Folders |
Newms Notes - September 26, 2013
Published by
Newms Notes – September 26, 2013
By Michael Newman
It has been a few weeks since I have written one of these notes segments. It has kind of been busy. Here are a few things that have been building up in my notebook that I wanted to share.
WSC-Silver dual meet action Perhaps the toughest conference in the state is the West Suburban Silver Conference. On the girls’ side, five of the seven schools are ranked in DyeStat Illinois’ weekly rankings. On the boys’ side, three of the top five teams in Boys 3A compete in this conference. #1 York and #5 Downers Grove North, along with #16 Lyons Township faced off Thursday afternoon at Green Valley Forest Preserve in Woodridge.
York tuned up for Saturday’s Palatine Invitational by defeating Downers North 25-34 and Lyons Township 19-36. For the first two miles, the individual race was exciting as North’s Ryan Clevenger and Zack Smith were in a pack with the York quartet of Nathan Mroz, Matthew Plowman, Alex Bashqawi, and Kyle Mattes. The pack went through comfortably through the first mile in 5:05. Smith and Clevenger started to push the pace hoping to shake off the York. The next mile went by in a swift 4:53, but the six runners were together as they passed the two mile mark in 9:58. The Downers duo pulled away in the last mile as the four York runners were content to come in controlled looking towards Saturday.
Lyons Township ran a good team race to win their dual with Downers Grove North 26-33. Downers was running without two of their top five runners Jeremy Craven and Jared Spilky who are still out due to injury.
York 25 – DGN 34; York 19 – Lyons 36; Lyons 26 – DGN 33.
Top 20:
1 Smith DGN 14:56 2 Clevenger DGN 14:58 3 Bashqawi Y 15:14 4 Plowman Y 15:14 5 Mroz Y 15:14 6 Mattes Y 15:15 7 Hostettler LT 15:22 8 Lupano LT 15:26 9 McCarter LT 15:30 10 Ryan LT 15:32 11 Denning Y 15:36 12 Mathy DGN 15:49 13 Arata LT 15:51 14 Kilrea LY 15:54 15 Cuyeu Y 15:54 16 Mulligan LT 15:56 17 Schacht Y 15:58 18 Zona LT 16:09 19 Lima LT 16:10 20 York Y 16:12
At Oak Park: While the #7 Oak Park-River Forest Girls teams decided to run the race as a tempo run, #4 Glenbard West & #5 Hinsdale Central ran an exciting dual race. Alexa Haff won the individual race pulling away from Glenbard’s Lindsay Graham to win by five seconds in 17:40. West relied on a 2-3-4 finish by Graham, Lisa Luczak, and Grace Rogers to hold off Hinsdale Central 26-30.
HC 15 - OPRF 45; GW 15 – OPRF 50; GW 26 – HC 30.
Top 12 Finishers
1 Haff HC 17:40 2 Graham GW 17:45 3 Luczak GW 17:55 4 Rogers GW 18:35 5 Marcotte HC 18:38 6 Horowicz HC 18:45 7 Zaher HC 18:57 8 Nabholz GW 19:04 9 Kenwood GW 19:05 10 Ozog GW 19:10 11 Sullivan HC 19:13 12 Sedall GW 19:32
IHSA Assignments
Like I said in the last Monday Morning Finish Line, there were a few things that stood out. I know that some of the assignments are handcuffed by the way the IHSA makes assignments. You can watch this video here.
I had no problem with the 3A assignments. The only minor change was moving Maine South to the Whitney Young Regional. 2A is where I wish there was another solution. Both Boys and Girls sectionals at Wheaton Academy are loaded with some of the top teams in 2A fed to that sectional. On the other hand, you have another sectional at Washington Park in Chicago hosted by Chicago University High that is the exact opposite. There are two ranked schools on the boys’ side (Jones College Prep and Fenton) but on the girls’ side, there is not a team that will be close to be ranked when we get close to state. That is my estimation.
I wish there was a way that the IHSA could adjust, in the future, to move some regionals around to lighten up sectionals that are overly competitive compared to what we have at the U-High Sectional. I know the IHSA sets up the sectionals via regional instead of having the best teams there, but I wish there was a way to make adjustments. That is not up to me but to the coaches in that sectional. If you come up with a good plan, I am sure the IHSA would at least listen.
Part of this has to do with the Chicago Public League. There has been improvement with some of the CPL schools in regards to cross country. Jones College Prep and Lane Tech are good examples. However, last year there were CPL schools that signed up for the state meet but did not run a team at the regional meet. There were less than the maximum teams running in the sectional meet. I hope the same thing does not happen again in 2013.
Weekend meets I know the big meet this weekend is the Palatine Invitational. There are some other meets that you should keep an eye on.
The Spartan Classic at St. Joseph-Ogden will be loaded with four of the top five Girls 1A teams in the field with another match-up between #1 Monticello and #2 Decatur St. Teresa. The individual to watch in this race is Anna Sophia Keller (St. Anthony HS, Effingham) who should break the meet record on the streets of St. Joseph. Six of the top 11 schools in the Boys 1A race will head to the line led by #1 Monticello. Defending Boys champion Johnny Leverenz (Danville HS) will be the favorite followed by teammate Caleb Hummer, Connor Ehnle (Tremont HS), and Eric Ponder (Tuscola HS).
The Naperville Invitational is a girls’ only meet that will be missing #1 Naperville North, who will be competing at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota on Saturday. Their junior varsity will still be racing. It should be interesting to see how they fare. The team race should be hotly contested with 3A #8 Naperville Central as one of the team favorites with #14 Downers Grove South & #15 Lockport close behind. Do not discount 2A #2 Glenbard South who will be in the hunt as well for the championship. Haley Albers (South HS, Downers Grove) will be the runner to watch in the varsity race.
The Flyin’ Hawk Invitational at Sunrise Park in Bartlett should have some tight competition. #8 St. Charles North will be the team that should be favored, but also watch for #17 Schaumburg and #22 Jacobs to challenge for the Girls Team championship. Lauren Van Vlierbergen (Jacobs HS, Algonquin) will be the individual favorite in this race. #12 Lincoln-Way Central is coming off of an impressive performance last week at Edwardsville. They should be the boys’ team favorite. Zach Dale (Conant HS, Hoffman Estates) has emerged as one of the top individuals in the state and will be the boys’ individual favorite.
The other big race to watch is the Aurora Central Catholic Charger Classic at Oakhurst Forest Preserve in Aurora. 2A #2 Normal University will enter the meet as the favorite in the Girls varsity race. St. Ignatius and Montini should be the chief challengers. Kelsey Schrader (DeKalb HS) and Kendall Cast (Metea Valley HS, Aurora) will be the two runners to watch in the girls’ varsity race. The boys’ team race is wide open with 3A ranked teams St. Charles East, Batavia, Hoffman Estates and 2A ranked Normal University all challenging for the championship. The individual race should be a repeat battle of two weeks ago at Lake Park when Billy Thomas (Hoffman Estates HS) and Joseph Suarez (Plainfield East HS) battled for the first two miles before Thomas pulled away for the win. Both will go at it again Saturday morning.
Injury report The worst thing to write about is when a student-athlete’s season is over because of an injury. I get stories from coaches about athletes that have injuries, but they do not want them published.
In this case, the coaches granted permission for this to be published.
“Brennan Koester (O’Fallon HS) has a grade 3 stress fracture. The doctor says Brennan is out 12-16 weeks,” said his coach Jon Burnett. “He is very disappointed because he has been working very hard to get himself into a position to help the team win a trophy.”
“Summer Pierson (Yorkville HS) has been shut down for the year. She has been battling two different injuries, since the end of track and the end of the summer,” said Yorkville coach Chris Muth. “She has been battling hamstring tightness, which started in late April during track season and a tailbone injury that she sustained in a fall during the U of I camp trip. We were able to adjust her tailbone and relax the nerves that were damaged and get her running again with a normal stride, but things still weren’t right. We started her back running two weeks ago and we just couldn’t shake the hamstring issues. After a second and third opinion, it turns out that she has tendinopathy and this type of hamstring injury takes 3 to 5 months of recovery time. There isn’t a ton of pain while she runs, but there is constant pain the rest of the day with sitting or walking and this is something that if not treated correctly and quickly, could linger for years. With that information, we thought it was in her best interest to start the recovery process and try and be ready for track season.”
“Faith Weiland (Central Catholic HS, Bloomington) is out for the season. She had an extra bone in her foot and it shifted and was causing too much pain,” said her coach Bill Rhodes. “The X-rays showed it was wrapped by quite a few tendons. They recommended she have it removed. We didn't want to risk her missing the track season, so it was best for her to have the surgery as soon as possible. Everything went well and she will be fine for track and beyond.”
I wish these three athletes a safe and healthy recovery. Things happen for reasons. I hope they find a positive out of the situation that they are now in. Get well soon.
|
