Greg Foster Recap

Reflections from the season opening meet.  Greg Foster Invite 2015.

Overall it was a great day for the Phoenix.  We finished second as a team.  We had 3 event victories (Chomiak 3200, Panici 800, Goodwin 400), we had 2 second place finishes (Peterka Shot Put, Miranda 200).  We also scored points in 8 other events (Miranda 55, Hunt 200, Sykes 400, Healy 1600, Curtin Pole Vault, and both the 4x400 relay and the 4x800 relay). 

Here are some other highlights.

The throws:

The highlight was Peterka’s 45’11” throw, which was almost a foot and a half PR from his best throw last year at Gene Armer.  I think throwing in the speed suit may have been the key.   Cole Paraday was within 4 inches of his PR from last season, as our discus specialist technical work during indoor will contribute big time to a great outdoor season.  Wilbur Milhouse on the frosh/soph level also had a massive PR throwing 30’ for the first time in competition.  Wilbur’s best throw last year was 27’2,” which is a mark the Michael LaPapa (newcomer to the throws world) outgained by 6 inches in his first competitive event.  Our throws group feels like a band of brothers.  They are such a strong good of self motivated guys who have such a big future in front of them, Peterka and Paraday have really taken the lead to help to push our group of throwers to the be the best they can be.

The jumps:

Chris Curtin had a strong start to the year, vaulting 9’.  That is a mark that he only eclipsed once last season.  Chris is going to benefit greatly from having a knowledgeable coach to work with everyday.   Harrington has made the transition from part time jumper to full time jumper this year, this is a transition that is going to pay off well for him and the team.  He was able to clear his opening height but struggled after skipping the next height.

The sprints:

Both Miranda (6.83) and Hunt (6.86) looked good in their 55 prelims.  They both ran faster than Nick did at the end of the indoor season last year (6.91 at Proviso).  It’s a good sign to be ahead of where you were at the end of the previous season to start the new season.  Jamir also ran almost the same time (24.85) in his first 200 of the season that Nick did last year to start his season (24.74 @ LWE).  That would indicate Jamir can continue to progress to ran very fast times.  Keenan and Wilder both ran strong races in the 55 and the 200, they both seemed to gain more confidence after good runs in the 55 leading into the 200.  Goodwin looked very strong in the 400, he ran away from the field the last 50 to win in 52.56 (.08 off the school record).  Christian Lee ran 61.11 in the fresh/soph 400, which is 3 seconds faster than Matt Filipiak (current school record holder in the 400) ran in his first indoor 400.  Jordan Abassi (6.19) also ran basically the same time that Filipiak ran for his first 400 (64.14).

Distance:

The day started strong with Donovan’s great performance in the fresh/soph 3200.  At our mile time trial only 2 and a half weeks ago JD ran 6:30 for 1600, on Saturday he went through the 1600 in 5:56 and then came  back and ran a mile basically the same pace as his mile time trial to run 12:27.  David Nino also ran a huge PR in the 3200.  Dave’s previous best was 12:11 from last year.  11:40 is the new mark for Nino after a great race.  John Chomiak started the year strong as well, running 9:46 and setting a PR and a school record in the process.   He set the pace early himself, and for the most part ran the race solo.  Neindorf ran a solid race as well (10:54), it’s basically the same time he ran to open last season, although this year Nick was coming of a longer lay off during the off season.  In the mile 3 of the 4 running set PRs.  Sam “Ham Boy” Chomiak  (5:53) get out aggressive but struggled in the second half, as the season goes on Sam will gain the strength to hold on to a quicker pace, Sam will be one to watch for as the season progresses.  Mike Trost got his first taste of varsity action running 4:51 in the mile, which is 1 second faster than Noah Healy’s opening 1600 last year.  Speaking of Noah, he opened his 2015 campaign with a 4:44, which as was just pointed out is 7 seconds faster than what he opened in last year.  Noah hung tough with the lead pack, they just moved away in the last 600 and Noah didn’t have the next gear to go with them.  The race of the day may have been Shivam Patel in the fr/so 1600, Shivam ran a PR in our team time trial (5:55), he closed that with a big kick.  I think everyone on the team knew that meant Shivam had more in him.  We saw that on Saturday, Shivam put his nose in there right away, he went through half in 2:32, and he hung tough the second half to run 5:19.  Good for a 35 second PR.  In the 800 we saw a new school record 2:02.72.  The most impressive thing about Demetri’s race was he ran every 200 faster than the previous.  Our freshman newcomers also mixed it up well in the 800.  Kenny Belavich ran a tough race 2:36, and Josh Abramowicz ran 2:30.  Both of those times put them in some good company for starting their LW distance career (Sullivan 2:31, Nick Niendorf 2:35, John Donovan 2:35, David Nino 2:34, Curtin 2:31, Denton Wallace 2:28, Bechtold 2:25).