Plainfield Central Recap

PLAINFIELD CENTRAL "WILDCAT INVITATIONAL"
Saturday, September 3, 2016

SPLITS | MILE SPLITS | UPDATED FINISH TIMES
UPDATED LISTS: TOP TEN RUNNERS | TOP TEN TIMES

As the brilliant sunrise in the sky receded early on Saturday morning, we boarded the bus to head for the Plainfield Central Invitational, our first invitational meet of the season. We have attended this invitational every year since our first varsity season in 1977, marking the 40th consecutive season we've attended this meet. This meet features entirely 2A and 3A competition, and once again this year we were the lone Class 1A team.

FROSH-SOPH BOYS RUN WELL TO FINISH 15TH IN FAST FIELD

We did not enter any runners in the Frosh-Soph Girls race, so our first race of the day was the Frosh-Soph boys race. We entered six athletes -- the four freshmen boys, plus two returning sophomores -- in this race. This race is always a tough battle, but a great opportunity for our younger athletes to get some invitational experience which will come in handy later in the season.

Jason Eiermann and Elias Hanba led the way for the frosh-soph crew. The duo got out to great starts and carried that through to top 50 finishes in a fast frosh-soph field. Jason ran to a 19:25 finish, good for 31st place. Elias followed in 47th place with a 19:49 finish to make it two sub-20 minute freshman invitational debuts for the Sentinels. The last time we had two freshmen break 20 minutes at Plainfield in the same race was when Jasper Requiron and Ryan Pleva did so in 2014.

Dominic Santore was our third finisher, passing Connor Alessi in the last mile to finish in 20:49, with Connor following in 20:58 to make it two more freshmen under the 21:00 barrier (7 minute mile pace). Dominic claimed 75th place, with Connor finishing 80th overall.

Ben Padgitt would round out the top five scoring places with a strong race in 23:45 to finish in 96th place. Mark Naom completed the Sentinel lineup by finishing 105th in a huge new PR time of 28:34. In fact, the other five frosh-soph runners in the race all set PRs on the day. It would be a sign of things to come as the sun rose higher into the sky and the clouds cleared, bathing the entire course in bright sunshine.

The Frosh-Soph boys scored 31-47-73-78-94-(102) for 323 points to finish in 15th place against more than a dozen other 2A and 3A teams with much larger frosh/soph teams than we have. All six young men should be very proud of themselves for their performances on Saturday!

VARSITY GIRLS TIE FOR FOURTH, JUST ONE POINT OUT OF THIRD!

The varsity ladies followed after the frosh-soph boys race. Our lineup featured six returning juniors and one returning sophomore from last year's state series roster. The ladies were looking to run some fast times after a hot home opener on Tuesday. They did just that.

Led by Halle and Peyton Nash, the lady Sentinels got out to a good start. When they passed by Coach Wolf and Coach Dunne at the two mile mark, Halle was around 15th place, in medal contention (the top 20 runners in each race received medals), and Peyton was a few places outside of 20th. Both ladies picked off several runners to finish in 9th and 19th places, respectively, to each earn medals. Halle turned in an impressive time of 20:18, and Peyton, who did not run in this meet last year, smashed her personal best on this course from two years ago to run 21:12.

Three more lady Sentinels followed in a 43 second span to all finish inside the top fifty in this race. Lisa Niemiec led the trio, breaking the 22 minute barrier to finish in 21:59 for 30th place. Frankie Fabry then proceeded to destroy her previous best time on this course by nearly two full minutes, coming across the line in 40th place in 22:21. Lily Arndt was not far behind Frankie, turning in 22:42 to make it five Sentinels in the top fifty, a very good showing for any team in an invitational meet of this size.

Ashley Eiermann was our sixth runner on the afternoon and shredded her previous personal best on this course, again by almost two minutes. Ashley finished in 24:34 for 73rd place. Hannah Abbatacola was our seventh runner, and she ran a very good race, considering she has been battling a nagging injury that forced her out of Tuesday's home opener. Although her time was not what she wanted, she gave it her all to finish in 25:12 for 81st place.

The ladies would score 9-19-31-40-49-(70)-(78) for 148 points to tie with Plainfield East, a Class 3A school, for fourth place. The sixth runner tiebreaker, however, went to Plainfield (East), giving them the fourth place finish. Nevertheless, just one point ahead of both teams was an even larger Class 3A school, South Elgin, in third place with 147 points.

Longtime Class 3A power Lockport won the meet with just 35 points, followed by a strong Class 2A Lemont team with 95 points. We may be a small team from a small school, but this group of ladies can pack a powerful punch.

Now is the time to start building off of this first invitational, ladies--we are going to have a great rest of the season.  All of you can accomplish great things this year. Believe that.

VARSITY BOYS FINISH IN STRONG NINTH PLACE IN TOUGH FIELD

This meet always features several tough schools in the larger classifications, with usually one or more teams eventually qualifying for the State meet in November. This year's boys team has made it their goal to qualify for the State meet this year after missing out on a trip last season.

The boys were also looking to set some fast times, despite the rapidly warming conditions as midday approached. Consider that accomplished.

Newcomer Matt Gedraitis ran a simply fantastic race to dip just under 17 minutes, and claim a medal for himself in 17th place with an impressive 16:59 showing. We have never had an underclassman run under 17 minutes since the meet was moved from Four Seasons Park to Plainfield Central High School's South Grounds.

Jasper Requiron, coming off a small injury that he was still feeling the effects of during practice this week, ran a 17:47 clocking to knock off twenty seconds from his time last year to finish in 38th place. Sam Asa crossed the finish line right as the clock ticked over to 18:00, but still held out hope that his official time would be recorded as a 17:59 as he finished 44th. 

Unfortunately, due to a malfunction with the timing system, the times were not correctly recorded by the program used at the meet, forcing officials to have to review the entire boys varsity race by video and determine the official times. Sam would not find out whether he had run 17:59 or 18:00 until Sunday morning, but his time was indeed recorded officially as 17:59. The last time we had three Sentinels under 18 minutes at this meet was in 2014, the last time we qualified for State.

Kyle Casper, with a race under his belt, turned in an impressive invitational debut to run 18:41 for three miles to finish in 58th place. Returning sophomore Jake Dooley was our fifth man on the day, and turned in a solid time of 19:30 to finish in 77th, followed by Tom Dea running 20:23 for 88th place.

The boys scored 17-38-44-58-77-(88) to score 234 points to finish in ninth place, beating out eight other schools in the field of 17 teams, all of them 2A and 3A schools.

Based off of Saturday's performance, the boys are on the right track to return to Detweiller Park for the first time since 2014, and for the tenth time since 2005. It's still very early in the season, though, and there is a lot of work left to do. Today was an excellent start for the boys in their invitational debut this season.

ALL FIVE OPEN RUNNERS SET HUGE SEASON PRs!

All five of our open runners -- four ladies, and one man, set huge season PRs in their races. All five runners broke their PRs by more than two minutes!

In the girls open, four sophomore ladies ran for the Sentinels. Katie Schultz, another athlete who's been dealing with a nagging injury this week, ran well together with Mollie Johnson before breaking away in the last half-mile. Katie ran 28:51 for 86th place, and Mollie turned in a time of 29:25 for 97th place. Both ladies beat their Tuesday times by more than three minutes! Super job ladies!

The other two sophomores in the race, Whittney Ruiz and Anita Vazquez, also obliterated their times from Tuesday--Whittney by two minutes from Tuesday (and six minutes off of her time on the same course last year!), and Anita by an astounding six minutes! Whittney earned 183rd place in a time of 37:38, while Anita was one place behind her in 38:23. Awesome job ladies!!!

Jacob Nader was our lone Sentinel boy in the open race, and he followed the girls' lead to also knock off two-plus minutes from his time on Tuesday. Jacob ran 26:21 to finish in 182nd in the boys' open race. Great job Jacob!

LOOKING AHEAD TO THIS WEEK:

We already held our Labor Day practice (which was 3-4 x 1200 - but we did the lake loop this time). Athletes can view that workout by clicking here. It was a good workout this morning in preparation for our second home meet of the season on Tuesday.

Tuesday's forecast calls for very hot weather, as does Wednesday's. It was already turning very hot by the time we finished Monday morning's practice. It is important that ALL athletes begin hydrating for their meet tomorrow. Athletes should be hydrating through the school day tomorrow as well in preparation for their meet.

We will be facing Aurora Central Catholic, Immaculate Conception, and Nazareth Academy tomorrow. This will provide us with some good competition against area teams. Hopefully, we will be able to improve upon our times from last Tuesday.

Varsity runners will have a short practice on Wednesday morning, and all runners will practice at 3 pm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Saturday brings us the opportunity to head down to historic Detweiller Park to run on the state final course at the First to the Finish Invitational against many of the top teams in our class. Stay tuned for more information on Saturday's meet.