2010 Meet Summaries

Charleston Invitational:
Mahomet raced 12 other teams in this invitational and came out with second place.  Mahomet finished close behind the State ranked (7th) Mt. Zion squad.  Mahomet opened the season with the strongest times our team has ever in this invitational.  Lucas Prather led the team with a 16:02 which was also the fastest time a Mahomet-Seymour runner has run at this invitational.  We have attended this invitational starting in the 2005 season.  Jonathan Schaap ran our fastest sophomore time ever.  Forrest Smoes ran our fastest freshman time ever.
Five Mahomet runners earned a medal in the open race by placing in the top 15.  James Williams (Freshman) 13th, Dan Lewis (Junior) 9th, Dhairav Vakil (Freshman) 5th, Kyle Appelquist (Freshman) 4th, and Chris Carlton (Freshman) 2nd.  Mahomet-Seymour earned more medals than any other team at the meet.  In the varsity race, six of the Mahomet runners earned a medal.  Ethan Russell (Freshman) 25th, Forrest Smoes (Freshman) 18th, John Butcher (Junior) 15th, Jonathan Schaap (Sophomore) 13th, Elijah Johnson (Junior) 11th, and Lucas Prather (Junior) 7th.  17 of our 20 runners ran lifetime best performances in the Charleston Invitational.  Our most improved since last year's best time was John Williams (sophomore) with a 1:10 improvement.  We had 3 runners (Chris Carlton (2nd), Kyle Appelquist (4th), and Dhairav Vakil (5th))earn a spot on our highest individual places in the open race at the Charleston Invitational.  We had 3 freshmen (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, and Chris Carlton), 1 sophomore (Jonathan Schaap), and 3 juniors (Lucas Prather, Elijah Johnson, and John Butcher), and 1 senior (Evan Forbes) earn a spot in our top 10 Fastest Times at the Charleston Invitational list.
2010 Charleston results.

Springfield Invitational:
Mahomet placed 3rd out of 19 full teams and 23 total teams represented at the Invitational.  Mahomet finished behind two State ranked teams Springfield #2 and Chatham Glenwood #9.  The Mahomet-Seymour squad did beat 4 other state ranked teams (East Peoria #15, Limestone #16, Springfield SHG #21, and Galesburg #25).  Our team was ranked #13th in State earlier this week.  Our high finish among other State ranked teams confirms that our team is indeed one of the best teams in the State at this point in the season.  We have attended the Springfield Invitational since 2004.  This is the highest team finish our team has had in the history of attending the meet.  Dan Lewis and Ryne Swenson ran #6 and #7 for the team.  They stepped up to the Varsity race and represented us well.  They often say you are only as strong as your #5.  Senior Evan Forbes stepped up as our #5 runner to help push our team to our record breaking year.  Lucas Prather and John Butcher ran aggressive races to earn a medal by placing 6th and 19th. 
Our freshman team won the freshman 2 mile race.  Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, and Chris Carlton all earned a medal by placing 3rd, 4th, and 6th.  This is only the 2nd time our freshman team has won the freshman invitational in the last 7 years.  Forrest Smoes ran the fastest freshman time we have ever had with a 10:57.  Lucas Prather ran the fastest junior time we have ever had at Springfield.  Both times was especially impressive since the course was muddy this year.  Bobby Butler had an outstanding race in the open race.  Bobby was the 7th highest open place we have had at the Springfield Invitational open race with 42nd place.  We had one senior (Evan Forbes), 3 juniors (Lucas Prather, John Butcher, and Elijah Johnson), 1 sophomore (Jonathan Schaap), and 3 freshmen (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, and Chris Cartlon) earn a spot in our fastest times at the Springfield Invitational list.  
2010 Springfield results.
Eureka Fresh/Soph Invitational:
Mahomet-Seymour won the Eureka FS Invitational over 10 total teams represented.  This was a great race for our team.  So far this year our fresh/soph team and freshman team has been undefeated.  Jonathan Schaap was meet champion.  Jonathan ran both a strong mental and physical race in order to hold off another strong runner from Normal U-High to earn his big win.  Finishing closely behind Schaap, was Forrest Smoes.  Forrest ran the fastest Mahomet-Seymour time ever posted by a freshman runner at this invitational at 16:37.  Seven runners earned a medal by placing in the top 20 runners.  Mahomet-Seymour earned more medals than any other team in the meet revealing a team that has great depth.  Jonathan Schaap 1st, Forrest Smoes 3rd, Ethan Russell 8th, Chris Carlton 11th, Kyle Appelquist 15th, Dhairav Vakil 17th, and Curt Kupferschmid 20th.  Forrest Smoes, Chris Carlton, Kyle Appelquist, Dhairav Vakil, Curt Kupferschmid, Ryne Swenson, Jeff Coburn, and Bobby Butler all ran season best times. Our main goal for our runners is to work hard in hopes of improving.  It is always great to see so many runners improve in one meet.  We had one sophomore (Jonathan Schaap) and five freshmen (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, Chris Carlton, Kyle Appelquist, and Dhairav Vakil) earn a spot in our Fastest times at the Eureka Fresh/Soph Invitational list.  
2010 Eureka results.

Peoria Notre Dame Invitational:
The meet was delayed for 2 hours due to stormy weather.  The boys weren't sure if the meet was going to be canceled all together or just delayed.  The boys also had to stay on the cramped bus due to the weather for an extra couple of hours.  Once the race officials decided that it was safe to run, they only allowed the runners a 30 minute warm-up which is significantly less than our runners were used to.  Despite all the conditions that the boys couldn't control going against them they did an excellent job getting mentally prepared to race the toughest competition we face all year.  16 of our 19 runners ran season best 3 mile times.  The other 3 runners were within seconds of running their bests as well.  I was extremely proud of how they competed despite the adversity.  The Peoria Notre Dame Invitational is run on the State meet course.  So many AAA teams come down from Chicago to run this course.  Our boys had stronger times as a group than we have had in the past 10 years.  Lucas Prather ran a 15:55.  We have only had one other runner run faster than that in that 10 year time (Jacob Mahaffey - 2008 All State XC runner and current #1 runner for his college team at Carthage College).  We had 5 other runners run in the mid 16's.  Elijah Johnson (16:22), John Prillaman (16:29), John Butcher (16:36), Forrest Smoes (16:37), and Jonathan Schaap (16:37).  Anytime we get a runner in the 16 minute range we feel they are one of the best runners in the area.  Ethan Russell and Evan Forbes just missed the 16's with a 17:04 and 17:23 respectively.  The team placed 30th as a team out of over 70 teams represented (58 full teams).  The majority of the teams that beat us were State ranked AAA teams.  We aren't worried about these teams beating us as they aren't in our class in the State series, but it was great to get to run against them for the competition.  A #15 nationally ranked team from New York came to race and only placed 7th in the meet.  #1 State ranked AAA York placed 3rd behind AA Belividere.  A Missouri State ranked team also came to the meet.  We were the 4th fastest AA team.  The top 3 AA State ranked teams beat us (Belvidere, Springfield, and U-High).  Our team beat 3 AA State ranked teams, including Chatham Glenwood that is currently ranked above our team in the State rankings and the team that beat us last weekend.  Evan Forbes moved up in our moved improved over a career list to #13 with an overall improvement of 4:48 after improving 33 additional seconds at this race.  Lucas Prather also moved up on the most improved over a career list with a 3:08 overall improvement.  Chris Carlton had a big break through by running in the 17's for the first time on a 3 mile course.  James Williams and Curt Kupferschmid ran in the 18's for the first time on a 3 mile course.  Jeff Coburn broke into the 19's for the first time on a 3 mile course.  Daniel Middendorf ran a personal best and broke into the 24's for the first time ever.  Our fresh/soph team continues to impress me with their improvements and the competitiveness with which they run.  This has to be the strongest fresh/soph team we have had in 10 years.  The fresh/soph boys race was combined with the open boys race and open girls race.  The race had over 1500 runners.  Our fresh/soph team was given the place of 27th.  However, this isn't accurate since many of the teams that beat us were the JV runners from the combined open and not fresh/soph teams.  We had one senior (John Prillaman), 3 juniors (Lucas Prather, Elijah Johnson, John Butcher), 1 sophomore (Jonathan Schaap), and 2 freshmen (Forrest Smoes and Ethan Russell) earn a spot in our fastest times at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational list.  
2010 Peoria Notre Dame Results.
  
East Peoria Invitational:
Our team placed 2nd out of 19 teams, finishing only behind U-High who is currently ranked #2 in the State.  This is the highest finish our team has ever had since joining the Invitational in 2005.  We placed 9th in 2005, 10th in 2006, 9th in 2007, 5th in 2008, 6th in 2009, and 2nd in 2010.  Our team has continued to improve a little bit each year over the past 10 years.  Mahomet managed to beat four AAA teams (Pekin, Edwardsville, Normal Community, and Dekalb).  The boys also beat 10 of the 29 teams from our sectional meet giving us confidence as we approach the State meet series in 4 weeks.  Mahomet-Seymour beat 3 State ranked AA teams (Galesburg #15, Bloomington #21, and East Peoria #22).  Our team was ranked #9 in the State this past week.  Lucas Prather ran our second fastest time ever on the course at this meet with a time of 15:52.  Our goal for our team is to get as many runners to run their personal bests as possible.  16 of our 20 finishers ran season best times.  I was extremely pleased with the teams effort as it is often hard for our boys over the years to adjust from running well at the extremely large Peoria Notre Dame Invitational with 70 teams during the previous week's meet to a meet that has 20 teams.  While 20 teams is still a very large meet, it has often been hard for our runners over the years to adjust to the change.  Some of our most impressive improvements in time came from Curt Kupferschmid, James Williams, Dan Lewis, Bobby Butler, and Brian Plotner.  It is a credit to their inner strength.  We had both of our seniors (John Prillaman and Evan Forbes), 3 juniors (Lucas Prather, John Butcher, and Elijah Johnson), 1 sophomore (Jonathan Schaap), and 4 freshmen (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, Chris Carlton, and Kyle Appeelquist) earn a spot in our fastest times at the East Peoria Invitational list.  
2010 East Peoria Results.

Teacher/Parent Fun Run:
Our high school team was divided into three equal teams.  They raced against our teachers and parents in the 7th annual teacher/parent fun run.  The teachers and parents clearly swept the 1 mile race with a perfect score of 15 as well as getting the 6th and 7th spots.  Daren Prather was our overall winner in the 1 mile race.  He won the fastest parent in the 1 mile.  LuAnn Prillaman was runner-up.  LuAnn won the fastest parent in the 1 mile award.  Stephanie Middendorf was only 2 seconds behind LuAnn as the teacher/parents #3 runner for the day.  Stephanie won the fastest parent of a freshman award.  Team Lukach came in 4th and 5th.  Noah came in 4th and won the award for the fastest student.  Noah's mom Licia came in a stride behind with a 4 minute personal best.  Licia won this year's fastest teacher award.  Crossing the line at the same time was Lauren Oliger and her dog Cooper.  Lauren won the fastest Aide award while Cooper earned the fastest dog award this year.  The parent/teacher team did a great job under pressure, considering the press was there taking pictures (our yearbook class).
The 3 mile race was a different story.  Due to a sickness on the teacher/parent team, the teacher/parent team was unable to earn a team score since they only had 4 runners and needed 5 to have a team score.  Jeff Butcher won the fastest parent in the 3 mile award.  Paul Schaap won the fastest boosters representative award.  Debbie Butcher won the fastest female in the 3 mile award.  On the student side, the Orange team won by 2 points over the White team.  Winning the 3rd place spot was the Blue team.  Winner of the 2010 teacher fun run was Lucas Prather (son of Daren Prather - winner of the 1 mile run).  The father/son team duo took away the individual championships for the day.  John Butcher was the 2010 runner-up.  Our runners had the opportunity to earn a spot in our top 20 fastest times ever on our course for the last 11 years when our course was created by Jeff Riddle.  We had 4 freshmen (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, Curt Kupferschmid, and Dhairav Vakil) earn a spot in our Fastest Freshmen Times List.  We had 1 sophomore (Jonathan Schaap) earn a spot in our Fastest Sophomores Times List.  We had 3 juniors(Lucas Prather, John Butcher, and Elijah Johnson) earn a spot in our  Fastest Juniors Times List.  We had 1 senior(John Prillaman) earn a spot in our Fastest Seniors Times List.  Forrest Smoes ran the fastest freshman time we have ever had on the course in over a decade which isn't easy to do in a practice. 
2010 Teacher/Parent Fun Run Results.

U-High Invitational:
The team placed 2nd out of 17 total teams.  #2 State ranked U-High was the only team to beat our boys.  Our boys had a major break through in their times with 19 of the 22 runners having a personal best 3 mile time for the season.  Volunteer Coach Gary Garrison said this was the best meet he has seen for our team in 9 years.  In the varsity race we had 9 runners represent us.  For the first time in 14 years we had 3 runners from our team run in the 15s.  Runners in the 15s  John Butcher and John Prillaman ran in the 15's for the first time in their careers on a 3 mile course.  We also had another 5 runners run in the 16s.  Runners in the 16s  Ethan Russell and Evan Forbes ran in the 16's for the first time in their careers.  They were joined by Jonathan Schaap (16:03), Forrest Smoes (16:06), and Elijah Johnson (16:08) that just missed making the 15's.  The top time of the day was Lucas Prather who ran the fastest time we have ever had at the U-High Invitational with a 15:34.  In the open race, the majority of our runners had major personal bests.  Daniel Middendorf had a 2:58 improvement, Nathaniel Cebulski had a 1:25 improvement, Nick Ross had a 1:20 improvement, Curt Kupferschmid had a 1:19 improvement, Brian Plotner had a 1:11 improvement, James Williams had a :58 improvement, and John Williams had a :40 improvement.  Curt Kupfeschmid placed 6th which was high enough to be our highest open race finish ever at this invitational.  Dhairav Vakil, Chris Carlton, and James Williams also placed high enough to be in our top 10 open finishes ever.  Our boys were on a runners high after having such great personal bests and having so many runners in the 15s and 16s.  Forrest Smoes and Ethan Russell ran the 2 fastest freshmen times we hae had on this course.  Jonathan Schaap ran the fastest sophomore time we have ever had on this course.  Lucas Prather, John Butcher, and Elijah Johnson ran the three fastest junior times we have ever had at this meet.  It is really great to watch all of our runners running so well at every grade level.  Despite not running the past weekend our team is still ranked #10 in the State.  We had 4 freshmen (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, Curt Kupferschmid, and James Williams), 1 sophomore (Jonathan Schaap), 3 juniors (Lucas Prather, John Butcher, and Elijah Johnson), and 2 seniors (John Prillaman and Evan Forbes) earn a spot on our teams' top 10 lists for the U-High Invitational.  
2010 U-High Invitational results.

Metamora Invitational:
The team placed 4th out of 26 teams represented.  #2 State ranked U-High, #3 State ranked Springfield, and AAA Moline were the only teams to out score our team.  The Mahomet-Seymour team ran very competitively in this invitational.  This is the highest place our team has gotten in this invitational since joining the meet in 2008.  Despite the course being short, the times for all teams were slow due to the 80 plus degree weather.  It was a great day for spectators, but it appeared to slow most runners down from all teams by 30 seconds or more.  Our goal for our team was to place in the top 4 teams to earn a trophy since there were many great teams in the invitational.  Mahomet competed against 12 of the 28 other teams in our Sectional, only being beat by U-High.  This gives us great confidence as we approach the Sectional meet  in three weeks.  The boys were able to beat AAA teams (Pekin and Normal Community) and the #12 (Peoria Notre Dame) and #13 (Sacred Heart Griffin) State ranked teams.  Beating Peoria Notre Dame in particular was a major victory for our boys as PND has been a State qualifying team for many years and have a tremendous program.  We had more runners earn a medal than we ever have before.  This year we had 5 runners earn a medal by placing in the top 40 runners (Lucas Prather 12th, John Prillaman 22nd, John Butcher 27th, Forrest Smoes 29th, and Elijah Johnson 35th). This shows that our team isn't just made up of one or two great runners, but that we have depth in our program.  15 of our 22 runners earned a spot on our fastest times at the Metamora Invitational list which shows our team is much stronger than even 7 runners deep.  With a little cooler weather at the conference meet this weekend, we hope everyone will be able to end a great season with personal best times.  We had 2 seniors (John Prillaman & Evan Forbes), 3 juniors (Lucas Prather, John Butcher, and Elijah Johnson), 4 sophomores (Jonathan Schaap, Bobby Butler, Ryne Swenson, and John Williams), and 6 freshmen (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, Curt Kupferschmid, Kyle Appelquist, Chris Carlton, and James Williams) earn a spot in our team's fastest times at the Metamora Invitational list.  
2010 Metamora Invitational results.

Conference:
The team placed 2nd out of the 8 conference schools.  #2 State ranked U-High won the meet.  Our team is currently ranked #9 in State.  Pontiac placed 3rd and is currently ranked #23 in State.  2nd is the highest team place any Mahomet-Seymour boys cross country team has placed in the last 25 years that we have been part of the Cornbelt Conference.  Only a total of 10 runners can recieve all-conference status.  There isn't a second team all-conference status or honorable mention in cross country.  Mahomet-Seymour was able to get 3 of the 10 all-conference spots.  Lucas Prather placed 7th, John Butcher placed 9th, and Jonathan Schaap placed 10th to earn all-conference status.  John Prillaman and Elijah Johnson just missed all-conference status by placing 11th and 15th.  The coference course is rotated each year between the conference schools.  This year the conference meet was held at Pontiac.  The course was a flat course, but unfortunately a course that yielded slow times for all teams since it had too many sharp turns.  This was disappointing as we hope that our last meets allow our runners a great chance to run personal bests.  The best that we could tell was that the course slowed down most runners 40 to 60 seconds.  However, we still had two runners improve enough that they still ran lifetime bests.  Dan Lewis and Nathaniel Cebulski ran lifetime bests by 23 seconds and 47 seconds.  I was extremely impressed by these two runners in particular.  Conference is the last race of the season where everyone on our team can run because during the State series we can only run our fastest  7 runners.  Our open runners did a great job representing our team at the conference meet.  Senior Evan Forbes led the open race for our team followed by Chris Carlon and Curt Kupferschmid.  Although every season has a start and a finish it is tough as a coach to have the season come to an end.  Our open runners have worked so hard throughout the season and represented our school and program well that I hate to see it end.  Many of our younger runners are just starting to figure out how to push themselves and pace themselves to great times and I hate to see it end when things are going well.  This team has had more success than any team we have had in over a decade.  These runners gave their best physical effort and their heart to their teammates and coaches throughout the season.  I am extremely proud of them as indviduals and as cross country runners.  
The history of the cornbelt conference meet since 1986.
Conference Highest individual finishes. 

Regional:
The team placed 3rd advancing to the Sectional meet.  Since the top five teams advance to Sectional, we didn't focus on anything but trying to run personal bests at this meet.  The temperature of the day was nice, but it was raining which hurt our times some.  Three of our runners ran in the 15's and two in the low 16's for a solid performance.  Lucas Prather, John Prillaman, and Curt Kupferschmid all ran personal bests even with the rainy conditions.  Lucas ran a 15:27, John ran a 15:50, and Curt ran a 17:08.  One of our top runners was held out of the meet due to an injury, which allowed us to give Curt Kupferschmid another chance to race.  Curt has really been coming on strong in the last half of the season.  We had set a goal for him to try to run in the 16's.  He continued to improve upon his time, but just missed the 16's.  I wish it had been a little better weather as I know he made a sub 17 minute effort.  John Butcher ran in the 15's for the 2nd time in his career showing he is right where he needs to be at this point in the season.  Lucas' time of 15:27 is the strongest time we have had at a Regional meet for over 15 years.  The boys had strong efforts at Regional, but we know we will need to continue to improve to be able to place in the top 5 at Sectional as a team this year.  Our team has not qualified for State since we were single A in 1996.  It would be a big boost to the runners and our program if we place in the top 5 teams at Sectional.  Lucas Prather placed 9th earning him a spot on our team's Regional top 10 finishers list.
The history of our team at the Regional.
2010 Regional Results.

Sectional:
All good things must come to an end.  Our team ended the season by setting another team best.  The team placed 7th which ties the highest team finish we have had in the past 14 years of being AA.  The team was led by Lucas Prather at 13th, John Prillaman 22nd, and John Butcher.  In order to qualify for state a team has to be one of the top 5 teams.  So our team just fell short of qualifying this year.  I think our boys did a lot of things right this year in the season to bring us that much closer to making it to state.  If the boys continue to make the great gains they have as individuals over the past couple years then they have a good chance of reaching it next year.  Lucas Prather became our 6th individual AA state qualifier since 1996.  Lucas really worked hard all season to reach this mark.  Last year he missed qualfying for state by 2 places or 5 seconds.  This year, Lucas was the 6th individual qaulifier out of the 7 that advanced to state.  In order to qualify for state as an individual a runner needs to be in the top 7 individuals that aren't on a qualifying team.  So no one really knows how close they are to qualifying until after the race is over.  Lucas will have his chance to race one more week at state this coming weekend.  John Prillaman had one of the best races of this career.  He eneded his senior year by running in the 15's again and just missing qualifying for state by 3 seconds.  John Butcher ran 3rd for the team and also had one of his most competitive runs of his career.  While the overall times from all teams at Sectional were slower than normal, Butcher ran a personal best on that course.  Freshman Forrest Smoes ran a self-sacrificing race on Saturday.  Despite being sidelined for almost two weeks for having a stress fracture in his hip, he gave it his all to help give his team the best chance to qualify for state.  Not too many athletes can run as well as Forrest, especially when they have a fractured bone.  We are glad he will now have time to fully rest his injury.  The team had an outstanding year, setting many team bests.  The team placed the highest we have ever placed in the following invitationals this season.  1st at the Springfield Invitational Freshman Race, 1st at the Eureka Fresh/Soph Invitational, 2nd at the East Peoria Invitational, 2nd at the U-High Invitational, 2nd at the Cornbelt Conference, 3rd at the Springfield Invitational, 4th at the Metamora Invitational, and 7th in a AA Sectional.  The success of the team this year, even at the Sectional meet is largely due to the great team spirit of all 22 of our runners. 
The history of our team at the Sectional.
Our team's highest individual places 
Past State qualifiers. 
2010 Sectional Results.

State:
Lucas Prather was our 6th individual State qualifier since we became AA in 1997.  Lucas had a tremendous season capped off by getting the opportunity to race the State's best runners at Peoria.  Lucas finished 106th which was the forth highest place we have had while being AA.  Lucas was the 3rd fastest junior Mahomet-Seymour runner at State in the past 42 years.  It was really great for Lucas to have qualified for State as a junior.  The experience of running at State will be extremely beneficial to his senior year.   Running at the State meet is like no other meet.  It is both an exciting event and a nerve racking meet.  With all the greatest teams and individual runners showing up to State it is great to be part of that experience.  Lucas really did well running at this high pressure meet.  It was also great to see so many people come out to support him.  Most of Lucas' teammates showed their loyalty as they gave up their Saturday to cheer on Lucas.  His teammates drove into town at 6 in the morning to get paint.  They painted GO PRATHER on their chests.  They braved the cold weather and cheer on Lucas.  His teammates are really great people and friends.  Anyone would be lucky to have such great teammates.  We also had Mahomet-Seymour students, parents, volunteer coaches, and alumni make the long drive to cheer on Lucas.  It was great to see so many Mahomet fans. 
MS State Qualifiers list.  
 
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