Peoria FTTF Recap

PEORIA “FIRST TO THE FINISH” INVITATIONAL
Saturday, September 12, 2015

SPLITS | MILE SPLITS | UPDATED FINISH TIMES | COMPLETE RESULTS: [BOYS] [GIRLS]
PHOTOS (thanks to Jake Juska!)

Detweiller Park is always a fun course to run at – and equally as fun for coaches and fans to watch hundreds of athletes covering the historic three mile IHSA state meet course, which is one of the fastest high school cross country courses not only in the state of Illinois but in the entire United States.

The Peoria “First to the Finish” Invitational, previously known as the Peoria Woodruff Invitational, is the first of three major invitationals (the others are the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational, which will be held next week, and the Peoria Central Invitational, which will be held in October) that are run at Detweiller Park before the state meet in November. As a result, many teams from around the state – all three classes – descend upon Detweiller on a mid-September morning to get their first crack at the state meet course and size up the competition.

The schedule of races is set up exactly like it is at the state meet – only the times are a little different (40 minutes in between each race as opposed to one hour at the state meet) but the Class 1A teams get first crack at it.

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GIRLS RACE: LADIES FINISH 8^TH IN STRONG 39 TEAM FIELD

Just like the State Final meet, the Class 1A Girls were up first, to kick off the day’s festivities. After getting off the bus, almost immediately starting their warm up routine, nine Sentinel ladies headed up to Box 5 – way on the inside – with their sights set on running some very fast times on a very fast course.

That would be indeed the case. Every single girl that ran today destroyed her previous season best times by some considerable margin.

Halle Nash, Lisa Niemiec, and Peyton Nash would find each other and run through the first mile together at about 6:30, at which point Halle began to pull away. Halle would open up a 20 second gap by the two mile mark, while Lisa and Peyton continued to run together. Halle would cover the three miles in a time of 19:50, the first Westmont girl to break 20:00 at Detweiller Park since Maggie Arndt and Annie Carlson did so at the 2013 State meet. Behind Halle, Lisa and Peyton continued to run side-by-side, and finished just two places and three seconds apart in 20:35 and 20:38, respectively.

Behind our front trio, Lily Arndt, Brittany Eiermann, Hannah Abbatacola, and Frankie Fabry were close to each other in the first mile – Lily and Brittany came through in 6:49 and 6:50, while Frankie and Hannah were running step by step at 6:54.

Lily had broken away from Brittany by the two mile, and would go on to finish in 21:19 for 74^th place and Brittany would break the 22:00 barrier, running 21:55 to finish 106^th. Frankie and Hannah continued to run step-by-step the entire race – they would come through the two mile at 14:24 and then finished one second and two places apart. Frankie finished in 22:08 in 119^th, while Hannah finished 22:09 for 121^st place.

Halle, Lisa, and Peyton all earned the coveted top 50 medal at the First to the Finish meet – Halle earned 21^st place, Lisa finished in 47^th, and Peyton claimed 49^th place. Congrats ladies on your well-earned medals!

On a special individual note, Halle's 19:50 yesterday places her as the 10th fastest Sentinel lady at Detweiller Park since we started coming to this meet in 2009, and places her 26th on the top 30 fastest times that Sentinel ladies have ever run (regardless of meet) on Detweiller Park's 3.0 mile course since the IHSA switched the girls races to be 3.0 miles. Congratulations, Halle!

Halle also places 5th overall in the Top 10 Runners list for this Peoria First to the Finish Invitational meet. Lisa Niemiec also broke into the top 10, moving to 8th place, and Peyton Nash also claimed a top 10 spot, moving into 9th place! Congratulations ladies!

The ladies would score 18-41-43-67-92-(104)-(106) for 261 points to earn an 8^th place finish out of 39 scoring teams (plus an additional 19 incomplete teams) yesterday! Congratulations ladies, that is an awesome finish!

Ladies, we’ll have some interesting charts to show you just how much you have improved since last year. Keep working hard, but more importantly, BELIEVE in yourselves, and you will achieve your team goals and the individual goals you have set! We have complete confidence that you will be fighting for a top ten spot at State in November!

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BOYS RACE: GUYS FINISH 27^TH IN HUGE 50-TEAM FIELD

Forty minutes after the gun fired to start the girls race, the gun fired – amid a strange sprinkle falling despite mostly clear, blue skies – to start the boys race. Once again, we were shorthanded due to injuries and other reasons, so we only had eight Sentinel men participating in this race.

Unlike the ladies, who found each other and ran with each other, our boys quickly got separated (but not too separated) from one another early on in the race. Jasper went through the mile in 5:26, followed by Paul in 5:32. That said, however, every one of our guys were running very well early on. They were followed by, in order, Sam, Ryan, Tom, Connor, Jake Dooley, and Jacob Nader.

Like the ladies, every single one of the boys in this race on this day would go on to crush their previous season best times, despite a couple of our boys being under the weather today.

Jasper Requiron and Paul Gordon continued to push the pace in the second mile, and Paul would close the gap on Jasper by the time both reached the finish – Jasper claimed 66^th place in 17:14, and Paul finished 67^th in 17:15.

Sam Asa, who was one of the boys that was under the weather today, went on to finish 135^th in 18:10. Ryan Pleva, who missed last year’s State meet due to an injury, finished 187^th in 18:52. Tom Dea, who proclaimed before the race that he would finish “sub-500^th” (he finished exactly 500^th last year) did just that in a time of 20:30, and not only did he finish sub-500, he finished sub-400 and nearly went sub-300, winding up 316^th. Behind Tom, Jake Dooley had closed the gap on Connor Alessi, and the two finished three seconds and four places apart – Jake took 367^th in 21:16, and Connor took 371^st in 21:19. Jacob Nader, another athlete who was under the weather yesterday, finished 427^th in 22:27.

On a special individual note for the boys, Jasper broke into the Top 10 Runners list for this Peoria First to the Finish Invitational meet, claiming 10th place with his time of 17:14, which just edged out his teammate, Paul Gordon, who finished in 17:15.

The boys would score 62-63-121-164-261-(286)-(287) to finish 27^th with 671 points, in an enormous 50 team field, plus an additional 12 incomplete teams.

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What a great meet on Saturday at Peoria! If you look at our updated finish times sheet – the link is at the top – you will see a whole slew of PRs for our athletes who ran at Peoria yesterday!

With what is probably our biggest meet of the season outside of the State series, it’s time to work hard in preparation for hopefully returning to Detweiller Park on November 7^th, this time for the state championship meet.

What are you going to do to help yourself and your team make a second trip back to Peoria in November? Work hard, eat right, believe in yourselves, and you will achieve your goals.

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 LOOKING AHEAD THIS WEEK:

This week, we again have two meets: Tuesday, we will travel to Plano for our first away dual meet of the season. Athletes will need to leave class at 2:15 to catch a 2:30 pm bus to Plano.

On Saturday, we’ll head to the Bureau Valley “Storm” Invitational. It will be another early bus departure time, but it’s the last of the pre-7 am departures: Athletes will expected to be at school by 5:45 am for a 6:00 am bus departure.

GO SENTINELS!!!