ourselves into the work of a coach based out of Colorado named Jay Johnson and he often talks about having ‘one big race’ early in the season because it is a good way to gauge things. Although good, it isn’t meant to be a be-all end-all and it doesn’t need to happen every week. It is good to be tested, but a high stakes race week after week can wear a team down. Our schedule has reflected this for several years, but the ‘big meet’ on our schedule is a very big one. It is the First to the Finish at Detweiller Park, the state meet course. It is divided by class so you get to race against the state’s best, but it is against teams that you hope to see again in November. There isn’t too much strategy at these races as the season is quite young, but also because there are just so many runners(for context, the varsity race had 477 runners finish). The state meet has just over 200.

The aforementioned Varsity race shot off at 9:20am and after a week of intense heat, we were greeted by cool temps and abundant sunshine. According to some publications 18 of the top 30 teams in 2A were in this race, including us. We just graduated a 4 time state medalist, but we wanted to show that our team hadn’t missed a beat despite missing a low number. After a strong showing against big schools at LT, we now wanted to replicate that on the state course. I didn’t have an expectation in terms of placing for this meet, but I had a general idea of where we fit in.  

The gun rang out and the chaos of almost 500 runners stampeded north through Detweiller Park.  After the horse shoe, I had a hard time spotting our white jerseys (white seems to be popular lately) but was able to see some good bunching of those that I saw. At a meet of this size especially small gaps would be crucial. I headed over to the entry of the triangle and saw Sophia Towne battling near the medalist cut off at 50th place. Within sight was Allie O’Halloran, who we would like to see become a side by side pair with Towne to keep numbers low. Within 15 seconds was senior Jane McNamara, who would see a much more stable start to this season than last, bettering her overall time by over 90 seconds from 2022. And right over her shoulder was Hannah McCarthy, who is just the model of consistency for a fourth straight year. Into the triangle our 1-4 split was under 40 seconds. But as every XC coach knows, it's the 1-5 split that is the key. As I waited for #5, the question of who it would be came up. Sam Rozmus has been in this slot thus far, but freshmen Julia Parkes and Ashley Kenna have been matching up time wise. Having these three all bunched together will prove to be helpful at training as well as meet day. I’ve always preached that competitive teammates make the best training partner because the end outcome is a better team. Out of the triangle saw more of the same as our 1-4 all seemed to be in close proximity and then our 5-10 came out together under a minute. As a team we looked stable and strong, but seemed to be lacking the edge (or a different term that coach and I secretly use) on this day. As the runners came across the field for the final stretch, our groupings stayed tight. In 2022, we only put one runner under 20 minutes, on this day, four entered their names on the Detweiller under 20 minutes list. Towne, O’Halloran, McNamara and McCarthy all placed in the top 100 and officially had a 28 second split. As we enter ‘less competitive’ races, this will be a formidable blockade. Parkes, Rozmus and Kenna closed out the scoring team and kept their gap at a mere 25 seconds. Alayna Plahm, Sarah Owen and Neeve Olson rounded out the roster with improved races from the week prior and they all came in less than 20 seconds apart, the 5-10 crew kept their split under a minute. Our depth was on display here and we finished in 14th place. I felt that top 10 was a possibility, but we were just missing a little bit. This was a great test of high stakes racing and we learned a lot. And, like Johnson says, this isn’t a be-all end-all and the next time racing at Detweiller truly matters we will be better prepared. 

The open racers had to wait a few hours for their crack at the course. The sun warmed things up and the dragonflies were swarming when the gun rang out and as large as the varsity race was, the open contained over 700 runners across class 2A and 3A. The congestion of this race would lead to a slower start, but the diversity of ability in this race would lead to thin out quicker. Junior Clare Sandoval pushed ahead to lead the Nazareth contingency. Her transition from track has gone well as her comfort in distance racing has improved during each of our three races. Evvy Siffermann was up next for us as she continued to perform solidly, dropping 35 seconds off her time at this race last season. Freshman Claire Sigmund and Lexie Perfect were our 3rd and 4th finishers, pushing each other throughout and becoming more sound racers. Izzy Cervantes, Maggie Olk, and Maggie Broderick closed out our scoring 7 that saw us finish in 13th place, which was the second best finish among 2A Schools, a testament to our depth and the size of our team. Really proud of how this group raced as a collective, several freshmen; Addison Sloan, Ellie Fleishmann, Gianna Plescia and Mia Duffy ran their first 3 mile race. Senior Sophia Valdez had her first full length race looking real strong in her last stretch of race. She helped pull Sarah Phillips to a personal record, an impressive feat for a three year run this early in the season.

We packed up camp and left Detweiller Park with a strong showing. It wasn’t our best day, but it wasn't a bad one either. Later in talking with someone, I said that we ‘held serve’. We didn’t blow anyone away, we didn’t put class 2A on watch, but we did solidify our standing as a strong program with lofty post season goals. We now return to the smaller meets, where we get a chance to fine tune some things, work on our deficiencies and find out who will be our top 12 runners for the post season roster and the seven runners who will represent us if we are fortunate enough to make a return trip to Detweiller in November.

Coach Wejman

September 4th

With the exception of 2020, our season has always kicked off at Elmwood Park. Coaches have come and gone, but we appreciate a chance to start at this race and are gracious to our hosts. At this meet every year we have tended to look forward to the JV or Frosh/Soph race more than the Varsity, because it tends to be the first time we see many racers. Our known entity, the Varsity race, led things off. I fully expected us to score a team win, but with XC rosters changing year to year, nothing is assured. We had 6 of our 7 varsity returners in this race, so our experience and confidence were going to be on display. Jane McNamara and Hannah McCarthy surged up front with the lead runner from RB, our packs filtered behind and the Nazareth white jerseys were abundant throughout. As the race stretched out, McCarthy, McNamara and the top RB runner controlled the front and after a gap our front pack of Sam Rozmus, Sarah Owen, Alayna Plahm and Neeve Olson flexed their prowess and experience essentially assuring us a first place finish. Joining them was junior rookie Clare Sandoval, an off-season pick up from track and field. While sprinting is more of her thing, Sandoval has settled in well to distance racing and has emerged as a varsity candidate in future races. The next wave of Roadrunners was led by senior Evvy Siffermann, Erin Briars, Izzy Cervantes, Maggie Olk and Annie Trayser.  Earlier in the season, I told the team that our size and our depth would be our best asset this season, and it was on display in our debut. Scoring 27 points and winning the Varsity race was a great opener and a nice bar set for the frosh/soph runners. 

In girls cross country, a freshman (or multiple) can walk on campus and reshape a team, so it’s hard to project what will happen in a race like this. In our own team time trial we knew that we had a couple of these with Sophia Towne and Allie O’Halloran, but we thought we might have a few more rookies who might be able to contribute just a few months removed from junior high. We asked Towne and O’Halloran to attack early and see what is possible. Both did this and dominated the race wire to wire. After them came a runner from Ridgewood who would end up ruining our perfect score because 4th through 8th place all belonged to the Roadrunners. Julia Parkes, Ashley Kenna, Lexie Perfect, Claire Sigmund, and Lucy Jucovics put on impressive displays grabbing top 10 finishes. The team took 1st Place with an impressive 17 points and illustrated our depth once again.

Along with Sandoval, Towne, O’Halloran, Parkes, Kenna, Perfect, Sigmund, this marked the Roadrunner debut for: Emma Martin, Ellie Fleischmann, Addison Sloan, Gianna Plescia, Mia Duffy, Ella Jucovics, Bri Wolongiewicz, Sophia Valdez, Georgie Nemeth and Sophia Foltz. Managing a team of this size brings challenges, but it is a source of pride to see our starting box filled up with so many runners brave enough to toe the line and put themselves out there.

Normally we have over 10 days after EP before we turn to our first invite at Lyons Township but due to heat limiting competition, we had only 4 days to bounce back between races. While temps weren’t pushing triple digits like the week prior, LT would be another hot one. Our day began with the JV race bright and early.  Conditions were great this early, but the LT course is pretty much entirely in the sun. The gun rang out and our invite season was upon us. Several of our freshmen opted to run in the three mile race which would be a new experience for them. We also had some veteran stalwarts in the mix too, so we had high hopes for a solid team finish. With that said, going against some strong 3A schools would certainly give us a test. Heading into mile 1, we were certainly being overshadowed by the purple of DGN, the gold of LT and the royal blue of Lincoln Way East, but our team was looking confident and determined to not get gobbled up and lost in packs.  Ashley Kenna was in the mix for a top 10 spot and she was being followed by Julia Parkes, Neeve Olson, Clare Sandoval, Lexie Perfect, and Evvy Siffermann in a tight cluster. This grouping had me thinking that a top 3 spot was plausible. WIth the conditions being as they were and it being early in the season it wasn’t going to a be a day of many PR’s, but there were plenty of performances that best the previous years race in this invite: Izzy Cervantes, Clare Worley and Molly McGarry each improved by over a minute from 2022. As did Kate Mangan and MJ Drabik who saw drops of over 3 minutes from last year's race. The PR’s will come with experience and more ‘cross country weather.’  Even with that being the case, sophomore Ally D’Apice did establish a new 3 mile PR just a few days after improving her two mile time by over 3 minutes at Elmwood. Olson and Siffermann also posted better times than the year prior as they battled with our newcomers to grab what ended up being a 4th place finish as a team. Kenna continued battling and ultimately grabbed a top 10 spot, closing behind her was Parkes in 12th, Sandoval in 24th, Olson in 29th, and Perfect in 30th with  Siffermann and Jucovics serving as pushers to help us fend of any other school from 2A or our conference. To take 4th place in convincing fashion and to not run any runners ‘down’ was an amazing effort by this crew, setting a high bar for our Varsity race. 

I told the Varsity team that we weren’t going to go home with a 1st place plaque on this day. It wasn’t negativity, it was mainly the reality that there were going to be 4 ranked 3A schools here. And while I like our team and where we are headed, it’s simply a numbers game in cross country and the stronger, bigger schools tend to be better than the stronger ‘smaller’ schools. With that said, all I wanted our team to do was to ‘compete’ which will be my go to word during races this year. The gun rang out and Towne did what she does and surged up front. The rest of our crew let the race unfold and settled in on the opening straightaway.  At the half mile, Towne was mixed in with the top 7-12 racers, trailing her was O’Halloran, McNamara and McCarthy 10-12 seconds back and 10-12 behind them was Rozmus, Owen and Plahm. A tight 1-5 split is always crucial, and this year has potential to keep this number in the 45 second range. For context our best showing at the state meet as a team was in 2014 when our 1-5 was an amazing 26 seconds (that included Assistant Coach Beedie). After mile 1 things were maintained, but questions emerged; would our freshmen be phased by their first 3 mile race? Could our two ‘pods’ stay engaged with each other? My count had us at 5th place, but Marist and Mother McCauley were looking strong. Towne entered the last half mile in the mix for top 10, but seemed to struggle to continue ‘running her race’ while challenged by those around her. O’Halloran seemed to be feeling the pace and distance, but held a strong finish coming in under 20 minutes for 3 miles. Our Senior crew of McCarthy, McNamara, and Rozmus slammed the door for us and secured a 5th place team finish, matching our top team performance at this event (worth noting that this was DGN’s first time here due to a schedule change). Plahm put forth a strong trademark kick, helping push back the 6th and 7th place team. Even though I told the team we wouldn’t win, in my mind 5th place was what I considered to be our objective on this day.  

As the day wore on and temps rose, we had one race left; the freshman 3.4K (don’t ask why this is the number). Ellie Fleischmann was our top finisher and had a solid race with a strong kick at the end. Gianna Plescia started a bit too fast, but held on and ran a great race as well. Addison Sloan and Mia Duffy closed out our day learning to run a bit longer distance prepping for the transition to 3 miles from here on out.  

We left the invite with some growth and a positive experience as we now transition into racing against more 2A schools that we will see in the postseason. A quad against Westmont awaits us and then it’s on to the First to the Finish Invite at historic Detweiller Park to measure ourselves against the best teams in 2A. 

Coach Wejman