The Week in Review

The Week That Was

This past week was a busy one for the Wildcat cross country team. 3 meets in 5 days. Tuesday we hosted Plainfield East in a dual for our Senior Night. Thursday was the Mortimer Frosh/Soph meet, and Saturday we traveled to Peoria with varsity for the Peoria Central Invite. We had a lot of highlights over the course of the week.

Tuesday’s dual was hot hot hot. The evening was kicked off by celebrating our seniors. Thank you to Riley, Steve, and Jake for everything you guys have done for the program in the past 4 years. You should be proud of the legacy you leave. As far as the race, some guys had specific race plans to work on, others were just told to go out and take a chance in their race. Jake Brockhaus wanted to make it a memorable race and got out very hard to lead the race through 600 meters. Then a pack of 4 East guys and Dustyn Perona took over. An exciting race took place at the front as Dustyn caught the leader with a little over 2,000 meters left and made a strong move and pulled away for the victory. A race win on his 16^th birthday with new driver’s license in hand, quite a day. The rest of the pack was told to work on their second mile, and they excited perfected. Dean, Bonomo, Tommy, Javy and Austin all went from about 15^th place at the mile to 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 at the 2 mile. They moved up more to finish 2^nd, 3^rd, 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th. A good confidence boost for that crew. Other highlights from the race, Nick Confiliano ran with more confidence that we have seen all season. His put his nose in there early and pressed the pace. He was on big time PR pace through halfway, but the heat caught up with him and he had to fight in to the finish. But a race he can certainly be proud of. Alix Awalt continued the PR train. He has PRd in nearly every race this year. He ended up running about a 12 second PR, it would have been about 45-60 seconds if not for a wrong turn 250 meters from the finish (you should always know the course no matter who you are). But Alix kicked it in for another PR.  The other PR on the day was Alan Marquez. He is starting to build that aerobic base from consistent running and it’s starting to show in races. Great job Alan.  

Thursday at Turtlehead Park was a great night. A small group of frosh/soph runners toed the line and we came away with lots of highlights. Aiden, Colin, Tony, Sebastian and Ryan Kodura all left the meet with a medal. Sebastian was the only PR (because the frosh ran 2.25 miles). Seabass ran a great race over a minute PR. In classic Sebastian form he moved up great throughout the race running very even splits (5:58, 6:12, 6:00). Every single one of the freshman ran incredible races, all of them run significantly faster pace for 2.25 miles than they had for 2 the previous week in Sterling. Frank, Alec, Nathan, Tony, Jayden, and Luke were gamers and battle tough throughout the race. Aiden ran faster than any Wildcat freshman has at this meet by 40 seconds, and Colin ran the same time as the fastest Wildcat in school history at this meet. The future is bright for the Wildcats with this freshman class. Tough kids, who love to compete and race.

Saturday at Peoria was a strong day. The team ran 6 for 7 on PRs. Jon tried to stay a little more conservative at the start and move up. He was in about 65^th at the half mile and then 50^th at the mile. He moved up to 41^st at the finish. It was a great bounce back race for Jon after a few weeks that he struggled. Riley put his nose in and battled throughout for a nice PR. Javy was a big time highlight as he can through the mile within 8 seconds of his PR, then he ran a PR at 2 miles and a 37 second PR for 3 miles. Javy continues to figure out XC more and more each time he gets out there. The frosh/soph pack was next. They ran 3 for 4 on PRs. They found themselves buried at the start (something to work on) but were able to keep their heads and move up as the race progressed. Dean and Bonomo ran step for step the whole way. Austin ran a massive PR, and showed the improvement from his commitment the last year. At Peoria last year he ran 19:21, this year he ran 17:21. Tommy rounded out the scoring.

It was a great week with lots of action for the Wildcats. This week is light with just a frosh/soph meet Wednesday. Up next for the upperclassmen is Conference in two weeks.

All results and splits are posted on here under the specific meets.