On Saturday at the sectional meet at Chicago Marist something magical happened. However, this had nothing to do with the sectional race. In fact, it was after the race when everyone had left and gone home. By chance, all that was left were two teams, the coaching staffs and some very dedicated parents. The two teams, Plainfield North and Plainfield South, would be thought of as cross country rivals but on this day. Much like South, our entire team continues to train during the cross country “postseason” and it is important to give these kids opportunities to still compete and set PR’s. We ran a time trial at regionals and have done a few time trials at practice as well. We happened to run our time trials at the same time as Plainfield South after the sectional race on Saturday.
Most rivals would never meet in a fun, informal time trial. Plainfield North and South changed that after sectionals (Andy Derks photo)
I cheered for every kid in that race regardless of if they were my athlete or not and so did all the other coaches, parents and athletes that had stuck behind. It created the closest thing to a real race environment without it being one. Our kids ran fantastic and I’m sure South’s did too. It was a beautiful thing to witness. Two rival schools uniting as one to run a time trial after all the glitz and glamour had gone home, it was cross country in its purest form. In the time trial, we had our 17th athlete break 17 minutes for three- miles which was one of our team season goals so that felt great to achieve!
After the time trial, Plainfield South head coach Jason Crowe came over to talk to our kids. What he said in two minutes to our group had more meaning than anything I could have said that day. He absolutely hit the head on the nail. I am glad to coach against guys like Coach Crowe. I always look forward to shaking his hand and wishing each other luck before a meet. Jason Crowe has built a fantastic program at Plainfield South and he remains one of the most humble individuals I’ve met. It is crazy to think, in what sport would a “rival” coach come over to the other team and give a speech of motivation and encouragement after an event. I love cross country and I’m very grateful for Coach Crowe taking the time to speak to our kids. Your speech meant more to our kids and me than I am sure you could imagine.
During our sectional race and time trial, we had some notable PR’s of individuals I’ve mentioned in my blog this year. One of these is senior Jake Epley. Last year in his first XC race ever, Jake ran 29 minutes. At the sectional time trial, he ran 19:12! Jake had a race this year where he not only set his three-mile PR but also his one mile and two mile PR’s, that’s unhead of! His next goal is to break 18 minutes and I have no doubt he will achieve this. Senior Jake Van Hoff, who has battled back from injury woes to become a formidable runner, set another PR dropping his 3 mile time to 15:58. Van Hoff is a fierce competitor and I wish we had more cross country races to run because he keeps getting better. I’m looking forward to track season with him.
We ran at the super fast Chicago Marist sectional where Sandburg put on a beautiful display of running. Their top 5 had a mere 9 second split and absolutely dominated from start to finish. If you want to win the state title next weekend, you’re going to have to beat Sandburg and that will be no easy feat. Our top finisher and state qualifier junior Jack Sebok (photo above) ran a new 3 mile PR of 15:02 and placed 15th individually. He is the 3rd runner in our school’s history to qualify for state. Next weekend, he will have to run faster than that to achieve all state honors. Jack is one of the most consistent, hard working individuals on our team and serves as a great example of what to do to achieve success. Wow, hard to believe that next week is already the cross country state race. I’m very excited to not only attend my first state cross country meet but coach at it. I have heard that the environment is unreal and I’m guessing Sandburg will have a few people down there cheering for them judging by their massive following they had at the sectional meet. Hope to see a few of you down there and best of luck to all those competing, coaching and time trialing!