SWSC Recap

It was a great day for the Phoenix at the first ever SWSC indoor meet at Olivet, we finished 6^th overall as a team (2^nd of the Red side schools).  The day was full of PRs, season bests, and a few school records.

The field events got the day rolling.  We had some solid performances.  Chris Curtin tied the indoor school record in the pole vault with a jump of 10’6”, which is also good for a 3 inch all time PR for Chris.  Jimmy Moustis’s day got off to a rough start in the long jump, but he bounced back with a huge PR in the triple jump, great job Jimmy.  Robbie Harrington had a great opening height clearance in the high jump but struggled after skipping to 5’7”.  AJ Schlott struggled in the triple jump, but did get off a good throw over 38 feet in the shot put, AJ is now consistently right around 40 feet with every throw.  Zak Peterka had a great series in the shot, as he saved his best throws for finals, with a big lifetime PR of 47’3.75”, for good measure Zak finished his series with a second throw over 47 feet.  The indoor school record is in serious jeopardy next week at Proviso.

Last year at Gene Armer Kyle Graff ran 10.13 for 60 meter hurdles, today Kyle ran 9.18, Kyle has improved by almost 1 full second from last year.  If he can continue to work on his technique and speed he could be in for a big spring.  Joe Ehrhart also cracked in the 9s for his run in the 60 meter hurdles.  A solid day from both of our hurdlers.

In the sprints we had some very good performances.  Lots of PRs.  Nick Miranda and Jamir Hunt both ran solid races in the 60 prelims, they both were under 7.3.  Nick was able to make the finals where he ran 7.31.  Both Jamir and Nick came back and ran solid races in the 200.  Nick ran almost a full second lifetime PR indoors, as he just missed breaking into the 22s.  Jamir also was able to break 24 for the first time indoors.  In 400 Dante Amos showed some true toughness as he came back for the back to back double with the 4x200 followed by the 400.  Kyle Goodwin set a new school record in his race, he ran 51.93.  Kyle had an epic battle with a great athlete from Bolingbrook, who has proven himself on the National scene already this season.  Kyle is running times similar to what Doherty was running in early May of last year already, and its only March.  Sub 50 is in the near future for Kyle.

The distance runners had some great races as well.  In the 3200 both Nick and Mark ran within 10 seconds of their outdoor PRs from last year.  The thing about their races that was encouraging was that they put themselves in the hurt early and tried to battle through.  The both opened in just over 5 minutes, now it’s just a matter of teaching your body that you can run 75-77 400s when you are tired and have heavy legs.  The 1600 was a great race, it got out hard and a pack of 6 went through 400 in 63 and then 800 in 2:10.  John Chomiak stayed right in the mix through 1K until a hard move from Feehan from West that John just didn’t have the legs to respond to.  Chom held on very well to run a lifetime PR (indoor or outdoor) of 4:30.96.  Noah also ran a huge indoor PR and was within half a second of his outdoor PR from the end of last season.  Noah hung on to the lead pack for 800 and then focused on his own race.  The distance race of the day was the 800.  Robbie Tidwell found himself in no man’s land 500 meters into the race and just couldn’t close the gap, a race that left Robbie disappointed, but also a great learning experience of making sure you put yourself in position to use your speed to close for Robbie.  Demetri took control at the gun in the 800 and never let it go running away from the field in the second half to run a big PR and smashing his own school record, breaking 2 for the first time in North history to run 1:58.17.  Great job Demetri.

The relays ran well.  The 4x2 mostly comprised of sophomores competed well.  It was a solid learning experience for them.  In the 4x8, three of the 4 legs ran 2:09.xx, if this quartet would have run this time three weeks ago it would have broken the previous school record.  The 4x4 was a great cap to the meet, with the surprise leg coming from late addition to the team The Legit Mikey T, who anchored in 56.76.  Mike came into the day never breaking 60 for a 400, he did it twice (once in his first 400 of the 800 he ran, and then again in this relay).

Great job today Phoenix!