Oct 30th - Sectionals - The sectional was run in 20-30 mph winds with gusts to 40. Times did not matter it was all about place. Derrick Moy ran a gutsy race and finished 19th, but two places from advances individually. The team finished 12th out of 20 teams with 319 points. Our two seniors ran well, Bernard Gajos finished 43rd and Brian Nguyen 90th. Brian was followed by Kevin Smith 93rd, Jorge Samano 121st, Eric Crabbe 136th and Freshman Ken Diedrich 138th. Eric finished the race but ran with what likely is a stress fracture in his shin. Our future is ahead of us. We grew up a lot this season. I can't wait til 2005.

Oct 25 - Regionals - The regional was run in much better conditions on monday. The race went out fast and the cats ran very well. Eric Crabbe and Jorge Samano both had season bests finishing in 20th and 23rd place. Derrick Moy lead the team in 11th and Bernard Gajos was 14th. Rounding out the top 7 were Kevin Smith 29th, Ken Dietrich 44th and Elio Albavera 57th. We were missing Brian Nguyen due to a family conflict and Mike Meier is out with a stress fracture.

Saturdays race was stopped two miles into it because of the Thor-guard system going off. The coaches agreed to move the meet to monday.

Oct 16 - Conference meet - Dissapointing weekend on all levels. The boys finished 10th place only 9 pts out of 7th. The F/S finished 11th . Derrick Moy did earn Alll-Conference honors by finishing 20th in 16:09 on the sectional course.

Oct 9 - Wildcat Inv. - BG and Maine West came to town, and we gave them a good run. We finished 3rd with 74 points, behind BG 56, and Maine West 65. Derrick Moy continued to make good progress running 15:33 on our home course running his best there by 20 seconds. Bernard Gajos finished 8th in 15:55 also his season best. Bernard was followed by Brian Nguyen 20th, Mike Meier 21st, and Kevin Smith in 22nd. We continue to run well as we prepare for the conference meet next week at Busse Woods.

Oct 2 - Peoria Inv. - The Cats continue to get more experience and continue to show promise with a great run at the Peoria Central Inv. The Cats finished 5th out of 48 teams with a score of 283 pts. The 4 teams in front of us were all ranked in the top 15 in state. We were lead by Derrick Moy who finished in 18th, in a personal best of 15:29. He was followed by Bernard Gajos 44th (16:01), Eric Crabbe 71st (16:22), Brian Nguyen 74th (16:23), Mike Meier 76th (16:24) (PR by over 40 seconds), Kevin Smith 98th (16:30) and Jorge Samano 124th (16:49). We are progressing well, and will be prepared for the important meets ahead of us.

Sept 29 - Dual @ Prospect - The cats ran with some emotion on wednesday vs.state ranked Prospect. The Cats lead the meet through two miles. The Cats were able to put 5 in the top nine, and ran strong throughout the race. Derek Moy lead the team with a strong 4th place finish in 16:03. The rest of the top five was rounded out by Eric Crabbe 6th, Bernard Gajos 7th, Jorge Samano 8th, and Kevin Smith 9th. We look ahead to Peoria on Saturday!!

Sept 23 - Dual vs. Elk Grove - The Cats ran well enough to beat EG 20-40 at Heritage Park. The cats were lead by Bernard Gajos, Brian Nguyen, Kevin Smith, Eric Crabbe and Jorge Samano. Derrick Moy ran his first and only F/S race and set a new course record of 13:19 on our 2.5 mile course.

Sept 18 - Rockford Inv. - We bounced back very well on Saturday after a tough loss to RM. The boys stepped up big, and we needed everyone of them. The varsity won the team title for the 10th straight year, by only 1 pt. We outran Rockford Guildford 69-70, with Belvidere third with 78. The boys were lead by a strong effort by Derrick Moy who finished 4th in 15:36 on the 2.95 mile course.

Derrick was followed by Bernard Gajos (9th) 15:54, Eric Crabbe (16th) 16:16, Brian Nguyen (17) 16:17, Kevin Smith (23rd) 16:35, and Jorge Samano (29th) 16:51. This was by far our best effort of the season, all 6 runners ran personal bests or season bests. We can now look ahead to the Peoria Inv. in two weeks with much higher goals.

Sept 11 - Lake Park Invitational - Our first Invite of the season went well, and helped pick up our spirits after two losses. We ran only 3 varsity runners because of injuries. We moved all of our frosh-soph runners down to allow them to have some success. This move paid dividends as we finished 2nd behind Naperville North 27-33. There were 15 teams in the meet and 3rd was Schaumburg 123. The meet was a dual meet since the top 9 places were dominated by Wheeling and NN. We were led by Eric Crabbe in 2nd, Kevin Smith in 3rd, Norbert Gajos 6th, Ken Diedrich 7th and Mike Meier 15th. There were 224 runners in the race. In the varsity race, Derek Moy got our fast and ran well finishing 21st. Jorge Samano and Brian Nguyen both ran their best races of the season.

Our dual with BG was an improvement upon our first race. We had several runner run personal best in our second race of the season. Brian Nguyen, Eric Crabbe and Kevin Smith all ran their best times ever trying to chase down the BG runner.

Sept 2 - We got our season off to a sluggish start. Schaumburg outran us 22-33. Most of the guys are very young, including two in the top 5 who ran their first high school cross country race. We will be better then what we showed on Thursday. We had 1 freshman, two sophomores, a junior and senior round out our top 5. We only have a few days to get ready for Buffalo Grove on Tuesday. We run at Heritage Park in Wheeling beginning at 4:30 pm.