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Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back State Qualifiers!
November 8, 2015
After writing these for a couple of years, I feel limited about the cliches I can use for talking about what it means to be at the state meet. However, the one I always go back to is that every year, you appreciate how hard it is to get there. This was a season of ups and downs, but as a program we set a standard that our goal was to drive a 14 passenger bus to Detweiller Park on a Saturday in November and represent Nazareth Academy at the IHSA finals. After qualifying as a team last season, there was a different feeling in just having Claire Ramsey as our lone qualifier, but it was no less enjoyable. We partook in our usual traditions, but a new one developed this year when a member of our marketing department organized a send off down ‘the spine’ of our school. It was an in-service day, so no doubt the teachers were happy to miss meetings for a few minutes. But from a sport that is sometimes hidden, it was great to get the recognition and I know the girls appreciated it. We arrived at Detweiller Park and were greeted by an amazing day of fall weather. We went through our run of the course, did some strides and then coach and I attended the mandatory meeting. After 6 years of being at this meet, I feel like a veteran, but it still gets me. Seeing the assemblage of prestigious teams and coaches that I get to call colleagues is awesome. This is what perhaps makes the cross country state meet better than any other state series in the IHSA; every level, both genders, all compete on the same day and at the same venue. As we returned to our bus to head to the hotel, we saw legendary coach Joe Newton of York High School getting off the team bus. Coach Newton has more state trophies than years I’ve been alive, another reminder of what this weekend signifies. We ate our team dinner at Avanti, a state meet staple for many teams as there are numerous in the Peoria area. Then after some team conversation and sharing of memories it was off to bed as Claire would dream of the course and the traveling team members would do their best to not keep her up.
Saturday morning found cool temperatures, but clear skies, and it was going to be a beautiful day. For the last three years, we arrived at Detweiller just as the 1A girls race was turning parallel to route 29. This year was no exception as we saw the bobbing head of soon to be three-time state champ Anna Sophia Keller. One of the big topics of the day was, will anyone break the state course record on the men’s or women’s side? Keller was first to try, but she fell short. She did take her third state title in 3 years, though. Next up was Jon Davis of Oakwood, who was out to break Craig Virgin’s 43 year old record on the Detweiller course. The buzz was exciting as usually the 1A races see the smaller crowds. Davis would fall 8 seconds short, but he was one of just 6 to break 14 minutes on the state course. Coincidentally, we saw the last one to do it as well in 2010, in Sandburg’s Lukas Verzbicas. We did get to see a record later in the day as Judy Pendergast of Naperville North broke the 16 minute mark for the first time ever for a female in Illinois, she ran a gutsy race and it was a great moment to witness.
Claire was up after the boys 1A race, running in her last race of Junior year. She was in an outside box which was favorable. Nevertheless, she had to be aggressive. When the gun rang out, Claire was just this. It is a catch 22 at the state meet: if you go out too fast you risk dying late, if you go out slow you get gobbled up by the talented pack. At the first pass of the finish line Claire definitely got out and put herself in good position. She ran a fast first mile, but that is to be expected. Heading into the back ‘Triangle’ fatigue was catching up with her, but she still was riding with a good group that was moving well together, she clocked a 9:19 at the halfway mark which is about what I would expect her based on this season’s performances. Coming out of the triangle, the race becomes all about guts. Claire dropped what she had left and finished great, many of the girls said she passed several competitors in the final incline. Coach and I caught her clocking a 19:10, which again, is about what we expected. What we didn’t expect was the rest of the field coming in as fast as they did, which put Claire at 118th place, a bit lower than she had hoped. As I scoured the results, I saw names near or below Claire who were once state medalists, another reminder that no one is guaranteed a spot back and no one is guaranteed anything based on past success. As I said last week, I need to look at what I did or didn’t do this season to make Claire a better runner. Upon returning, many people mentioned that ‘she’s only a junior’ which is true, but it brings me back to my original sentiment that getting to Peoria is such an accomplishment in itself and it is so hard to get there, and equally important, no one is guaranteed to get back.
I look forward to celebrating this team and their accomplishments at the awards banquet this week. As we take a look at the past, we have to keep one eye on the future. The 2016 campaign now begins as we look to not only make Claire a four-time state qualifier but also to give her six friends to run with. Let the journey begin.
Coach Wejman
November 1, 2015
When the Regional results come in, I always make a ‘mock’ sectional meet. It’s not rocket science, but it does take some research and math. When I made a mockup of our 2015 Sectional, things didn’t look great. I shared these numbers with the team and their faces didn’t exactly light up. We were sitting as 9th, over 100 points from the required 5th place spot to qualify as a team. I made sure to point out that anything can happen; teams have bad days, athletes get hurt/sick, weather can be unpredictable, etc,. With all this said, I tried to make the week and the preparations leading up to the meet as fun as possible and make sure that the girls appreciated what it meant to be on this team. We enjoyed a team dinner with some team activities as has become one of our program’s many traditions in preparing for this point in the season. All week, the forecast called for a high chance of rain and this week was one for the win column for meteorologists.
Kress Creek Farm is a true cross country course with variations of height and a mixture of grass and mud. The rain would certainly be a factor, as would the swirling wind. Every team at this meet ran in the same conditions, but the question would be: who would be least impacted by this? With many good teams at this meet, I told the girls to get out and attack. That would be our only chance. This was easier said than done as our box was in the middle and teams from both sides would pinch us. Claire Ramsey was able to get ahead of the mix and establish herself in the top 15 after a quarter mile. Claire was going to have to have a near perfect race to qualify for the meet as an individual. At three-quarters of a mile in, Claire was holding her spot and I was able to yell ‘perfect!’ at her. At this spot, I was able to watch the rest of our squad come across. Seniors Colleen Cavanaugh and Gianna Levato were side by side for what would be their last races. Then came Juniors Maeve Roach and Allison Kufta, who did get caught up in the early part of the race and had to fight their way back up. They were closely followed by Jess Sullivan. Those three juniors will be asked to step up next season and join Claire as team leaders. Rounding out the top 7 was Brenna Fritzsche. She was never a top runner on our team, but her leadership and spirit have been unmatched in my time as a coach.
I ventured up to the halfway mark and found Claire still in top 15 and gave her a thumbs up, but noticed that she was starting to look fatigued. It would be another 7-8 minutes until Claire would be seen again, but she came out at the 2.5 mile spot in great shape, my count having her as the 4th individual qualifier if the team scores held form. I sought higher ground to see her gutting out a great last quarter mile to keep this spot. I didn’t see her finish, but I felt 99% confident that she would be going to Peoria for the 3rd straight year. My attentions then turned to the remaining 6, including the seniors who were running the last race of their careers. Coach Gonzalez showed me pictures of this group when they were freshman and it is amazing how much they have grown both physically but also as young women. It’s hard not to get emotional in knowing that our time together in cross country is over, but we take only positive memories from the last four years.
After the race and the obligatory rainy/muddy pictures, we returned to the bus to warm up and attempt to dry off. We left the bus to watch the boys race in what was a wetter and muddier course. We had no idea how awards would be handled as the rain only picked up and the conditions seemed to be windier and colder. After some time, Coach and I headed over to the scorer's tent and names were being read. We made it just in time to hear Claire’s named read as the third individual qualifier. Sadly, we didn’t get the chance to share the moment as a team but had our own awards ceremony on the bus congratulating Claire.
As a team, we finished in 9th, which was what the pre-meet mockup listed for our team. This year was frustrating in many ways as we never had that big breakthrough. As a coach much of that falls on me and I need to look and what we did this year and try to put us in a better place for next season. But before that happens we will again travel to Peoria and give Nazareth representation at the IHSA state finals for the 6th consecutive season. Claire makes her mark as the first 3-time qualifier in team history and I am so proud of how Claire battled this season. There were times this year when making the state meet was going to be a stretch, but she performed when it mattered most.
Coach Wejman
October 25, 2015
The postseason of any sport has a certain feel to it. From the first training session to the meet on Saturday, there is always a good mixture of seriousness and relaxation. Four to five of the girls have accomplished their goal of making the post-season roster and will not race, 7 will toe the line on Saturday in a do or die situation. Extreme storms cut short our first race at Sundown Meadow in early September and rain showers began when we arrived this Saturday. Storms weren’t in the forecast, but it was an off and on rain. Our regional was comprised of us, Riverside-Brookfield and a handful of city schools. City schools are extremely hard to scout because of hard to find results but with the great coverage of websites like Dyestat and Milesplit, we were able to find out some information and we learned that Solorio Academy is an upstart program with a solid team. While it wouldn’t be a dual with our rival, it would still likely be between us and the Bulldogs. At the quarter mile mark heading into the woods, we were in a good position, but still trailing behind on points. This was not a concern because the race still at over 90% left. Sundown Meadow is a great course for runners and is a bit of ‘true cross country’ but it is tough for spectators as the next 2 miles are in the woods out of view of anyone. Coming out of the woods RB comfortably had the 1st spot. Claire Ramsey was next out, but she was in close pursuit by RB’s #2. Ramsey would be caught and grab third place, her second Regional medal in three years. As the secondary pack came out, there was some good news as Gianna Levato and Allison Kufta were our next runners looking strong and would take some runners in the process. These two worked together very well and ended up finishing neck and neck with Levato edging out Kufta to earn her 3rd Regional Medal, padding an already impressive career resume. As more runners began streaming out, it was clear that it wasn’t going to be our day as there were too many runners between RB’s 3-4-5 and our 4 and 5 runners. Colleen Cavanaugh and Maeve Roach rounded out our scoring team and Brenna Fritzsche and Jess Sullivan completed the varsity 7. Adding another Regional plaque is always a nice objective but the main point of this weekend is to survive and advance to the following weekend, which we did. As I’ve said since the opening invite at LT, ‘We have to be better’ as we turn to the penultimate meet of the Cross Country season.
We have set a standard for our program that the expectation is the make it to the State Finals as a team every year. The odds will be against us next weekend, but we will wake up next Saturday with a chance, and that is all any team can hope for. Last year we finished 6th at the Regional meet and leapfrogged three teams at the Sectional meet. We will need another day like that to return to Detweiller Park. With this veteran team, anything is possible.
Coach Wejman
October 18, 2015
Midlothian Meadow has hosted our conference meet for the last four seasons and it has become a course that our team has grown to love. It also creates a nice backdrop for autumn mornings. The 2015 installment of the ESCC Conference Finals featured a cold, but clear, morning. For most, this would be the last race of the season. For others, it was the first round of the post-season. The Freshman/Sophomore team led things off. Mia Longo led this group and she would be running without her training partner, Julia Dallman, who was lost to injury last week. Mia got out aggressively and labored through her second mile but gutted out a great last mile and ran a near personal best. She was followed by Freshmen Calie Svoboda, Alexandra Hyman, and Gigi Kinsella who all ran seasonal bests. I couldn’t be happier with the way these 3 finished their seasons. Present at this meet was ‘15 grad Becca Letcher who would remind me that she was at about the level of these girls in terms of race times. What she did was dedicate her summers to working on getting better and finished her career as a varsity runner. I truly think these three have the potential to have careers similar to the 2014 Pursuit of XCellence award winner Becca Letcher.In the varsity race it was the first conference final without Fenwick and Providence so only 8 teams toed the line this year. Benet would once again be the favorite but Marist and Carmel field some young talented teams. I felt coming in that we would be competing for 4th. As the race got going, Benet asserted their dominance with a strong front running pack. Our grouping was tight and I was pleased with the way our 3-5 of Roach, Cavanaugh and Kufta got up early. Through mile one it was more of the same from our group scoring 5. There was also some great follow up from our 6 and 7; Brenna Fritzsche and Jess Sullivan. We have spent extra time working on pack running in the recent weeks and we are starting to see it pay off as our 2-5 split at mile 2 was less than 30 seconds. This gap remained when the race concluded. Top finisher Claire Ramsey just missed earning medalist status, but she did post seasonal best time. The aforementioned 2-5 kept a tight enough pack to earn us 4th place by 1 point. We need to close our 1-5 gap and all 5 scorers need to run more aggressively early, but we now look to taper our training and keep our legs as fresh as possible for next Saturday’s regional.
The open race is always an exciting and bittersweet race. Seldom does a runner from this group race at regional or sectionals so this is usually their last race even if they make the top 12 post season roster. Our top 4 finishers; Allison Salata, Nicole Kozak, Erin Lorenzen, and Maddy Schierl posted personal bests. So many other great races to mention as personal or season bests were put in by Cayden Bonaccorsi, Clare Svoboda, Amanda Harris, Sam Escalante, Gwyn Katsibubas, Maggie Diaz, Dani Ardizzone, Jessica McDowell, and Grace Doohan. It’s always good to finish things on a high mark like this. We now scale the team back to just 12 members, seven of which will toe the line at the IHSA Regional Hosted by Riverside Brookfield at Sundown Meadow.
Coach Wejman
October 13, 2015
Going back to before I began coaching, the Elmwood Park Invite in October was always during the week on a Thursday or Friday. With a new coach this year, the host school moved it to a Saturday. There are some advantages to the meet being during the week, but it did always feel rushed with daylight getting shorter and shorter. This meet is also effectively the last regular season meet, so our priorities lie in the weeks ahead. With this being the case, we rested some of our varsity runners to keep them as fresh as possible for conference and then the IHSA state series in the following weeks. The Elmwood Park campus creates a near perfect mile loop and has an advantageous layout for good times. Our varsity team got out great in what proved to be a faster race than years past. Claire Ramsey set out with the lead group and remained in the top 10 for the duration of the race. With our usual 2-5 runners acting as spectators, it became a competition for 2 of the final competition spots for the Regional meet on the 24th as well as the top 12 that will comprise of our post season roster. Brenna Fritzsche was our second finisher, finding some of her racing form from years past. She was followed by Mia Longo and Erin Lorenzen, two runners who are peaking at the right time. Julia Dallman, Nicole Kozak, Clare Svoboda, Cayden Bonaccorsi and Josie Suter rounded out the team that finished in 6th place. For the JV race, it was Allison Salata serving as our first finisher in a sea of Morton jerseys. Following her was freshman Calie Svoboda and Maggie Diaz, these two have developed nicely this season and I look forward to seeing what they can do with a season of experience and (hopefully) a summer of conditioning. Have to mention a great race put in by freshman Grace Doohan who had a seasonal best for three miles and her best mile pace race on any distance while dealing with illness most of the week. Many of our team seemed to be battling something this week, but it’s that time of the season. It’s important to get that out of our system and plan on having each Saturday be our best Saturday from now until the State meet on November 7th.
Coach Wejman
October 4, 2015
At various points in the season, I remind the runners to ‘trust their training.’ If you put in the work and have the experience, good things will come. So far this season, things haven’t gone the way I was hoping they would. The season never seemed to find the rhythm that past seasons have had. I began to doubt the process and even began thinking that this season would spin out of control. As I looked over the training schedule I decided to change nothing. In seven previous seasons, we have been a team that trends upward at the big meets of October. Last season we finished 6th at Regionals only to finish 3rd the following week at Sectionals. It was time that I take my own advice and trust my training plan.The Lisle Mane Event is an assemblage of teams from all over Northeast Illinois. There are 32 girls' teams in total, we have always been competitive and shown what we are made of in this meet. Frosh/Soph led things off with Julia Dallman and Mia Longo leading the pack hovering between 15 - 20. I continue to enjoy watching these two develop. The Lisle course isn’t an easy one, but these two ran it aggressively. They were followed by Calie Svoboda who also ran the 4K race with aggression and confidence. Maggie Diaz, Alexandra Hyman, and Gigi Kinsella rounded out the team that placed 6th. I am so proud of this group. This was, without a doubt, the best race for all 6 of those girls and it set a tone for our team on this day.
As the varsity got ready, I went through some last minute instructions, including info on the top teams. Sectional foe Rosary was in the race, they were a favorite going into it, as was Riverside Brookfield. We will square off against RB in what will essentially be a dual meet on October 24 with a Regional title on the line. RB has had our number thus far, but they have a young team and that can play a factor later in the season. Our team got out and looked great coming up the ‘big hill.’ This only continued as Gianna Levato willed herself to stay in Claire Ramsey’s shadow as long as possible. Same went for Allison Kufta hanging right behind Maeve Roach. Colleen Cavanaugh rounded out the scoring group. Jessica Sullivan was our ‘pusher’ and Allison Salata made her varsity debut. With a half mile to go, each one of our girls held their position and it would be an exciting finish. No one lost spots and Maeve and Kuf gained a couple in the final stretch. It was a great effort and much like the frosh/soph group, our best effort of the season. We scratched out a 4th place finish, two spots ahead of RB -- 12 points. It’s gonna be another close one with our neighbors to the east at Sundown Meadow on the 24th. Gianna and Claire each earned medalist status, and for Gianna it was her 4th medal in 4 years.
The Open Race finished things off. The race to make top 12 is starting to heat up and each race is an audition. When we come to decide who will make the postseason roster, we look at consistency and who is peaking at the right time. Many of those in contention were in this race. Our top finisher was Erin Lorenzen who showed her track speed with a great finish. She is starting to figure things out in her debut XC season. She was followed by Josie Suter, Brenna Fritzsche, Maddie Schierl, and Clare Svoboda. Our other five finishers; Grace Doohan, Gwyn Katsibubas, Dani Ardizzone, Jessica Mcdowell and Jocelyn Vasquez ran strong races and ran continuously for the entire 5K, something they weren’t able to accomplish on day 1 in August. I love seeing this progress across the board.
It was our best day of the season and October is the month that you want be saying that phrase. We return to the training plan for this week and we continue to develop at Elmwood Park on Saturday and then it’s on to the big meets.
Coach Wejman
September 27, 2015
When talking with some Freshmen after our mid-week ESCC meet, they figured out that we only have 4 weeks left. They were taken aback by how fast this season has gone and how little we have left. It was nice to get back to a somewhat normal schedule with agreeable weather this past week. As previously mentioned, we had our ESCC midweek meet, two years ago the league decided to split into divisions and we were assigned to the south. This past year, Fenwick and Providence left, shrinking the conference to 8 girls teams and just 4 per division. We ran against Marist, Joliet Catholic, and Marian Catholic. Our frosh-soph racers did a nice job competing against a sea of Marist red, really happy with how these runners continue to push themselves. Julia Dallman and Mia Longo led the way posting strong times. In the varsity race, Marist left out their ace, so we challenged Claire Ramsey to win the race. She came close but took a wrong turn that set her off pace just enough to get edged out by two girls from Marist. This is the coach's responsibility, and I take the blame for this, but I know that this will fuel her when we run this course again for the Conference finals on October 17th. The Leyden Eagle Invite found us running amidst beautiful conditions. The frosh/soph kicked things off with Dallman and Longo again leading the charge, they were followed by the freshman quad of Calie Svoboda, Maggie Diaz, Alexandra Hyman, and Gigi Kinsella. These four freshmen ran their best race of the season and showed some great development. I’m excited to see this group drop times over the next three weeks culminating at the Conference Finals. Longo and Dallman battled each other for 11th and 12th place, respectively. In the Varsity race, it was clear that Ramsey was out to finish some business from Tuesday and grabbed the race lead early. She was tested by a strong crew from Northside Prep. It is great to see her race with aggression and confidence in the early stages of races, as her fitness gets sharp in the coming weeks she is going to be a force to be dealt with. Her effort was good enough for a 6th place finish in a strong field made up of 3A runners. She was followed up by Gianna Levato, Maeve Roach and Allison Kufta who are finding that summer miles are leading to Fall success; Colleen Cavanaugh rounded out the scoring team after putting in a full day at school, practice and leading the band as a drum major for Friday’s football game. The Open race was a shortened track of 2 miles. This race was led for us by XC rookies Allison Salata and Erin Lorenzen. These two make strong cases for their spot in the postseason roster. They were followed up by Nicole Kozak, Cayden Bonaccorsi, Josie Suter and Amanda Harris. It was a great showing by this group in the open race.
We hit the home stretch of the regular season, the training intensity will grow, the focus will have to be present as every spot on the postseason 12 will be up for grabs and every meet becomes an audition.
Coach Wejman
September 20, 2015
This summer we talked with some of our team about focusing on the things that we can control: nutrition, sleep, positive attitude, etc. There are always the things that we cannot control; illness, our opponents, weather, etc. Right about the time the first race went off we learned of our postseason assignment. We were able to see where the IHSA assigned us on our journey back to state. This is out of our control and all we can do now is take care of the things that we can control. About 15 minutes into the JV race lightning was spotted and the starter called everyone to their buses. The issue was that our entire team was in the forest and had to make their way back in. As the runners trickled out of the forest we got them to buses or cars as the lightning picked up and the rain slowly fell. We heard reports of tornado warnings and it seemed obvious that this meet was not going to reach its conclusion, this meant no varsity race. Coach and I scanned the park for athletes and then turned to thank our parents who came out to have a barbecue for our team post-race. One positive takeaway was the frustration from our athletes. They genuinely wanted to finish the race and felt great about their performances. I love that type of enthusiasm especially from our newbies that once dreaded a race of any length.
On a side note, we hosted a junior high meet the previous Monday at Sundown Meadow, the site of the rained out RB Invite. We enjoyed a glorious day of weather and got a chance to see some youngsters compete on a challenging course.
We now hit the half way point of the competition season. Leading off will be the ESCC mid-week meet as we see our conference foes which no longer includes Fenwick and Providence who jettisoned to the GCAC. We then go to Leyden where we will face a couple of good competitors in Northside Prep and the host school. While we cannot control the weather, we embrace the upcoming fall like conditions that will serve us well for the next couple of weeks of hard training.
Coach Wejman
September 13, 2015
On the bus ride down to Peoria, Coach Gonazlez posted a question to our alumni group: What is your favorite memory of the Peoria trip? The responses were great as we took a trip down memory lane over the past 8 years. This year’s trip started out with about as much traffic as the start of Saturday’s race, but we eventually arrived at the Cracker Barrel in Morton Illinois to ruin some local folks' big night out. We then got to our hotel and the girls got a chance to bond and build some camaraderie, which in my mind is the second most important element of the weekend. We woke up, had some breakfast and departed for the hallowed grounds of Detweiller Park. Seeing this place never gets old. It is the largest collection of school buses that I have ever seen and it is packed with teenage runners testing their skills on what has been the state final course for over 40 years. After checking out the bastion of capitalism known as 'sponsors tents' to buy some gear, we headed to our box. It is always great seeing so many rivals and coaches and sizing them up in the early days of the season. Pulling double duty with XC and Track I get to see a lot of familiar faces and there were some missing on this Saturday, in large part due to the ACT being held, but I was able to see many of our sectional rivals. A couple of years back we shifted to the First to the Finish Meet over next weekend's Rich Spring Invite due to the class system for this meet. This will be the first, and in many cases only, chance we get to see our postseason enemies during the regular season. In what was a perfect day for running, we toed the line of box 42 and waited for the starters pistol to go off.
With over 650 runners in the race, it is hard to figure out what is going on early, so we waited at the mile marker. First mile splits looked good, but not super fast. What was clear early though is that we have a great competition going for the final two spots of our top 7. Only seven will run at regionals & sectionals. Our top 5 have established themselves, and it is a tight contest for the final two. Sophomore Julia Dallman has had strong efforts over the last two races and continues to get her fitness back after some summer injuries. She was joined by Mia Longo who continues to grow in confidence and fitness.
Watching the race unfold, I tried to check off our sectional opponents and saw many of them looking quite strong. As our runners came by at mile two we seemed to be holding our ground, but not making up much either. Our ‘secondary’ pack though continued to drive their pace and most of them saw career bests on the three-mile course, and it is only mid-September! Stand out performances came from the aforementioned Longo and Dallman and also Allison Kufta and Maeve Roach who were our summer mileage leaders and they are seeing those rewards big time as both posted near career bests. Jessica Sullivan, Josie Suter, and Nicole Kozak also contributed with great times. I also need to give credit to our freshmen who not only braved an overnight with the crazy upperclassmen, but also ran great races as each and every one of them posted significant improvements from last week’s meet at Westmont.
We now move to the heart of our season. No premier weekend invites, minimal weekday interruptions and we will focus on hard training and sharpening our skills as we head to the second half of September. I leave this echoing the same thing I said to the team last week and will say every week until we head to sectionals: ‘we need to be better.’
Coach Wejman
September 7, 2015
I usually save my weather analysis for Track and Field season when spring weather is something to talk about. This past week, however, the weather impacted both our training and our meets. The first week of school found students wearing their hoodies in the morning because of temps in the mid-50s, only to have temps reach the 90s allowing students to wear shorts to school. Heat training is a difficult proposition because the gains made in the heat have been proven to be beneficial later in the season (some scientists say it is similar to altitude training.). On the other hand, we aren’t dealing with world-class athletes who have been training for years. So we try to push the athletes, but not drive them into the ground via dehydration or heat exhaustion. I always like to keep things positive in these comments, so I will just leave it by saying that this wasn’t the best week of training I have seen in my 8 years of coaching. When we arrived at LT South Campus, we were greeted by a nice breeze, overcast skies, and cooler temps; ideal running weather. There were storms off in the distance, but we looked safe. Then just as the JV race gun went off, it looked like we were in the path of a small system of thunderstorms. At about the 9-minute mark, the starter pulled racers off the course and ushered the athletes into the fieldhouse as lightning was seen and thunder was heard. After the appropriate time had passed it was announced that the girls JV would not be continued. There was a mixture of frustration (expressed to coach and me) and I’m sure some happiness (that was hidden from coach and me). But this was the decision made and we had to live with it. We have 5 established varsity runners and we are looking for 6 and 7, so we were looking at this JV race to see what we got, but we wait until Tuesday to see these girls compete on a three mile course.
Varsity was up next and temperatures and humidity were rising, but it was still comfortable. Our squad of Claire Ramsey, Gianna Levato, Colleen Cavanaugh, Maeve Roach and Allison Kufta got out well and ran a great first mile and then came back with another strong mile. There were some questions about the mile markers and even the whole length of the course, but it was clear that we were tired for mile three. Mile splits are an inexact science, especially in cross country when courses vary. We finished behind two of our sectional rivals, which means that we have some work ahead of us, but the things that need to be improved upon are things that are easily fixable as long as team continues to push themselves. We will get two great chances this week to see this as we head to Westmont to compete against the small but talented host school as well as Aurora Central Catholic, another likely sectional foe with two of the top runners in 2A.
For the freshmen, Saturday was going to be a good test as they ran against a large field and it was a little bit longer than they are used to. It was good to watch this group battle and keep pressing themselves. We don’t foresee any of this group jumping up to varsity anytime soon, but it was great to see the progress and see some girls start to push themselves and improve their racing. Individual praise goes to the top finisher of our group, Alexxa Hyman who ran a solid race, despite starting her finishing kick a bit too early. Also, Calie Svoboda and Maggie Diaz posted impressive races.
We enjoyed this Labor Day holiday with rest, relaxation and perhaps a short run. Tomorrow, it’s back to work as we have two meets in five days, including the First to the Finish Invite at Detweiller Park in Peoria. This will give us a great idea of where we stand against our Sectional as we expect to see 6-7 of our sectional opponents at Peoria on Saturday.
Coach Wejman
August 30, 2015
As a coach, I always try to keep an eye on the future. It is amazing how fast 4 years can go, creating a need to replace the seniors from a year before. Most years, we meet many of our prospective athletes at our summer running camp. This year we didn’t have any incoming freshmen running at our camp. This left a good deal of questions about who would be a part of our runner class of 2019 and as the online registrations rolled in, there still weren’t many new names. This enhanced our efforts on hitting up the new arrivals during freshmen orientation. By the time of our first meet on Tuesday, we had 8 freshmen on the 15-16 squad, with hopes of still adding a few more. This was a very active summer for our team. Many of our top runners were fortunate to travel overseas and see many wonders of the world, but they remained steadfast in their training. Replicating last years 12th place finish at the State meet is going to be hard, but this group is intent on building on the legacy of past teams. The 2015 campaign got a started at the Elmwood Park ‘Trial on the Trails’ which was effectively a two-mile time trial. In years past we teamed up with the boys team for a 6-mile relay, but the new regime at EP shifted to a time trial. We were excited for this new format, as we had run a two-mile time trial in the opening days of the season, so this would offer us a chance to see progress. In the Varsity (junior/senior) race we were excited to see how our four returning varsity runners would run, but also to see who would step up and fill in for the other three varsity runners who are now in college.
From the opening gun, Claire Ramsey sought to establish herself in the front of the pack and not far behind her were Gianna Levato, Colleen Cavanaugh, and Maeve Roach. Going with them was Allison Kufta, whose hard work of the past three summers have led to her becoming a leading candidate to be our fifth scorer this season. These five battled and finished with a 1-5 split of just over 1 minute, which is a good place to be at this early in the season. Their performance was good enough for 2nd place. Our 6-12 slots are up for grabs right now as we saw a few waves for runners come through, including newcomer Allison Salata, as well as Jessica Sullivan, Clare Svoboda, Brenna Fritzsche, and Maddy Schierl.
In the frosh-soph race, it was going to be a baptism by fire for 7 of our new runners. They were joined by 3 returning sophomore runners. Racing is a challenging venture that takes time to learn the nuances of it, but the best advice for your first one is to just go for it and see what happens. Freshman Calie Svoboda did this and paid for it, after going all out in the first 200 meters. While she may have regretted it as the race wore on, it was admirable to see that aggression. The group was led by Mia Longo and Julia Dallman, who came in within a second of each other and will prove to be competitors for top 12 and even top 7 positions as the season plays out.
It was a good way to start the season, but I had to keep telling myself that it is still August and we have time to progress and grow as a team. We now turn to the competitive LT Lions Pride meet which will give a good gauge of where we stand against conference foe Marist, and postseason rival Glenbard South.
Coach Wejman
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