Bureau Valley Invitational Recap - September 20, 2014

Update on September 22 -- From this morning's announcements:

Congratulations to the girls cross country team on their 7th place finish out of 27 teams at the Bureau Valley Invitational on Saturday.  The Sentinels were led by Imogene Asa, Emilia Maslany and Lisa Niemiec.  Hannah Abbatacola turned in an outstanding performance running fourth and Peyton Nash, Brittany Eiermann and Lily Arndt kept the pack close together. 

In the boys race it was Mitch Perrotta who led the charge for the Sentinels as he finished in 11th place followed closely by Anthony Alesi in 15th and Nick Dea in 16th.  Freshman Jasper Requiron stepped up to the call finishing fourth for the team with Tony Cordero close behind giving Westmont the second place trophy  among some elite teams. Sam Asa had an outstanding run in the Frosh-Soph race finishing top 25 with Ryan Pleva and Jake Juska close behind.

ORIGINAL POST:

Bureau Valley Storm Invitational
Saturday, September 20, 2014

This morning, we ventured west once again, this time for the Bureau Valley Invitational. This is another meet that has a bunch of Class 1A teams from around northern and western Illinois, including some of the top-ranked teams for both boys an girls (although some of them wouldn’t field their full varsity teams this week). Nevertheless, it was still great competition and a great meet today, especially after a hard week of practices and putting a bunch of miles in.

When we arrived at Bureau Valley, we were informed that there was a potential weather threat brewing and that the decision had been made to move up the schedule to start each race fifteen minutes earlier than had previously been listed. That meant the Frosh-Soph boys would be kicking things off at 9:15 instead of 9:30 am. Then, after the coaches meeting just before the Frosh-Soph boys race began, the decision came down that the next race would begin immediately following the conclusion of each previous race. Everyone was crunched for time, but everyone was ready to go when the gun fired.

Four Frosh-Soph Boys Run Great Races, Sam Earns Trophy

Four of our freshmen and sophomore boys began the day’s races when the starter’s pistol fired at approximately 9:15 am. At this meet, the Frosh-Soph race is 2.5 miles, or 4K. All four boys got out to great starts and carried that throughout the rest of the race. Sam Asa led the way, turning in his best race yet and was rewarded for his efforts with a 25^th place trophy! Congratulations, Sam, on your trophy today! Ryan Pleva ran another solid race, and finished in 29^th, and Jake Juska followed just a couple of seconds behind in 31^st. Jacob Nader dropped a ton of time from last year to finish 63^rd.

Great races today, guys!

The Pack Is Back: Ladies Finish 7^th in Field of 27 Teams!

At the end of practice on Friday afternoon, we emphasized the need to run together as a TEAM and as a PACK going forward.

The ladies took that to heart and delivered a great performance today! The efforts of our ladies running together as a pack paid off this morning: Even though we didn’t have any individual trophy winners, the ladies finished a very strong seventh place in a large field of 27 teams! Imogene Asa led the way today, finishing 39^th, followed closely by Emilia Maslany and Lisa Niemiec in 46^th and 47^th. Hannah Abbatacola ran a great race to finish 61^st, and Peyton Nash threw down a furious kick to catch teammate Brittany Eiermann at the finish and the duo finished 73^rd and 74^th. Lily Arndt was our seventh scorer in 91^st, and Michelle Launi, battling through injuries throughout the week, finished 101^st. Halle Nash finished 174^th, Amanda Yates was 188^th, Michelle Gorman 196^th, and Victoria Thomas 198^th.

The ladies would score 39-45-46-59-71-(72)-(89) for 260 points to earn their well-deserved 7^th place finish today.

Today's race clearly showed that our pack will be our strength come championship season next month. To illustrate this point: At the one mile mark, six of our ladies were just four seconds apart, and two more were less than ten seconds behind that front pack. That's eight runners running less than 15 seconds apart! THAT is the definition of pack running! As we move forward, we need to continue to get out faster, and stay together as a pack for longer, but today was a great start for our pack running.

Great job today ladies, let’s keep up the great work!

Only Five Scorers, But Varsity Boys Look Strong in Earning 2^nd Place Team Trophy

To qualify as a complete team, a team needs no less than five runners, and we ran exactly five runners today in the varsity boys race. Fortunately, our five varsity boys were up to the task and ready to go when the starter’s pistol fired to start their race after a long and hard week of workouts.

Mitch Perrotta, as usual, went out hard in the first mile, and today, his strategy paid off, as he finished as our top runner, earning a 11^th place trophy and dropping over a minute and a half off of his time from last year at this same invitational. Anthony Alessi ran next to or right behind Mitch for virtually the entire race, and finished 15^th to earn a second individual trophy for the Sentinels. Although he got off to a horrible start, Nick Dea would recover nicely to finish right behind Anthony in 16^th place to earn the third Sentinel trophy in this race, and the fourth on the day.

Our 4-5 runners made the difference in this race today to help the Sentinels earn 2^nd place: Jasper Requiron would just miss out on a trophy, finishing 32^nd, after a great third mile to move up a bunch of places. Tony Cordero would round out our scoring in 50^th.

The five boys combined to score 10-14-15-28-41 to score 108 points and finish in 2^nd place behind Sterling (Newman Central Catholic) at today’s meet! Congratulations to our individual trophy winners and to the boys on their 2^nd place finish today!

Looking Ahead: Home on Tuesday, Charger Classic on Saturday

All Sentinel athletes should go for an easy cleanout run (3-5 miles) tomorrow. Then, it’s back to work on Monday. Tuesday will be a meet day as we will run against Elmwood Park. Next Saturday, we will head out to Oakhurst Forest Preserve – one of our favorite courses, and the course where we will compete in the IHSA Regional a month later – to compete in Aurora Central Catholic’s “Charger Classic” Invitational.

We are now into the heart of the season. The next couple of weeks will be tough weeks of workouts, but it will pay off come championship season!

Be proud of yourselves today and enjoy your accomplishments today and the rest of this weekend. We’ll be back to work on Monday.

The journey to November 8^th continues…