LAKE ZURICH CROSS COUNTRY

2007 Track Season

5/29/07 Results from State

A great season ended in disappointment.  On Friday, the 4x100 team of Jon Janus, Kevin Johnson, Kyle Skarb, and Dan Kalcsics ran a strong prelim to earn a 6-seed in going into the Finals.  The 4x200 did not go as well.  Poor handoffs combined with Kyle Skarb's sore hamstring resulted in a slow time and a 3rd place in the prelims.  The team got lucky however with a number of other schools running poor races and eked their way into the finals with a 9-seed. 

The 4x400 looked disinterested in the prelims.  Dave Antczak ran a 51 split to open the race, and Jon Janus competed for a 51 as well.  Dan Kalcsics ran a 49.1 to get us back into the race, but KJ didn't have any fight in him, disappointing out of an anchor, and cruised to a 52.5.  The team placed 4th in their heat with a 3:24.5.  On a day when 3:21 would have made the finals (which was very reasonable out of this group), we failed to take advantage.  Other than Kalcsics, the team looked content to get 2 relays into the finals, and it came back to bite us with Kyle injury on Saturday.

On Saturday, the 4x100 final began with us in Lane 8.  The first two handoffs looked great and we were somewhere in 4th-6th place, but Kyle Skarb pulled up with a hamstring injury, and hobbled to get the baton to Kalcsics.  This was the same hamstring that hindered Kyle last season and the same hamstring he had battled to keep healthy all season long.  It was quite an unfortunate end to Kyle's illustrious high school athletic career, and hopefully the injury does not hold him back in football at Northern.  The team ran to a 9th place finish.

With Skarb out, Sophomore Kyle Williams stepped in to fill the third position on the 4x200 Final.  Kyle was hard and the experience was good for him, but Kyle was a bit out of his league competing against the state's best.  To compound our handicap, the handoffs were all poor, and a crossed the finish with another 9th place finish.

Despite the discouraging state final, it was still a successful and memorable season for the sprint relays.  We set school records in the 4x100, 4x200, and 4x400.  We were the first sprint relays to place in the state meet in school history.   The 4x100 and 4x200 were undefeated up until the state meet.  The 4x400 was conference and sectional champions. With 3/4 of each relay returning, next year could be even better. Stay tuned...

5/22/07 Results and Pics from Sectionals

The pics below are taken at the Sectional Meet at Vernon Hills.

We placed 5th as a team at Sectionals, scoring 38.33 points.  30 of our points came from our 3 Winning Sprint Relays.

Here are some highlights

Dave Ambrose placed 6th in the 3200 with a strong time of 10:08. 

Matt Zak will take his PR 10:19 to the University of Notre Dame next year, where he is earning a $15000 scholarship!  Matt epitomizes the quote "Hard Work over time beats talent."  Congrats on a great high school career and good luck in all your future endeavors.

Mickey Stott and Nard Nard ran near-PR times of 4:34 and 4:39 to just miss scoring in the 1600.  Nate's legendary mile in the Conference Meet will be remembered as the Mile the won (or almost won) the conference meet.  Nate will continue his education next fall at the University of Illinois.

Sophomores Jake Paulus and Willie Blechschmidt both ran PRs in the 800.  Jake ran a 2:09 the hard way (He was at 1:33 with 200m to go), and Willie ran smart, letting others lead then outkicking the field and winning his heat in 2:11.

Marco Enriquez and Freshman Matt Frase gained valuable varsity experience in the 400, running 56 splits.

Mike Dietrich failed to improve upon his 6th place finish in last years Sectional 200, but remains an alternate on the Sprint Relays.  Mike will be contending for a position on next year's sprint relays.

Kyle Williams gained valuable varsity experience in the 100 and 200.

Sophomore Dan Iwicki continues to improve in the pole vault, after he vaulted his PR 10'3'' to earn a tie for 6th and a third of a point for the team.

The performance of the evening came from Senior Captain Keith Hair in the Long Jump.  Keith Jumped his PR jump of 21'9.75'' on his last attempt to place 3rd, but missed qualifying for the state meet by only 3/4 of an inch.  Keith was a great captain who always led by example, and remains one of the most focused, dedicated, hard-working athletes I have encountered.  Keith will attend the University of Michigan next fall, and look out for him as the kicker of the football team!

Freshman Jack Rathe triple jumped to a PR 38'7'', placing him as the second best Freshman in the competition. 

Eric Jaffe and Luke Cherney finished their shot and disc careers with top 10 finishes in the sectional.  Steve Cholewa's 42 foot throw places him in the top 10 returners for next year.

Sophomore Dan Randolph high jumped to a PR of 5'11'', 4 inches above his PR.  Dan has the build of a high jumper, and could progress into a elite jumper if he continues to develop his form.

The 4x800 team had a rather disappointing end to a great season.  On a day where we needed 4 PRs to qualify, we got only one from Mickey Stott (2:01.9) and stumbled home to an 8:17.  This team was solidified by first-year runner Sean Jaeger, whose consistent 2:00-2:02 performances proved he is born to run.  Sean will travel downstate as an alternate on the 4x400 relay, and will be competing for a position on next year's relay team.

Our three state qualifying and Sectional Champion relay teams consisted of only 5 athletes, but all three have legitimate chances to medal downstate.  The 4x400 team of Dave Antczak, Jon Janus, Dan Kalcsics, and Kevin Johnson ran to a school record time of 3:22.  Dan Kalcsic's time of 49.1 broke open the race and earned him the team's fastest split of the season.  Senior captain Dave Antczak, who will walk onto the Illinois State track team next year, leads this squad full of juniors downstate.

The 4x200 and 4x100 relay teams both won easily in Sectionals, running strong times of 1:27.9 and 42.3.  The times were the fastest FAT-recorded times in all Sectional competitions, and put us in favorable prelims on Friday.  Kyle Skarb, the lone senior in the group, runs the third leg of both relays and will attend Northern Illinois on a football scholarship next fall.

While the season is not over for all athletes, it is truly a blessing to work with such talented and dedicated athletes.  Best of luck to all competitors in the state meet.

5/13/07 Results from Conference Week: Varsity and FS Conference

"It's a great day to be a Bear!" - Lake Zurich ties for the Conference Championship with Zion Benton, and the Frosh/Soph win the title outright!

Varsity Conference @ Zion Benton

Going into the Conference Meet, we were underdogs by nearly 50 points (according to the seed times).  Zion Benton was not only the host school of this year's conference meet, but also the heavy favorites.  We as coaches went back and forth with what the final lineup would be- Do we go for the title, and put our studs in 3-4 races each, or keep them in the events they will run in Sectionals the following week?

We decided to go for the victory, and put the team's hopes of a Conference Championship in the hands of our horses.  Dan Kalcsics and Kevin Johnson ran 4 races each, while Dave Antczak, Sean Jaeger, Kyle Skarb, and Jon Janus ran 3 races each.  We asked a lot out of those upperclassmen, and they delivered.

The meet started out with few surprises.  We were well behind ZB in the field events, although our Senior Captains Luke Cherney (2nd place in the Shot Put with a 48 foot throw) and Keith Hair gathered some much needed points (4th place in the long jump with a 20 ft jump). 

We hoped our 3200 relay could score higher than the 4th place finish they earned, but a strong field prevented that.  There could be potentially 5 NSC 4x8 teams in the state meet.  Our 8:09 was close to our best finish this year.  Sean Jaeger (2:00.5) and Dave Antczak (1:59.3) ran PRs, while Nate Nard (2:03.5) and Mickey Stott's (2:05) highlights came in the 1600...(just wait)...  Warren and Stevenson's 8:01's were completely overshadowed by a meet and school record Lake Forest team that ran 7:54.

While not being ranked in the top 6, Dave Ambrose picked up a solid 4th in the 3200 with a PR time of 10:06.

 We were well behind ZB in the points until the 100m, where our Junior Stars flexed their muscles.  Kevin Johnson and Dan Kalcsics went 1-2 in the 100, beating out Zion's defending champion sprinters.  This was just the beginning of a great day for these two horses.

Joe Fanta has been a lifesaver all season in the 110 HH's.  After graduating 4 standout hurdlers from last year, we didn't expect to be scoring many points this year, but Joe made the difficult jump to the varsity level and has performed well all season long.  He doesn't get enough credit in a team overshadowed by other Junior Sprinters.  Joe placed 3rd in the hurdles, balancing out Zion's strong hurdle team.

Despite our strong Middle Distance team, we knew that Zion would still outscore us in these events, so all we wanted to do was score in each, which we did.  Senior Captain Dave Antczak again came through in the clutch to score a 4th place finish in the 800. 

Even with our best lineup in the meet, we still couldn't compete with Zion unless they gave us a few gifts.  These gifts came in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays.  Our sprint relays are undefeated this season, but even if we won both relays, we would only gain 2 points in each if Zion got 2nd.  As it turned out, our 4x100 ran close to the meet record with a 42.something to with the 4x100, but Zion's team was DQ'ed due to a exchange zone infringement.  In the 4x200 Zion once again fumbled a handoff, which dropped them back to 5th, and we gained more valuable points on them.  Matty Hayes and Matt Blanchard held their own in the first 2 legs, and after strong handoffs, Kyle Skarb and Kevin Johnson were too much for the field.  The team ran sub- 1:30 without Janus and Kalcsics!  This team is probably the best bet for a medal downstate.

We may have held a short lead after the 4x200, but the 400 and 300 IH were two of Zion's best events.  As advertised, Zion went 2-3 in the 400 and 1-5 in the 300IH to take back the lead from us, and all we could muster in the 2 events was a measly 5th place finish from Dan Kalcsics in the 400.  I truly believe that Dan can run with the best in the 400 when he is fresh, but after 6 running events so far, Dan was probably getting pretty tired.  Jon Janus had an off day, yet still managed to post 52 second splits in the 2 400s he ran (I wish I could run 52 splits on my off days...)  He is my pick to click as we move into the state series.

Now comes the most exciting 20 minutes I have experienced in Track and Field.  After the 300 IH, the team scores were announced with 4 events remaining (the 1600, 200, Triple Jump, and 4x4).  Zion was ahead 74.25 to 70, they were up by 4 and 1/4 points.  Looking ahead at the meet, we knew it was coming down to the wire. Both us and Zion had 2 in the finals of the 200, Zion had 1 in the finals of the Triple Jump while we had none, we had 2 in the fast heat of the 1600 while Zion had none, and if it came down to the 4x4, Zion's team has already posted a 3:22, 3rd best in the state so far.  We had our work cut out for us.

There was a strong field in the 1600, including 2 state qualifiers from last year.  Nate Nard and Mickey Stott came in with PRs of 4:39, and seeds of 8th and 10th, but both have been training like 4:30 milers and were due for a breakout race.  The race started out fast, but the entire field was still tight with 400 meters to go.  When the leaders surged with 300m remaining, Nate Nard went with, currently running in 4th.  Around the curve, Nate looked as if he was going to give in , but found the next gear in the final straight, passing 2 runners for a crucial 3rd place finish.  Nate finished with a final quarter split of 62, and a PR of 4:30!  Mickey finished just out of the money in 7th with a PR of 4:37.  I told Nate after the race that he may have won the Conference Championship for us.  It was a great moment to see a senior get attacked by his teammates, barely able to hold his head up, after a great race.

Just as soon as we gain 6 points on Zion they take it right back.  Their triple jumper pulls out a 43 footer on his last jump to take 3rd overall, and we are again stuck 4.25 points behind.  The 200 was going to be a pivotal race.  Dan Kalcsics eked out a 2nd place in his 8th race of the day and Kyle Skarb scored a 3rd for a total of 14 big points for Lake Zurich, but Zion took 5th to go along 1st for 12 points, so we only gained 2.

We had a strong team in the Mile Relay, but it certainly was not our best team.  Dave Antczak and Sean Jaeger had already run 2 800s, and Kevin Johnson was already a 3 time Conference Champion, with 5 races under his belt.  Zion took the early lead and looked like they were going to run away with the race.  Hunt led off with his typical 49. split, but Dave Antczak kept the race manageable with a PR 50.7 split.  Janus and Jaeger ran 2nd and 3rd, and were able to slightly narrow the gap over the next 2 laps.  KJ got the baton probably 20 meters behind but he had a fire in his eye we had not seen in him in the 4x4 before.  He said after the race "I know this is Dave [Antczak's] last Conference Meet, and the mile relay is his favorite race.  I just wanted to win it for him."  Well, KJ ran the race like a true anchor should.  He made up half the distance on the back stretch and used his unbelievable strength to overpower the Zion anchor in the last 40 meters and win the race.  The Zion athlete was almost leaned out by a surging Stevenson squad, but not quite.

At this point, we didn't know how close the meet was.  We had been trying to tally the points ourselves, but failed to keep track of the places in the excitement of the races.  The announcer began reading off the scores: "And in second place with 100 total points, the Bears of Lake Zurich... And your 2007 NSC Conference Champions, with 100 and 1/4 point, the ZeeBees of Zion Benton!"  We had lost by 1/4 of a point!

We settled our team down, gave the pep-talk, reminded them of all the great performances that we as coaches only dream about seeing in the Conference Meet, packed up our camp, and headed for the bus.  We were about to leave, but the Zion Benton Athletic Director runs on the bus with trophy!..."There was a scoring error... the 1/4 of a point that was granted to Zion Benton was a computer error.  According to the computer, there was a 4 way tie at 5'9'' for 6th place in the High Jump.  However, the computer failed to look at number of misses as a tiebreaker.  The final score is a tie between ZB and LZ with 100 pts each!" 

A dramatic end to a great day, I am so proud of our athletes.  They worked hard all season for this day and came through when they wanted it.  I am excited to see how they perform in their Sectionals when we don't ask them to compete in 3-4 events.

After some great performances, check out the updated Track PRs!

Lake Zurich wins the Frosh/Soph Conference Outright!

Following the lead of their upperclassmen counterparts, the Frosh/Soph team showed that Lake Zurich is in good hands after the great Junior Class graduates.  While I don't have the complete results, some of the highlights were provided by:

Kyle Williams placing in 4 events, winning the 200m. 

John Lavanne also competing in 4 events, placing in 3 of them.

Jack Rathe is a great athlete!  The question is not whether he is going to be a great varsity athlete, but what event he is going to be great at!  Everything from the 100 to the 800 to the Long Jump to the Triple Jump to the Pole Vault has been discussed in his future.

The sophomore middle distance crew finished a fine year providing huge points for the FS team at each meet they attend.  Jake Paulus, Pat Hannay, Willie Blechschmidt, Marco Enriquez, and Matt Frase will be some contending for varsity spots next season.

Gerardo Perez's ankle is way ahead of schedule.  Considering he was originally told he would not run until June, his 10:43 2-mile (while not great by his standards) shows he is going to be ready for a strong Cross Country season.

Was that the all-state Steve Morrison on the track?  No, that was his brother Andrew!  Comparisons have already started between Andrew and Steve.  Andrew has the same heart, dedication, running stride, and goofy personality that Steve had.  On Friday he showed he has the same fearlessness and willingness to lead a race that Steve had as well.  One thing is also for sure... Andrew as a Freshman is way ahead of Steve as a Freshman in his understanding of pace!  Andrew was disappointed with his 10:41, but how can you be disappointed with a PR?!?

Jordan Pavlovic is a diamond in the rough.  Although Jordan ran a PR 1600 in 5:02, he was also disappointed, after just missing that elusive 5:00 barrier.  Jordan could be a varsity contributor as early as next cross country season.

5/9/07 Pictures have been added from Lake County Invite and Warren/LF Dual. ->

5/8/07 Updates from Lake County Meet

Another week and another second place.  Despite not having any individual event champion, we nearly upset Barrington, falling 7 points short.  We have 2 chances to get a Invite championship to go along with out championship at Spartan Relays.  Hopefully Conference will end our streak of 2nd place finishes.

Highlights from the meet included another PR by the 4x800 Relay Team, which took second in 8:08.8.  Dave Antczak led off with a strong 1:59.2 split.  This team is really looking strong as we approach the end of the year, with hopes of a Conference Championship and a trip to State.

The 4x100 Relay ran a meet record of 46.6, and the watered-down version of the 4x2 (without Kalcsics and Janus) still managed to take 1st (with thanks to Waukegan). 

Our 4x400 Relay also ran well to take 3rd, and we are hoping all 4 relays make the trip to Eastern Illinois. 

Keith Hair long jumped 21'3'', taking 2nd and scoring our only 8 field event points.

Dave Ambrose and Matt Zak went 1,2 in the slow heat of the 3200, placing 7th and 9th overall.

Our sprinters showed their muscles, with KJ and Kalcsics taking 2,3 in the 100, and Kalcsics and Skarb taking 2,3 in the 200.  Kalcsics and Janus then went 3,4 in the 400, giving us a strong 38 points in those 3 events.

Pictures will be updated shortly, but the Track PRs have been updated.

4/29/07 Updates from HP Twilight Invite, ZB Dual, and Spartan Relays

We captures a couple second place finishes in both the HP Twilight Invite and Spartan Relays.  Our sprinters remain undefeated in the sprint relays.  After capturing school, meet, and fieldhouse records at the HP Twilight Invite (42.1 and 1:28.0), they continued their winning ways at Spartan Relays with slightly slower times. 

We may have finally found a 4x4 that will get on the medal stand.  Jon Janus's 50.3 and Dan Kalcsics' 49.9 were only signs of what is to come after they posted a school record  3:25.4 winning the signature race at Spartan Relays.

We continue to experiment with lineups and race-plans with the 4x8 team.  The team posted an efficient 8:12 to win HP Twilight Invite (fastest 4x8 time in at least 15 years).  The team looked slugish at the Spartan Relays, capturing 4th with a modest 8:17, however a tough week of workouts may have played a role in that.  (See the 8,4,2,4 race-shock workout at ZB). 

Our Sophomore Mid-Distance runners have really showed a lot of heart and competitiveness in the last couple meets.  For one, Marco Enriquez is back!  Marco ran 2:13.3 and a 55 quarter to set new PR's.  Of all the boys this season, I am most proud of Marco.  In a time when a lot of people had given up on him, Marco fought back.  His bravery and passion have become the defining traits of his personality. 

Jake Paulus is the other Soph. who took great strides last week.  His performance at the HP Twilight Invite was one of the most refreshing performances I have seen in a long time.  After posting a blazing 2:10.5 to anchor the 4x8, Jake anchored the 4x4 with a gutsy 55 to outlast a Lane Tech runner to secure the victory.

Our distance runners continue to improve, but still have yet to break out.  Our Spartan Relay 6400m Relay team included 2 PRs (Matt Zak's 4:45 and Mickey Stott's 4:41) and a 5:03 by Freshman Jordan Pavlovic. Jordan got his first taste of Varsity competition and he didn't back down.  For a runner with only 2 months training in his life, he is doing a great job.

At ZB, we got a number of PR's including big PR's by Andrew Gebhardt and Josh Christenson in the 3200 (11:35, 11:37).  In the mile, Josh Christenson ran a PR of 5:15, Kevin Herrick 5:22, and Joe Kim (5:41).  We got great 800m efforts out of Colin Schofield (2:19) ,Andy McGuiness (2:19), Andrew Morrison (2:25), Tony Piecuch (2:26), Joe Kim (2:26).

I have updated the Track Page, where you can find the Class Records, and the PR Page, where you can find individual PR's.

4/19/07 Updates from Libertyville FS Invite

We were narrowly edged at the Libertyville FS Invite by a strong Palatine squad, however we had some great performances by our young pups.  Our 3200 and 6400m relays both captured 3rd place, with PR's run by Andrew Morrison (5:12), Jordan Pavlovic (5:19) and Pat Hannay (2:14.7)

Marco Enriquez (2:17), Jake Paulus (2:15), and Willie Blechschmidt (2:13) were all within a fraction of a second of their PRs in the unfavorable weather.

Gerardo Perez ran his first meet of the year, anchoring the 6400m Relay with a 5:14, not great but considering he is months ahead of schedule in terms of his rehab, we have to be pleased.

The race of the day came in the marquee event, the 1600m relay.  This quartet is really finding an identity.  Pat Hannay led off with an average split of 57.9, but Marco Enriquez knocked off 3 athletes to take the lead with a split of 55.7!  Marco ran with something to prove, after he was pulled from the Mile Relay the previous week.  Despite his troubles with Diabetes, Marco is learning to extend his limitations, and continues to make great strides in practice as well as in competition.   Freshman Matt Frase continues to impress as the 3rd leg.  Jake Paulus has shown the toughness and passion to win races in the last 100m.  I have been really impressed with Jake's competitiveness this season.

4/15/07

The outdoor season is underway, and we have found ways to run competitively as the weather continues to challenge us.  On Saturday April 7th we went to the Cary-Grove Al Bohrer Invitational.  On a day when the majority of the state canceled their meets, we still competed.  The final score showed a very lopsided meet, with us and Cary dominating the events.  Cary edged us in the end by 2 points, but we held back a lot of our key guys due to inclement weather.  Nevertheless, Cary has a strong team this year, as was apparent in their sweep of the distance events.  Highlight of the Al Bohrer included:  Eric Jaffe and Luke Cherney placing 1,2 in the Shot Put.  Jon Janus, Dan Kalcsics, Kevin Johnson, and Kyle Skarb winning both the 4x1 and 4x2 with fast times in the cold weather.  Keith Hair placing 1st in the Long Jump with his first jump over 20 feet.

On Monday, April 9th we ran our first conference dual, against Stevenson and Libertyville.  We won both duals handily, and extended our streak of unbeaten duals to 16 (dating back to 2004 in the Fox Valley Conference).  The Frosh/Soph team also won their dual, extending their dual meet record to 16 as well.  Individual performances:  Our sprinters showed why they are the team to beat in the area, dominating the 100, 200, 4x1, and 4x2.

On Friday, April 13th we won the Stevenson Patriot Relays for the 2nd year in a row with an all-around team effort.  Our sprinters led the way with victories in the 4x1 and 4x2 in intimidating fashion, with times of 43.1 and 1:29.0, respectively.  Our Triple Jump Relay of Keith Hair, Derek Blanchard, and Ryan Metzler also won.  2nd Place finishes came from our Shot Put Team, Long Jump Team, and High Jump Teams. 

It was a great day to be a distance runner as well.  Our 4x8 team placed 3rd in a strong field with a time of 8:13.  The 8:13 is the fastest LZ time in at least the last 10 years.  In the mile, Nate Nard tied his PR with a 4:39 to place 4th and Matt Zak ran a huge PR of 4:48.

Unfortunately, my camera which was loaded with great photos, was stolen earlier this week so I am currently without pictures (why can't we all just get along!).

I have updated the Track PR's, the Clubs, and the Top 10 Lists.

3/29/07

Our indoor season ended with some strong performances at the competitive Lewis Invitational.  Nate Nard scored the teams only points with his 4:39, 4th place finish in the mile.  Jake Paulus also ran a PR 2:16.4 in the 800, placing him 6th on the All-time Sophomore List.

Check out the pics from the Lewis Invitational and Buffalo Grove Scarpino Invitational.  Also updated are the Track PR's, which can be found on the PR Page.  The All-time Varsity and Sophomore Distance Records are also updated, with Nate Nard moving up to 4th all time on the Varsity 1600m and Jake Paulus moving up to 6th all time on the Sophomore 800m.  Mileages are also updated.

3/8/07    For many of our athletes, the Buffalo Grove Quad would be the only chance to compete indoors.  An already-depleted squad was further hindered by more illnesses (Matt Zak, Marco Enriquez, and Josh Christensen on the Distance crew, with Jon Janus and Kyle Skarb sick on the sprint side). 

Highlights included 8 PR's:

Tom Johnson 5:06.1

Andrew Morrison 5:31.3

Andrew Gebhardt 5:33.8

Adam Burke 5:37.0

Joe Kim 5:51.0

Tony Piecuch 5:52.0

Mark Frelas 6:46.1

Sean Livelsberger 6:56.0

Nate Nard also had a great day, running a 7-mile CT in the morning, and following it up with a pair of 2:15 halves and a 4:53 mile on BG's tiny track.

I have also dug into the archives, trying to create a list of the Top-10 performances for each race at each level.  Check out the Track Page to find these records.  Records are divided into Freshmen Records, Sophomore Records, and Varsity Records.

3/6/07    The competitive season has officially begun.  We ran our first meet on Saturday, the Buffalo Grove Scarpino Invitational against a strong field, especially in the distance events.  With 5 of our top distance runners not competing (Ambrose, Stott, Perez, Antczak, and Soto), our sprinters and field events still carried us to a 4th place finish out of 14 on the tight 12-lap track.

The distance races were exciting.  I was very pleased with the competitiveness we showed.  Our two-milers began the meet with solid efforts.  Freshman Andrew Morrison broke 12:00 in his first high school track meet, placing 2nd in the slow heat of the C flight.  Sophomore Tom Johnson showed he is going to be a solid member of the LZ Distance Crew for many years to come, with his 11:00 split, winning the slow heat of the B flight.  Matt Zak ran competitively, but ran out of gas from a recent illness, finishing with a time of 11:04.

Each member of our 3200m relay, consisting of Marco Enriquez, Jake Paulus, Kevin Herrick, and Sean Jaeger, got their first taste of varsity competition.  Sean Jaeger stood out with a 2:20 split in his first ever track race. 

The milers also ran competitively in the slow heats, with Freshman Jordan Pavlovic running to a PR 5:23.  Willie Blechschmidt ran a solid 5:17 in his first ever Varsity race.  In Nate Nard's A-flight, he made a great surge at the 800 but was unable to maintain, finishing with a 5:04.

All-in-all, the meet confirmed that our sprinters are going to be tough to beat this year. We still have work to do to catch up with the other distance teams in the area, but the future looks bright.

Check out the PR Page to see the updates on 3200m PR's, 1600m PR's, and 800m PR's.

The Mileage Page has also been updated.

2/23/07    We are 1 month into the track season and the LZ distance crew is off to a great start.  With no indoor track and an outdoor track that has been covered with snow, we have been limited to running Long Runs, Intervals, Tempo Runs, and Fartleks on the roads.  Fortunately, the snow is finally melting.  Thanks to Coach Beaver for speeding up the process (snow blowing the track), we were able to get on the track yesterday to get a Timed Mile in.  Results can be found on the PR Page.  Timed Mile PR's (from my research) can be found on the Timed Mile PR Page as well.

Mileages have been updated also, and can be found on the Mileages Page.

The Polar Bear season recently ended, and Polar Bear Miles have been tallied.  From mid-November to mid-February, the Polar Bears logged over 4000 miles.  Leading the Polar Bears were Dave Ambrose (1000 mile club), Mickey Stott (800 mile club), Tom Johnson (400 mile Club), and Matt Zak (400 mile club).  See the Off-Season link for a history of the Mile Clubs.

1/16/07 :    Track Starts 1/23/07!!!