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Mr. Pereyra |
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 GIRLS' CROSS COUNTRY
Team Captains 2011 VARSITY Most Valuable Runner-Tiarra McGee Most Dedicated Athlete-Fanny Reyes Best New Runner-Paulina Ciepiela Most Improved Runner-Jelly Jimenez Student Athlete of the Year-Sammy Balbuena TEAM SPIRIT AWARD-Lauren Dejesus JV Most Valuable Runner-Cintia Garcia Most Dedicated Athlete-Diana Herrera Best New Runner-Brenda Escalante Yahoo Weather Coach's Corner 2011 Illinois State Sectional 10/29/11 (and all the rest...) Perfect running weather made for a fast course. In our first team state sectional ever we got to race against the fastest girls in the state. Thanks to the weather and the competition our number one runner, Tiarra McGee was able to shave a fraction of a second off the school record in the 3-mile. Earlier this season Tiarra broke our 2-mile record and now she owns both. The rest of the team, including Cintia Garcia, Fanny Reyes, Samanta Balbuena, Brenda Escalante, Lucy Licona, and Paulina Ciepiela, powered through the course looking so strong that you would have thought racing three miles was easy. Although it was a beautiful day, we did have the bitter sweet experience of having to say goodbye to each other for the year as well as so long to our seniors. Momo Rafael, Lucy Licona, Lauren DeJesus, Tiarra McGee, Berry Barajas, and Sammy Balbuena will not be with us next year as they move on to bigger and better things. This is an incredible group whose shoes will very difficult to fill. Both Momo and Lucy have run varsity all four of their high school years! That has only happened 4 times. One of this group's most outstanding characteristics is their willingness to do what is best for the team regardless of how it affects them personally. That level of commitment is incredibly rare. This was really the kind of season that you never forget. We were a smaller group than usually, but with far larger hearts. As coaches we are all too aware of how unusual our athletes are and we will miss them dearly. Returning next year will be a very strong group including (hopefully) Jelly Jimenez, Emi Balbuena, Paulina Ciepiela, Fanny Reyes, Claudia Radek, Cecilia Caudel, Chelly Mojica, Brenda Escalante, Diana Herrera, and Cintia Garcia among others....I am smiling just thinking about it. Illinois State Regional 10/22/11 Our tough new reconfigured regional included perennial powerhouses St. Ignatius, Whitney Young, and Lane Tech---and we wouldn't have had it any other way. We advanced as a team to the State Sectional meet next week for the first time ever. Our state roster includes seniors Samanta Balbuena, Monserrat Rafael, Tiarra McGee, Lauren DeJesus, and Lucy Licona; juniors Giselle Jimenez, Fanny Reyes, Paulina Ciepiela, and Emelyn Balbuena; and freshmen Diana Herrera, Cintia Garcia, and Brenda Escalante. We did exactly what we needed to do on this very confusing Washington Park course. The weather was amazing, the competition was tough, and we brought our game. Next stop, Niles West for and incredibly competitive state sectional meet. Chicago City Championship 10/15/11 It was a beautiful sunny and cool fall day. The colors of the leaves would have made a New Englander blush. Chicago is a huge conference with around 130 high schools.....and that amounts to a lot of cross country teams. CPS girls' cross country in particular is a real slugfest that gets more competitive with each passing year. But we are totally up for it...good clean fun. Our girls put on a ferocious competitive display! Not a single athlete held anything back at this meet. Every one of them basically fell into the arms of their teammates at the finished line. Our whole top 7 turned in personal best times for their three mile races and we edged out quite a few teams that have been beating us all season long. Senior Tiarra McGee and freshman Cintia Garcia charged out fast and led our pack. Junior Jelly Jimenez ran the whole time hot on their heels and freshman Brenda Escalante and junior Fanny Reyes filled out our top 5, keeping the lead pack very tight. Senior Sammy Balbuena and junior Paulina Ciepiela, who was in for an ailing Lucy Licona, were not far behind and rounded out our strong top 7 with their own personal best times. I really wish you could have been there. We are rarely mentioned as one of the top cross country teams in the city (although, oddly, we are consistently in the top ten). This year the team set a goal of proving that they were a top city team. Then, they went out and did it. In the JV race, our lead pack consisting of Lucy Licona, Lauren DeJesus, Diana Herrera, Claudia Radek, and Emi Balbuena put in some incredible efforts. Rounding out the JV squad were Elizabeth Queen, Cecilia Caudel, and Jocelyne Segovia who all turned in their best times too! We leaned hard on our fast finishes in this race and took 4th Place in the city! The effort our athletes put out was stunning---I have never been more proud of a team. Northside/Southside Challenge 10/9/11 Twelve teams from the north side took on our rivals from the south in the final 2.62 miles of the Bank of America marathon course. Our entire girls' team was in attendance, leaving school in the wee hours before 5:30am. Our squad of Tiarra McGee, Cintia Garcia, Fanny Reyes, Giselle Jimenez, Brenda Escalante, Samanta Balbuena, and Lucy Licona represented us well. The north side girls won a decisive victory over the south side for the third year in a row. Savage Invitational 10/1/11 This is one of the biggest cross country meets in the state--usually featuring over 50 teams. And that's exactly what it delivered. The starting lines were like stampedes! After a full week of rain the skies cleared and there was a nice crisp breeze in the fall air. Sounds nice huh? Oh, there was that mud thing though....mud everywhere. Our athletes were covered with mud by the end of their races. In the varsity race we ran in a pretty tight pack led by Cintia Garcia and including Fanny Reyes, Brenda Escalante, Jelly Jimenez, Sammy Balbuena, Paulina Ciepiela, and Diana Herrera. Senior Lauren DeJesus finished strong behind the main pack despite a turned ankle (did I mention the mud?). Lucy Licona and Cecilia Caudel took their turn in the mud running the JV race. But despite the conditions we had a great time. Young Invitational 9/24/11 Our first serious invitational of the season was pure cross country. Although it was nice to get on that fast CPS city course at Washington Park a few weeks before the championship meet--there was a downside. It was rainy, wet, and oh so muddy....and we had lots of slips and slides. Despite the wet and wild course, our top 5 finishers in the varsity race ran their best 3-mile times ever. This team is on a mission. Taking on tough competition and beating schools that previously handed them losses has become a regular thing. Team leaders like Jelly Jimenez, Sammy Balbuena, Tiarra McGee, and Fanny Reyes have made huge improvements over last year. With freshmen Brenda Escalante and Cintia Garcia rounding out our top 7, we placed 11th in a field of 33 tough teams. The open race was crazy muddy, but Paulina Ciepiela, Lauren DeJesus, Diana Herrera, Momo Rafael, and Emi Balbuena stepped up and finished 7th out of 23 teams despite being banged up out on the course. Luckily we were packing a lot of ice! Mather #2 9/20/11 Tiarra McGee made short work of our 22-year-old 2-mile school record at this race. Placing 3rd overall she started out with the lead pack and never let them slip away. Another few hundred meters and she would have won the whole thing. Our other front-runners, including Jelly Jimenez, Cintia Garcia, Fanny Reyes, Brenda Escalante, and Sammy Balbuena chopped an average of 20 seconds off our times from last week. Diana Herrera and Cecilia Caudel shaved off about 2 minutes each! The hard work these girls did all summer is definitely starting to show as we head into a big meet this weekend. Mather Invitational #1 9/13/11 We took 5th place in our fastest team finish ever on this course. Our lead pack of Tiarra McGee, Jelly Jimenez, Cintia Garcia (freshman!), Fanny Reyes, and Sammy Balbuena stuck together and pushed eachother to personal bests on the 2-mile course. Poor Cintia stumbled twice during the race...but she picked herself up like a seasoned veteran and kept on running. The chase pack of Lauren DeJesus, Araceli Mojica, Paulina Ciepiela, and Brenda Escalante took their jobs very seriously and most of them put in personal bests also. Crazy. Brenda, also a freshman, had such a strong finish that she was right behind veteran Sammy at the chute (welcome to the lead pack Brenda!). Filling out our strong overall finish were Diana Herrera (freshman!) who was picking off runners in the last half mile like they were standing still, Emi Balbuena, Claudia Radek (in her second week), Alexa Hamer, and Cecilia Caudel. I can't remember a better start to a season. The competition was stiff with four of the top ten girls' teams in the city (not including us) racing, but our girls laid it on the line. We return next week, hopefully with our missing veterans Lucy Licona and Momo Rafael. Can't wait. Pre-Season 2011 We had a super productive summer this year! The team really decided to commit themselves to eachother and it should show as we ease into our competition phase. Although we lost some key athletes to graduation, last year's team was dominated by juniors and we have a very strong returning group of seniors this year. It should be exciting. Among our powerful returning senior squad are Monserrat Rafael, Lucy Licona, Samanta Balbuena, Tiarra McGee, and Lauren DeJesus. The seniors are backed up by a strong junior group led by veterans Fanny Reyes, Giselle Jimenez, Emi Balbuena and newcomer Paulina Ciepiela. Last, but not least, we couldn't be happier with our promising new freshmen girls Brenda Escalante, Diana Herrera, and Cintia Garcia! Just check out the 100-mile club standings for hard evidence of their commitment. Coach Daughenbaugh returns as our freshman coach and graduate Mercedes Reyes (last year's MVR) is helping out with coaching this year as well. Like I said, it should be exciting!
See 500-Mile Rankings Below Girls' Cross Country Schedule 2012 Tues., Sep. 11, Mather Invitational 1; Legion Park, 3:00pm-5:30pm Tues., Sep. 18, Mather Invitational 2; Legion Park, 3:00pm-5:30pm
Sat., Sep. 22, Young Invitational (Team Picnic); Washington Park, 7:00am-2:30pm
Sat., Sep. 29, Pat Savage Invitational; Niles West HS, 8:00am-2:00pm
Sun., Oct. 7, Nike Northside/Southside Challenge, Marathon Course, 5:30am-12:00pm
Sat., Oct. 13, CPS Championship; Washington Park, 7:00am-1:00pm
Sat., Oct. 20, Illinois State Regional; Washington Park, 10:00am-2:00pm
Sat., Oct. 27, Illinois State Sectional; Niles West HS, 8:30am-12:00pm
Sat., Nov. 3, Illinois State Championship; Peoria, IL; Detweiller Park Schedule Subject to Change Without Notice DID YOU KNOW THAT... Less that one tenth of one percent of people ever run competitive cross country? (that's one in a thousand---and in school is your only opportunity to ever do it!) Nationally, cross country runners are the most successful student athletes and have the highest average GPA? More than 90% of all NCAA soccer players ran track in high school? Continuous running burns fat more efficiently than any other activity? Many female endurance athletes are iron deficient and require a supplement to avoid fatigue? Most Valuable Runner by Year 2011-Tiarra McGee 2010-Mercedes Reyes 2009-Gabriela Hernandez 2008-Vita Stelmashchuk 2007-Jazmine Vazquez 2006-Amie Vargas 2005-Sheronda Edwards 2004-Jillonda Edwards 2003-Niane Serrano 2002-Niane Serrano 2001-NO TEAM
Important Forms for Athletes Athletic Physical Form Player Record Card Grade Check Form Important Web Sites for Runners http://rise.espn.go.com/track-and-xc/illinois/2010-xc/Welcome-to-ESPN-RISE-IL.aspx
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