LT Invite: A Step in the RIght Direction

This morning the DGS boys headed to LT's South Campus for one of the more competitive invites in the state. This was our first real test on all levels and despite missing a couple key runners at this point, I believe we responded to the challenge fairly well. When a CC team is missing a couple of their top runners, it has a bit of a negative trickle-down effect that ultimately makes all levels (except Freshmen today) a little bit weaker. Scenarios like this can give a team a reason to mail it in and underperform, or as we saw today, an opportunity for other guys to step up and get some valuable big race experience.

With our 3 cross training machines: Jack, Joey, and Bulldog still working their way back from some injuries and Z-Wasch unable to compete this week, we had to dig a bit deep on the roster at the varsity level, which also weakened our JV squad along the way. With those pieces missing, others stepped up to fill the void and we saw a plethora of new PRs today.

The first race of the day for DGS was the JV race. The coaching staff decided a couple days ago to run our sophs-seniors all in this race instead of racing the 11:30 scheduled Sophomore race. The forecast seemed as though we'd probably enjoy about 10 degrees cooler temps with the 8:30 start and also were desirous of our sophs to race 5k and their race had been shortened due to expected hot temps. One of our team goals was that 80% or better of our guys ran faster for "5k" at LT than we ran at our home course 5 days earlier. As somewhat expected, the LT course proved to be short of the advertised distance but was certainly no shorter than our home course. The JV guys set a great tone for the day by having 17/19 guys run faster... most by a lot! Here is just the sampling of guys that ran over 30 secs faster: Ghosh, Canfield, Alvarez, Dreyer, Connolly, Hall, McGrath, Patel, Shah, Mears, Hudec, Krauter, Wisniewski, and Tinoco. Sophomore Jack Hudec deserves special recognition for having the biggest drop of 1:19!

The JV boys ran great and finished a very respectable 5th place out of 12 teams. The top 5 finishers and scorers for DGS were Akhil Ghosh who continues to improve with each passing week, Marc Alvarez, Rylan Dreyer, Luke LaLonde, and Kyle Hall who had an inspired race for a big personal best.

In the varsity race, toeing the line against a number of incredibly strong teams including #2 in the nation Sandburg, #4 in IL Lyons Township, IL ranked Maine South, and a strong Lowell team from IN, we held our own. Again we placed 5th of 12, which is probably about where we are at this point in the season missing a few pieces and running on some heavy legs. Like most programs, our focus is on running our very best in October so the boys are working through a pretty tough stretch of training that is made doubly difficult by adjusting to being back in a school desk 6 hours a day and the unwavering heat that we dealt with this week. While I'm sure the guys didn't feel their best today, they gave their best effort. The tenacity that we need was there and we believe their legs will catch up with them as we continue to progress this fall. After an off day to say the least on Monday, Max O'Meara led the charge for DGS placing 18th in a lifetime best 15:41 (despite the "5k" label, we are considering this 3 miles). Also in the top 25 for the Mustangs was sophomore Stephen Pipilas, who placed 23rd in 15:52. Alan Zhou, Austin Rutkowski, and Zach Scheffel rounded out the top 5 for the Mustangs. Chris Lippi stepped up with a great race running a lifetime best 17:07. Chris had a great summer of training and is more focused than ever. Clearly it is paying off. Jimmy Slowik was the 7 man for us. All 7 runners were faster today than on Monday, giving us 24/26 and thus exceeding our goal of 80%.

The most exciting team race of the day for DGS was the Freshman race. The boys were encouraged to go out "aggressively smart". We didn't want to see a dozen DGS knuckleheads sprinting like maniacs for 200m then dying, but I told them I wanted them to get in position to win the race as a team. The race was approximately 3500m, which unfortunately was about 100m too long for us today. The boys ran as instructed and put themselves in great position. From about the 400-3400m mark, I believe we had the race won. Lyons Township, however, worked their way up brilliantly throughout the race and had a number of guys pass our boys in the final 100 meters to swing the race in their favor. DGS placed 2nd in the race, 5 points behind the Lions. That 2nd place finish was the best Freshman team finish in my 9 years at DGS.

Eddie Siuda led the way for DGS placing 2nd overall followed by Jimmy Weigel (8th), Nick Dziedzic (14th), Theo Robinson (21st), and Ben Laurich (25th). George Willer, Matt Garcia, and Henry Mora also all finished in the top 50. This particular group of Freshmen has already shown tremendous promise, not just through placing 2nd today, but because they show up every day ready to work towards greatness. I'm excited for both the present and future of DGSXC and truly enjoying each day I get to coach this great group of young men.

Looking forward to another great week of getting better and an opportunity for the boys to race on the hallowed grounds of Detweiler Park on Saturday.

#FaST