Home Meet vs. Elmwood Park Recap - September 23, 2014

Morning Announcements, September 24:

Congratulations to the girls cross country team on their double win last night over Elmwood Park and St. Joe’s.
Peyton Nash and Brittany Eiermann led the Sentinels as they packed it up going 3-4-5-6-7 for a 25-30 win.

Congratulations to the boys cross country team as they improve their record to 9 and 0 with wins over Elmwood Park and St. Joe.
Again the seniors dominated up front and got help from the frosh-soph in the middle.  Great job guys!

Home Meet vs. Elmwood Park and St. Joseph's

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

For many years, Westmont and Elmwood Park were rivals in the various conferences that Sentinel athletics have been a part of. That came to an end starting with the 2006 season, when we made the move from the Suburban Prairie Conference to the Interstate 8 Conference. That said, Westmont and Elmwood Park have had a dual meet either at Westmont or Elmwood Park every year since 1979. This year's edition was the 37th dual meet (two meets were held in both 1983 and 1986) between the Sentinels and the Tigers, with St. Joseph's (from Westchester) joining the action this year on a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon. That led to a ton of Sentinel athletes destroying personal records of various kinds -- some set personal records for our home course this year. A couple set personal records for the season, regardless of course (even beating times set at Detweiller Park a week and a half ago!), and some of our veteran returnees shattered their previous all time bests for the home course. Yesterday was a great day to be a Sentinel!

Ladies Pack It Up Once Again, Score Two Wins Over Elmwood Park and St. Joseph's

The Sentinel ladies, in our first home meet in two weeks, once again started the afternoon's races for us. This time around, we had ten runners toe the line. Coach Wolf challenged the ladies to "go after it" in the first mile -- and they took those words to heart and went after it in the first mile. In fact, many of our times at the one mile were faster than our opening mile at Bureau Valley on Saturday! The ladies then carried that momentum through towards the finish, and as a result, a bunch of previous personal bests for the home course were shredded by large margins. Eight of our ladies ended up setting personal bests for our home course. In fact, two of our athletes -- Peyton Nash and Lily Arndt -- set personal bests for the season, regardless of course!

Two Elmwood Park girls finished 1-2, but then the Sentinel pack came through once again. Peyton Nash, wearing new spikes, turned in an outstanding race and set a new personal best time for the season regardless of the course to finish third. Brittany Eiermann finished fourth, and not only set a personal best time on our home course for the season, she also destroyed her previous personal best on our home course by nearly a minute. Lily Arndt wasn't far behind Brittany, and like Peyton, she also set a new personal best time for the season regardless of the course in finishing fifth. Lisa Niemiec finished sixth, also setting a new personal best for our home course. Hannah Abbatacola then followed in seventh place to finish the scoring for the ladies on the afternoon, and in the process became the fifth Sentinel to set a new personal best on our home course.

Halle Nash finished in 11th, also setting a new personal best on our home course. Amanda Yates followed in 12th, and she also set a new personal best. Victoria Thomas followed in 14th place, and she broke her all-time best time on the home course, which dates back to 2012! Although Michelle Gorman did not set a new personal best time on our home course, she ran a fine race to finish in 18th.

The ladies scored 3-4-5-6-7-(11)-(12) to take home a very satisfying 25-30 victory over Elmwood Park. St. Joseph's did not have a complete team, as they had only four runners, but with a ghost runner included for scoring purposes, they had 83 points.

Trio of Seniors Take Three of First Four Spots, Frosh-Sophs Help Secure Victory, Remain Undefeated in Dual Competition

The Sentinel ladies set the tone for the afternoon with their great performance, and eight guys toed the line to try and follow in the girls' footsteps (pun intended). Anyway, like the ladies, Coach Wolf also challenged the guys to "go after it" in their race today, and like the ladies, the guys went after it in their race, and like the ladies, a bunch of previous personal bests for our home course were also sent to their graves in impressive fashion. Our trifecta of seniors that have been running side-by-side in virtually every race this season did so once again yesterday afternoon. Then, another senior, coupled with a quartet of frosh-soph athletes also turned in excellent races and helped the Sentinels to victory and remain undefeated in dual meet competition in the 2014 season.

Nick Dea once again took top honors, claiming the victory, and began another long list of Sentinel athletes that finished with personal bests on our home course. In fact, Nick and three more of our veterans would set all time personal best times on our home course in this meet! Anthony Alessi followed just a few seconds behind Nick to take second, and the duo became the first Sentinel men in two years to break 17 minutes on our home course! Mitch Perrotta just missed out on the sub-17 party, but joined Nick, Anthony, Brittany, and Victoria in the "I Just Ran My Best Time Ever at Home" club, breaking his previous personal best, which had been set just two weeks prior to finish fourth. Freshman Jasper Requiron broke up our senior quartet to finish seventh and also set a new personal best for the home course. Then, it was back to seniors as Tony Cordero was our fifth finisher in eighth place which secured the Sentinel victory. Then, it was back to freshmen as Ryan Pleva just edged out Jake Juska for 11th place, with Jake taking 12th, less than a second behind Ryan. Both freshmen also set new personal best records for the home course. Then, to round out the action, sophomore Jacob Nader added his name to the "I Just Ran My Best Time Ever at Home" club, beating his previous best by over two minutes to finish 16th!

The boys scored 1-2-4-7-8-(11)-(12) to easily win over Elmwood Park 22-33. St. Joseph's would finish third with 83 points. The men remain undefeated in dual meet competition, and move their record to 9-0.

Looking Ahead...

Tuesday was a great day to be a Sentinel runner. Despite being shorthanded on both sides for various reasons, the ladies and men both stepped up and ran great races to secure a sweep on both sides over Elmwood Park and St. Joseph's. The ladies once again demonstrated how THE PACK is going to be how we are going to succeed this season. The guys There is still a lot of hard work left before we begin to taper. While we love any opportunity to list the personal bests of our athletes, what this meet also demonstrated is how much better shape our athletes are in than just two weeks ago at our last home meet. What a difference two weeks makes! The hard work that our athletes have been putting in since the season started on August 13th is already paying off.

Keep up the excellent work in practices and in meets, Sentinels, and I can promise you that October and November will be a lot of fun for everyone involved--athletes, parents, coaches, and fans-- in our journey to return to State.

Saturday, we compete at the Aurora Central Catholic "Charger Classic". We will head to one of our favorite courses to run at, which is Oakhurst Forest Preserve in Aurora. This 2.9 mile course runs extremely fast, and is certainly one of the fastest courses in the state outside of Detweiller Park. Saturday will be a great opportunity for our athletes to continue to get out fast in that first mile (and first mile times will be the fastest yet of the season), which is necessary to succeed at Oakhurst, and to continue to challenge themselves.

The journey to November 8th continues... GO SENTINELS!