Sunday, November 4, 2007 11:08 PM CST
Shelbyville's sixth place best-ever in cross country
By Mike Monahan Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
PEORIA – The Shelbyville boys’ cross country team has been to the state cross country meet 12 times, but they had not finished higher than eighth (1998 and 1999) until now. The Rams, who are in the first year of a co-op agreement with Stewardson-Strasburg placed sixth overall with 224 points in the IHSA Class 1A (the first meet of the three-class system) meet at Peoria’s Detwieller Park Saturday.
“We were picked between 12th and 14th,” said Shelbyville coach Kevin Kramer. “Our goal was to finish in the top 10 and maybe in the final eight. We exceeded those expectations. Everyone was jumping up and down when the announcement came. We knew we probably hit our goal, but you just never know. This is something at the beginning of the year that we wanted. We are definitely big meet performers. We did will at St. Joseph-Ogden, conference, regional and sectional and those are the big four meets.”
Cumberland finished 15th overall with 292 points in the meet won by Winnebago with 81 points. Pirate senior Doug Powers earned all-state honors by placing in the top 25. Powers was 23rd overall and ran the three-mile course in a time of 15:45.
Shelbyville
Shelbyville was led by freshman Clayton Baker, who won last year’s IESA Class A meet on a two-mile course, running in a time of 11:04. Baker ran the race in a time of 16:05, good for 36th place overall.
“In junior high he led from start to finish and never worried about his pace,” said Kramer. “With a three-mile race you can’t do that and we talked about that. One of the former runners (Lucas Kramer, a 2002 grad) talked to him as well. He told them you will be nervous and want to go out fast, but you can’t do that.”
Baker improved his previous best time by 30 seconds.
Sophomore Jeremy Reel, the team’s top runner, nearly didn’t compete in the meet as he was fighting flu and missed school twice during the week. Reel finished 65th overall with a time of 16:23.
“For him to be sick like that and run like that is great,” said Kramer. “I am very proud of his efforts. He could have not shown up or ran it in 18 minutes. He really gutted it out. After the first mile you could see he was physically drained. He had a cough and anytime you have an upper repertory ailment it makes it pretty tough to run. He didn’t look 100 percent. I give a lot of credit to him. He had a great year along with Matt (Rentfro) (the other runner from Stew-Stras). They did Stew-Stras proud and they are good kids and respected us and themselves well.”
Senior Shaun Nibbe finished 53rd overall with a time of 16:14, while junior Ryan Brown was 58th overall with a time of 16:18. Freshman Nick Selby was 116th with a time of 17:17, while junior Kaleb Pruemer was 128th in 17:35 and senior Nate Bly had a time of 18:19, good for 149th place.
The top four runners finished within 18 seconds of each other for the Rams.
“Other than Jeremy Reel Everyone ran their personal bests,” said Kramer. “They knocked off between 30-45 seconds of their previous best. I am pretty excited about sixth place. The responded (to not having a healthy Reel) very well and I am very proud of them. It was just a good day for us.”
Shelbyville was third in the regional and fourth in the sectional, but it was a sectional with six of the top 15 teams in the Illinois Top Prep Times.
“We know the sectional is going to prepare us for state because it is so tough,” said Kramer. “Three of the other teams finished in the top nine (Paxton-Buckley-Loda, Beecher and Unity). That is one advantage. If you can get out of the sectional you should do well at state. We were not scared of the competition. It was a big step forward for us and hopefully we can use this as a springboard for next year. I can’t say enough about Shaun’s (Nibbe) leadership. He is the captain and he kept them focused. We will miss his leadership.”
Cumberland
Cumberland coach Jim Miller was extremely happy with Doug Power’s performance.
“Doug had a super day and ran the race according to plan,” said Miller. “He could not have scripted it any better. He went out and did exactly what we told him to do. Getting all-state was one of his goals and we got it accomplished.”
The only other senior on the team Levi Sudkamp ran the race in 16:56, good for 100th place.
“Levi ran a great race,” said Miller. The seniors had been there before and knew what to expect. We have five guys coming back next year and if we get back to state hopefully they will be a little more relaxed. It (the 15th place finish) was a little disappointing. We should have been in the top 10.”
Other runners for the Pirates were Jorey Matteson (sophomore), Dylan Scott (freshman), Nick Powers (freshman), Jeremy Jansen (junior) and Jacob Chancellor (junior).
The Pirates were making their 15th appearance at the state meet.
Class 1A state boys’ cross country meet
Team scores
1. Winnebago 81; 2. Elmwood 122; 3. Robinson 179; 4. Paxton-Buckley-Loda 199; 54. 5. Ottawa Marquette 221; 6. Shelbyville-Stewardson-Strasburg 224; 7. Rockford Christian 255; 8. Beecher 260; 9. Unity 261; 10. Oregon 267; 11. Carlinville 281; 12. Westmont 283; 13. Sherrard 290; 14. Knoxville 290; 15. Cumberland 292; 16. Nashville 300; 17. Henry-Senachwine 349; 18. Tremton 353; 19. Eldorado 387; 20. Lawrenceville 407
Top five finishers
1. Parker Thompson, Tremont, 14:49; 2. Brian Peterson, Fieldcrest, 14:53; 3. Dustin Emerick, Elmwood 14:53; 4. Trenton Tedrick, Winnebago 15:04; 5. Matt Paarlberg, Beecher 15:09
Shelbyville finishers
36. Clayton Baker 16:05; 53. Shaun Nibbe 16:14; 58. Ryan Brown 16:18; 65. Jeremy Reel 16:23; 116. Nick Selby 17:17; 128. Kaleb Pruemer 17:35; 149. Nate Bly 18:19
Cumberland finishers
23. Doug Powers 15:45; 80. Dylan Scott 16:37; 86. Jorey Matteson 16:46; 100. Levi Sudkamp 16:56; 119. Jacob Chancellor 17:19; 144. Jeremy Jansen 18:09; 154. Nick Powers 18:39
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
