There comes a “turning point” in a season where a team gels and starts momentum toward something big. Today’s efforts could make for a strong October, if we can remain healthy and work to improve ourselves at both levels.
Richtman blazed to a 14:42 on the revamped Freeport course, earning a :39 individual win. His time was a “short course” PR as well. Occhipinti grabbed another pretzel and a :31 improvement from ‘16. Webster ran a career best 15:46, avenging a loss from sophomore year. Being :04 off of Daniel’s time is huge for us.
Heiser and Wielgos (8th, 10th) teamed up to smash their PR’s by :47 and :15 respectively, and completed our 1-5 split at :81. Aidan Lodwig ran :33 better to finish 12th overall at 16:15, and completing our milestone time of :33 between 2-6 runners. Nosek earned a Top 20 medal with a 15th place finish and a course PR.
Finn established a career best on the day when he finished in 16:57, while Petrik annihilated his PR pace and time when he chopped :33 off his ‘16 performance. Orczykowski ran a :46 PR from ‘16, finishing 29th overall. Klingensmith improved :25, with a time of 17:57, and first year senior Drew Occhipinti met his PR pace of the season with a stellar 18:07. Hero of the 2016 trophy team performance, Ben Purcell rallied late to finish in 18:44, and was followed a minute later by a wave of Knights.
Kyle Konrad raced to a season’s PR pace at 65th place, with Wells on his heels in the same record fashion. Girolamo lit up the course in his new spikes and continues to improve in his final campaign. All three seniors have been working to get back in the lineup and have led by example the entire time. Pay attention! Matt Konrad completed the HoCo day run in a season’s best time of 22:29.
Frosh soph runners completed a “whitewash” which is a term used in cross country scoring when you place 1-5 first in a scored meet. Minus the Eastland and Jefferson runners who finished 2nd/6th, but not on full scoring teams, the Knights grabbed 4 pretzels and a 15 point performance. Ethan Neal raced to an individual title in 16:27. Seth Nosek beat his ‘16 time by :80 while Walker and Dallal earned their first taste of Pretzel, finishing :02 apart. Popovich completed the team scoring with a seventh place effort, to complete our scoring at :61.
There’s reason to be excited, but yet we cannot be satisfied or complacent with our team performance. We must continue to tighten up the gaps between scorers and our pushers. This meet gave us a different “feel” in running out in front. There’s a little less pressure, and a lot more fun on days like this; but they are rare. The real work begins on Monday. October is finally here; the best time of the year.
Don’t stop now, boys!
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