2016 XC Coach's Comments

October 24, 2016

In doing this for several years, I tend to forget the way that the post season adds a level of ‘stress’ or ‘pressure’. For me, it is the same every year, but each year that a new crop of runners comes in, it is a totally foreign experience for them. So while the added element doesn’t add much to my plate, it certainly adds something to theirs. Our 2016 postseason campaign began at the Riverside-Brookfield regional, but our week began by announcing our top 12 postseason team. This year's team consisted of Seniors; Maeve Roach, Erin Lorenzen, Jess Sullivan, Cayden Bonaccorsi, Amanda Harris and Clare Svoboda, Junior Mia Longo, Sophomore Abby Hosek, and Freshmen Julia Olander, Sofia Moreno, Ailee Hogan and Melissa Harris. We worked on illustrating the importance of a team coming together to be stronger. As the week progressed, we began to lay out how the post season works and what is at stake. The rookies start to realize that this isn’t just a normal meet. We were greeted with a cold morning, but a rising sun would make race time conditions ideal. When the postseason pairings were posted, we felt confident that we would advance to sectionals, but we wanted to put ourselves in the best possible position moving forward. The race going with a strong push by the front three of the host Riverside-Brookfield. Roach and Olander were following them, and they were being pursued by a group from Solorio Academy. The team race was going to be closer than expected as our wolfpack was in a thick mix from spots 15-25.

Coming out of the woods, Roach was sitting on the final medalist spot in 5th. Behind here was a pack of four runners, once of which was Olander. Over the last half mile around Lake Ida, Olander would take charge of this group and take 6th place. Next came the wolfpack, the gap from 2-3 was bigger than we would have liked, but a tight grouping like this can make a bigger impact at a larger meet like sectionals. Lorenzen grabbed our 3rd team spot, Melissa Harris and Mia Longo rounded out the scoring team. When the points were counted, we took 3rd place. This race did give us valuable experience as we head to the sectional race at Kress Creek Farm. There are some solid takeaways we can look at, but as always we need to do some things better, especially from a mentality standpoint.

We will not be expected to grab one of the 5 team spots next weekend, without this ‘pressure’ we can go out and run aggressively. For the seniors, it will be a chance to finish their careers knowing they finished with their best effort possible, for the underclassmen, it is a chance to see that this is only just a race and toughen them up for next year's campaign.

Coach Wejman

October 16, 2016

There can be a sense of relief when a season ends, in the context of the cross country season, most of the athlete's season is over. Most years, this is welcomed as a chance to redirect our focus with a smaller group. This year, though, it is going to be an adjustment losing our open team. From the first days of practice, we had an enthusiastic group that didn’t back down from challenges. While there were some growing pains, our newcomers (as well as some veterans) grew and developed and saw immense improvement from their mid-August selves. In addition to their competitive growth, the spirit and camaraderie we saw from the 2017 team is one that we haven’t seen in many years.

The frosh-soph race opened the ESCC conference finals. The tandem of Melissa Harris and Ailee Hogan worked together as they have much of the year. These two will join up with some of the varsity girls next week and be a part of the ‘wolfpack’. These two were followed by = Sofia Moreno, Abby Hosek, and Gigi Kinsella. These three were competing for a spot on the postseason roster. All three have made great growth through the season and should be proud of their performances and look forward to watching their growth in the coming seasons.

Varsity was next up and we gave the usual instructions to the team to get out and be aggressive early. We probably weren’t going to see many personal best times given the muddy nature of this course, but we just asked them to go out and race. For a few of these girls, it would likely be their last career so it is is always good to go out on a high note. At the first pass, Maeve Roach came by in 26th and was in a tight pack, so spots were there for the taking. Then came our wolfpack of Erin Lorenzen, Jess Sullivan, and Mia Longo. These three will play a big role in our team score over the next two weeks. The varsity team was rounded out by captain Clare Svoboda, Cayden Bonaccorsi and Amanda Harris, three seniors that have been program stalwarts over the last four years. At the two mile spot, Roach was on her time goal but was sitting at 18th place, two out from an all-conference spot. I saw her again at the 2.5 mile spot and she was still at 18th. This was the first time I told her her spot, she reacted to move up to the next pack. Coming down the stretch it was going to be a fight but she kicked in her track speed and grabbed 15th place, good enough to earn medalist status. raceIt was nice to have a girl in the awards ceremony a year after being shut out. Our conference will never be mistaken amongst the other elites of our area, but it is full of solid competition and depth, it will serve as a great test for us heading into the postseason.

The open race brings a sense of finality as all of these girls are running in the last race of their season. After the favorable conditions at Elmwood Park, there wouldn’t be as many seasonal bests, but these girls all ran gutsy races. There was nothing left in the tank for any of this squad. Many of them came to us on August 10th not being able to run a mile, and now they were running three. Not just running, but racing, competing, finding something inside them that they didn’t know existed. This race is always bittersweet.

We now turn the page. The regular season doesn’t mean anything. As an old Nike ad said; ‘Your PR is who you were’. Our team will scale down and as we will lose some of our heart and passion from our white/off white squad, it will be tough to say goodbye to them, but it is now time for the Columbia group to define itself.

Coach Wejman

October 10, 2016

No coach ever likes to admit that their team is going through a ‘rebuilding year’ because it denotes that a team is taking a step back. After losing three of our top runners from last year's team and suffering another injury early this year, it appeared that a rebuilding year was upon us. Despite this, we also had a glut of rookie runners join our team in the first days of practice. The good news of a rebuilding year is that there is a chance to mold and shape a group of young athletes into a team. The week leading up to the Elmwood Park was without a doubt the best week of practice we have had as a full team in my nine years as coach. Each day was optimum mental and physical focus (the lone exception was our lightning-shortened practice on Thursday). Saturday morning, we were greeted with chilly temps as we boarded the bus, but with blue skies, it was going to be a perfect day for running. In addition to this, the course at Elmwood Park High School is flat and without sharp turns, so times have always been faster. With all that said, we were expecting a big day. The varsity race kicked things off at nine in the morning and we charged all nine runners with getting out and attacking in the first mile. All nine posted their best first miles of the season. The only question would be, could they hold it? Maeve Roach was our top runner once again and she held 9th place after two miles in a competitive field. A goal of her’s was to break 20 minutes for 3 miles and it would take a negative split 3rd mile, but she was looking strong. As she entered the final straightaway, she had commandeered the 7th spot and finished with a time of 19:29, beating her personal best by over 40 seconds. The 8 girls that followed Maeve on varsity also all posted seasonal best times.

The open race followed and the sun got a little bit higher, but conditions were still perfect. With some injuries amongst some of the top 12 candidates, this race would be a proving ground for some of the last spots. Once again, at mile one things were looking strong, especially from Abby Hosek who was our top runner in this race. Then came the rest of our team and they were all coming through with strong pushes. It was becoming apparent that our great week of training was transferring over to the race. There are too many individuals to list, but some basic time breakdowns of the day's performances include:

• Nineteen runners seeing their seasonal best times improve by more than a minute
• Seven runners saw their season best improve by more than 2 minutes
• Two runners had a 3-minute jump

This is a credit to the push and effort these girls have given and like I will tell them; Coach Gonzalez and I are proud of them, but more importantly, we hope that they are proud of the effort they have given. We now head to the final week of the season with the conference meet. We are a much different than the group that began back in August. We are no longer rebuilding, we have rebuilt this team and we are peaking at the right time.

Coach Wejman

October 2, 2016

We have entered an age when we have so much information when it comes to so many things, including weather. All week, the forecasts called for rain for most of Saturday morning. Some people say that ‘they’re always wrong’ while others read the forecasts as a statement of fact. The truth is that all we can do is show up and see what happens. About halfway through the frosh/soph race, the rain began. The Lisle course is a tricky one with a big hill as well as some tight turns which would magnify the impact with some precipitation. We asked Melissa Harris and Ailee Hogan to shadow each other and this is how the race mostly played out. Hogan continues to be a workhorse at practice and Harris is continuing to find her racing form. Next up was Abby Hosek who has come so far as a racer in the last two months. Not much behind her were the newly healthy Sofia Moreno and Abby MacKinnon. Rounding out the scoring team was Gigi Kinsella who dropped over a minute off of her time at this same course last year, and Gwyn Katsibubas who made her competition team debut.The rain subsided for the boy's race and then picked up again during the girl's varsity race. I told the girls to run smart and not race against the watch, but rather, compete with the other racers who were on the same slick course. Heading to the hill Maeve Roach and Julia Olander were pushing a good tempo in the top 25. It was a fast pack considering the conditions. After Olander was our wolfpack of Jess Sullivan, Mia Longo, Erin Lorenzen, Clare Svoboda, and Cayden Bonaccorsi. These 5 have embraced the pack mentality and push each other in training and at meets. The next two weeks will play out who is on our post season roster and who races for us at regionals and some of these girls might be part of that. Whatever outcome occurs, each of these girls has made the team better and that is what it’s all about. Roach earned medalist status by taking 19th and the team took 10th place out of 22.

While the boy's race got going, we heard rumors of the open race being cancelled. The rain was continuing to fall and the course was not in great shape. We were expecting nothing but joy from our runners when they heard this ‘bad’ news, but many of them seemed genuinely upset that they weren’t going to be able to run. Racing is never easy, and it can be quite uncomfortable, but it is what we do. Spirits remained high for the spirit portion of the ‘Spirit Meet’ as our band of weirdos got a chance to let their freak flag fly. I loved seeing these girls enjoy themselves on what was such an otherwise crummy day.

We have two weeks left. Two more chances get a personal/seasonal best. Two more chances to stake a claim on a top 12 slot, or a chance to run in the IHSA state series. Hard to say what the weather will have in store for us as we enter October but all we can do is show up and see what happens.

Coach Wejman

September 25, 2016

I neglected my duties from last week, so I will try to recap the last two weekends:

Sundown Meadows has long held a special place for the Nazareth Cross Country program. We were introduced to it in 2008 when Riverside Brookfield moved their invite to this forest preserve in Countryside. We have hosted and run at this course for regionals (including two team trophies here) and many Bulldog Invites. I like to think of it is a true cross country course. It has hills (Illinois type, but hills no less). It has different surfaces with grass, asphalt road, crushed gravel, packed pebbles, mud and sometimes puddles. It isn’t great for spectators as 2 of the 3 miles are in the forest, but sometimes the athletes prefer that. This was the 52nd annual Bulldog Invite and it was also the most competitive we’ve ever been a part of as participants. Varsity got things going with a 4:35 gun. It was a beautiful night, big difference from last years epic storm that cancelled the meet. We had a strong presence heading into the woods with Maeve Roach leading the way followed by freshman Julia Olander. They were followed by cousins Maggie and Erin Degnan, and rounding out the team scoring was the senior trio of Jess Sullivan, Erin Lorenzen, and Clare Svoboda. In the open race it was great to see Freshman Ailee Hogan continue to break out, it was equally great to see some our ‘off white’ crew have their best race of the season. It’s amazing what starts to happen when the runners begin to believe in themselves.

It was another disjointed week with our mid week conference meet with the fictitious ‘south division’ of the ESCC. It was a warm day for the second last day of summer, but we were ready to run. We had a depleted squad but it was a day that many posted seasonal bests and got a great sense of the conference final course, when we compete against ALL the teams in the ESCC. Special recognition in this race goes to the aforementioned freshmen Hogan as well fellow frosh Melissa Harris, two youngsters who get better every time they race. Strong efforts were also posted by seniors Clare Svoboda, Cayden Bonaccorsi, and Italian exchange student Benedetta D’Alfonso. We had a hard workout the day before so we weren’t at our best racing freshness, but it was a strong day regardless.

Saturday morning was met with frustration as we loaded the bus with about only half the team present. Coach Gonzalez and I vowed to not let it bother us and focus on those that were able to represent the team. Due to our limited numbers we decided to skip the frosh soph race and have varsity be our first. Through mile 1, Roach was mixed with the top 10, her racing form has never looked better than this past week. Unexpectedly becoming a team’s front runner can be a big change in racing mentality and it is clear that Roach is starting to figure this out. We look forward to see this confidence grow as we head towards the postseason. Hogan made her varsity debut and did not flinch and posted a near season best time on a traditionally slower course. She was closely followed by Lorenzen, Mia Longo, Svoboda, and Bonaccorsi to finish in 5th place. In the open race, Emily Rodriguez had a standout performance dropping more than 2 and a half minutes of her personal best.

As the regular season winds down, we can no longer make excuses about calling a team ‘young’ or imply that we are banged up. It is time to see who are top squad is and who wants to be running on the morning of October 15th. Friday afternoon, IHSA regional and sectional assignments were posted. We get to run on a true cross country course at Sundown Meadows to compete for another regional crown.

Coach Wejman

September 11, 2016

A few years back the captain's choice for the quote on the back of a shirt was (paraphrasing): ‘You will forget the workouts, your times, the courses, but you will never forget your teammates.’ This trip always reinforces those words.

Before the fun times at Peoria, we had a race on Tuesday at Westmont. It was not ideal racing conditions as the heat index was near 100 at race time. The Westmont course also contains several 90-degree turns, so times are always slower anyhow. We stressed that we wanted to see strong effort and this was a chance for our team to run against… our team. We didn’t want to worry about the other three teams, we just wanted to see where we were heading as a team. Maeve Roach was once again our top finisher, but close behind was Maggie Degnan and Julia Olander. We then produced a pack of Melissa Harris, Mia Longo and Erin Degnan. I can’t stress enough the importance of a tight pack as our season picks up.

We left Friday afternoon and if the relatively light traffic was any indication, this was going to be a smooth trip. About a half hour in, we drove through some heavy rains that looked to be hitting most of central Illinois. This wouldn’t do much to effect the best bus driver in the state, but it might lead to a sloppy course Saturday morning. The Cracker Barrel in Morton was at its usual level of top notch service taking care of 29 teenage girls. After a good night of sleep, we woke up Saturday morning to a little bit more rain. This rain wouldn’t last, but it added more moisture to the already soggy course at Detweiller Park.

As has become our custom this year, we stressed not to focus on places and times. This would be one of the biggest meets in the entire state, so places might look discouraging. With a soft and slick course, times would naturally be slower. We were given box 1, which is a big disadvantage at Detweiller, so we wanted the group to get out strong, and they did. Through mile 1, our top runners were where we wanted them to be. Maeve ran another strong race and she was followed by Longo, E. Degnan, Erin Lorenzen and Ailee Hogan for our scoring squad. The best performance of the day, in my opinion, came from our ‘white’ group. These are the girls that have no experience and have been trying to gain confidence as racers this year. Each of them; Sarah Martin, Emily Rodriguez, Kimberly Gonzalez, Anastacia Perez and Nancy Martinez, posted great times on Saturday.

After the race, we headed home and we took part in one of the best traditions of our season; the memories of the bus ride home. Between the pictures of people sleeping, bus driver trivia, and forcing freshman to contemplate the true meaning of life, it is always enjoyable. I had to look back at the times for Saturday’s race, I had to check who came in what place, but I didn’t forget the great time we had.

Coach Wejman

September 4, 2016

For various reasons, the veteran girls consistently talk about how they like or don’t like the course for the upcoming meet. For most courses, it is somewhat split. For the LT

Lions Pride invite, it is almost universally negative. I have my theories on this, but we always try to stress that 3 miles is 3 miles and try to remain positive regardless of past experiences. This year’s team has been extremely positive and upbeat, but this meet is always a test of mental focus. Between the 4 boys races and 4 girls races, there are close to 1000 racers that mat down the grass at the South campus of Lyons Township. There are several elite Ilinois teams (as well as two powers

from the Hoosier state). Our message all week was to run our race and try to gain valuable racing experience, because we are not just a running team, but a racing team.The JV race opened the day. We put all of our sophomores in this race and offered the longer distance to a few freshmen. Two answered the call: Ailee Hogan, who was the top finisher for us as well as Sofia Moreno who ran a great race.

Earlier in the week, I offered it up to our top runners to run in the JV race or have a crack at the varsity competition. Senior Maeve Roach was the only runner in this group who consistently ran varsity last season, so this would be a daunting task. We didn’t try to sugarcoat things, this was going to be a tough race, but most of them took the challenge and we had a 6 member varsity squad that was going to give it a strong push. We stressed that we weren’t going to worry about places and final score, but about learning to race as a team. This year, a big key to our success will be running as a pack and keeping our gap low. Roach was a top runner from the gun and she would be our top finisher. Behind her was Maggie Degnan who ran a great race in her first 3 mile race, she has shown great fitness and will grow as a runner the more she races at that distance. Junior captain Mia Longo was next, followed by Erin Lorenzen. Rounding out the squad was seniors Jess Sullivan and Clare Svoboda, training partners that race well when they get to push each other. All 6 raced hard. Every race will be a learning experience this season, especially as we enter a 14 day stretch that will see us race 4 times. This will start to show us what we’re made of and show us who wants to be on the post season roster.

The freshman rounded things out and after the ‘baby loop’ I saw Melissa Harris holding back. After telling her to get up, she responded by moving up to take 15th place. I think that she has the potential to be a contender for a varsity spot as the season progresses. Behind her was Leah Cavanaugh who will be fun to watch progress as she gains more race experience. This week, we get the Westmont Quadrangular and the First to the Finish meet in Peoria's Detweiller Park, two races that we all run together, a great chance to see who wants to race as opposed to those who just want to run.

Coach Wejman

August 28, 2016

It’s always great to start off another season, but it’s always challenging to start off another season. I am a believer in the notion that the easiest part of coaching is coaching. The challenge falls in the extras, the peripheral items; paperwork, meetings, scheduling. The excitement and challenges have come to the 2016 cross country team in the form of having 12 freshman and 17 new runners. Not sure I have the records or desire to check, but I think that both of those numbers are records for my tenure as coach. By the time we figured out who had/hadn’t paperwork turned in, who was/wasn’t registered, who was/wasn’t receiving the schedule or calendar updates, it was already time for our first meet. I take pride in knowing all the girls' names early on, but there were a couple times I had to dig deep to remember them as they passed by on their first lap on the course at Elmwood Park. Again, it’s a balance of excitement and challenges.

Two years ago Elmwood Park switched from a co-ed relay to a 2-mile time trial. First up was the varsity race (jr./sr.). From early on Mia Longo and Allison Kufta set out as our team leaders. Both ran a nice first lap around and came in strong at the end. Jess Sullivan and Clare Svoboda followed them up, with Jess’s experience and Clare’s first summer of attending the running camp, we expected those two to be factors on the varsity level this year.

Regardless of format, Elmwood Park has always been a meet that I look forward to, more so for watching the newbies race. It seems like we always have a few ‘hiders’ as I like to call them, runners who hold back at practice for whatever reason, but then come to life when it’s race time. Promising freshman Julia Olander was our top finisher in the race as she took 8th. She was followed by Sophomore Maggie Degnan, who looks to build upon a great track season as she takes her try at cross country. Rounding out the scoring team was Freshman Melissa Harris, Sophomore Erin Degnan and Freshman Ailee Hogan. Erin is probably the main contender for ‘hider’ although she has worked hard in practice so her great run wasn’t too much of a surprise.

That last point is what has been the promising aspect of our early campaign. I don’t think we have ever had a roster from top to bottom that was this hard working or receptive to the workload in front of them. We have lots of work to do and much room for improvement, that is abundantly clear. But I love the enthusiasm and spirit this group possesses, and I look forward to knowing all 17 new names before the LT meet this Saturday.

Coach Wejman