Away Meet at Plano Recap - September 16, 2014

Away Meet at Plano
Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Today we traveled to Plano for an away dual meet. There were several other schools there, some with complete teams, and some that did not have complete teams. Yorkville and Sandwich had complete teams on both the boys and girls sides. Plano also had a complete girls team, but did not have a complete team on the boys side. Individuals from Somonauk and Crossroads were also represented.

Plano had redesigned their course this year, so everyone was running a new course. The course was only marked at the one mile, and the two mile was not marked at all, so splits for those distances are likely off. We are working on adjusting the splits to what we think reflects how the race played out, and will post those in due course. That said, the finish times are correct, however, the course may have been long as runners from other teams reported distances close to 5K for the race, while others reported 3.0 on their watches.

We will be back at Plano for the Ross Greiter Invitational in early October, so we will see how times compare.

Ladies Beat Plano by One Point, but Fall to Yorkville and Sandwich

The ladies began the afternoon's activities for us, as usual. Brittany Eiermann was our top finisher, finishing in 12th. Emilia Maslany followed in 14th, then Imogene Asa crossed the line in 17th. Lisa Niemiec finished 19th, Peyton wasn't far behind Lisa in 22nd, then Hannah Abbatacola and Lily Arndt finished 24th and 27th, respectively. Halle Nash would finish 37th, then Amanda Yates and Victoria Thomas would come in 40th and 41st, and Michelle Gorman finished in 45th. 

Overall, it wasn't one of our better races that we've had this season. We did not pack together like we did on Saturday at Peoria, and that cost us in the end. With that said, there were still plenty of positives that came out of this race. We will continue to develop as a TEAM, and we will run as a TEAM for the rest of the season. We have four and a half weeks left until the Conference meet kicks off our postseason schedule. Four and a half weeks may seem like a long way off, but it will be here before we know it. We have great opportunities ahead of us: Bureau Valley this weekend, which is another meet that consists of many of the top teams in Class 1A, then we will have Charger Classic, Mane Event and Amboy on Columbus Day, before we reach Conference. There's a lot of racing left to do.

Today was a learning experience for our team, and we will be a better team going forward because of it. And that will help us along our journey to make it back to Detweiller Park for the second year in a row, and for the fourth time in five years.

Yorkville (one of the top teams in Class 2A, if not in the entire state, regardless of class) won with 31 points, despite not running their varsity. Sandwich, a Conference rival of ours, but one who will run in Class 2A, finished second with 51 points. We scored 11-13-15-17-19 to take third with 75 points, and Plano, another Conference rival, was just one point behind us with 76. Seneca looks like they have Conference locked up this year, but we will continue to work hard to do the best we can at Conference and beyond.

The ladies move to 3-4 on the season after picking up a win against Plano but falling to Yorkville and Sandwich.

Men Remain Undefeated in Dual Competition with Two-Point Win Over Yorkville

The boys squeaked out a tight win over Yorkville, and easily won over Sandwich. The trio of Nick Dea, Anthony Alessi, and Mitch Perrotta started the race together, and finished the race together. The three seniors were together literally every step of the race. Someone had to claim top honors though, and Nick kicked down the stretch to claim top honors, with Anthony a step behind in second, and Mitch another step behind in third.

Tony Cordero was ran well throughout the race, but unfortunately, he took a wrong turn while heading towards the finish, which cost him five places. Fortunately, he rectified his mistake and was not disqualified. That, however, meant that Jasper Requiron was our fourth runner in 14th place, and Tony would finish 19th. A minute later, Sam Asa and Ryan Pleva, who had run within seconds of each other for virtually the entire race, similar to Nick, Anthony and Mitch, finished 26th and 28th, just three seconds apart. Jake Juska nearly beat his time from Detweiller Park on Saturday, just missing out by three seconds, to finish two spots behind Ryan in 30th. Jacob Nader would run another solid race to finish 36th.

Although Yorkville had nine runners eight runners in before our fourth finisher, Jasper, our top three going 1-2-3 was enough to prevail by two points over Yorkville, 34 to 36. We scored 1-2-3-13-15 for our second close win in as many weeks. Sandwich, our Conference rival, would finish a distant third with 62 points. Congratulations on two more victories, men, and your record on the season moves to 6-0.

Up next, we are at Bureau Valley for the Storm Invitational on Saturday. We will then be back at home next Tuesday.