10/29 Sectional @ Busse Woods - Wheeling finished 17th in the 20 team sectional. Our team finish may have been disappointing but keeping things in perspective, three sophomores, two juniors and two seniors running only two with sectional experience. Kevin Smith finished his season in 46th (16:23) Jorge Samano 80th (16:40), Norbert Gajos was 105th (17:21), Ryan Neville 119th (17:47), Elio Albavera 120th (17:48), Ryan Konkul 126th (18:03, and Damien Paciorek 128th (18:12).

10/22 Regionals @ Heritage Park - The Cats hosting the regional at Heritage Park and put their home field advantage to good use. The Cats advance to next saturday's sectional by finished 4th with 112 pts, just ahead of 5th place Maine West (118). What made the Cats day was the solid performance of everyone who ran. Beginning with Kevin Smith who is beginning to believe he can run with the best. Kevin ran a personal best 15:32, finishing 4th in the regional only a few steps out of 2nd place. This marked a 21 second improvement from two weeks ago. Kevin was followed by Jorge Samano who finished 15th in a personal best 16:09. The rest of the cats were Ken Diedrich who continues to push through on a sore ankle finished 23rd in 16:35, Ryan Neville in his first season of cross country finished 33rd in 16:46 a personal best. Our 5th man was Elio Albavera who also ran a personal best 16:49 in finishing 36th. Norbert Gajos broke 17:00 for the first time ever running 16:58 and sophomore Ryan Konkul ran 18:06.

Oct 15 - Conference - The varsity boys competed in the conference meet with a minumum team. Only 5 athletes ran. Injuries have taken their toll on the varsity. Kevin Smith finished in 30th place with a time of 16:18. Significantly better then last year.

The frosh-soph made a bigger impact on the Conference meet, finishing 4th only 6 pts out of third. The team was lead by Ken Diedrich (6th) who is still fighting the effect of his stress fracture from early in the season. Norbert Gajos (14th) ran a solid strong race improving over 25 places from last year. Ryan Konkul finished 27th, just a couple spots from an award. Damien Paciorek was 36th with a 90 second improvement in time from last year. He was followed by Brian Mendoza (43rd) who along with Ryan K. improved over 2:00 from last year over the same course. Next were Mark Swakow (48th), Henry Kirby (49th) Mike Laffey (126th), Mark Silverston (137th), and Jeff Kaiser (141st).

Oct 8th - Wildcat Inv. - The varsity finished 5th out of 14 teams just 14 points out of third place Rolling Meadows. The Cats again continued their strong week of running, but setting many personal bests on the fast and flat course at Heritage Park.

Kevin Smith continues to lead the way being the first Cat runner to break 16:00 this season finishing 7th in 15:54. Following Kevin was Jorge Samano, running a season best 16:20, only 1 second off his personal best. Ken Diedrich followed with a 16:35, Elio Albavera 17:06 and Ryan Neville 17:10. All but Jorge had significant personal records. They continue to fight each week knowing that two of our top five runners are out for the rest of the season.

The frosh-soph have made great progress this past week finishing 4th out of 10 frosh-soph teams, but beating all MSL teams at the meet. The guys continue to make solid progress. Several of these guys may end up helping the varsity in the regional and sectional meets. Norbert led the cats with a 6th place finish in 14:03, Ryan Konkul 14:16 (11th), Damien Paciorek 14:33 (20th), Brian Mendoza 14:36 (23rd), Mark Swakow 14:54 (35th), Hristo Yordanov 14:54 (36th), and Henry Kirby 15:03 (41st).

Oct 6th - Dual vs. Prospect - The Knights beat the Cats 20-39, but the Cats that are still healthy ran well, smart and competitive. Kevin Smith ran patiently and moved up to win the race in 16:30. The other Cats ran well, including several personal bests in the first race this season run in under 65 degree weather.

Oct 1st - The varsity traveled to the Peoria Central Inv. The Cats finished a disappointing 20th place out of 49 teams. Kevin Smith continues to impress and improve each week ran 16:05, a personal record. He finished 51st. Followed close behind was Mike Meier in 56th (16:11). Jorge Samano continues to improve running 16:39, Ken Diedrich running for the first time at Detwiller park finished in 16:59. Ryan Neville stepped up and ran a personal best 17:30 as our 5th man.

At Loyola the frosh-soph finished 8th out of 25 teams. The young Cats were led by Norbert Gajos who finished 15th (18:19), Ryan Konkul 25th (18:31), Damien Paciorek 56th (19:21), Brian Mendoza 59th (19:24), Hristo Yordanov 63rd (19:26), Mark Swakow 64th (19:29) and Henry Kirby 94th (20:05) This was the F/S first 5K race this season.

Sept 27th - Dual @ Elk Grove - The Wildcats welcomed back Derrick Moy and Ken Diedrich to competition at the dual meet. The Cats won 26-31 by packing up the 3rd-6th places. Ken Diedrich ran a personal best in his first race of the season running 17:12. The frosh-soph also won 20-37.

Sept 22nd - vs. RM at Heritage Park - Postponed due the hail and rain storm, will be rescheduled as part of the Wildcat inv.

Sept 17th - Rockford Inv. - All our athletes ran very well on the fast Rockford course. The varsity finished 6th place with 117 points. We had personal bests from Kevin Smith 11th, Ryan Neville 37th, Elio Albavera 39th and Steve Barshak 62nd. The Frosh-soph finished 3rd as as team, but had all 7 runners in the top 22. For many this was their first race over more then 2.5 miles. The course at Rockford was 2.9 miles. All levels competed on the same course. The young cats were lead by Norbert Gajos 9th, Tony Segura 11th, Damien Paciorek 16th, Ryan Konkul 17th, Brian Mendoza 20th, Hristo Yordanov 22nd and Henry Kirby 23rd.

Sept 15th - Dual @ Buffalo Grove The Wildcats ran well on Thursday, but continue to be short handed because of injuries. Mike Meier coasted to a 1st place finish in 16:44. Jorge Samano ran with BG's pack most of the way and ran a season best 17:10. The Frosh-soph continue to get better with each meet, as they start to believe in themselves. We continue to have sophomores who are already surpassing their best runs from freshman year. The mileage over the summer is paying off.

Sept 10th - Lake Park Inv. - On a very warm saturday, the wildcats took to the grass and took steps to improve our outlook. The varsity finished 8th as a team, but had solid performances from Mike Meier (14th), Kevin Smith (22nd) and Jorge Samano (37th). Ryan Nevillle ran his first invitte and ran a personal best 18:03 finishing 55th. Rounding out the the top 5 was Elio Albavera in 57th. We are still missing the services of Ken Diedrich and Derrick Moy due to injuries.

The Frosh-soph impressed and surprised themselves by running a solid race and finishing 3rd out of 14 teams. The Wildcats were led by Norbert Gajos (17th), Tony Segura (24th), Ryan Konkul (26th), Damien Paciorek (35th) and Brian Mendoza (41st).

Sept 8 - Dual @ Hersey - We had a cooler day which helped our end result. The Frosh-Soph ran much better thursday, all of our runners ran season bests and many had personal bests on a slow and rough course at Melas Park. They were led by Ryan Konkul who broke 15:00 for the first time. He was followed by Damien Paciorek (4th), Tony Segura (6th), Henry Kirby (7th), Brian Mendoza (9th) and Hristo Yordanov (11th). The boys tied 28-28 Hersey.

The Varsity coasted in preparation for the Lake Park Inv. this saturday. We are being hurt by injuries.

Sept 1st - Fremd took the pace out fast early and we had a hard time recovering. Fremd won 20-37. Mike Meier finished 2nd in a great time of 16:03 running a personal best by almost 20 seconds. We were definately hurt by the loss of Ken Diedrich to a stress fracture, we hope to have him back with us by mid-season.