Richard Spring Invite Results | Elites

By Michael Newman
ilprepharrier.wordpress.com

Peoria, Ill— In her first two races this fall, Kaylee Flanagan of Lake Park has crossed the finish line to set a course record. Last week, fans started talking about whether Flanagan could eclipse the Detweiller Park course record at the Richard Spring Invitational last Saturday. After all, her home course has been compared to Detweiller, time wise. If she could run 16:27 at Lake Park, could she eclipse Kayla Beattie’s 16:22 that she ran at the 2010 IHSA 2A State Meet?

Boy did she ever!

Flanagan crossed the line in 16:20.3, more than a second faster than Beattie’s old record. Considering this is the middle of September and Beattie set her record in November, it is expected that Flanagan has the capability of taking this time even lower. But for the time being after the race, she wanted to savor the moment.

“I just went out there and ran my own race. That is my goal for everything,” she said after her record run. “I wanted to break 16:40 (her goal before the season began).”

Flanagan took the pace out in breakneck style. It is something that onlookers have expected from this talented senior. She dares her competitors to try to stay with her. A half-mile into the race, she was at an incredible 2:29 and already had a four second lead on Madeline Perez of Glenbard West and Tess Wasowicz of Palatine. The rest of the pack came through in 2:37.

At the mile, Flanagan was by herself as she passed in 5:07. She was in a zone at that point, only concerned about the pace she was running and how she was feeling. “We know the course is fast at the beginning,” she explained. “There was no clock there, so I just zoned everyone else out.”

Back about five seconds was Perez. She held back for the first portion of the race. She knew she could not stay close with Flanagan earlier on. She found out the hard way last week at Lake Park, where she finished 21 seconds back.

“We thought (Perez) went out a little hard for herself last week, so we decided for her to back off and run her own race,” said Glenbard West girls coach Paul Haas. “Kaylee Flanagan is amazing. She can go out in 5:09. We did not want to try the same thing twice. We wanted her to work hard in the second and third mile and see what she can do.”

The strategy worked. In last week’s race, Flanagan opened up close to a 15 second lead by the two mile. This week, the story was different. Perez was able to maintain the gap that she had the mile in the back triangle. Part of it had to do that Flanagan was unsure about the course. The other part was Perez not letting up.

As the two made their way through the zigzag going into the home straight approaching the two mile, Flanagan went to the left side of the course. Perez stayed on the closest tangent and on the right side. It looked like the two were side-by-side as they crossed the two mile mark. In fact, Flanagan went through in 10:45, Perez in 10:49.

“I kind of went to the outside and then all the way to the inside, but I was just kind of like, ‘Oh, this is where my body is going to take me, so just follow the course,’ at that point.”

During the last mile and the final lap around the course, the two kept the same gap. “(Flanagan) came out and pushed the third mile,” her coach Lauren May said. “She had a kick today. Her philosophy is that the finish here is not even an incline. It’s flat. She goes and visualizes that. It doesn’t feel like a hill and she tries to finish strong.”

The gap between Flanagan and Perez was just over eight seconds at the finish.

Glenbard West last week lost to Lake Park by eight points. Today’s finish was a different story for the Hilltoppers. Powered by the upfront finishes by Perez and Lisa Luczak, along with a strong 3-7 pack, Glenbard West avenged last week by scoring 115 to win the team championship. Lake Park and Palatine both scored 142 points, but Lake Park was given second place on the basis that their sixth runner finished ahead of Palatine’s.

It was just another meet for the Glenbard West coach. But you could see in the expression on his face that they made a breakthrough at this meet.

“This was just basically a temperature check of where we are this season. I was happy the way our girls preformed,” Haas said as he analyzed the results. Glenbard had added into their lineup Caitlyn Reick, who missed the meet last week at Lake Park, and Cynthia Mote who had not even raced this season. The move paid off.

“They ended up as our third and fourth runners,” added Haas. “I was really happy to see our pack from three to seven. We have runners there that could be in our top five any time. We have a deep team. We are no Naperville North. Our 3-5 had a 13 second split and our 3-7 had a 27 second split. With that our chances of success are pretty good.”

“Our team had a perfect start,” Lauren May said about Lake Park’s race. “They went through the mile, worked the second mile. We had a strong performance. We had things that we can work on.

Palatine’s performance was pleasing to their Coach Joe Parks. The Lady Pirates did not have normal fifth runner Ann Kieliszewski, who was held out of the race by Parks.

“I told Tess that those two girls are little off the charts right now. She needed to run her race. But I did like the aggression from her, that she was ready to go and not passive,” Parks said about her lead runner. Wasowicz finished 7th to lead Palatine. “We did not have a strict plan of what we (the team) were doing. It was just focus on ourselves and run our race. I think we are improving each week and hopefully that will fall into place at the end of the year.”

Pleasant Valley IA finished fourth, only four points behind Lake Park and Palatine. Kaley Ciluffo finished sixth and McKenzie Yanek finished 12th to lead the Blue Line.

Boys Race: Mm-mm Good- York’s pack is back with a winning 34 second split.

Some of the fans that had surrounded the Detweiller Park course in Peoria for the Richard Spring Invitational on Saturday were scratching their heads at the mile when they did not see a York uniform within the first 15 runners.

It was part of the plan.

When the race re-emerged from the back “triangle” of the course, York had three runners in the top 15 and two more 10 seconds behind them. It was an old fashioned York race as the Dukes went on to roll to the meet championship.

“The guys looked comfortable at the mile. They were very controlled,” said York assistant Coach Jim Hedman. “When they made their move today, they were strong. When the time came to make their move, it was decisive.”

The pace went out under control as the giant lead pack went through the first half in 2:16, a little bit slower than most expected. At the mile, there was a pack led by Pleasant Valley’s (IA) Caleb Drake, along with Patrick Perrier and Alex Riba of O’Fallon, Tyler Yunk and Garrett Lee of Belvidere North, and Caleb Beck of Oswego. Meanwhile, York’s pack was back around 40th place. All seven runners were together. “Our strategy was to go out under control and pass as many people in the triangle,” said York runner Chris May, who finished seventh in the race. “We were kind of surprised in the last mile; we were catching the leaders and making up ground.”

The action started as soon as they entered the triangle as the moves to take the lead started to heat up, especially between the O’Fallon duo and the Belvidere North duo. “There was a little talking going on,” said Perrier. “They (Yunk and Lee) were talking that was a good pass and they would make a move to get a little separation.”

The moves that the two duos made had separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Perrier and Lee went by the two mile in 9:40; Yunk was a second back. Riba, who was starting to fade, was just behind. Then came Beck, who was just holding onto contact with the lead quartet. York’s pack at that point started in 15th with May, Kyle Mattes, and Alex Mimlitz leading the way. Ten seconds later came Scott Milling and Matthew Plowman. Hedman disclosed after the race that Milling had missed most of the last week due to illness. They did not know if he would run.

The individual battle came down to Lee and Perrier. “I tried to make a move with a half mile to go, but Garrett covered it pretty well,” Perrier said. “Around the pole, he made a move and I tried to cover it. All I wanted to do was make it a foot race.”

Coming down the final stretch, Perrier and Lee were encountering lapped runners which made their drive to the finish extremely interesting. “At the end, I was weaving in and out of people. It kind of stinks,” Lee said. “That is when Perrier made one of his moves. I didn’t notice it and I had to catch back up. “

Lee had a little more kick than Perrier on this day. Only a second separated the two as Lee won in 14:27. His teammate Yunk finished third in 14:36. “I was just going for the win. Either one or two,” Lee added. “I would have been happy with two if Tyler would have won.”

The #1 Dukes wanted to come into this meet to make a statement. Mattes, Mimlitz, and May finished 6-7-8 to lead York to victory. #2 O’Fallon and 2A #2 Belvidere North finished second and third. On this day, it was redemption of sorts for the Dukes as they came back to the same place that they left with their heads down low after finishing fourth last November in the 3A state meet. York’s 1-5 split was 34 seconds.

Not only was it redemption for York, but it was also redemption for Mimlitz. Two years ago at the 2010 state meet as a sophomore, he was the #2 runner finishing 41st. Then injuries hit, causing him to miss all of track his sophomore season. He came back and tried to run his junior year, but his injury still hobbled him. On this day, the gray skies were behind him. They were replaced with a smile of satisfaction on his face.

“It has been real tough being out for two years,” Mimlitz said. “But all the support and all of the people helping me out … I could have not done it alone by any means. I am just so thankful I was able to run healthy and help my team.”

O’Fallon’s coach Jon Burnett was happy. Not only was it a better finish that they had last year at this meet, it was the first time that they had beaten Belvidere North. The O’Fallon coach, however, knew that this was only September.

“Alex had not recovered well from the workouts that we had this week. We really did not taper for this meet,” said Burnett. “I am extremely happy with the team results today. I believe 8 of our 10 guys on varsity ran PR’s. That’s all we can ask for. If you run the best that you can, the team stuff works itself out.”