Westmont 500 Recap -- September 30, 2014

Westmont 500
Home vs. Lisle, Plano, Seneca, and Walther Christian
Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Some years ago, Coach Jakalski of Lisle, an avid NASCAR fan, nicknamed this meet the "Westmont 500" because of the large amount of left turns on our course. The nickname certainly fits, as our home course has far more left turns than it does right turns. In our final home meet of the season (our last Tuesday meet is at Plano for the Ross Greiter Invitational on October 7), we set out to do as well as we could while still keeping up with our training, especially with Conference rivals Lisle, Plano, and Seneca looming.

We're happy to say that our athletes did just that: Nearly every one of our athletes set personal records for our home course on what turned out to be a fantastic, if a little windy (and certainly chilly for the coaches and spectators) day for running! The cooler weather was especially welcome after the unexpected and unusually hot weather for late September the previous day (From Freeze Pops at the end of practice to wearing winter coats in 24 hours--only in Chicago!)

Ladies' Strong Pack Earns Second Place Finish at Westmont 500

Briefly before the meet began, there was a peek of sunshine but the clouds quickly reclaimed the sky, keeping the afternoon a chilly one. Ten of our ladies stepped the line to begin the three-mile Westmont 500. The Sentinel pack got out to great starts in the first mile--many runners actually ended up running their best first miles ever for the home course! The Sentinel pack continued to look strong through two miles, and that led to great finishes. Freshman Lisa Niemiec led the way for the Sentinels with an outstanding race, finishing seventh. Then the rest of the Sentinel pack took care of business, taking five of seven spots on offer between 10th and 16th place. Freshman Emilia Maslany took 10th, followed by junior Brittany Eiermann in 12th, then freshmen Peyton Nash, Lily Arndt, and Hannah Abbatacola took 13th, 14th, and 16th places respectively. Halle Nash then turned in her best race of the year to finish 21st and as our seventh finisher to close out the scoring. Amanda Yates would finish 28th, with Victoria Thomas and Michelle Gorman finishing just a few seconds apart to take 32nd and 33rd places.

The ladies would score 6-8-10-11-12-(14)-(19) for 47 points. Unfortunately, Seneca (who is ranked in Class 1A) is very strong this year, and will be a real threat to win the Interstate 8 Conference title and could do some real damage in November at Peoria. They won the meet with 19 points, but our Sentinel ladies beat Walther Christian who had scored 65, and Lisle with 101 points.

Up and down the lineup on Tuesday, every single one of our ladies turned in fantastic races. We are very proud of you and the hard work that you have put in this year, ladies! We have another month of cross country left...the goal is to join Seneca downstate in Peoria. Keep up the great work, and we have no doubt that we will be running against the Fighting Irish once again come November 8th!

Three Sub-17 Minute Seniors Lead Sentinels to Three Victories at Westmont 500

Breaking 17 minutes on our home course is no easy feat for a cross country athlete to do.

The current three-mile layout of our home course was established in 1992, and has undergone some minor changes over the years. The general layout has remained essentially intact since its 1992 establishment. Until last Tuesday, just 14 different individuals had ever broke 17:00 on our home course for the Sentinels. Last Tuesday against Elmwood Park, Nick Dea and Anthony Alessi became the 15th and 16th men to accomplish that feat. Mitch Perrotta was just outside of the sub-17 barrier. He was certainly looking to break that 17 minute barrier on our home course in the Westmont 500 and become the 17th man to do so.

All three seniors got out to very quick first miles, and all three were under 5:30. They kept up that pace through the two mile mark, and passed through at just over 11 minutes. They were going to have to hold strong through the third mile to keep their times under 17 minutes. While our top three seniors were chasing sub-17 minute history, the rest of the Sentinel crew also chasing personal bests in our home finale, followed the senior trio's lead and got out to fantastic starts in the first mile, held strong through the second mile, and were holding very strong through the third and final mile on their way to excellent times of their own for our home course.

The Sentinel lineup certainly held strong in the third mile -- in fact, some of our guys ran their best third miles of the season! Nick Dea would finish second in this meet to Ross McCormick of Seneca (who won in a very quick 16:09). After running 16:53 last week, Nick lowered his home personal best to 16:46. Anthony Alessi, who had run 16:58 the previous week, lowered his personal best to 16:50 to finish third. Mitch Perrotta, who had been on the outside looking in with a 17:11 last week, ran an excellent race to become the 17th Sentinel man since 1992 to break 17 minutes, running 16:53 to take fourth place. Tony Cordero, another senior, turned in an outstanding race to finish fifth with a career best time for this course. Although he did not set a personal record on our home course, freshman Jasper Requiron ran a very gutsy race to finish 11th and secure the victory for the Sentinels.

Behind our varsity runners, our frosh-soph crew all turned in outstanding races. Sam Asa finished just behind Jasper for 13th place, and fellow freshmen Ryan Pleva and Jake Juska, who have been running nearly side-by-side almost all season, finished just seconds apart as part of a dogfight down the stretch with several other runners for places 15 through 20. Ryan would finish 16th, and Jake would finish 19th. Then, Jacob Nader turned in another awesome race to finish 26th.

The Sentinel men scored 2-3-4-5-11-(12)-(14) to score 25 points and claim the team victory. With three victories over Walther (2nd with 43 points), Seneca (87 points) and Lisle (89 points), the Sentinel men move to 13-0 on the season in Tuesday meets!

Looking Ahead...

The coaches would like to commend all of our athletes on their outstanding performances on Tuesday. What a way to end our home schedule! This is a testament to the hard work that you have put in over the course (pun intended) of the last month and a half. We are now into October, and the Conference (October 18), Regional (October 25) and Sectional (November 1) meets look a lot closer all of a sudden.

Of course, all of the remaining meets we have in October, in addition to those three, are our stepping stones to the State Final which is on November 8th.

So, this Saturday, we will return the favor to Lisle and visit their course for their annual Mane Event. This course is a 5K course and, yes, it has a large hill in the first mile. Times will look and be slower; that's just the way the course is because of the distance and the layout. However, our advantage is that we are seeing this course three different times in the next month. Saturday is our first chance to get to know this course. Heck, it's practically our home away from home, this course. Get to know this course well, and that will pay off come Conference and especially Sectional time.

After that, we'll head to Plano on Tuesday for our final Tuesday meet of the season, which is the Ross Greiter Invitational. It is a larger Tuesday meet than normal (8 teams, including us, will be there).

The journey to November 8th continues... and it runs through Lisle's Community Park three times. Let's make Lisle's course OUR course!

GO SENTINELS!!!