2002 Season

The Wildcats ran to a 6th place finish at the State meet on Saturday. The boys scored 247 points just 16 points from 3rd place. The five athletes all set personal records. Fernando Carrillo led the wildcats with a All state 25th place finish in a time of 15:04. Fernando improved from a 168th place fimish as a junior to 25th. Fernando was followed by teammates Mike Burke 34th, Adrian Velasquez 74th, Julio Perez 107th, Gerardo Herrera 128th, Cesar Del Rio 187th and Nick Rotizza 212th.

This top 10 finish was the sixth in the last seven years. The boys completed a successful season with a great run at the state meet. We will miss the departing seniors, but have a strong and deep junior group to help lead the wildcats in 2003!! By the way the schedule is already up for 2003!!

11/2/02 On Saturday the boys advanced to the State Final for the 7th straight year by placing 4th in the 20 team sectional. The boys were led again by Fernando Carrillo who finished 6th. He was followed by Adrian Velasquez 27th, Mike Burke 28th, Julio Perez 42nd, and Gerardo Herrera 47th. The boys were only 10 pts out of 2nd place Stevenson.

The sectional also marked the return of Cesar Del Rio who has been out due to a fracture in his foot. He raced for the first time in 6 weeks on saturday and finished 80th. Jose Lopez rounded out the Wheeling top 7 finishing 98th.

10/28/02 On Saturday the 28th, the wildcats advanced to the Nov 2nd sectional by finishing 2nd behind Stevenson 42-47. Many of the boys ran course personal bests at Heritage Park. We hosted the regional for the first time since 1998.

The cats were led by Fernando Carrillo (2nd), Mike Burke (4th), Gerardo Herrera (8th), Adrain Velasquez (12th) and Julio Perez (20th). We advance to the Sectional along with 20 other teams to determine which 5 will advance to the State meet.

10/21/02
The 2002 Conference meet was going to be a close tight fight because of how close the top 4 teams were going in. The results didn't disappoint. The wildcats finished 2nd only 8 points behind Barrington 87-80.

The Cats were lead with a strong finish by Fernando Carrillo 6th, Mike Burke 8th, Gerardo Herrera 15th Adrian Velasquez 19th, and Julio Perez 39th. The conditions at the conference meet were a bit raw (45 degrees with a gusty 10-20 mph wind) . The conditions were worse then any race we had run in all of this and last year. The Cats handled the conditions well. We have contiued to have workouts that are stronger then our 2000 season.

10/14/02 Over the past two weeks we have defeated Buffalo Grove and Rolling Meadows, finished 8th at the loaded Crete Monee Pow Wow and won our own invitationa this past weekend.

I encourage everyone to come out and support our boys this weekend (Oct 19th) and in the weeks that follow leading up to the State Meet Novemeber 9th.

10/2/02 On Wednesday the 2nd of October, we defeated Buffalo Grove 15-46 on our home course. We are looking ahead to a positive weekend at Crete Monee.

We enjoyed the weekend off by watching the Palatine Inv., taking a good look at our competition in the coming weeks. The 5th ranked Wildcats have plans on moving up.

On Thursday the 26th the Wildcats ran all over the Huskies of Hersey. Fernando Carrillo came out and surprised all by running away with the win in a course record 15:39 (new course this year). Burke and Herrera followed, both under 16:00. The Wildcats won 21-36. The win marked the first time this season that all the top 7 wildcats broke 17:00 on a three mile course. Velasquez, Perez, Lopez and Horcher continue to improve and make improvements that will make us stonger later in the year.

9/21/02 This week had it's up's and downs. The Wildcats bounced back very strongly at the Forest City Invitational this past saturday. The Cats defeated #1 Ranked Class A Winnebago 30-43. We were lead by Gerardo Herrera who won his first Invitational title. Gerardo was follwed by Burke (4th), Carrillo (6th), Velasquez (8th) and Perez (11th).

In the Open race the Wildcats took 2nd place through 8th place. The Cats were led by Kevin Lynch who came within a wisker of winning his first open race. Kevin ran a remarkable 16:46.

Our week began with a tough loss at Prospect 24-31 where we just looked flat and tired. I was proud of the way we all bounced back on saturday to wipe away the memory of the loss.

9/14/02 Things continue to go well for the Wildcats. Saturday the Boys continued running well by winning the Lake Park Invitational.

The boys hung on over Naperville North 43-48. This was our first invitational of the season, and we are running as well as we feel we should at this time of the year.

The boys were led by G. Herrera (3rd), M. Burke (6th), F. Carrillo (7th), C. Del Rio (11th) and J. Perez (16th).

In the Open race Wheeling dominated taking 2nd thru 5th place, demonstrating our depth. Currently we have 11 runners who have already broken 18:00 minutes and 7 under 17:00 minutes.

I want to thank the parents and students who came out to support our team. It was wonderful to see such a large turnout for a dual meet this early in the season.

Freshman who are interested in participating can come out and join us anytime. Freshman and sophomore who are not out for a fall sport are welcome to join. Our ranks are a little thin at the lower levels.

The pictures are right are from our trip to Stockton. The team members who participated enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Wallace and their property in Apple River Canyon. Thanks to Jaime, Vicki, Judy and Matt for their help in making this weekend a positive one!!

The past seven years have been extremely successful for Wheeling Cross Country. It is our goal to maintain this level of success. We expect our athletes to be dedicated and committed to becoming better athletes, students and members of our community.Success does not come easy, but for those who are willing to put in the time they will reap the benefits of success.

During the summer we meet in front of the tennis courts at Wheeling High School @ 7:00 am. After the school year begins, we practice after school . All skill levels are welcome. Cross country is a great way for an athlete to get into shape for winter and spring sports.