Another year, another bizzare Holly Days race. Here's a brief synopsis: It was just Andrew and me because Barron was "sick" and Luke was running FLMW (Kindra was up to his usual pussyness of being in Michigan for no reason). We got there and it was freezing rain/sleeting. We signed up, the race started. Andrew blazed out and led for the first 1/2 and I tucked in at like 5th behind some oafish kid from Westmont HS. I basically stayed in the same spot the whole race and Andrew eventually got passed by some kid from Valpo, and big Kup finished in an amazingly high position. Unfortunately they didn't win the father son prize ($50) because the kid from Valpo's dad went buck wild and finished in 3rd. But all was well because both Kups won gift cards in the raffle and I one this weird mini-cooler. By the way the course was obnoxiously long, so all the times are probably a minute slow (I know I've said that about both races, but it's true)
Andrew - 17:14 - 2nd place
Griseta - 20:09 - 6th place
Mr Kup - 24:19 - 22nd place
Bonfield Express
Nobody really tried except Andrew, but it was still a good time. It was really cold, but Barron and Luke both blazed in uni only. The official results are all messed up (for example: I'm listed as a 15 year old) and I think they're a minute slow, but whatever it was the first year of the race. Anyway, here are all the results, I'll probably post the MGRC results after all the races are done
11/6
State - see state wrap up section
10/30
Niles West Sectional -
Team Results: York - 1, LT - 2. GBS - 3, DGN - 4, Willowbrook - 5
DGN Individuals: Barron(14) 15:45 Zychinksi(15) 15:49 Luke(17) 15:55 Sergio (27) 16:14
Gilmartin(30) 16:23 Andrew(31) 16:24 Miles(50) 16:54
Analysis: Here it goes players... not too bad of an effort teamwise. As usual, I wasn't there, and from what I hear, it was another sloppy, cold, and windy day. I also heard there were some other out-of-ordinary events that happened during the race, but I'm not going to rely on second-hand information to make a comment about it. As far as the actual race goes, I was very suprised to see that LT took second place, but in the past years they've been consistently inconsistent, so how they'll do at State is anybody's guess. One bright spot was the fact that we were only within 3 points of GBS. It's really good to see Andrew put in a good race, I know he's still probably not 100% and he probably won't be next week, but it's awesome that he's out there helping out the team, and putting together some good races and I think he'll put in another good race on Saturday to finish out his high school xc career. Otherwise, Sergio and Gil had some decent races, and I assume Miles was sick, or fell or something, but I would guess he'll put in a solid race next week to finish out his HS career. Good races for the top 3, and I know they have their eyes on state. Other than that, it all comes down to next Saturday; stay tuned...
10/23
Fenton Regional:
Advancing Team places: York - 1, Glenbard South - 2 DGN - 3 Willowbrook - 4 DGS - 5
DGN results: Barron(11) 15:58 Luke(12) 16:04 Zychinski(14) 16:13 Sergio(17) 16:31 Miles (23) 16:52 Gilmartin(24) 16:54 Andrew(26) 17:02
Analysis - So after the race today i discussed with Barron over the phone, and he gave me some insight into the conditions. It had rained before the start of the race so the course was slick, and then the rain picked up again during the race making the conditions that much worse. The boys weren't pleased with their results today, especially the fact that they took third and that they couldn't get into York's top 5 like they did last week. Here's my analysis based purely on the results since i didnt see the race in person... Miles needs to close that gap between him and Sergio or the 6 or 7 man needs to step up and do that. Also, Barron needs to stay with that top pack (he finished just behind them today) and Luke and Zychinksi need to go with him. Obviously that is a lot easier to type into a computer than to bust your ass and do it in actual race situations, so I'm by no means criticising these guys, because they ran well, just not as well as we all know they can. Good luck @ Niles.
10/16
WSC Silver Meet: DGN Varsity 2nd place baby! DGN - 47 points York - 22 points
Top 5 times: Luke(5) - 14:20 Barron(6) - 14:23 Zychinski(8) - 14:29 Sergio(13) 14:57 Miles(16) - 15:12
The 2004 DGN State Team (in order): Luke, Barron, Zychinski, Sergio, Miles, Gilmartin, Andrew, Blondell, Graves, Priebe, Cozza, Deddo or Ogdon.......Congrats Boys
Griseta at the Mizzou Homecoming 5k: 18:15ish. I really don't know how to describe the nonsense that occurred at this race. Well, first of all, the start was delayed by 10 minutes so the people who showed up late could sign up. Not really a big deal, but here's where it gets rediculous...They call everybody to the line and tell them to look at the handwritten number on their bib, before the race i hadn't noticed it, but there was a 1.5 written next to my race numer. "Now line up according to the number" I heard, and I thought, "Cool I have a 1.5 so that must mean I'll get a good starting spot"...nope. What the numbers were for wast to determine what time you start. They had a clock set up starting at 11 and going down, this was the countdown to when the race clock would start and for some reason I was slotted to go 1:30 before the clock hit zero, this was their way of appointing a handicap based purely on age. So when I finally got to start in the third to last flight, I found myself weaving in and out of the jag bags who had started before me. On top of that there were no mile markers thus no splits so I had no idea where I was on the course or what my pace was. I eventually cleared the field except for a few fleet-footed old guys and the jag bags who had reeled me in. I ended up just taking it in for about the last 1.25 miles easily and finished in 16:45 on the clock, which i figure is 18:15. I have no idea what place i was in and i didnt't bother to stick around for the post-race crap. I figure if it was a regular race with some good compy i would have probably run 17:50s, but no big deal, it had a cool shirt.