Friday was my first opportunity to take kids to a school track meet this winter. The High School Track season had officially started on Monday and Niles West High School has hosted a meet for anyone interested -- including non-high school athletes -- for the last dozen years. It's a fund raiser for Niles West, but for our athletes -- it's an opportunity to get on an indoor track and see what a meet will be like. No one wears school uniforms, and you can try any event you want. A perfect meet for the start of our season.
Less than half our athletes were able to compete due to conflicts with the play, the Model UN and some illness. But we had some very promising results none the less.
We got off to a good start with Freshman Valerie Kirtley jumping 13'6" in the Long Jump which was the top mark of the day. It was especially impressive because this was the first time Valerie had been on a runway this year, and she had never had a measured approach before. She got four jumps and barely fouled on a jump that was close to 15'. So we have a lot to look forward to in that event. Valerie then went on to run strong races in the 50m dash, 400m dash and 200m dash.
In the 1600m Junior Rory Kelly ran 6:12 and Senior Hannah Bottum ran 6:45, both very good results despite little specific practice going into the meet. Rory was able to finish her race with a Callahanesque 80 second last 400m. Despite the effort that race took, she also ran the 400m and 200m for a solid workout.
Sophomore's Veb Anand and Jackson Lubin ran strong races in the 50m Dash, 200m and the 400m. Both these boys had never competed in a track meet before and both showed promise for the future. Jackson's times were among the top in each race for the day despite just one solid running workout heading into the meet.
Overall, it was a great start and we left a bunch of folks at home. As I said to our kids, I can clearly see the potential for another trip in May to southern Illinois to race on the Blue Track at the state meet.
The meet ran quicker than normal and we finished at Niles West at 7:30 pm and hustled home to catch the end of the North Shore vs. Parker game but got the word on the way home that they were done.
As I walked in I got the news on what happened. It was an incredible game.
Our Raiders started slow and were down 18 points in the second half. At the beginning of the 4th quarter a double technical foul was called on a Parker Colonel player resulting in 4 foul shots for Jaime Swimmer who proceeded to hit all four. North Shore got the ball then and Elias Butler hit a three and all of a sudden it was a ball game.
The Raiders continued to whittle the Parker lead away and went up by 1 with 10 seconds to go. Parker brought the ball down the court and with three seconds left heaved a desperation shot that hit the rim bounced up, came down on the rim again, and rolled in. Parker wins by 1.
Despite the heartbreaking loss for our Raiders it was an incredible comeback and shows the fire power of the team. We are still struggling with some injuries and getting the team to consistently perform throughout the game at the level they did down the stretch.
I sat with our coaches for about 30 minutes reviewing the ups and downs before they headed home.
As I headed home and the rest of the sports world seemed to be talking about either Manti Te'o or Lance Armstrong, I thought about all the potential for greatness I saw in both our Track and Basketball teams on Friday. It is not easy achieving greatness and no one at North Shore will be taking any short cuts to our destiny. But we will be doing our very best to see if we can maximize our potential as Basketball heads towards the climax of their season and track gets going with more meets in February.
Sophomore's Veb Anand and Jackson Lubin ran strong races in the 50m Dash, 200m and the 400m. Both these boys had never competed in a track meet before and both showed promise for the future. Jackson's times were among the top in each race for the day despite just one solid running workout heading into the meet.
Overall, it was a great start and we left a bunch of folks at home. As I said to our kids, I can clearly see the potential for another trip in May to southern Illinois to race on the Blue Track at the state meet.
The meet ran quicker than normal and we finished at Niles West at 7:30 pm and hustled home to catch the end of the North Shore vs. Parker game but got the word on the way home that they were done.
As I walked in I got the news on what happened. It was an incredible game.
Our Raiders started slow and were down 18 points in the second half. At the beginning of the 4th quarter a double technical foul was called on a Parker Colonel player resulting in 4 foul shots for Jaime Swimmer who proceeded to hit all four. North Shore got the ball then and Elias Butler hit a three and all of a sudden it was a ball game.
The Raiders continued to whittle the Parker lead away and went up by 1 with 10 seconds to go. Parker brought the ball down the court and with three seconds left heaved a desperation shot that hit the rim bounced up, came down on the rim again, and rolled in. Parker wins by 1.
Despite the heartbreaking loss for our Raiders it was an incredible comeback and shows the fire power of the team. We are still struggling with some injuries and getting the team to consistently perform throughout the game at the level they did down the stretch.
I sat with our coaches for about 30 minutes reviewing the ups and downs before they headed home.
As I headed home and the rest of the sports world seemed to be talking about either Manti Te'o or Lance Armstrong, I thought about all the potential for greatness I saw in both our Track and Basketball teams on Friday. It is not easy achieving greatness and no one at North Shore will be taking any short cuts to our destiny. But we will be doing our very best to see if we can maximize our potential as Basketball heads towards the climax of their season and track gets going with more meets in February.
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