IHSA Sectionals

The goal for sectionals is always to advance on to the state finals the following week, and yesterday after it was all said and done the Phoenix accomplished that task, but it certainly wasn’t without some drama.

As we drove down to Normal yesterday morning through a constant rain, we knew that what is typically a very fast course would probably be less than built for speed by the team we ran on it as the 4^th race of the day (there was a 2A sectional in the AM).  The guys were certainly up for the challenge, we knew it wouldn’t be weather to time trial, it would be weather for racing.  As I stood before the start of the race, I heard the O’Fallon coach say “why are we even starting a watch on this race.” 

The plan going in was to establish our pack at the front early and feed off one another as the race played out.  And that plan was gone within the first 200 meters of the race.  We got out very poorly and buried ourselves in the middle to back of the pack.  As the guys made the first turn they realized that they needed to move up and in the next 400 meters tried to bridge the gap that had already been built with the teams we knew we would be battling for those 5 top spots.  By the mile mark the guys had moved up within striking distance, with Noah, Kyle, and Demetri leading the way, and Trost, Harris and Chomiak close behind.  The front three in the race, Knudson (Minooka), and Wondaal and DeYoung (Illiana) opened a gap on the field at the mile and a half.  Noah was in the chase pack with two guys from United Township.  And Kyle, Demetri and Trost were in the third group, with Mark and John just off the back of that large group.

The next mile of the race is when our tough start came back to bite us, Demetri and Kyle both were starting to feel that tough section early in the race and began to struggle.  Noah continued to fight to close the gap on the lead 3 as he now was locked in a battle for 4^th place with Riege from UT.  And Trost had now clearly established himself as our 3^rd runner on this day and he moved up and began to close the gap to Demetri.  The last K was a lot of guts to just hang on and finish as best we could.  All 7 guys fought with whatever they had left to finish strong.  Noah ran a great race to finish 5^th overall.  Trost also ran a great race finishing 3^rd on the team less than a second behind Demetri in a season best time of 16:11, considering the conditions we were running it, that was a pretty special race for Mike.    Kyle and Mark finish right next to each other to round out our scoring.  And John and Ryan finished off our day at sectionals crossing the line.

As we met back at the bus to get ready to cool down the atmosphere was mixed, our young guns Noah and Mike had run great races, but the guys knew that is was far from the effort we wanted as a team.  The great thing about the team this year, as opposed to years past is on a day when a few guys struggle we have other who can step up.  In the seven races our varsity team has run we have had 7 different finishing orders for our top 7.  And we definitely saw Mike and Noah step up on Saturday, which allowed us to achieve goal number 1 for sectionals, advance to next week.

Next week will be the last race ever for the Lincoln Way North Phoenix, and it will be run at the IHSA State Championship.