State - Peter Rothbart advanced to the finals of the shot put with the 9th best throw of the prelims, throwing a personal best 53' 8". He was not able to improve on his performance, and finished 12th in the state of Illinois. Al Chery was impacted by weather, there were many rain and lightening delays during the prelims delaying many events. The High Jump was eventually moved inside. Al jumped 6' 4" in his flight and looked good to advance to the final. There were 12 athletes who had jumped 6' 4" or better, but 8 who were over 6' 5". In the last 15 years this would have been good enough to get to finals. BUT the last guy on his last attempt of the last flight cleared 6' 5", and that meant that 9 athletes had cleared 6' 5", and that was all the IHSA needed to take to finals. So 4 athletes who had cleared 6' 4" did not get the chance to jump in the final including Al. The 4x200m relay ran well, running a 1:32.8, not their season best, one flawed exchange may have impacted their race, but it was a great season for all of the seniors on this relay, Phi Rifkin, Pat Splon and Able Rangel. Sophomore Westin Ross got some valuable experieince which will benefit him in the future.

Sectionals - The sectional meet at Palatine produced many exciting performances. Starting with Al Chery's High Jump. He jumped 6' 6" for the first time, and tied the school record. More impressively he had two solid attempts at a school record, one which we thought he was over, but the bar just wiggled off. Al finished 2nd in the event and qualifed for the state meet. Next came Peter Rothbart who threw a personal best 151' 0" in the Discus coming up just 4 feet short of state qualifying, but then stepped up in the Shot Put and threw a personal best 53' 7" which was enough to get him down state. Peter finished 4th in the sectional. The final group of qualifiers was the 4x200m relay. Coming up just short last week in the Conference meet fired this group up. They ran a strong race and pulled away from everyone but Palatine and finished 2nd in a season best 1:30.3, which also tied the school record in the event. Phil Rifkin, Pat Splon, Weston Ross and Abel Rangel were the event qualifiers with Kevin Ward as the alternate.

What has made me proud of this program is that we have stepped up the level of competition at the most important meets of the season. Everyone steps up to the challenge of competing at the Sectional meet. From Freshman to seniors, from the slowest heat to the fastest heat guys are competing and making personal improvements.

There were many great performances. In the field events, both Mike Zimmer (21' 4") and Able Rangel jumping over 21' in the long jump, Al Chery jumping 43' 0" in the triple jump, Brad Miller jumping 11' 9" a personal best by a foot in the pole vault, Jarrett Austin, making 3 attempts at the state qualifiying height of 13' 9", when he has never cleared 12' 6" prior to this season. He cleared 13' 3" and left me pretty much speechless. On the track, Carlos Salazar dropping over a second in the 300m I. Hurdles running 43.7, Ryan Konkul finally breaking that 5:00 barrier in the mile running a stunning 4:55.9, Victor Gonzalez dropping his mile time to 4:51.5, Kevin Ward running a personal best 23.1 in the semi-finals of the 200m just missing the final, the 4x800m relay giving it a go at qualifying, staying in the mix through the first two legs, the 4x400m relay running a season best 4:34.7, with three underclassmen on it (Soto, Richardson, Koranda and Rifkin), in the 400m dash freshman Ivan Dobvak, running 54.8, and sophomore Max Osipov 56, and finally two seniors who lost much of their outdoor season to injury, and running one last race in the 800m - Norbert Gajos 2:06.3, and Toni Segura 2:12. These performances may be a window to what is possible next year, we will have to wait and see.

MSL Conference Meet @ BG - Both the varsity and frosh-soph competed in the same night which made it a very special night. The was started off with strong performances in the field events. Mike Zimmer (LJ) 6th - 21' 2", Al Chery (HJ) 4th - 6' 2", Jarrett Austin (HJ) 7th - 6' 0", Al Chery (TJ) 4th - 43' 5" (Personal Best), Peter Rothbart (SP) 3rd - 49' 7", (Dis) 6th - 149' 7". A solid 24 pts from our field events. On the track the most exciting event was the 4x200m relay with a blanket finish between RM, Hof and Wheeling. All three school received a 1:31.6 time. RM was called the winner, WHS - 2nd and Hof was 3rd. The Cats on that relay included -Rifkin, P. Splon, K. Ward, A. Rangel. Other notable place winners included : 4x800m relay - 7th (Martin, Mendoza, Kirby, Koranda), 4x100m relay - 5th (Rikfin, Splon, Ward, Zimmer), Abel Rangel 200m - 4th (22.9), 4x100m relay - 8th (3:35.6) - Rikfin, Richardson, Koranda, Soto.

On the Frosh-soph level the Cats finished in 5th place with 72 points. The Cats were lead by Weston Ross who won the 100m (11.1), 200m (22.9), High Jump (5' 11") and helped anchor the 4x200m relay team to a new school record of 1:34.8. The other team members included Matt Splon, Max Osipov and Joel Rangel. Other finishes of note, Ivan Dobvak 5th - 400m, 4x400m relay team 4th place (3:44.2) (B. Rodriguez, M. Osipov, M. Huerta, I. Dobvak) In the field event, M. Splon finished 5th in the triple jump, Brad Miller finished 4th in the pole vault, and Joel Rangel finished 6th in the long jump.

Glenbrook South Inv. - was postponed until Saturday because of poor weather conditions. The varsity cats used this meet as a tune up for the conference meet. The 4x800m relay team of W. Anderson, K. McCarte, M. Smith, H. Yordanov finished 6th. The were followed by: 4th place finish by the 4x100m relay (44.3), Eric Rodriguez (10:09) 3rd in 3200m run, Abel Rangel 4th place in 100m (11.0), Phil Rifkin 6th in 400m run (52.3), 4x400m relay finished 6th (P. Rifkin, A. Rangel, A. Soto, K. Richardson), Peter Rothbart finished 6th in Discus, and 5th in Shot put, Jarrett Austin won the High Jump with a 6'4", Al Chery was 3rd in 6' 0", Mike Zimmer jumped 19' 10" to finished 4th in the Long jump, and Jarrett Austin finished 2nd in the pole vault with a personal best jump of 12' 0".

Hersey F/S Inv. - The Frosh-soph team finished 11th out of 12 teams but performed well in the Hersey Inv. Westin Ross won the 100m dash in 11.4, and won the High Jump with a 5' 8" jump. Brad Miller finished 5th in the pole vault (10' 6"), and the 4x200m relay team (Ross, M. Splon, J. Rangel, M. Osipov) finished 4th in 1:36.8. The 4x400m relay team also finished 5th in a great time of 3:43.0 (M. Osipov, K. Koranda, B. Rodriguez, I . Dobvak).

Palatine Relays - The Wildcats 7th place was finish was solid against some very good quality teams. The cats were lead by the 4x200m Relay team which finished 2nd in 1:32.4 (Ross, P. Splon, K. Ward, A. Rangel). The Distance guys produced some points in the Distance Medley finishing 4th (H. Yordanov, A. Soto, D. Martin, E. Rodriguez), and in the 3200m Relay - 4th (Martin, Mendoza, Kirby, Yordanov). The High Jump relay tied Buffalo Grove, but lost the tie breaker (J. Austin, A. Chery, W. Ross).We competed in the Pole Vault relay for the first time in a long time. We recruited Tony Peak a soph to jump, and he cleared 8' 0", he was joined by Jarrett Austin, and Brad Miller. In the Discus relay we finished 6th with 351', Peter Rothbart, Lucas Bledsoe and Mike Bolanos. The F/S 800m Sprint Medley team finished a strong 2nd place, on that team were James Miles, Joel Rangel, Westin Ross, Kevin Koranda)

MSL Division Championships - Another nailbiter with Prospect coming out on top with 105 points, Hersey 102, Rolling Meadows 95, Wheeling 94, Buffalo Grove 93 and Elk Grove 60. We had many strong performances including - A. Rangel 3rd- LJ, P. Splon 6th-LJ, P. Rothbart 4th-SP, J. Austin 2nd-HJ, A. Chery 3rd -HJ, J. Austin 1st-PV, B. Miller 4th -PV, 4x800m - 4th, 4x100m - 2nd, E. Rodrigeuz 6th - 3200m run, J. Austin 2nd - 110m HH, K. Ward 3rd-100m, W. Ross 4th -100m, 4x200m relay - 1st (season best 1:31.9), P. Rifkin - 4th-400m, J. Austin 5th-300m IH, A. Rangel - 2nd -200m. There were many strong performances, and there were some dissappointments, which could have pushed us higher in the standings. Only 11 points seperated us from the top stop.

Streamwood Inv. - The varsity performed well enough to finish 2nd in the team standings with 62 points. The Frosh-soph finished 3rd with 83 points. The performances of note included the 4x100m relay(3rd-44.3) and 4x200m relay (2nd-1:32.6) run by Abel Rangel, Phil Rifkin, Pat Splon and Kevin Ward. Abel Rangel 2nd - 21' 2" - LJ, Peter Rothbart 3rd - 49' 6" SP, Jarret Austin 1st-6' 4" HJ, Al Chery 2nd-6'2" - HJ, Jarrett Austin 3rd - 12' 0" PV. The frosh-soph surprised running a very solid varsity time of 1:35.6 winning the event were - Joel Rangel, Chris Rodas, Westin Ross, Max Osipov.

Palatine, Fremd @ WHS - We finally had the weather cooperate, and the times began to drop. Mike Zimmer lead the way with a 100m of 11.5. The 4x200m relay of Abel Rangel, Phil Rifkin, Pat Splon and Kevin Ward ran an impressive 1:34.6. The 4x400m relay team of Abel Rangel, Mike Zimmer, Phil Rifkin and Kevin Richardson ran a season best of 3:36.5. Al Chery steped up and jumped 6' 4" in the high jump.

Bartlett Inv. - was canceled because of poor weather conditions. COLD and rain.

Wheeling, Elk Grove @ Conant - Originally rained out and rescheduled. - Wheeling split the results, beating Elk Grove and getting beat by Conant. Wheeling had strong performances from Kevin Ward 11.5 (100m), Abel Rangel 52.6 (400m ) and 23.0 (200m ), Phil Rifkin 53.9 (400m ) and 23.5 (200m ), and Peter Rothbart improved his discus to 144' 9". Jarret Austin jumped 6' 2" in the High jump.

Barrington Frosh Inv. - Wheeling freshman Chris Rodas finished 3rd in the 100m dash in 11.8, and Chris Johnson finished 4th in the Shot put with a throw of 36' 7", and followed that with a 6th place finish in the discus with an 86' 0"

Prospect, WHS @ Rolling Meadows - Our first outdoor meet was scored as a single level meet. We had some good performances to begin the outdoor season. The 4x100m Relay ran a solid 44.4 in cold conditions. A. Rangel, P. Splon, K. Ward and M. Zimmer ran a solid performance. Also Jarrett Austin jumped 11' 6" followed by Brad Miller 10'0 in the pole vault. Peter Rothbart started the outdoor season strongly with a 141'2" throw in the discus. Team results are listed above.

Proviso East Inv. - The Cats finished a respectable 8th place (43 points) out of 20 teams on friday night. Your Track cats stepped in up a notch. Starting with the 3200m relay finishing 4th and improving 10 seconds from our effort the week before. (8:28.9) (Yordanov, Gajos, Martin, Kirby) All 4 ran season best and two had personal bests. Al Chery joined the team this week after finishing the basketball season and began high jumping for the first time since freshman year. Al jumped 6' 5" and finsihed a strong 3rd in a very team HJ event. Jarrett finished 6th in both HJ and PV. Peter Rothbart continued to improve threw 53' 6.5" a personal best to finsh 6th. Our F/S 1600m relay ran 3:47 to finish 5th (M. Splon, W. Ross, M. Osipov, I. Dobvac). Our 4x200m team debuted with a respectable 1:36.2 finishing 5th. (Rangel, Ward, Splon, Austin). Abel Rangel, finished 6th with 20' 6" in the long jump.

MSL Indoor Inv - The Cats almost stole the show. Palatine won the meet by 2 points and 2 tenths of a second. Palatine 92, Wheeling 90, Fremd had 83.5 with 6 other MSL schools following. The Cats were lead by three first place finishes in a row. The 3200m Relay (Martin, Yordanov, Gajos, Segura) 8:38.3, 4-Lap relay - (Rifkin, Rangel, Splon, Ward) 1:12.3, and Eric Rodriguez won the 3200m run - 10:05.9. We were also helped by Rifkin's win in the 400m run, Peter Rothbart 2nd Place in the Shot (50' 4.5"), Ward and Rifkin 4th in the 200m. In addition, Jarrett Austin, finished 2nd in HJ, 4th in PV, 2nd in 55m HH, 3rd 55m IH. The 1600m Relay (Koranda, Gajos, Rangel, Martin) finished tied for 3rd, 1 tenth of a second from a 2nd place tie and 2 tenths from a 2nd place finish which could have won us the title. An overall outstanding effort by this group.

Maine East Inv. - Wheeling traveled to Maine East again for the 15 team invitational. The Cats fnished 4th with 72 points. Our only event winner was Jarrett Austin in the High Jump (6' 0"). We did have several 2nd place finished with Westin Ross (HJ 5' 10") , Abel Rangel (400m - 53.2), F/S 4-Lap Relay (C. Rodas, W. Ross, M. Osipov, M. Splon), and the Weight Man relay (P. Rothbart, L. Bledsoe, T. Peak, and T. Schalz) We continue to develop and get stronger with each meet.

Mundelein Dual - Our friday night dual with Mundelein had it's share of development. Wheeling defeated Mundelein 84-39, both teams used mainly JV athletes since both Varsity team's were competing on saturday. Jarrett Austin and Westin Ross put on a show, jumping 6'4" and 6' 1" in the High Jump. Jarrett reach this years state qualifiying mark. There were many solid improvements, take a look at the results by following the RESULTS link above.

Wildcat finish 2nd at own Invite - The Cats had a solid team performance on saturday at our own invitational. Dundee Crown won the meet with 129 points, Wheeling finished 2nd with 111 points. The Cats were lead by five first place finishes, Peter Rothbart in the Shot Put (52' 1.5"), Shainn Gill in the Triple Jump (40' 9"), Eric Rodriguez in the 3200m run (10:29.3), Phil Rifkin in the 400m (54.5), and Kevin Ward in the 55m (6.8).