Our "Miles for Makinlee" Going Toward "Miracles for Makinlee"

 On Friday, the team met a remarkable young girl named Makinlee Thomas. She's nine years old, and the daughter of a Kaneland Knight. Since March of 2020, she's been faced with something far scarier than perhaps the rest of us with the COVID-19 virus. She told her story of how she is living her best life as a fourth grader, also competing as a gymnast. Her Cystic Fibrosis (CF) diagnosis has her taking a minimum 60 minutes each day for breathing treatments, along with 40+ pills, in order to stay "in the game of life."

Our seniors want the team to do something to help support Makinlee and her family. Please use the links below to learn a little about "Mak," and to help us support her. She was the 2019 ambassador for the Chicagoland chapter of the Great Strides Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Your donations will make a difference for the 30,000 Americans diagnosed with CF. Next week, we will be running all of our "Miles for Makinlee." Please consider sponsoring your son, and making connections with others, to raise awareness to our drive, and ultimately to the Thomas family. 

Please use the following links to help better understand this drive to support "Mak" and others with CF. We are most grateful for your consideration and help. In a year where we cannot get into other places (Marklund Home, local road races, FMSC) to help work on our goals of humble service to others, this was one endeavor our seniors asked to commit to this fall.

Get to know Makinlee Thomas - Meet our new friend, Mak

What is this "Miles for Makinlee"   - Coach explains the "why"

How do I support her Team? - Directions for the website below, to make your donations

LINK TO THE MIRACLES FOR MAKINLEE Page

Kaneland Scoring Pack Runs Sub :60 to Net Third Win vs Wheaton Academy

 

Mother Nature tried to rain us out of another meet, but we were able to get a dual in with Wheaton Academy. The Warriors are a ranked 1A program, and their front three looked the part.

Dallal dropped a shoe at the 1000m mark, but never let up on the pace. He raced to an :80 season best at 16:40. Second place finisher Aaron Lodwig ran a career best 16:56 on the sloppy course. WA took the next three spots with a tight pack within 5 seconds of one another, followed by Nolan Allen’s 17:07 effort. This race was :14 faster than his run at Eddington a year ago. Malone followed up on that improvement, bettering his ‘19 time by :10, good for 17:24 on the day.

Logan Cunz pushed to a home course best, finishing 8th at 17:31. Fitts was six seconds behind, with the fastest 3 mile time of his career when he ran 17:37. Fountain also found himself ahead of WA’s final scoring runner, crossing at 18:06.

Brady Babka knocked :44 off his career best, which now stands at 18:15. Neal was next to the chute, running a course PR by :75 when he clocked in at 18:19. Johnson ran :71 ahead of his Eddington pace of 2019, finishing at 18:35. Evans nearly doubled that, running 18:49, to improve by 2:16 over Eddington 2019.

Chase Brennan was the third lower level runner to enter the chute, blazing under the 19 minute barrier, at 18:58. Behrends put down another strong finishing kick, just ahead of Bruhl, who ran a :32 season’s best on the course at 19:29. Reutimann was a second behind, running a :73 career PR in 19:30.

Lechocki bettered his ‘19 Eddington time by :25 to run 19:53. Fiedler was our next Knight to the line, a few seconds off his Eddington PR last fall when he ended at 20:25. Ramos racing for real this time, found the finish at 20:46 to set a new career best. Kowalczyk maintained a strong pace throughout to finish with a :34 PR at 20:47. Farmer was completely spent when he crossed over the finish stripe at 21:43. Crisci knocked another :27 off his season’s best in the mud, finishing 28th at 23:09.

Stace was on the cusp of another PR, despite the damp course. He finished in 23:48. Cattero was just a few seconds behind, under 8:00 pace at 23:48. Gannon closed the day with another strong effort at 24:06. The finish of the day came with our final two competitors sprinting to the chute in career best times. Broz just outlasted Blickem, with Louis running a :26 PR. Broz erased 2:14 off his previous best on the home course.

We wound up taking the win, 24-34 over Wheaton Academy. It will be important for us to pack up like this again on Tuesday when we host Marmion, with Sandwich. We need to split up packs of Cadets, not letting twos and threes pack on points to our score. Let’s get after it!

 

OTTAWA DUAL: KNIGHTS NOTCH 11 SEASON PRS AND 10 NEW CAREER BESTS FOR 3 MILES

 

Back to back strong efforts, it was important for this busy week of races to get a quality workout in at the onset. With less than fresh legs, we were able to take advantage of the cool temperatures and bring some teammates to new career best times on our home course. The varsity pack set the tone early, and surged forward at Lyle’s Corner to make it a virtual dead heat at the line. Good thing we had a wide mouth chute. Malone out-leaned Dallal for the W, with Allen right on their heels, Lodwig charging hard and Cunz equally close for possibly the smallest pack split in the last 30 years at Kaneland.

Fitts and Fountain earned season best times, with Phillips right in that same mix and :21 off the final pack push at 18:21. Brady Johnson dropped his career best time on a three mile course, running 18:31. Having the pack grouped up early was a benefit to many, including Evans, who capped another career best effort when he crossed the finish at 18:42. This was a :12 PR for Liam. Fiedler ran :56 faster than his previous meet, beating Ottawa’s #2 at 19:16. Scherden was just behind Dom, racing to a :23 season’s best in 19:18. Every varsity finisher was ahead of 6:30 mile pace. That’s pretty awesome, on sore legs.

At the frosh level, a similar pack plan ensued. Trevor Neal broke loose at the end to finish off a 19:34 season’s best race. Babka was :04 behind to take a second straight second place finish for this group. Chase Brennan came through the chute with a smile, crushing his previous time by 2:41 for a career best 19:45. Behrends was next to finish the day at 19:55, and Bruhl capped the perfect 15 point score when he ended his run at 20:01, a season’s best (:25). Lechocki was next in line, only three seconds back of Aidan, and Smith ended the 1-7 split at :40 while finishing in 20:14.

Reutimann smashed his own PR from a week ago when he ran 20:43, a :54 improvement. Kowalczyk did the same when he finished at 21:21, a full :38 better than his best. Brayden Farmer improved on his 2020 season time, running :11 faster at 21:31. Freshman Brayden Cattero got his first race under his belt, and was relentless to the finish and breaking 22:00 at 21:49. Patience and persistence net good results. Ethan Stace got his first race in as well, setting the standard for his next effort when he finished in 23:21.

Finn Gannon dropped :74 off of last Wednesday’s effort to finish at 23:39. Crisci keeps improving by the day and pushed to a huge 3:32 improvement on his previous best and ended the night ahead of Ottawa’s #1 runner at 23:36. Blickem and Mullins worked together throughout the race, taking turns at taking “the edge” and each improved a bunch. Blickem had a 1:46 PR to finish at 25:52, while Mullins ran 25:57 for a 1:53 PR.

On the whole, the execution of the race plans went very well and benefited many in having good targets nearby. If we use this same approach again, we feel confident that we could use these race results to see the improvements continue. On Saturday, we won’t be holding back on the first two miles. We need to get “up” for the event, and to go take full advantage of our surge points. We will freshen up a bit, and prepare for more career best performances.

 

KANELAND SNAGS PAIR OF WINS IN FIRST DUAL MEET OF SEASON VS LASALLE PERU

 

In our first race of the 2020 COVID season, we saw some really fine things, from start to finish. Aaron Lodwig stepped up to show an aggressive presence at the front of our pack. He was only 5 seconds off a career course PR, finishing 2nd in the varsity level. Allen was next to cross, just 7 seconds later. Phillips was just 9 seconds off of his own course PR, and served as our third man. Cunz finished in the top 5, running a home course career best 17:50.

Fitts finished the night for our team scoring, when he crossed in 7th at 18:27. He was 12 seconds ahead of Malone and Dallal, who served as pushers to LP’s score. Senior Liam Evans has been working on a great fall with hundreds of miles put in during the summer. It paid off with an :08 PR on the home course.

Fountain was next in for the diamond jerseys, racing to 11th overall at 19:27. Scherden was next to cross the finish at 19:41. Fiedler took 13th at 20:12. Brady Johnson took 15th on the night, racing to 21:45, ahead of LP’s 4 and 5. Hwang ended the night ahead of 5 Cavaliers in 23:06.

The frosh soph race was run just 5 minutes behind the varsity, something we have never tried to do at home before. The format worked well, and allowed for the front runners the chance to run down some finishers from the other level.

Freshman Palmer Behrends used his closing speed to pull away and barely edge teammate Brady Babka for the win. It was the first race of the careers of both boys at the HS level. Each broke the 19 minute barrier, which is a fine achievement for the first night of racing in the heat. Neal was next to cross at 19:37, with Smith coming in 19 seconds later. Smith had :30 on Bruhl, the fifth finisher of the level, which gave Kaneland a perfect 15 point score, also known in XC lore as a “whitewash.”

That term isn’t used unless the 6 and 7 runners also defeat the #1 of the opponent. So Reutimann did his part by finishing 6th at 21:37, and Farmer was in next at 21:42. Another impressive run came from freshman Devon Kowalczyk. Devon broke 22 minutes, when he managed a 21:59 in 8th overall. Lechocki kept the Knight train rolling to the line, earning 9th at 22:15. Brennan took a top 10 spot at 22:26, for his first high school race at 3 miles.

Gannon clocked in at 24:45 to net 12th. To finish the night, a stream of freshmen came sprinting to the line. Nate Crisci has been building momentum for three weeks, and notched his first three-mile effort at 27:08. Blickem just held on to outlast Broz at 27:38. Broz really has been coming on strong of late and is learning what speed and strength he really possesses. His mile pace on the longer course was  nearly 4 minutes faster than it was in the scrimmage about 10 days ago. Great growth! Mullins also is learning this sport’s demands and finished off his day just 11 seconds later, at 27:50.

For the first time out, under weird circumstances, we got what we needed out of tonight. The points in every varsity race count toward seeds for the varsity conference meet. So when we have a chance to race, we must be ready to go. We must focus on the details that keep us sharp!