After a long recruiting process, Barrington all-time great, Ryan Burgoon, has chosen to run for the Illini next season.  Ryan is a two-time cross country all-state runner and a 2012 qualifier in the 3200 meters in track.  Ryan has been an inspirational team leader and we are looking forward to watching him close out his illustrious high school career in the coming weeks.

 

See the full story here:  Ryan Burgoon Selects In-state Illini

February 25: Rolling Meadows Quad

We opened our season last Thursday with our usual trip to Rolling Meadows.  This year was a bit odd as this was our first time stepping on a track since the first day of practice.  There have been a lot of hills, road runs, and parking lot workouts, so it was nice to finally step on the oval.  We had a good night on the distance side and got rid of the rust from a long winter.  We went young in the 4x800 with a group of sophomores and juniors.  We led for three legs before giving up the lead to a strong split from the GBN anchor.  Perkins (2:17), Tung (2:13), Phillips (2:12), and Monahan (2:17) all had solid starts though it was clear we need more time on the track.  In the 3200 we had solid but not stellar times from Jake Herb (10:53), Phil Towne (11:06), and Jack Foley (11:06) to finish 1-3-4.  Jake pulled away early in the second mile and won unchallenged.  The field house was buzzing after the 800 and the track debut of David Cerney.  David cruised a 2:03 and was not challenged.  Behind him, strong performances were turned in by Mike Rappleye and Ben Laning.  Konrad Eiring opened the 2013 campaign strong with a dominating win in the mile.  Konrad pulled away after the first 400 to win in a time of 4:40.  Behind him, Pitcher Seagrist (4:57), Mike Rappleye (5:03), Zach Watson (5:24), and Andy Geleske (5:25) all ran well.  Tate Fisher ran his first ever track meet and finished in 5:27 as a promising sophomore talent.

 

This week we travel to the Buffalo Grove A-B-C invite.  The bus leaves at 7:15 and promises to be a great day with strong distance competition.

February 12: Track Season has Started

After a long winter of cold weather running track season is finally here.  Many of our runners took advantage of the mild (until recently) winter and got a lot of quality miles in.  We open the season next Thursday at the Rolling Meadows Quad.  The meet will be held at Rolling Meadows High School's indoor facility.  They have 150 meter track so the turns will be tight.  It will be a good season opener for us and I know the guys are excited to get back to racing after a long winter of training. 

Alumni Update

Congratulations to Erik Peterson for his 8th place finish at the Atlantic 10 Conference meet this past weekend.  Erik and the Butler Bulldogs routed the competition to win the Atlantic 10 Championship.  In addition, Erik was named Rookie of the Year as the highest freshman finisher. 

 

Team Awards

To all runners:  The link is now active for you to go online and vote for the team awards for this year.  You can vote for team MVP, most improved runner, outstanding freshman, and next year's captains.  Awards will be presented at the Fall Sports Awards Night on Wednesday, November 14th.  Please only vote once.  Vote online by cliking here.

October 29: Sectionals

On Saturday, the Broncos qualified for the state championship for the third year in a row by placing second (136 pts.) to a strong Lake Zurich team (104 pts.).  We had a really good day up front with a fourth place finish from senior Ryan Burgoon (15:12) and 16th and 17th places by Mike Rappleye (15:36) and Jake Herb (15:36).  Konrad Eiring continued to gain varsity experience and run big with a 33rd place finish (15:57).  Kerry Frank was the story of the day.  Kerry returned from a stress fracture after only four weeks to place as our fifth and final scorer, placing 66th (16:23).  Ryan Perkins and Adam Phillips has solid races placing 67th and 72nd. 

 

 

Looking Ahead

This week we travel down to Peoria for the state championship.  The best teams in the state will be there and we will have to run our best.  We look to improve by lowering our 1-5 split from the 71 seconds it was at Sectionals back to our 40-45 second split that has served us well all year.  We will need big races from our 4-7 runners but I know they are up to the challenge.

 

The race starts at 2:00 at Detweiller Park in Peoria, IL.  Come out and support the team if you can. 

 

We accomplished our goals at regionals this weekend with a third place finish, scoring 79 behind Lake Zurich (41) and Palatine (48).  Our goals were to get through to sectionals healthy and work on a fast last mile.  We packed up for two miles then really tried to burn the last mile.  We still need to get healthy as Kerry Frank and Ryan Perkins were held out for precautionary reasons and our split still needs to be closer 1-5.  The guys that ran did well and we are peaking at the right time for the biggest meet. 

 

 

Looking ahead

We knew it would be a tough task to qualify for state this year and a very good team will be staying home next week.  Our sectional highlights #5 Palatine, #6 Barrington, #7 Hersey, #11 Prospect, #16 Lake Zurich, and #23 Highland Park.  With only five qualifiers, one of these great teams will be watching the state meet instead of competing.  The sectional meet will be hosted by Schaumburg.  Please come out and support the team as they attempt to qualify for the state meet.

We will again be having our year-end celebration dinner at the Onion Pub in Barrington on November 7th starting at 6:30.  All are welcome.  For more information and to sign up please click here.

 

The following night, Thursday, November 8th, the Cogswells have generously agreed to host the team bonfire.  This is a very popular event so come if you can.  Find more information here.

 

October 8: Wheeling Invite

We had our final tune up before the championship series last Saturday with a 5th place finish at the Wheeling Invite.  2A #2 Belvedere North won the invite with 46 points followed by 3A #12 Highland Park (89) and unranked but dangerous Lake Zurich (92).  2A #7 Deerfield slipped by us with 137 points and we were 5th with 142 points.  Although we were short handed, we still did not run our best.  Our split was too large and we will need to tighten up the pack if we are going to make a run at Palatine next week.

 

 

The frosh/soph team dominated the competition with 5 runners in the top 12, winning the meet with 43 points.  This was fun to watch as this group is coming together at the right time.  In what turned into a dual meet with Hersey, Barrington won 30 to 42 behind The individual title run of Kevin Eiring.  Pitcher Seagrist returned from injury to capture second.

 

 

October 1: Conant/Fremd Dual and Antioch Invite

It was another strong week for our program as we finished up the dual meet season at 4-1 with wins over Conant and Fremd.  The scores were almost identical as we bested Conant 23-37 and beat Fremd 23-32.  In a way, the two opponents are similar as well.  They are both rebuilding a bit after strong seasons the last couple of years and they both have strong juniors and underclassmen suggesting that these two teams will be a force in the MSL in the years to come.  Ryan Burgoon won the varsity race in commanding fashion as Fremd's star Harry Winter wore trainers and used the race as a tempo run.  This is not to take away from Burgoon's performance; Conant's coach John Powers told me after the race that Ryan's 15:29 is one of the fastest races ever on their course.  This is a good sign just two weeks from the MSL championship that will be run on the same course.  Behind Ryan, the team really came through.  I challenged them early in the week to step up and fill the giant gap left by Kerry Frank who is out with injury.  The team responded well with Konrad Eiring and Jake Herb both auditioning for Kerry's spot by running as our second and third runners respectively.  The finished right with Rappleye and that, combined with a strong race from Ryan Perkins gave us a nice 41 second 1-5 split even without Kerry.  We need to continue this strong pack running and when we get Kerry back we are going to be hard to beat. 

On Saturday the team headed up to Wisconsin for the 38th Annual Pat Harland Invite hosted by Antioch High School.  This course is a favorite for many of our runners because of the rolling hills and wooded layout.  As we usually do, we decided to sit most of our top 7 for this race and give the next group a chance to run varsity.  They did not disappoint as the team finished 4th in a competitive field.  2A #4 Crystal Lake Central won the meet with 45 points and 3A #15 Jacobs was second with 68.  Warren slipped by us for third with 114 and we scored 148 to capture 4th.  Top performances were turned in by Mike Rappleye (5th), Jack Rogers (24th), Adam Phillips (34th), Ryan Skelly (35th), and Jack Foley (40th).  The Frosh/soph captured third behind a gallant performance by Kyle Monahan.  Kyle captured 2nd and got some valuable front running experience that will serve him well in the future.  Behind Kyle, Andrew Gensburg (17), Tate Fisher (18), and Chris Geleske (19) continued to improve.  Daniel Stermer (28) had one of his best races this year to finish as our 5th and final scorer.  The open raced also was an exciting one that went down to the wire.  Zach Watson ran a beautiful tactical race and took the lead with 800 meters to go.  He challenged the field and paid for the aggressive move and faded a bit to finish 5th.  Still, this was a gutsy performance and showed that Zach will always be a guy who runs to win.  The rest of the team raced well with strong performances turned in by Kevin Gordon (4th), Phil Towne (8), Stefan Sampaleanu (12), and Chase Small (28).  The JV group won the open race 52-58 over New Trier.  Again this group showed our depth and reminds us that everyone on the team has an important role to play. 

 

Looking Ahead

With the dual meet season over, there is only one race on the calendar this week as we start to rest up and sharpen for the championship phase of the season.  This Saturday we will travel to the Wheeling Invite.  This meet will be full of great competition with 2A giants Belvedere North (#2) and Deerfield (#7) along with 3A ranked Highland Park (#18), St. Ignatius (#12) and the always tough Lake Zurich team. Normally this meet is held at Wheeling's home course at Herritage Park but due to renovations they have changed locations this year.  The meet will be held on the campus of Allstate Insurance Company at 2775 Sanders Road, Northbrook, Il 60062. 

 

Races will start at 9:00 A.M. There is no set time schedule; the next race will start at the conclusion of the previous race.

Frosh/soph girls

Frosh/soph boys

Varsity girls

Varsity boys

Open race girls

Open race boys

 

Directions to the Allstate Campus:

Exit I-294 at Willow Rd (Palatine Rd) head west to Sanders Road and turn South (left) traveling down about 2 miles to the last campus entrance (Look for the "Wheeling Cross Country" - sign).  Please enter at this entrance ONLY.  Please encourage parents NOT to enter at Palatine/Willow Road.  They will be asked to turn around.  Click here for a map to the Allstate Campus.