Lisle (Mane Event) Recap - October 4, 2014

28th Annual Lisle "Mane Event"

Lisle Community Park
Saturday, October 4, 2014

Mother Nature must not have been happy with Chicagoans for some reason. Or, maybe, she's just getting a head start on hockey season weather. Or, Old Man Winter must have gotten his directions mixed up between north and south. Whatever the reason may be, today was a day where the unexpected happened, including the first snowflakes of the season as we were loading up the bus to make the twenty minute trip down Odgen Avenue to Lisle's Community Park for the annual Mane Event Invitational.

This meet is the first of three visits we will be making to Lisle's Community Park. We will return two weeks from today for the I-8 Conference/Independents Classic meet on October 18. Then, another two weeks later, we will make a third trip back to Community Park for the IHSA Sectional meet on November 1.

We did not run anyone in either Frosh-Soph race, which is 4K (or 2.5 miles) opting to run only in the varsity and open races, where the distance is 5K (or 3.1 miles). Lisle's course is a long one, both in distance and layout. Within the first mile, runners will run over a large hill -- probably the largest they will face all season. There aren't many courses (if any) in the state that have a larger hill. Consequently, the second mile is more of a recovery mile and is usually the slowest. The third mile times (minus the extra .1 miles) are usually much closer to a runner's first mile than their second mile, and the mile splits from today showed that.

Varsity Ladies Pack Together In the Snow for 9th Place Finish

Since we didn't run either Frosh-Soph race today, our varsity ladies were the first to toe the line for the Sentinels. Amidst a few snowflakes here and there, seven of our ladies toed the line and got out to very good starts. Five of our ladies came through the mile sub-7, and our other two were not far off of the 7:00 mark. The second mile was slower but a recovery one to set up for some great finishes. The final mile (okay, really it's 1.1 miles due to the 5K distance) was a quick one for our ladies.

Lisa Niemiec would be our top finisher this morning, just missing out on a top 40 finish by finishing 41st. Brittany Eiermann was just a few seconds behind, turning in her best race of the year to finish 44th. Emilia Maslany then made it three Sentinel ladies in the top 50 with a 49th place finish. Peyton Nash soon followed, finishing 52nd, and Imogene Asa made it five Sentinels in the top 60 (in a field of 144 runners) with a 59th place finish. Hannah Abbatacola and Lily Arndt also ran strong races to finish 80th and 88th place, respectively.

Our 1-5 split ended up being just 42 seconds -- the fifth time this season that we've held our 1-5 split to under 50 seconds! Our 1-7 split was also a very good 1:39! The ladies would score 39-42-45-47-54-(73)-(81) to score 227 points and earn a 9th place finish!

Congratulations on an awesome race ladies!

Three Sentinels Earn Cookie Medals En Route to Top Five Team Finish

A long tradition at Lisle's Mane Event is that in addition to the plaques they hand out for finishing in the top 15, they also hand out cookie medals for athletes who finish in the top ten overall in the varsity races.

Six Sentinel men stepped to the line for the boys varsity race after the ladies finished. Jasper Requiron did not run today, but two of our Frosh-Soph runners rose up for the occasion in today's varsity race. By now, the snowflakes had stopped, only to be replaced by steady rain shower that was more appropriate for England than an October morning in Chicagoland. That didn't matter to our six men running in this race, and they got out to solid starts. After working their way through the hill in the first mile, they began to steadily move up through the second mile and kicked down some guys to move up in the individual standings.

Nick Dea improved on last year's finish by one spot, moving up from sixth to fifth. No sooner had Nick finished fifth that Anthony Alessi made sure that he kept sixth place in Westmont hands, finishing just one second behind Nick. Mitch Perrotta then earned a third cookie medal for the Sentinels, finishing ninth. All three guys ran great races and earned their cookie medals. Tony Cordero was our fourth finisher in 63rd, and Sam Asa stepped up and ran a fantastic race to finish 95th as our fifth finisher in a deep field, with freshman Ryan Pleva finishing 101st.

The men scored 5-6-9-59-87-(92) to finish with 166 points and earn a fifth place finish! Congratulations on a great performance today, guys!

Six Sentinels Run Solid Races in the Open Race

Our decision to run all athletes in 5K races meant that we had six runners in the combined open race, with four ladies and two guys. Lisle doesn't score the open race, but they do post the boys and girls open races separately.

All six of our runners got out to good starts, tackled the hill well in the first mile, recovered nicely during the second, and carried that through all the way to the finish with very good third miles (plus 0.1). For the ladies, Halle Nash turned in another awesome race to finish 14th in the girls open! Victoria Thomas and Amanda Yates ran close by each other to finish nearly side-by-side in 44th and 46th, respectively, and Michelle Gorman finished 76th.

For the guys, Jake Juska turned in an excellent race, earning a 24th place finish, and Jacob Nader ran another great race to finish 59th.

Looking Ahead to Next Week...

Although the weather today was atrocious, we are very proud of our athletes for not dwelling on the weather and staying focused on their races, and the results show it. Be proud of yourselves, Sentinels!

Once again, all athletes should go for a 3-5 mile cleanout run on Sunday. Make sure you get that done, and record it on your training log!

Next week is the week to really push yourselves. We cannot stress this enough. This is our last week of high intensity work before we begin tapering after Amboy. This is perhaps the most important week of the season! Now, we know that next week is Homecoming Week, and we want you to enjoy yourselves, but don't go overboard!

We will return to Plano for the second time this season for the Ross Greiter Invitational on Tuesday. It's a bigger Tuesday meet than normal, and about eight teams will be there. Then, on Columbus Day, we will make the trek to Shady Oaks Country Club for the annual Columbus Day Invitational at Amboy in our final regular season meet before the postseason begins.

The second half of the week will be a goofy one, with early dismissals and parent-teacher conferences throwing the normal schedules out of sync. With that in mind, here is the schedule for Sunday, October 5, through Monday, October 13 (we'll post this again in a separate post tomorrow):

Sunday, October 5: NO PRACTICE -- go for a clean out run of 3-5 miles!

Monday, October 6: Varsity morning practice @ 6:30 am. Normal school day. Everyone practices after school at 3 pm.

Tuesday, October 7: Meet at Plano. We will run PLC schedule during the school day, followed by the Homecoming Pep Assembly. We will sit together as a TEAM, and we will leave the Assembly at 2:15 pm to load up the bus to go Plano.

Wednesday, October 8: Varsity morning practice @ 6:30 am. PLC schedule, out at 1:46. Everyone practices after school at 3 pm.

Thursday, October 9: Early dismissal (12:35 pm). Everyone practices after school at 3 pm.

Friday, October 10: NO SCHOOL. Everyone practices at 8 am.

Saturday, October 11: Homecoming Dance. Everyone practices at 8 am. This will be a very quick practice. We should be done by 10 am.

Sunday, October 12: Run about 3 miles on your own. Pasta Party at Jacob's. (time TBA) Pack your stuff for Monday, get a good night's rest!

Monday, October 13: Amboy Columbus Day Invitational. Bus leaves school at 6 am with or without you!