Meet Recaps #2 -- Home Meet #3, Charger Classic & Westmont 500

MEET RECAPS -- ROUND 2

Home Meet #3 (vs. Elmwood Park and Valeo Academy) - September 20, 2016
Aurora Central Catholic (Charger Classic) - September 24, 2016
Westmont 500 (vs. Lisle, Plano, Seneca, and Walther Christian) - September 27, 2016

It’s time for another round of meet recaps as we get ready to head over to Lisle for the first of four times this season -- as we found out this past Saturday while at Oakhurst Forest Preserve for the Charger Classic that Lisle would also be hosting this year’s Regional meet in addition to the Conference and Sectional meets as well as their own invitational this coming Saturday.

Home Meet #3 (vs. Elmwood Park and Valeo Academy) - Tuesday, September 20, 2016

On yet another warm and sunny afternoon with temperatures nearing the ninety degree mark again, the Sentinels returned home after a two weeks to host Elmwood Park and Valeo Academy (located in Hoffman Estates, it is a new school and they are just establishing their athletic program). Weatherwise, the major difference was that it was nowhere near as humid as it had been two weeks ago, and the ladies were looking for some redemption after some unfortunate circumstances in our previous home meet.

Consider that accomplished. The ladies got off to an excellent start in this meet coming off hard mile repeats the day before (and varsity ran doubles). Halle Nash simply took off after the first mile and never looked back in cruising to a 20:34 victory, more than a minute ahead of the second place finisher.

Peyton Nash was our second Sentinel lady in the finish chute on the day, finishing third. She was followed in rapid succession by Frankie Fabry (4th), Lisa Niemiec (5th), and Lily Arndt (8th), which led to two more Sentinel wins on the afternoon. Ashley Eiermann, returning from injury, finished 9th, followed by another returning veteran, Hannah Abbatacola in 11th. Katie Schultz, Mollie Johnson, Whittney Ruiz, and Anita Vazquez also ran very well in this meet. The ladies won 21-38 over Elmwood Park and chalked up a perfect 15-50 score over Valeo Academy. The ladies’ record on the season moved to 6-2.

In the boys race, it was a split decision as the shorthanded boys dropped a close one to Elmwood Park, but claimed an easy win over Valeo Academy to move their record to 7-2 on the season.

Matt Gedraitis led the way, locked in a dual for much of the three mile race with Elmwood Park’s top guy, and eventually pulled away in the end to win in an extremely fast 16:54 clocking--that is now tied for the 23rd fastest time ever run on our home course. Sam Asa followed in third place in 17:44, with Kyle Casper coming home in sixth, followed by the trio of Jake Dooley 9th, Jason Eiermann 10th, and Tom Dea in 11th. Unfortunately, Elmwood had five in the top eight to squeak out the win, as the Sentinels fell 26-29. The boys claimed a 15-50 win over Valeo Academy. Dominic Santore (16th), Connor Alessi (21st), Ben Padgitt (28th), Jacob Nader (39th) and Mark Naom (40th) all continued to run well.

Aurora Central Catholic (Charger Classic) at Oakhurst Forest Preserve -- Saturday, September 24, 2016

Usually, this meet serves as our course preview for the IHSA Regional meet later in October, hosted by Aurora Christian. As mentioned earlier, that is not the case this year as we will make the trip to Lisle for the Regional meet as Aurora Christian was unable to host this year.

So, the kids made the most of their one and only trip to what is their favorite course (outside of Detweiller, we hope) -- Oakhurst Forest Preserve. This is a fast 2.9 mile course, and season or career best times are often set on this course when we run here. That was very much the case this year.

A quick note: The meet has grown so much in the past few years they have split it into small (Blue Division) and large (Gold Division) races for the varsity. However, the Frosh-Soph and open race fields are not split into divisions.  We ran four runners in both Frosh-Soph races, so we did not score as a team in either race.

The Frosh-Soph Girls race got things started for the Sentinels and featured four sophomores: Mollie Johnson, Katie Schultz, Whittney Ruiz and Anita Vazquez. All four runners ran to season best times, and in three cases, career best times. Mollie led the way with a 71st place finish in 26:02 (note: all times are 2.9 mile times, not converted 3.0 mile times). Katie Schultz followed with a 27:39 to finish in 75th. Whittney Ruiz (33:38)  and Anita Vazquez (34:09) both ran solid races to finish in 80th and 81st places, respectively.

Next up was the Frosh-Soph Boys race, which was split between two freshmen and two sophomores: Freshmen Dominic Santore and Mark Naom as well as sophomores Connor Alessi and Ben Padgitt. Dominic would lead the way, catching and passing Connor in the last mile to run 19:14 and finish 86th in a very deep and very fast Frosh-Soph boys field. Connor was soon behind in 19:34 and 93rd place. Ben Padgitt ran another strong race, continuing to drop his time, to finish in 21:25 for 121st place, and Mark ran a career best time of 25:50 for 156th.

All of our Frosh-Soph runners ran fantastic races in fast fields. That was only a preview of things to come in the Blue Division Varsity races.

The varsity girls race got out to an extremely fast start -- every single one of our girls opened the first mile with by far their fastest times of the year, and held that pace right on through into the finish. Halle Nash ran to an eighth place finish and the fifth fastest career time ever run by a Westmont girl at Oakhurst, in 18:51. Twin sister Peyton Nash claimed another trophy for the Lady Sentinels by finishing 18th in 19:56, very close to her career best at Oakhurst.

The field behind the Nash twins was incredibly deep and incredibly fast. There has never been a Blue Division race this fast in the history of the Charger Classic. Lily Arndt ran a simply outstanding race to finish 42nd in 20:27, her best time ever at Oakhurst, and to move herself into the top 20 on the career list at Oakhurst at 19th overall. Lisa Niemiec and Frankie Fabry finished 47th and 48th in 20:39 and 20:40, respectively. Frankie’s time of 20:40 also moves her into the top 20 career times at Oakhurst.

Ashley Eiermann and Hannah Abbatacola also ran strong races as they continued to make their returns from injuries that have plagued them this season. Ashley ran 23:38, and Hannah 23:55, their best times yet this season.

In the strongest Blue Division field ever fielded at Charger Classic, the ladies finished 8th with 162 points in a field consisting of smaller 2A schools, including former two-time state champion Sentinel Chris Bailey’s Antioch team. They were, however, the second 1A school in the field, behind only #10 ranked Rockford (R. Christian). This was a very strong race for the ladies. Things are starting to fall into place, girls, keep working hard and believing in yourselves!

Our final race of the day was the Varsity Boys race. This, too, was a talented field of runners and the competition was fierce for one of the top twenty trophies on offer. The Sentinel men got out to very fast opening miles and kept pushing the pace the rest of the way.

Matt Gedraitis was our top finisher, breaking the 16:00 barrier to finish 11th overall in 15:57 to claim a third trophy on the day for the Sentinels. Next was Jasper Requiron, making his return to racing after a week of recovery time, who claimed 30th in 16:40. Sam Asa followed in 17:09 for 46th. Kyle Casper and Jason Eiermann finished almost side by side in 72nd and 73rd places, with 17:46 and 17:48 respectively. Jake Dooley and Tom Dea finished two spots apart in 82nd and 84th, running 18:10 and 18:18. Jacob Nader rounded out our varsity lineup, running 23:16.

The boys finished in ninth place overall -- but again, they were up against some strong 2A schools in our division. The division champion was Elgin (Harvest Christian Academy), who scored just 51 points and is a legitimate threat to challenge #1 Rockford Christian (who ran in the Gold Division in this race) for this year’s state title in November down at Detweiller Park.

Just how fast was the boys field? For comparison’s sake: Last year, our top finisher was Paul Gordon, who ran 16:56. Paul finished 10th. Matt ran a full minute faster, and finished 11th. That’s how deep the boys’ field was this year -- and again, that was without the #1 ranked boys team in Class 1A -- Rockford Christian, who ran up in the Gold Division race.

Westmont 500 (vs. Lisle, Plano, Seneca, and Walther Christian) -- Tuesday, September 27, 2016

This past Tuesday, we hosted four teams -- three of whom are in our conference, and another who will be in our Regional and Sectional next month -- for the annual Westmont 500, so nicknamed due to the large amount of predominantly left turns on our home course, by Lisle Head Coach Ken Jakalski, who is an avid NASCAR fan.

After three rather hot and often humid home meets, the heat finally broke and we had an opportunity to run under mostly cloudy and much cooler conditions. The kids had an easy run on Monday before the meet, with the hope that we would shatter many season best and hopefully career best times on this home course in our final meet of the year at home before we switch our home course to Lisle :)

Shatter their season best and career bests, they did. Heck, in the girls race, the ALL-TIME best time by any Westmont girl was clearly under siege by Halle Nash, who led the way for the ladies. After a very controlled first mile, Halle just took off and never looked back on the way to victory by a margin of fifty seconds.

That course record that was under siege by Halle? Set by none other than two-time All-Stater Chloe Marshinski, back in 2012. Chloe ran 19:39. Halle tied Chloe’s 19:39 mark on Tuesday, which makes her just the fourth Westmont girl ever to break 20 minutes on our home course.

Peyton Nash then led a quartet of Sentinels into the finish chute with a fourth place finish after two Seneca girls crossed the line. Peyton finished in a career best time of 20:57, which moves her into sole possession of seventh place on the career list at home. Lisa Niemiec smashed her season best time to run 21:24 and earn fifth place, while Frankie made it a third career best time for the ladies, running 21:33. Lily Arndt set a season best time at home and tied her career best, running 21:49 to finish 8th and slam the door on Seneca. Ashley Eiermann was our sixth finisher, in 16th place overall, finally (in her words) breaking 24:00 on our home course, running a career best 23:51. Mollie Johnson also reset her career best, running 26:52 for 27th. Hannah Abbatacola finished 29th in 27:01, and Katie Schultz was right behind in 30th, smashing her career best

The five Sentinel ladies in the first eight spots brought home a 24-31 win over Seneca, who won the Independents Classic meet but lost the Conference title by one point last year and went on to finish ninth in state. Plano was third with 79 points, and Lisle and Walther Christian did not have team scores. The ladies claimed four wins to move their season record to 10-2.

After the girls race, the boys were looking to claim four more wins of their own as well as rewrite their home course personal bests in the home finale.

Matt Gedraitis went out fast, but Seneca’s Christopher Collet is a stud and should be fighting for All-State honors in November. Matt settled for a 17:11 second place finish. Behind Matt, it was an all-out battle between the teams jockeying for finish position. No one was really quite sure who had how many of their runners in as they poured into the finish line, but nevertheless, the guessing game was quite fun for all involved.

The next four spots were split between Sam (4th, 17:27, a career best at home), Jasper (6th, 17:41, another career best at home) and two Lisle seniors who took third and fifth. Through six, Seneca had the top finisher, but the Sentinels had three guys in, and Lisle had two, as Plano and Walther Christian joined the fray at the finish.

Kyle Casper was our next finisher, finishing in 12th in 18:26, again a career best. Jason Eiermann was our fifth guy in, at 18:48, destroying his career best by over a minute and making himself one of the fastest freshmen ever on our home course. Then Jake Dooley came home 18th in 19:15, again lowering his career best time at home by nearly forty seconds, with Dominic Santore running the race of his life for a 19:26 clocking and a 19th place finish and to be our seventh man on the day.

Connor Alessi led a parade of more Sentinels to take 23rd, breaking 20:00 for the first time ever in any 3 mile meet, running 19:55. Tom Dea, unfortunately under the weather on Tuesday, ran 20:56 for 29th, with Ben Padgitt claiming 32nd in a new all-time career best of 21:24, the fastest he’s ever run on any course. Jacob Nader then finished 43rd in a season’s best of 23:46, with Mark just missing his best time at home to finish 45th in 28:12.

No one quite knew how the scores were going to shake out with the chaos at the finish line as a steady stream of runners came in but were spread out just enough that it seemed all the teams were in the mix.

In the end, the Sentinel men came out on top, claiming the win with 40 points to sweep Seneca (52), Walther Christian (67), Lisle (82), and Plano (112). The four wins for the men moved their record on the season to 11-2. Congratulations, men!

LOOKING AHEAD:

Lisle (Mane Event) - Saturday, October 1st: This Saturday, we return the favor to Lisle and travel to Community Park for the 30th annual Mane Event. This will be the first of four trips (at least for varsity) we'll make to Lisle, our home away from home.

Plano (Ross Greiter Invitational) - Tuesday, October 4th: On Tuesday, we'll travel to Plano for the final weekday meet of the season. Although it's on a Tuesday, this is an invitational meet, but we'll count this in our dual meet standings. Last year, there were ten teams at this meet, so it's definitely a bigger Tuesday meet.

Interstate 8 Conference/Independents Classic- Saturday, October 15th: This is actually two meets in one: The Interstate 8 Conference teams will run, but there are also several independent schools who make the trip here for this meet. The two meets are scored separately. This will be the culmination of our season for the Frosh-Soph team, but will just be the beginning of our postseason trifecta at Lisle for the varsity crew.

Should be a fun couple of weeks!

GO SENTINELS!