2012 IHSA 1A Cross Country

[runoholic]

Originally Posted by sparky791

A team that could suprise this year is Shelbyville. They were right with Rochester at regionals but couldn't get out of the tough Decatur Sectional. They have their top nine back and according to honor roll article in paper I read a few weeks ago they had 1600 times this spring of 4:31, 4:32, 4:42, 4:43, 4:47, 4:51, 4:58, 5:01, and 5:11 among those nine and have a 5:02 1600 freshman and a 2:12 800 freshman coming in. Looking at the state results they were the only team in finals of 4 x 800 that had all underclassman in which they ran a 8:10. May not be trophy contender but could be top ten material.

Good catch as well. I definitely was not taking my eyes off them. I would have brought them up soon enough (as a team that finished 7th in Decatur sectional with everybody back, which alone speaks for itself), but I'm glad someone else has brought them up and has their track times on radar. It seems like good timing that they're back in the mix with this year seeming like a rather competitive one.

If sectional distributions are anything like last year, the Decatur sectionals going to be one dogfight with all these young teams having a legitimate shot and spots finally opening up (with teams like Monticello, Tolono, and Mt. Zion finally losing bang to them).

[illini1]

Monticello and Elmwood will be returning very strong teams.

17 All-State runners will be back in 2012.

Should be an interesting year. Any thoughts?

[sparky791]

Originally Posted by illini1

Monticello and Elmwood will be returning very strong teams.

17 All-State runners will be back in 2012.

Should be an interesting year. Any thoughts?

Elmwood, St. Thomas More, Rock Island Alleman, and Mt. Zion are my top teams right now. Tremont, Richmond-Burton and Rochester just behind them.

Coach Butler is one of the best in the business so Monticello will be tough. But they lost a lot. Only two in top seven return. Hanzleman and Galloway give them a tough top two to start. They need someone to come out of nowhere like Tim Easton did for them last year to step up to top five state material. Rumor has it they had a heck of a camp at EIU this past week. So look out.

[illini1]

Originally Posted by sparky791

Coach Butler is one of the best in the business so Monticello will be tough.

Absolutely, and his teams are a class act. Coach Butler is one of the best coaches in Illinois, hands down.

Guess I should have clarified...I was thinking Elmwood and Monticello in terms of girls teams returning. My comments on All-Staters were referring to the girls side as well.

Wanted to get a little more discussion going b/c I think the guys' side of things has been pretty well analyzed.

EIU puts on a great XC camp, so wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot of people had a great camp. Coach Butler's oldest son Brad is an assistant coach for the EIU xc/track teams.

[sparky791]

Originally Posted by illini1

Absolutely, and his teams are a class act. Coach Butler is one of the best coaches in Illinois, hands down.

Guess I should have clarified...I was thinking Elmwood and Monticello in terms of girls teams returning. My comments on All-Staters were referring to the girls side as well.

Wanted to get a little more discussion going b/c I think the guys' side of things has been pretty well analyzed.

EIU puts on a great XC camp, so wouldn't surprise me at all if a lot of people had a great camp. Coach Butler's oldest son Brad is an assistant coach for the EIU xc/track teams.

On the girls side both Elmwood and Monticello will be tough but they will be fighting for second. St. Teresa is the strong favorite for the title again. I think they could be better than they were last year.

[thugzmansion69]

Feelin bold today... im callin Nykaza for the win. He's gonna come in with a vengeance after losing to Schroeder last year

[runoholic]

Originally Posted by thugzmansion69

Feelin bold today... im callin Nykaza for the win. He's gonna come in with a vengeance after losing to Schroeder last year

Yeah, doesn't seem like much of a contest for the individual race...which is why it hasn't been discussed much. I mean, as it was last year, Grant was clearly expected to be the victor (based Grant's dominance against even much of the 3A competition over the course of his season) until Schroeder surprised us all with his 14:28. Considering we have only one returner (Jake Brown) who ran under 15 PERIOD (EDIT: looks like there's one more, Ethan Adlfinger, if we're counting other Peoria invites, but point still stands), I'm not expecting Grant to have much competition this time around, but you never know.

Let's look at who's returning out of the all-state squad: Only eight out of 25 (Grant included). So good news for underclassmen/class of '13 seniors looking to make one last mark, it's your time to shine...Though don't expect Nykaza, who's been 2nd, 3rd, and 2nd during his high school career, to cough up his last chance to ever win a cross country state championship so easily.

The other seven all-state returnees include Jake Brown (14:58), Jesse Hahn (15:02), Austin Ackman (15:22), Ethan Adlfinger (15:23), Nick Hess (15:28), Chad French (15:30), and Daniel Plunkett (15:31). It's gonna be quite the fight for second. Major favorites (based solely on state times) include Jake Brown and Jesse Hahn. Glad there's yet another athlete reppin the News Gazette area looking to make big noise, more than one actually (in reference to primarily Jesse Hahn and Nick Hess).

*EDIT: Blake Hale (15:00) is also coming back and should also be counted among the individual favorites. I missed that before. Thanks again for correcting me, xcrunner2011.

As far as the girls individual race goes, there's 17 all-staters (took me a crap load of recounts to come to that number, so please correct me if I'm wrong) returning for the next battle of the individual crown. They are Alex Van Hoof (17:18), McKayla Harder (17:29), Megan Burgener (17:52), Faith Wieland (17:52), Ivy Handley (17:57), Rachel Devereux (18:04), Hannah Houska (18:15), Chloe Marshinski (18:17), Jess Clarke (18:17), Robbie Ann Hoye (18:17), Maria Baldwin (18:17), Joy Hittenmiller (18:17, hot damn, that's a lot of sophomores who ran 18:17), Krissy Finley (18:19), Regan Weidner (18:19), Julie Buzzard (18:19), Maggie Utgaard (18:23), and Leah Hutchison (18:25).

Looks like it's a battle between Van Hoof and Harder on the girls side. Van Hoof has the best returning placing, but Harder I believe has the IESA overall state record, and as far as I can tell no signs I can see of early career peaking (which happens often for girl runners compared to guys). Knowing their program (for both guys AND girls), I trust that Mt. Zion is coaching her well and making sure she progresses appropriately over the years, so I expect a closer battle for first between the two than what the eleven second state time gap might otherwise signify.

Feel free, anyone, to mention any 1A individual dark horses, boys or girls. And happy Fourth, everybody! And good luck to all on any road races going on in celebration of the event.

[xcrunner2011]

Originally Posted by runoholic

Considering we have only one returner (Jake Brown) who ran under 15 PERIOD, I'm not expecting Grant to have much competition this time around, but you never know.
The other seven all-state returnees include Jake Brown (14:58), Jesse Hahn (15:02), Austin Ackman (15:22), Ethan Adlfinger (15:23), Nick Hess (15:28), Chad French (15:30), and Daniel Plunkett (15:31). It's gonna be quite the fight for second. Major favorites (based solely on state times) include Jake Brown and Jesse Hahn.

Jake Brown has run 14:56 and Ethan Adlfinger has run 14:59, both at Peoria Central Invite at Detweiller. Also, Blake Hale (15:00) was only a junior and is thus another all-state returnee, and should be one of the top runners again.
Amazingly, even though only 9 all-staters return, 4 of the top 5 are returning!

[runoholic]

Originally Posted by xcrunner2011

Jake Brown has run 14:56 and Ethan Adlfinger has run 14:59, both at Peoria Central Invite at Detweiller. Also, Blake Hale (15:00) was only a junior and is thus another all-state returnee, and should be one of the top runners again.
Amazingly, even though only 9 all-staters return, 4 of the top 5 are returning!

Oh, wow, fail on my part for not recognizing Blake. And yeah, he should be as well. It seems like that top 5 is gonna be more of the same (with maybe a step-up or two sneaking in there which quite frequently happens), but it's gonna be interesting to see who makes all-state next year.

[classof2013runner]

Not only are only 9 All-Staters returning, but only 19 from the top 50 are returning, so it could it be tough to predict who will be All-State this year. Below are the top 25 returners from last year:

1. Grant Nykaza, Beecher
2. Jake Brown, Mt. Zion
3. Blake Hale, Robinson
4. Jesse Hahne, Danville (Schlarman)
5. Austin Ackman, Havana
6. Ethan Adlfinger, Rock Island (Alleman)
7. Nick Hess, Champaign (St. Thomas More)
8. Chad French, Canton
9. Daniel Plunkett, Pleasant Plains
10. Brandt Cole, Rock Falls
11. Noah Isbell, Elmwood
12. Michael Brown, Carmi-White County
13. Luke Muzikowski, Chicago Hope Academy
14. Michael Cook, Kewanee (Wethersfield)
15. Luke Watson, Quincy (Notre Dame)
16. TJ Pitcock, Byron
17. Sean Kelley, Champaign (St. Thomas More)
18. Connor Ehnle, Tremont
19. Andrew Nadler, Chicago (Latin)
20. Devin Clark, Monmouth-Roseville
21. Devin Johnson, Prophetstown
22. Seth Trobaugh, Clifton (Central)
23. Trevor Lay, Kewanee (Wethersfield)
24. Lucas Hill, Ottawa (Marquette)
25. Jake Callister, Elmwood

The next five:
26. Ryan Taylor, Manilus (Bureau Valley)
27. John DiCicco, Aurora Christian
28. Timmy Wiltshire, Harvard
29. Sam Powers, Champaign (St. Thomas More)
30. Cade Martens, Heyworth

Also, I think that Aaron Spivey and DJ Wolfram, both from Richmond-Burton, have a good chance of being All-State. They're around the same level as TJ Pitcock.