MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

September 6, 2021

By Michael Newman [email protected]

My weekend is like a normal person’s weekday schedule. I have trouble sleeping on Friday night knowing what is to occur the next day. I set my alarm. For some reason, I always wake up three minutes before the time I set. I attend a meet. I get home and then get down to business. Upload videos that I shot, start uploading results from all over the country, write about what I saw. It starts all over Sunday doing the same things and enjoying every moment of it.

I woke up this morning and the first thing I started to think about were the rankings that I will publish tomorrow. Which team will go where and so on and so on? I know then that it is cross country season.

Labor Day is usually the first time that I settle down and really dive into results. I quickly look at them as I am writing about the meets and uploading results. Ooooh, what as the split for this team. Who was missing from their top seven? While everyone is planning a Labor Day cookout, I am planning which team will go where. The first year I tried it was a mess. Each year after the season is complete, I review what thing I could add to make it a little more accurate. Keep feelings out of the process. Leave bias on the outside while I work through the inside of my mind.

Some people think that I am crazy for spending this time on it. Many people appreciate what I do, and I appreciate all of you. Take the craziness and add an insane interest for a sport, and a pinch of obsession and you get passion.

I’ve got that passion back that for a while was lurking out there in meets that lacked crowds. The meets that I missed that had the  sound of cheering for your favorite runner. The one parent that needs to get the perfect shot and steps right in front of you. Boy, I missed all of that.

I thought I was the only one that was gobbled up by a weekend of cross country meets. There is one more person in that state that shares that passion of this sport, maybe a little more.

Roland Hopkins is a successful accountant that has a great grasp for the numbers. He also has that passion for cross-country that I have. A few years ago, Roland and I were discussing rankings. He had noticed this New York website called Tully Runners that did this thing called Speed Ratings that where you can compare runners running on different courses from different areas in the country.

Roland decided that Illinois needed something else in this cross-country crazy state to make things a little wilder. He asked me what I thought. My reply was simple: “Go for it”.

I cannot tell you how long Roland spent emailing Bill Meylan, the creator of Tully Runners, asking him questions on how this speed ratings thing works. He did a ton of research and playing around with older meets.

I have been called the Guru of Cross Country in this state. If I am the Guru, Roland is the Zen-master. His site Illinois Cross Country Speed Ratings (ilxcspeedratings.com) has grown the sport more than I can imagine in this state. When you get e-mails like “I have this dual meet that we ran great in. Do you think Roland can do speed ratings for it?”

Remember all those crazy things = passion? Roland has that.

His wife Jessica must be a saint with all the things that Roland does during the fall. She posted a picture of Roland in the car with his laptop going through the results. I laughed. That’s Roland.

As soon as I get home from a meet on Saturday afternoon, there are messages waiting for me from him giving his thoughts. We bounce back and forth all weekend on ideas or meets missing or him processing results so that I can put up quicker so that he can rate them quicker.

I checked this morning before I headed off to practice and there were a few notes there about a meet. Luckily, I was able to fix it. I gave him my thoughts and shut down.

When I was driving this morning, I thought how nice it is to talk to a crazy guy like me that can relate to what I am saying. He’s my equal as we head into this next two months of craziness. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks, Roland, for adding to High School Cross Country in Illinois and making it better.

Who’s hot?

Alex Partlow – This senior has started out strong in his first two races of the season. His first race at the Murphysboro Invitational was a win as he ran 15:29 to win by 29 seconds ahead of Benton sophomore Gavin Genisio. The Granite City race last Saturday indicates he could be doing something special this season. His time of 14:42 in wet conditions gave him the win by 33 seconds against the rest of the field. Ryan Watts of Edwardsville ran 14:41 in his regional race on this course a year ago. His next race is Saturday at the University of Southern Illinois Carbondale Invitational. He should be the big favorite in the race. He is not scheduled to race at Peoria until the October 2 where he could have a big showdown with Limestone’s Wilson Georges.

Aly Negovetich – This senior from Grant Community has won both of her races against some great competition. She ran 18:04 on a 3-mile+ course last Wednesday winning the Lake County Invitational by 39 seconds ahead of Lake Forest’s Isabella Marisco. Negovetich came back to run 17:35 on a fast Fenton Campus Course to win by nine seconds ahead of Downers Grove South’s Holly Johnson and another five seconds ahead of Hersey’s Anna Harden. Grant does not race in a major invitational this week. Negovetich will race next at the Richard Spring Invitational on September 18.

Kate Ahmari – This junior from 1A Urbana University has been tested twice in her first two races and has passed both. She opened her campaign by running 18:34 at the Saber Corn Classic on August 28. She won by 57 seconds over a tough field headed by Monticello’s Estella Miller and Mabry Bruhn. She defeated Miller again last Saturday at the Chrisman Cowchip Classic this time by a winning margin of 43 seconds. She will be one of the favorites in the 1A race at this Saturday’s First to the Finish Invitational with a loaded field headed by Anna Perry of Eureka and Carly Manchester of IC Catholic Prep.

Daniel Watcke – This carries over back to the track season for Watcke. The junior was on at state winning the 800 and anchoring his team to the win at the 4x400m Relay. His 800 at Hope Academy set a new all-time sophomore state record. His race on his home course last Saturday was like the track waiting for the last moment to capture the win. He will be at Detweiller Park on Saturday where he will be one of the favorites in the 3A race against perhaps Nick Falk of New Trier who did not race last week and Oswego East’s Parker Nold and Alex Das who finished behind Watcke at Hinsdale.

Miles Sheppard – The Hamilton-Warsaw senior has been busy early this season after winning Detweiller at Dark at the end of July. Shepard started his season on August 28 winning the Macomb Early Bird Meet in 15:11 for 3.04-miles winning that race by 86 seconds. He ran 15:26 for 5k at the Keokuk Invitational in Iowa on September 2 winning by more than a minute ahead of teammate Noah Stout. He should be the favorite in the 1A race in Peoria this Saturday against a field that could include Latin School’s Akili Parekh and Ryan Hardiman.

Here come the Freshmen

One of the things that I ask coaches when I send out my pre-season questionnaire at the beginning of August at is will you have any freshmen that will be an impact on your team this fall. The answers usually will have a coach raving about their new runner or just crickets at the other end refusing to put any pressure on their newcomers.

We usually see freshmen girls make impact on their teams especially the first week of the season. This year was no exception. We saw three freshmen that made some noise in the Frosh/Soph race at Hinsdale with Mia Kottler of Latin School running 17:40 for the win. Abigail Jordan of Palatine and Nicole Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South were in there first high school race. They would have finished in the top 20 if they were in this high-powered meet.

Naperville North was reloading to start the season. Their #2 runner Saturday in Iowa was Emma Berres who was also running in her first meet. Add in Hadley Ferrero of Crystal Lake Central who made her presence known at the McHenry County Meet on August 28.

Holly Johnson of Downers Grove South was known for her running in the middle school ranks. Johnson pushing all-state runner Aly Negovetich of Grant to the brin last Saturday at Fenton gives us another runner to watch. You can also add in the little sister of Lianna Surtz to the mix. Chiara Surtz has been the second runner for Rosary in this early part of the season and will help Rosary go after a trophy in November.

There will be some Boys runners that have already made their names known and could be helping their teams when we get to the state series.

Ignacio Escamilla of Bolingbrook ran under 16-minutes last Saturday at Hinsdale. Dylan Maloney of Plainfield South will be under that mark soon. He has run 16:10 already this fall. Evan Nosek of Kaneland has taken his success in the middle schools up to the high school ranks could be one of his team’s top runners.

There are so many runners we could talk about that will be difference makers for their teams this fall. It will be fun to see them emerge. Let’s enjoy their successes and support them when they have a bad race. They could be the future all-state runners of the future.