Monthly Archives: February 2009
Morton Invitational
Yesterday our team competed at the Morton Invitational. Traditionally, this has been a good meet to use as springboard for the season, as we get to give almost our entire team the chance to compete at the same meet… something that’s rare for a team of our size! After school, we boarded three buses and braved gridlocked traffic on 55 and eventually arrived at the meet – 10 minutes before the start of the 4X800 relay and field events!
The team lines up along the curve to cheer on our relay
After his usual detour, Coach Janota showed up with several Spicy Chicken sandwiches from Wendy’s in tow. Things were hectic as the guys all tried to cram in a sped-up version of the warmup and practice a few baton exchanges, and before long the gun signaled the start of the first race of the season: the frosh/soph 4X800. The boys put in a good effort and finished in 10:18. Our varsity squad improved on last year’s time, dropping from 8:54 to 8:41.
The next race, the 4X160, left all of us thoroughly impressed. Exchanges looked OK at the JV level, as they improved upon last year’s time by a second (1:20.4). Varsity, however, proved that they’re going to be a viable threat this season by blazing to a 1:15.7 finish – which was a school record – on carpet!
The rest of the night, we saw improvements on almost all of our athletes’ performances from last year. By the time the meet had ended with a killer 4X400 relay that came close to lapping the competition (and a second, exhibition squad that beat everyone else, too), we had seen a great start to the season. Perhaps the most significant thing to come from this meet was the fact that we were functioning as a true team on the track and in the field events. I saw athletes doing the small things right: they were drinking water, eating healthy snacks, holding each others’ blocks, and making sure batons were in the hands of our relay teams. It was a moving sight to see all of our athletes roar to life as one, cheering the guys in the 4X400 and coming together after to the chant “cats!”
Some of the meet’s highlights:
- Thaddeus, Desmond, and Benga all improved on their 55m times
- Aryan, Tanner, and Winek would have all beat last year’s winner in the 600 – and Winek rocked a speed suit
- Lago, Jaff, Torke, Tout, and Merkley were all under 5 in the 1600!
- Verbus, Morenus, Folster, and Wing were all under 10 in the 3200!
- Kevin Long dropped some major time in both hurdle events – most notably from 9.0 to 7.84 in the 55M IH
- Thaddeus cleared 6′ – way too easily
- Sam PR’d in the vault with a 14’04″ effort
- Richard Jiang picked up some distance in his jumps
- Our 4X400 improved on last year’s 3:47 and finished at an impressive 3:39!
- I got to see the Janota “coaching face” again
I’ll have some more pictures from this meet posted soon… for now, check out the link below for pics from last week’s lock-in!
IHSA AAA Boys Track Preview on Dyestat
I mentioned at practice that this pre-season preview was recently published on Dyestat. Click on the link below to see who’s returning from last year’s state meet, as well as a list of last year’s state performances.
Our team has a proud tradition of excellence. We believe in having fun, living balanced lives, and celebrating our achievements as a team. For more on our values, 
