ACC Charger Classic Recap

Sunday, September 27 2015 - Aurora Central Catholic Charger Classic Invitational


AURORA CENTRAL CATHOLIC "CHARGER CLASSIC"

Saturday, September 26, 2015

SPLITS | UPDATED SEASON SUMMARY | COMPLETE RESULTS

PHOTO ALBUM (thanks Jake Juska -- photos by Jasper Requiron coming!)

 

Summer officially ended at 3:20 am on Wednesday morning, at least according to the astronomical calculations. Our kids might claim that their summers ended a month ago. On a picturesque Saturday morning – the first weekend of autumn, which actually felt more like summer as the morning wore on – we made a short trip to Oakhurst Forest Preserve for the annual “Charger Classic” Invitational, hosted by Aurora Central Catholic. 

This was the first of two trips to this course – one of our personal favorites – as we will be returning here on October 24 for the first round of the state series for the IHSA Regional, which will be hosted by Aurora Christian. 

There was a minor change to the course – the start was moved up about 25 meters due to new trees being planted where the old start was. The finish was moved back very slightly but the course remains at 2.9 miles – despite whatever claims there are that it’s really 3.0. It’s not. 

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FROSH SOPH BOYS FINISH 17th IN DEEP FIELD OF 19 TEAMS FEATURING MULTIPLE 2A & 3A SCHOOLS 

Five of our freshmen toed the line for the Frosh-Soph boys race, which was the second race of the day. Most of our meets start around 9:00 am, but today’s Frosh-Soph Girls race got things going at 8:30 am.

For the varsity races, a few years ago the ACC Invite split into “Blue” and “Gold” Divisions, which were determined based on school size (regardless of multiplier effects, etc.). However, the Frosh-Soph races were not split into “Blue” and “Gold” Divisions, so that meant that our five freshmen were going up against some of the big schools in the area that descend upon Oakhurst for this meet – schools such as St. Charles East, Oswego East, and Metea Valley – which meant it was going to be a strong, deep field.

A deep field it was – we ended up finishing 17th, but among purely 1A schools, we were the second best team, behind Harvest Christian Academy, who finished an impressive 8th.

Our front four of Robbie, Jake, Connor, and Brandon were all together at the mile mark, just three seconds apart. Ben followed soon behind at the mile mark. 

Unfortunately, that’s about all of the race that Coach Dunne got to see – although Oakhurst is a very nice course, it’s not very spectator-friendly. So, I usually only get to see our runners for about five seconds as they race past me at the mile mark, then again at the finish, where I’m shouting at them to dig down deep and kick down anybody in their sights with whatever energy they have left in the tank. 

Either way, Robbie Burns would go on to be our top runner in the Frosh-Soph boys race, finishing the 2.9 mile circuit in 19:17, good for 81st in a field of 137 runners. Robbie would be followed by the duo of Jake Dooley and Brandon Abington, who crossed the finish line just four seconds and three places apart – 19:47 and 19:51 for 92nd and 95th, respectively. 

About twenty seconds behind Brandon was Connor Alessi – whose brother and recent WHS  graduate Anthony was in attendance today – in 101st place with a time of 20:12. Ben Padgitt rounded out our scoring in 114th place in 21:27. 

Our five freshmen combined to score 80-91-94-98-112 for 475 points to finish 17th in a deep frosh-soph field. Congratulations, guys – and keep getting to know this course; you’ll be returning here often in the future! 

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VARSITY GIRLS FINISH 4TH IN STRONG BLUE DIVISION FIELD AS TOP 1A SCHOOL 

 

After our Frosh-Soph boys finished, it was time for our varsity girls. Today, one of our goals for the varsity girls was to beat Rockford Christian – a team that had gotten us by just nine points two weeks prior at the Peoria First to the Finish Invitational. A second goal was to earn a trophy – trophies are handed out to the top three teams at each level at this meet (except Open races).

With that goal in mind, eight of our ladies took the line, intent on achieving that goal. The start of the race definitely wasn’t our best. Once our ladies got out of the forest, they started moving through the second mile. That hard work through the second mile paid off. 

Halle Nash was again our top finisher, finishing in 8th place with a time of 19:11, which makes her the 6th fastest Westmont girl at this meet since ACC moved the girls race to the current 2.9 mile layout in 2003. The time also moves Halle to 25th on the Top 30 Times at Oakhurst Forest Preserve list!

Lisa Niemiec was our number two finisher, finishing 15th, in a time of 20:09. Both Halle and Lisa would earn individual trophies for their efforts. Behind Lisa, Peyton Nash and Lily Arndt were both running very good races – although they would just miss out on earning individual trophies themselves, they finished in 24th and 26th places. Peyton clocked a 20:41, while Lily finished in 20:45.  

Our back trio of Frankie Fabry, Brittany Eiermann, and Hannah Abbatacola rounded out the scoring for our Sentinels – Frankie and Hannah had been running together in the first mile, but Frankie began to move ahead of Hannah and caught Brittany at the end of the race. Frankie finished 46th, and Brittany 47th, with Hannah just behind them in 51st. Frankie recorded a 21:28, Brittany 21:30, and Hannah 21:46. Ashley Eiermann also ran another strong race to finish in 81st place in a time of 23:39.

The ladies scored 8-15-24-26-45-(46)-(49) to finish 4th with 117 points. Although this meant that we missed out on a trophy after earning 3rd last year – despite scoring more points last year than this year – we achieved one of our goals in beating Rockford Christian. In addition, we are ahead of where we were at this point last year across the board. 

Ladies, October is going to be a very fun month for you. Keep up the hard work you’ve been putting in and it will be even more fun than you can imagine. We’re very excited for postseason next month! 

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VARSITY BOYS FINISH 9TH IN BLUE DIVISION WITHOUT JASPER

 

Let’s be honest here: Ninth place in the Blue Division wasn’t what we had in mind for our varsity boys yesterday at the Charger Classic. That said, however, we were again without the services of our top runner, Jasper Requiron for the second meet in a row.

The boys all ran well – and our returning veterans are all well ahead of where they were last year, which is very nice to see. 

On this day, the boys were led by Paul Gordon, who earned a 10th place trophy of his own in a time of 16:56. Paul and Sam were side-by-side at the mile mark when they passed Coach Dunne. Sam would go on to finish 30th in 17:28, followed by Ryan Pleva in 62nd in 18:35, Tom Dea in 19:21 for 70th, and Jacob Nader in 20:50 for 86th place.

The boys scored 9-29-57-60-69 for 224 points and 9th place. It was a tough field this year in the Blue Division – If Jasper had been running, we probably would have moved up to 7th place. Hopefully Jasper will be back running soon. 

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LOOKING AHEAD 

On Tuesday, we host our final home meet of the season – the so-called “Westmont 500”, named by Lisle’s Coach Jakalski. We will then return the favor and pay a visit to Lisle’s Community Park – the first of three trips we’ll make there for meets during the month of October. First up is the Mane Event, which is on Saturday, October 3. Let’s call that our Homecoming meet, shall we?  

 

GO SENTINELS!!!