Westmont 500 at Home Recap

"WESTMONT 500" at HOME RECAP

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

SPLITS | MILE SPLITS | GIRLS FINISH | BOYS FINISH 

UPDATED FINISH TIMES | MEET PHOTOS (thanks Jake Juska & Ashley Eiermann!)

Sorry about the delay in getting this recap up from Tuesday's home meet finale. Hope everyone had a great Homecoming week. For this meet, conference rivals Lisle, Plano, and Seneca, along with Regional and Sectional rival Walther Christian visited our course for a meet that is affectionally named the "Westmont 500" by Lisle Head Coach Ken Jakalski -- a huge NASCAR fan -- due to the large number of left turns on our course.

In the girls race, we knew that we were facing a tough test in Seneca, the defending conference champions and a returning top ten team in the state. We also knew that this would be a very good test for our ladies to see where we matched up against them. On top of this, we were also shorthanded as we had only six runners as we had to hold out four of our ladies for various nagging injury reasons.

In the end, even though there were five teams represented (three of them scoring), the meet quickly turned into a duel between our Lady Sentinels and the Fighting Irish ladies of Seneca. The entire top ten was made up of Westmont and Seneca ladies. Each team had five finishers in the top ten. 

Unfortunately, though, Seneca's front four proved too much to overcome, as they -- led by Bruno, a possible All-State athlete this season --  took 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 9th spots, while we finished in the 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th spots. Seneca would win what turned into essentially a dual meet despite the presence of three other teams by a score of 22-33. Plano would finish third with a score of 75.

Although the ladies lost to Seneca in a tough fight, they also picked up three more dual meet wins by virtue of defeating Plano, as well as Lisle and Walther Christian who did not have complete teams, to move to 9-2 on the season.

Our ladies were led once again by Halle Nash, who turned in another amazing race -- nearly breaking 20 minutes on our home course, to run an awesome 20:13. That time tied Maggie Arndt (on September 4, 2012) for the fourteenth fastest time ever run by a Westmont girl since the course layout was extended to 3.0 miles in 2002, as well as becoming the sixth fastest Westmont girl runner ever on our home course. Halle earned 2nd place for her efforts. There are 64 girls who have run our home course since the current layout was established in 2002.

After Halle came a Seneca trio, then a Westmont trio of our own. Lisa Niemiec and Peyton Nash would take 6th and 7th place respectively, as they finished side-by-side. Lisa and Peyton are now tied as the seventh fastest Westmont girls ever on our home course with identical times of 21:02. We have no doubt that these two ladies will also break the 21:00 barrier (a 7 minute mile pace) on our home course next season.

Behind that duo, there was a furious battle unfolding for eighth place: Lily Arndt, a Seneca girl, and freshman Frankie Fabry were all involved. Lily would come out as the winner of that battle, taking 8th place in 21:49, and Frankie ran a lifetime PR -- for any course -- of 21:55 to take 10th place. Lily is now ranked as the 15th fastest, and Frankie tied for 18th fastest girl on our home course. Brittany Eiermann, still nursing a slight ankle injury sustained on the previous Saturday at the Charger Classic, gave it her all to finish in 14th with a time of 22:40.

In the boys race, we again took 2nd, this time with all five teams scoring. We ended up losing to Walther Christian (who will probably be fighting with Timothy Christian for the Regional championship later this month), but defeated Lisle, Plano, and Seneca who are all conference rivals. We only held out one runner today, Robbie Burns.

Paul Gordon led the way for the Sentinel men, running 17:51 for a 4th place finish with Jasper right behind him in his first race since Bureau Valley in a time of 17:55. Those times make Paul and Jasper just the 21st and 22nd boys -- on a list of 81 boys who have run our home course since the current layout was established in 2002 -- ever to break 18 minutes on our course. Congratulations, men!

Sam Asa finished 7th, just missing breaking the 18 minute mark to finish in 18:11. We've got no doubt that Sam will break that 18:00 barrier (a 6 minute mile pace) next season. Ryan Pleva finished 18th in 19:26, followed by Tom Dea in 19:55 for 18th and 20th place. The story of the meet for the guys, though, has to be Jake Dooley, who after informing Coach Dunne that he'd "had too much Burger King" as he passed the two mile mark, nevertheless broke 20:00 by finishing 21st in a time of 19:58. Congratulations, Jake!

About a minute later, a trio of Sentinel men crashed through the finish line -- Connor Alessi claimed top honors in 30th with 20:58. Jacob Nader was just a couple of seconds behind (just missing 21:00) in 31st, with Brandon Abington 32nd in 21:01. Ben Padgitt rounded out the Sentinel attack with a time of 22:03 for 36th place.

Walther Christian won the meet with 35 points, followed by our Sentinels with 54. Seneca and Lisle had a close battle for third, with Seneca prevailing with 77, and Lisle settling for fourth with 81, and Plano finishing fifth with 101. With three wins and one loss, the Sentinel men move to 5-7 on the season in dual meets.