Lisle (Mane Event) Recap
Sunday, October 4 2015 - Lisle (Mane Event)LISLE "MANE EVENT" RECAP
Saturday, October 3, 2015
SPLITS | MILE SPLITS | UPDATED FINISH TIMES
COMPLETE RESULTS | PHOTO ALBUM (thanks Jake Juska & Ashley Eiermann!)
Hope everyone had a great time at Homecoming last night and this weekend!
Last year's Mane Event was downright cold, with skies full of dull and gray clouds, and Mother Nature sending rain and snow (the third earliest snow on record for the Chicago area) down to the ground. This year proved to be not quite as cold, but quite windy, and free of rain or snow save for a brief drizzle as we were loading up the bus to depart for the meet. It was definitely a dull, gray, cloudy day again for this year’s edition of the Mane Event.
This year, we ran in all five races -- Ashley Eiermann was our lone runner in the Frosh-Soph Girls race, while Connor Alessi, Brandon Abington and Ben Padgitt ran in the Frosh-Soph Boys race, and we had our usual varsity crew in the Varsity Boys and Girls races, with Whittney Ruiz taking part in the co-ed open race.
Lisle Head Coach Ken Jakalski notified us at our home meet on Tuesday that they would be bringing over their tradition from their Nalley Invitational in track season and changing one little thing on the Mane Event T-shirt. We have never lost this competition at the Nalley Invitational in at least the last twenty years. It was our full intention that we would establish another winning streak yesterday at Mane Event. Sophomore Tom Dea took it upon himself to bring last year's Mane Event shirt and begin the new winning streak.
Unfortunately, however, upon our arrival at Mane Event, Tom found out that Wheaton (St. Francis) had won the contest even before we arrived at Community Park. Hats off to St. Francis, well done.
(We'll start the cross country winning streak in 2016. Be ready, Sentinels!)
GIRLS FROSH-SOPH (4K or 2.5 MILES)
Ashley Eiermann was our lone runner in the Girls Frosh-Soph race yesterday, with Katie Schultz unable to attend this meet. Although Ashley was under the weather much of the week as well as battling nagging tightness in her legs that held her out of Tuesday’s home finale, she stepped to the line for her 4K frosh-soph girls race, the first of our team to tackle Lisle's hill in the first mile on this day.
Ashley shrugged off her sickness and the tightness in her legs to cover Lisle’s 4K (or 2.5 miles) course in a time of 20:21, good for 58th place, in a field of 98 runners, including many from 2A and 3A schools. This time of 20:21, which converts to about 24:25 for a full 3 mile race, also places Ashley 5th on both of our lists of Top Ten Times and Top Ten Runners for Westmont Frosh-Soph Girls at the Mane Event! Congratulations, Ashley!
BOYS FROSH-SOPH (4K or 2.5 MILES)
In the boys frosh-soph race yesterday, we only had three runners as Robbie Burns was again out for this race due to injury. We also decided to move up Jake Dooley to run in the varsity race today, leaving our usual Frosh-Soph boys crew without a complete team to be a factor in the scoring race.
That left Connor Alessi, Brandon Abington, and Ben Padgitt as our runners in this race, among a field of 103 runners, again including several larger 2A and 3A schools. All three boys competed very well and did their best on Lisle’s slow, tough course – hopefully the first of many times that this trio will run this course over the next few years.
Connor Alessi ran extremely well yesterday to a 48th place finish in 16:21 in a deep field. The winner in this race ran 14:17, which is a very fast time on this slow course. Connor lowered his 4K PR from Bureau Valley by 45 seconds on a course that is even slower than Bureau Valley’s! Great race yesterday, Connor!
Brandon also ran very well to earn a 63rd place finish, running 16:57. Two weeks ago, Brandon ran 18:08, which means that is a 4K PR of over a minute! Ben also set another 4K PR, turning in a time of 18:09, which lowers his Bureau Valley time by over 50 seconds!
Congratulations to our three freshmen on turning in huge 4K PR’s on a slower, tougher course. This shows how much more in shape you are than you were just two weeks ago. We’re very proud of the progress you have made – and there’s more to come. You’ve got two weeks until Conference, when you will return to this course (but run the full 5K this time) and hopefully set more PR’s!
GIRLS VARSITY (5K or 3.1 MILES)
Seven ladies toed the line for what would shape up to be a windy girls’ varsity race. The girls have been through a very tough two weeks of workouts, and there’s another tough week ahead.
At the tone signaling the start of the race (a new device introduced yesterday by Lisle), our seven ladies took off in a field of 156 runners. By the time they passed the mile mark, Halle was fighting up front for position in the top twenty. Lisa and Peyton were running side-by-side, with Lily and Brittany not far behind, followed by Frankie and Hannah also running side-by-side.
Halle and Lisa continued to move up, but unfortunately Peyton was beset by some more issues with her foot and fell back of Lisa during the second mile. Lily and Brittany were still close to each other at the second mile, and Frankie had moved ahead of Hannah.
Halle kicked down to the finish to earn a 19th place medal in the final 1.1 miles, finishing in an amazing 20:44, which is the 10th fastest time recorded at the 5K distance at this meet by a Westmont girl, and ranks her as the 5th fastest Westmont girl at Mane Event.
Halle’s 20:44 time also ranks as the 24th fastest time ever run by a Westmont girl at the 5K distance at Lisle’s Community Park. Congratulations, Halle!
Behind Halle, Lisa finished in 21:30, good for a 30th place ribbon. This 21:30 for Lisa places her as the 8th fastest Westmont runner at Mane Event on our Top Ten Runners list.
Peyton and Lily followed through in short order, finishing in 22:08 and 22:17, respectively, for 47th and 52nd places.
Brittany would be our fifth girl across the line in 22:45 for 70th place. Last year at this meet, Imogene Asa ran the exact same time as our fifth girl – and finished in 59th place. That’s a testament to the depth of the field this year that even though we know we are a better team than we are last year, yet the actual finish position is further back.
Frankie ran another strong race to finish in 22:52, just behind Brittany for 72nd, and Hannah rounded out our scoring attack in 23:18 for 82nd place.
That resulted in our ladies scoring 18-29-45-49-65-(67)-(76) for 206 points and a 9th place finish. An unexpected result was that Sandwich – another conference rival – finished four points ahead of us for 8th, on the strength of two very good runners in the top ten. We will be ready for them come Conference in two weeks.
The result, team-wise, was not what we were hoping for, as we finished ninth. Chicago Christian, a sectional rival, finished third, just two points out of second. They are legit. We will use Chicago Christian to pull us come Sectional on Halloween. The field this year was deeper than last year’s was, despite the departure of 3A Lake Zurich (who had five girls in the top ten last year).
We are a very good team this year, ladies. And in any case, we want to save our best team races for Conference, Regional, Sectional, and State. You have been working very hard over the past couple of weeks – harder than last year, actually. You’re going to reap the rewards later this month and in November.
Don’t stop believing in yourselves, ladies. You’re right on track for a great postseason run. This is just a little bump on the road back to Detweiller Park. We will be ready in two weeks for Conference and again in another two weeks at Sectional.
BOYS VARSITY (5K or 3.1 MILES)
Before the boys varsity race, we made a last-minute decision to hold out Tom Dea, again for injury reasons, which left us without a full seven-man team, instead running only six guys. Nevertheless, the guys ran very well despite the setback to one of their teammates.
At the tone, six men set off to tackle Lisle’s course for the first of three times this season with a field of 131 runners around them.
Paul was up front in the top fifty at the mile, followed closely by Jasper, Sam, and Ryan in short order. Jake Dooley, running his first varsity race of his career, was also off to a good start, closely followed behind Jacob Nader.
Paul held well through the second mile, and Sam had closed the gap on Jasper, while Ryan had fallen a little further back. Both Jake and Jacob were holding the 5 and 6 spots down well at the two mile mark.
Paul Gordon again led the way for our Sentinels, finishing the tough 5K course in 18:06, good for a 38th place ribbon.
Jasper Requiron and Sam Asa would cross the finish line nearly side by side in 48th and 49th places in 18:32 and 18:33. A minute later, Ryan Pleva crossed in 80th place in a time of 19:38. Jake Dooley turned in a respectable time of 20:27 for 94th place in his first varsity race, with Jacob Nader finishing 114th in 21:56.
The six boys scored 36-46-47-74-87-(107) for 290 points and an 11th place finish. Just like the girls, Sandwich slipped past us for 10th place, this time by a differential of just six points. They want to beat us for the Conference title after we won it last year (which we got it back from them after they beat us in 2013 by two points). We will be ready to go come Conference time.
CO-ED OPEN (5K or 3.1 MILES)
Whittney Ruiz was our lone participant in this race after missing some time with injury. In her first race back in nearly a month, Whittney turned in an awesome race on this slow course. She destroyed her PR for 3 miles by over three minutes – even though she ran a longer 5K distance! Whittney finished in 102nd place, with a time of 39:45, which blew her previous 43:01 PR from our second home meet clean out of the water.
Great job, Whittney! Keep up the great work!
LOOKING AHEAD…
All of you will have another crack at this tough course in two weeks when we return here for the Interstate 8 Conference/Independents Classic meet on October 17. There are only two races this time around -- Girls and Boys. Everyone will run regardless of level. Some of you will have a third chance to run on this course when we return in four weeks for the IHSA Sectional meet. Yesterday was your first chance at this notoriously slow course. Come back ready to break your PR's for this course at Conference or Sectional!
Again, we have another tough week of work ahead of us this week. This will be our last truly tough week of work before we slowly begin tapering and fine tuning our races for our return to this course in two weeks for Conference in preparation for our postseason run through the IHSA State Series.
Now that Homecoming Week festivities are done and over, it’s time to focus back on our work for this season. We have little more than a month left in the season. Conference is two weeks away. Regional is three weeks away. Sectional is four weeks away. State is five weeks away. The end of the season is rapidly approaching, but there’s still a lot of racing to do.
Next up is the Plano (Ross Greiter) Invitational on Tuesday. This is our last Tuesday meet of the season, and it is considered an invitational, so there will be some hardware up for grabs. This is our only meet during this week.
On Monday – Columbus Day – we will make the trek out to Amboy’s Shady Oaks Country Club for the annual Columbus Day Invitational. Then, we have a short turnaround week before we have Conference back at Lisle’s Community Park.
A couple of practice announcements for this week: As there is no school on Friday due to Teacher Institute, and as we do not have a meet on Saturday, we will hold practice on BOTH DAYS at 8:00 AM. There is an IESA Sectional meet on Saturday on our home course though (and Coach Dunne is helping to run that meet), so there is a chance that we will have to move practice up to an earlier time.
Don’t stop believing in yourselves, guys and gals. We’ve been working you very hard this season, and your hard work is going to pay off very soon. Believe us. We’ve seen it happen season after season.
GO SENTINELS!!!