By Michael Newman

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Hello everyone.

Last week was a little crazy for me. Friday afternoon as you all know the IHSA released the sectional assignments. We will get to that in a little. Saturday was the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller. I think I created a workout for those who are covering meets. I call it short rest interviews. The meet last week had races going off every 40 minutes. Basically, you run around to the certain points on the course as you saw on the videos and then get to the finish line to do interviews. I did okay getting 15 interviews total on video plus 10 more audio videos. It was just a process where you went back and repeated again. It reminded me of some of the workouts I did in college where we did mile repeats with short rest. I made it through five of the races. I was struggling during the 3A Boys race. It showed that I was in better shape than I thought but I would be ready for the state meet.

Does that sound familiar to all of you runners out there?

There are many meets out there as we approach the third full weekend of the season. This also is the start of the Homecoming season. I hop all of you student athletes out there are making the right decisions.

Let’s look at a few things that did not make the front page.

Sectional assignments

One of the biggest area of discussion at Detweiller Park last Saturday (besides the races) was the sectional assignments that were released by the IHSA late Friday afternoon. Now everyone knows what road they need to travel to get to Detweiller Park.

The IHSA made a great video on how they determine how some of the assignments are made. You can view that video here.

I vowed that I would not use the term “Sectional (or Regional) of Death” this year. I stand by that statement. Sandburg Coach John O’Malley said this best when he replied to a pre-season e-mail of mine:

“Our guys had a conversation during the World Cup about the term “Group of Death” and how we’ve occasionally heard the term “Sectional of Death”. The boys decided that it is contrary to a champion’s mentality. The term is for losers. We never hear that in our sectional. That’s a group of champions. Shouldn’t you want the best competition? We look at our sectional more like “Sectional for Living.” It’s about thriving in the world of challenge, whether that’s the sectional or state meet, or a daily struggle; that’s why we wake up in the morning. I think that’s true of everyone in that sectional—it’s not unique to our guys.  They don’t bemoan the competition; they thrive on it.

Not much changed in the assignments. There were some that are eyebrow raisers.

In 3A, perhaps the biggest change was moving Algonquin Jacobs from the St. Charles East Sectional to the Palatine Sectional. More specifically, Jacobs was moved into perhaps one of the toughest regionals in the state at Palatine. Barrington, Dundee Crown, Cary-Grove, Crystal Lake South, Fox Lake Grant, Lake Zurich, McHenry, and Palatine are the teams that assigned there. It is tougher on the Girls meet. Only six teams will make it out. There is great eye candy in the individual races with Lauren Van Vlierbergen, Jesse Reiser, Graham Brown, Kelly O’Brien, and Morgan Schulz all racing there.

The toughest sectional as of right now is the Boys race at Marist. The top four teams currently ranked in the DyeStat Illinois rankings are there. Add in Downers Grove North who is ranked #9 and you can call that one tough sectional.

In 2A, Yorkville assistant coach Ben Draper speculated a few weeks ago that his team could end up in the Kaneland Sectional. That vision came to fruition Friday afternoon. The Girls sectional race could be murder. Right now, the top six ranked teams are in that sectional. Eight of the top 12 teams. Ouch. The Boys side right now has seven teams in the first 12. It will be interesting to watch this sectional the rest of the season.

Mahomet-Seymour moving from Decatur MacArthur to East Peoria shocked me a little bit. Some of the Springfield athletes were on Twitter approving of that move. It just makes the East Peoria Sectional that much tougher.

In 1A, not much changed. Elmwood-Brimifield got a little tougher with the addition of Rock Island-Alleman on the Girls side and El-Paso Gridley moving from Oregon to Elmwood. The Decatur St. Teresa remains the toughest 1A sectional in the state.

The main thing should be if you are going to make it to the state meet, it should not depend how hard the sectional is. If you deserve to be at state, you will rise to the occasion. In some of the sectionals, that height might be that of Mt. Everest.

Meets this weekend

Here are some of the meets to watch for:

Minooka Invitational – This flight meet has attracted more and more of the top ranked teams in the state. Outside of the Peoria meet, this should be the top meet in the state. Ryan Clevenger (North HS, Downers Grove) will challenge Jake Hoffert (Yorkville HS) in the Boys Championship race. Skyler Bollinger (Yorkville HS) should be the runner to watch in the Girls race. Six ranked teams will toe the line in the Boys race while seven will be in the Girls meet.

Kaneland Invitational – The biggest 2A race of the weekend. In the Girls race, #2 Kaneland, #3 Crystal Lake Central, and #4 Belvidere North will be the teams to watch. Jenna Lutzow should be the favorite in the Girls race. 3A #9 Glenbard West will challenge #5 Grayslake Central and #6 Crystal Lake Central for the Boys team championship. Jack Aho (Grayslake Central HS) and Eryk Yunk (Belvidere North HS) should be the favorites.

Tuscola Invitational – Anna Sophia Keller should be the favorite in the Girls race but will be challenged by 1A FTTF champ Arielle Summit (University HS, Urbana). #1 Urbana University will be the big favorite in Girls Team race. #1 Tolono Unity and #8 Shelbyville will challenge for the Boys team title. Andrew Warnes (Unity HS, Tolono) and Eric Ponder (Tuscola HS) will challenge for the individual title.

Edwardsville Invitational – Edwardsville will be the big favorites in both the Boys and Girls team title hunt as 33 teams and over 800 runners converge on the SIU-Edwardsville Mud Mountain course. Sophia Racette (Nernix Hill MO) is the defending champion and should be the runner to watch in the Girls race. Brydon Groves-Scott (Edwardsville HS) should be the top runner to watch in the Boys race.

There are more meets that we will recap on Monday morning in our weekend recap.

Have a great weekend everyone!