Welcome to Kaneland Cross Country!

The purpose of this blog site is to allow full access to the team, practices, history, and future events. Please check back with this blog throughout the summer and fall for new updates on the team. Feel free to share it with friends and family who follow the program!

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Varsity 7th, Frosh Soph 3rd to Kick Off Season in Loaded 2A Field @ Sycamore

There is much room to grow from this experience, but the effort put forth by both groups was superb, in our first run of the season. We are just beginning to see what we have in our arsenal, and we are just scratching the surface of what we will be capable in weeks to come.

The checkerboard pack of Knights managed a sub 60 second split, using 3 new varsity runners among that top 5. Reger and Park ran a dead heat, with Kuipers and Spaetzel shortly behind. This small split between scoring runners bodes very well for our future.

In his first varsity race of his career, Aaron French closed strong to earn 63rd overall, and completed our 7th place team effort. Walker and Kurz were tough competitors throughout, and served as pushers in scoring.  Notable performances from the varsity race also included Kyle Osborne’s :35 improvement in mile pace from the scrimmage, and Josh Kasap’s :55 of improvement in mile pace. THAT is hard work and commitment to the race. Tremendous.

Our Frosh Soph crew also managed to turn some heads when they kicked off 2014 with a 3rd place team placement in their division. Freshman Matthew Richtman made a strong push toward the front, and took over the race at the perfect time for his first high school victory. Teammates behind him matched his intensity with an exciting pack performance where our #2 to #7 runners were just :35 apart. 

Bringing home medals for top 30 finishes included: Messina, Kantola, Nance and Nosek. These 4 runners were :20 apart. Girolamo and Webster were chasing that pack all the way home and finished in the top 40. The team was charged in the huddle with keeping visual contact with the knight and shield on the back of their teammates’ jersey. All the runners were able to come away with great races by adhering to the mission.

 Purcell, Wojak, Heiser and Wells were also :20 apart at the finish. Duffey was very much under the weather, but will be back to normal soon. Wilk and O’Sullivan really battled hard down to the chute, and each put up huge improvements in mile pace over their scrimmage times.

Fans from another school were commenting on Kaneland tonight, being “down” a bit this year. Not sure they know the full story. In years where you lose so much experienced talent to graduation, it’s suggested that you are "rebuilding."

We simply prefer to "reload." Get ready, boys. There’s a lot of work, and fun, to be had.


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