2012 Meet Summaries

Charleston Invitational:
Mahomet raced 11 other teams in this invitational and came out in 1st place.  They set our team record by scoring the lowest amount of points at this meet with only 37 points.  Our 2012 team set another team best at this meet by having the lowest top 5 runner team average by 19 seconds with a 16:10 average per runner.  They went on to set our team's best ever at this meet by having the lowest top 7 runner team average by 25 seconds with a 16:24 average per runner.  Most impressively our 25 man team set our team's best ever at this invitational by having an entire team average of 18:30 which is 46 seconds better than we have ever done at the Charleston Invite. 

We weren't sure if we would have the meet due to the poor weather.  However, we caught a break and were able to run on a wet course.  The humidity was high which made it tough for all runners to breath, but many of our runners were able to run well.  This last week and a half our team has been full of sickness and minor injuries.  All of our 25 boys really toughed it out by running with a great effort despite the not ideal conditions.  We had 11 new runners all run faster than I have ever had a new group of runners run in the 11 years I have coached at Mahomet-Seymour. 

Our returning runners showed great improvement since last year's Charleston Invitational.  Forrest Smoes improved 53 seconds, Chris Carlton improved 54 seconds, Jonathan Schaap improved 56 seconds, Bobby Butler improved 60 seconds, Ryan Huff improved 1 minute and 8 seconds, James Williams improved 1 minute and 35 seconds, Kyle Appelquist improved 1 minute and 59 seconds, Nathaniel Cebulski improved 2 minutes and 52 seconds, and Dhairav Vakil improved 4 minutes and 51 seconds. 

We had the most medalists that we have ever had at this invitational.  They give out 25 medals in the varsity race and 15 medals in the open race.  Statistically we should have earned less than 4 medals, but our boys ran strong enough to earn 17 of the 40 medals given out to the 12 total teams represented.  Whereas some teams had no medalist, 68% of our team earned a medal.
Our boys earned the maximum amount of medals in the varsity race with 7 medals.  Our varsity medal winners were Jonathan Schaap 4th, Forrest Smoes 5th, Ethan Russell 6th, Alex Keeble 9th, James Williams 13th, Chris Carlton 18th, and Trevor Hanlon 20th.
Our boys earned 10 of the 15 open race medals.  Jackson Powell (Meet Champion) 1st, Williams Wolf (Runner-up) 2nd, Jack Hyde 3rd, Jake Keller 4th, Dhairav Vakil 5th, Matthew Chupp 7th, Kyle Appelquist 8th, Bobby Butler 9th, Joey Magyar 10th, and Mason McAnally 11th.

Our boys not only won the varsity race, but won the open race.  The boys won the open race with a perfect score.  To earn a perfect score a team needs to place their top 5 runners in the top 5 of the meet.  Winning the open is a sign that our team has a lot of depth.  Most teams only have 1 or 2 strong runners.  Our boys have worked very hard for years and it is really revealing itself in how strong all our runners are, not just in our top runner alone.

Jonathan Schaap ran the fastest time we have ever had at this invitational with a 15:42.  We have been running in this invitational for 9 years and have some very strong runners on our teams over the years.  Forrest Smoes and Ethan Russell ran the top two fastest times we have ever had a junior run at this meet with a 15:52 and 16:00 respectively.  Alex Keeble ran the fastest time we have ever had a freshman run at this invitational with a 16:30.  This is especially impressive as he has to beat all the former record holders like Jonathan Schaap and Forrest Smoes from previous years.

Jonathan Schaap, Forrest Smoes, and Ethan Russell were given IL elite ranking by dyestat.com for their performances.

We had 3 seniors (Jonathan Schaap, Matthew Chupp, and Bobby Butler),  5 juniors (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, James Williams, Chris Carlton, and Dhairav Vakil), 3 sophomores (Trevor Hanlon, Jackson Powell, and William Wolf), and 5 freshmen (Alex Keeble, Jack Hyde, Jake Keller, Joey Magyar, and Mason McAnally) earn a spot in our top 15 Fastest Times at the Charleston Invitational list.
2012 Charleston results.
 
Springfield Invitational:
Mahomet raced 19 other teams and came out in 2nd place in the Varsity race.  The team finished only 6 points behind Springfield who is currently ranked #8 in the state rankings.  The boys managed to beat Chatham Glenwood who is currently ranked #16 in the state rankings. 
Our freshmen team came out in 1st place as a team.  This is the 3rd time in the past 5 years that our freshman team has won this honor.
Our team won the open race for the 2nd year in a row. 

Our team has run this invitational for the past 9 years.  We not only came away with 2 of the 3 team titles, but our team won 2 of the 3 individual titles.  Jonathan Schaap was the varsity race meet champion and Alex Keeble was the freshmen race meet champion.  Jonathan is the first meet champion that Mahomet-Seymour has had in the varsity race.  Many years the state champion has won this invitational.  Jonathan ran a great race and out kicked another runner in the last 50 meters to win the invitational.  Jonathan ran faster than we have ever had any MS runner run at this invitational with a 15:24.  Alex Keeble also out kicked his opponent in the final strides to take the win in the freshmen race.  This was not only the fastest time that any MS runner has run in the freshmen race, but it is the fastest time for any runner from any team in the freshmen race in at least the last 9 years.

Our team earned more medals than any MS team has ever won in this invitational in the past 9 years.  They won 6 medals in the varsity race out of the 25 medals given out.  Jonathan Schaap 1st, Forrest Smoes 4th, Ethan Russell 5th, Trevor Hanlon 16th, James Williams 23rd, and Jackson Powell 25th.  They won 4 medals of the 15 medals given out in the freshman race.  Alex Keeble 1st, Jake Keller 4th, Jack Hyde 7th, and Joey Magyar 11th.  They won 3 medals of the 15 medals given out in the open race.  William Wolf 3rd, Matthew Chupp 5th, and Bobby Butler 10th.

We have only had 4 runners ever run in the 15s on this challenging course.  Jonathan Schaap 15:24, Forrest Smoes 15:45, and Ethan Russell 15:50 are 3 of the runners from the past 9 years that have been able to accomplish this feat.

Runners that can have a time under 17:00 are often considered the best in the area if they can run that time by the end of the season.  Trevor Hanlon 16:23, James Williams 16:40, and Jackson Powell 16:45 all broke that barrier early in the season.

I was very proud of all of our runners, but especially pleased by the open runners.  We told them before the race that they had an outside chance of winning this meet if they made some drastic improvements.  Of course, that is easier said than done.  We told Curt that if he would need to cut over a minute off his time which is not usually heard of on this course.  We told Daniel and Nathaniel that they would have to work together to push each other as hard as they could because one of them would most likely be our 5th runner for the day which would round out our team score.  They all gave it their all and either ran lifetime bests or season best efforts.  William Wolf placed 3rd overall which was the highest open finish we have ever had.  Rookie Matthew Chupp came from behind and placed 5th which is the 4th highest finish we have ever had.  Captain Bobby Butler ran a lifetime best to place 10th which is the 7th highest finish we have ever had.  Curt Kupferschmid had the biggest improvement of the week with a 1 minute and 11 second improvement to place 4th for our team and 21st in the open race.  This was also in the top highest finishes our team has ever had in the open race.  Daniel Middendorf has shown drastic improvement since his freshman year.  He finished our team score by placing 5th on the team and helped us win the team title.  His 37th place finish also was one of the highest finishes our team has ever had.  Junior Nathaniel Cebulski was on Daniel's heals and was our first bumper point runner.  He ran a season best performance on this tough course.  Sophomore Ryan Huff was in our top 7 in the open as he ran a season best as well.  Sophomore Kenny Pauley with a lifetime best of 23:19, senior John Williams with a season best of 23:24, and sophomore Christopher Williams with a lifetime best of 23:42 were also part of the championship open team. 

The freshmen ran very well in order to get their win.  It really took a team effort to get the win.  We only have 6 freshmen and we needed to have at least 5 finish in order to get a team score.  As mentioned earlier Alex Keeble won, but he couldn't have got the team win without his teammates giving it their all.  Jake Keller ran the 3rd fastest time we have ever had a freshman run this course to place 4th with a time of 11:05.  Jack Hyde ran the 4th fastest time we have ever had a freshman run on this course to place 7th with a time of 11:10.  The freshman times are really impressive when you consider they are running faster times at their age than all the guys from our team over the last nine years who later went on to qualify for state or who are running at the college level or are currently breaking records for our team at the upperclassmen level.  Joey Magyar placed 11th with a time of 11:33 and Mason McAnally placed 22nd with a time of 11:59.  Both of these times were in the top 15 fastest we have ever had by a freshmen at this meet.  Niko Householder ran a personal best by nearly 3 minutes to finish with a time of 14:04 and 42nd place. 

In the varsity race Jonathan Schaap gave us the low point of 1.  Forrest Smoes ran the fastest time ever by a MS junior to place 4th with a 15:45,  Ethan Russell ran the 3rd fastest time for a MS junior to place 5th with a 15:50.  Sophomore and new cross country runner Trevor Hanlon ran 4th for the team.  He ran a lifetime best of 16:23 which was an improvement of 45 seconds.  He placed 16th overall and only got beat by some of the best runners in the state.  James Williams also ran a lifetime best with a time of 16:40 to place 23rd.  Sophomore Jackson Powell who is also a new cross country runner this year ran an impressive 16:45.  This was also his lifetime best and placed him 25th.  Chris Carlton rounded out our team.  Despite Chris being sick all week he gave a great effort and still managed to make his way onto our fastest junior times list. 

Forrest Smoes and Ethan Russell were given IL elite ranking by dyestat.com for their performances.  Jonathan Schaap was given top 100 US ranking for his performance.

We had 3 seniors (Jonathan Schaap, Matthew Chupp, and Bobby Butler),  5 juniors (Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, James Williams, Chris Carlton, and Curt Kupferschmid), 3 sophomores (Trevor Hanlon, Jackson Powell, and William Wolf), and 5 freshmen (Alex Keeble, Jack Hyde, Jake Keller, Joey Magyar, and Mason McAnally) earn a spot in our top 15 fastest times and/or places at the Springfield Invitational.   Fastest times at the Springfield Invitational list.  
2012 Springfield results.
Peoria Notre Dame Invitational:
The Peoria Notre Dame meet had 70 boys teams represented and 22 State ranked teams.  Over the years this invitational has been considered harder than the State meet.  Mahomet-Seymour placed the highest that we have ever placed in the history of our school attending this invitational.  We have been attending for 13 years.  This year we placed 13th.  The boys managed to beat 11 State ranked teams and was only beat by one AA school.  There are 3 classes in IHSA XC and Mahomet-Seymour is one of the smaller AA schools.  The AA school that beat Mahomet-Seymour has won State the last several years.  Our boys were ranked 9th in State coming into this meet in AA.  They beat #1, #9, & #19 single A State ranked teams.  They beat the #14 AAA State ranked team.  They beat the #12, #16, and #22 AA State ranked teams.  Most impressively our boys ran strong enough to beat three teams that were ranked higher than us.  They beat Springfield #7, Normal U-High #6, and Deerfield #4.  Springfield and Normal U-High traditionally place in the top 3 at the State meet at the end of the year.  So this gives us hope that our team has a chance to be competitive again this year at the State level.

The Peoria Notre Dame Invitational had 3 separate races.  We had 4 runners finish in the open race.  All ran very strong and represented Mahomet-Seymour well.  Curt Kupferschmid had our fastest open race time with a 17:44.  This was his season personal best by almost half a minute.  Daniel Middendorf also had a season best with a time of 19:01.  Nathaniel Cebulski ran a lifetime best of 19:11.  Jeff Coburn ran a season best of 19:32 and just missed his lifetime best by 3 seconds.  Nathaniel Cebulski's time places him #10 on our team's most improved over a career list.  To earn a spot on the list a runner needs to improve a challenging 3 minutes from the first race of their high school career to their best race.   Nathaniel started with a 24:59 three mile time and has cut off 5 minutes and 48 seconds up to this point. 

We had 4 runners in the fresh/soph race.  We would have needed 5 runners to earn a team score.  All four of our fresh/soph boys ran lifetime bests.  Jack Hyde led his team by finishing 56th with a time of 16:55.  Jack is one of the few freshman that MS has ever had break 17 minutes.  This was a 30 second improvement from his previous best.  Fellow teammate, Jake Keller just missed the 16's as he ran a 17:07 to place 72nd.  Jake improved 33 seconds from his best.  Both performances were in the top 20 fresh/soph places we have ever had at this invitational.  Mason McAnally also ran a lifetime best of 18:42 to place 235th.  Niko Householder had our team's biggest improvement of the day with a 1 minute and 54 second improvement.  Niko ran a 21:13 to place 365th.  Last week Niko ran a 2 mile lifetime best of 14:04.  So his 3 mile time is nearly that same pace for an extra mile. 

We were allowed to run 10 runners in the varsity race.  9 of our 10 runners ran lifetime personal best times which is one of our main goals for each meet.  Forrest Smoes led the team with a time of 15:14.  This was a 31 second personal best.  Jonathan Schaap finished one second later with a 15:15.  This was even faster than he ran to earn an All-State medal last year at the State meet.  Both Forrest and Jonathan earned a medal by placing 36th and 38th.  This is a highly competitive meet that brings in the best AAA teams from around the State.  In our 13 year history MS has only had 3 other Varsity medal winners at this invitational (Jordan Johnson in 2000, Kyle Emkis in 2000, and Jacob Mahaffey in 2008).  Ethan Russell placed 76th with a time of 15:37.  His time was a 13 second improvement.  Freshman Alex Keeble improved 44 seconds to run 15:46.  He is the only freshman that we have record of in the 43 year history of Mahomet-Seymour's XC program to ever run in the 15's.  Alex placed 96th.  Before this year MS has only had 9 runners in a total of 12 years to ever place in the top 100 at this tough invitational.  This year we had 4 runners which shows how strong this team ran at this meet.  Sophomore Jackson Powell just missed breaking into the 15's with a 16:05.  This was a 40 second improvement for Jackson.  It was also his first time breaking into our team's top 5.  Sophomore Trevor Hanlon lowered his best to 16:16 with another strong performance.  Junior James Williams improved 12 seconds to run a 16:28 to finish in our team's top 7 runners for the 3rd time this season.  Sophomore William Wolf had an impressive run with a 44 second improvement.  William ran in the 16's for the first time with a 16:35.  William Wolf and Forrest Smoes were given the John Jeffrey Butcher Heart Award for running with such determination this invitational.  Chris Carlton ran a lifetime 3 mile best after coming back from being sick which showed great courage.  He ran a 16:42.  Matthew Chupp ran a tough race that his time doesn't totally reveal.  Matthew ran way out of his comfort zone and was on pace for a mid to low 16's.  He ended up finishing with a 17:37 which is just 4 seconds shy of his personal best. 

MS had 6 runners run in the 16's and 4 in the 15's.  This is the most amount of runners in the 16's or better in any one season by a MS team. 
MS had the fastest top 5 average we have had at this invitational.  This year they ran a 15:35.05 average.  Our previous best was from our 2011 team who ran a 15:44 average and later went on to place 5th in State.
MS had the fastest top 7 average we have had at this invitational.  This year they ran a 15:48.7 average.  Our previous best was from 2011 with a 15:56 average.
MS had the fastest overall team average with a 17:18.  We have only had one other overall team average under 18:30 in 13 years.

Jonathan Schaap ran the fastest Senior time we have ever had at this invitational.
Forrest Smoes and Ethan Russell ran the 2nd and 3rd fastest time we have ever had a junior run at this invitational.
Jackson  Powell and Trevor Hanlon ran the 2nd and 3rd fastest time we have ever had a sophomore run at this invitational.
Alex Keeble ran the fastest Freshman time we have ever had at this invitational.

Jonathan Schaap, Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, and Alex Keeble were given IL elite ranking by dyestat.com for their performances.

We had 1 senior (Jonathan Schaap #1),  4 juniors (Forrest Smoes #2, Ethan Russell #3, James Williams #9, Chris Carlton #14), 3 sophomores (Jackson Powell #2, Trevor Hanlon #3, and William Wolf #7), and 3 freshmen (Alex Keeble #1, Jack Hyde #5, Jake Keller #10) earn a spot in our top 15 fastest times list  at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational.  Fastest times at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational list.  
2012 Peoria Notre Dame Results.
  
East Peoria Invitational:
Our team won the East Peoria Invitational for the 2nd year in a row.  There were 19 schools represented at this invitational.  They won with a low score of 49 points.  This is the lowest score our team has ever had at this meet in the 8 years we have attended this meet.  Our team also had the lowest top 5 runner average that we have ever had with a 15:37 average.  17 of our 24 runners either had season or lifetime best efforts.  Our team also set a best of having 4 runners earn medals.  In our 7 previous years of running in this invitational we had a grand total of 7 medals.  Jonathan Schaap, Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, and Alex Keeble all earned a medal by placing in the top 20. 

Jonathan Schaap and Forrest Smoes placed 1st and 2nd in this major invitational.  We have never had a runner place in the top 2 until this year.  Our two previous runners that had placed in the top 5 at this invitational went on to become all-state runners in that same year.  Forrest Smoes ran the fastest time we have ever had a junior run on this course with a 15:14.  Jonathan Schaap ran the fastest MS time we have ever had a senior run on this course as well as the fastest MS time we have had on this course with a 14:58.  In the 43 year history of MS cross country our team has only had 3 other runners break into the 14s.  (Mark Johnson 14:58 in 1973 and 14:41 in 1974, Neil Mathis 14:54 in 1984, and Jordan Johnson 14:48 in 2000).  So this was an amazing accomplishment.  Ethan Russell placed 7th and was our 3rd fastest junior we have ever had on this course with a time of 15:40.  Alex Keeble came in 4th for our team and broke into the 15s for his second time.  Alex placed 15th with a 15:54.  This is the fastest freshman time we have ever had on this course.  James Williams ran a lifetime best of 16:19 to place 24th.  This is the 6th fastest time we have ever had at this meet  for a junior.  Our team needed to hold out 2 of our runners that have been placing in our top 6 runners.  We knew we needed our runners to step it up and they did.  Chris Carlton and William Wolf really did a great job as they ran 6th and 7th for our team.  Chris Carlton ran a 16:39 which is the 10th fastest time we have had for a junior.  William Wolf ran 16's for his second time in his life with a 16:46.  William's time is the 9th fastest sophomore time that we have had at this invitational.

On our top 7 runners' heals were three runners who broke into the 16's for the first time in their lives.  It happened to be our senior meet which was a great time for seniors Matthew Chupp and Bobby Butler to run in the 16's.  Matthew Chupp had a 44 second improvement to run 16:49.  Bobby Butler had a 48 second improvement to run a 16:55.  This placed Matthew and Bobby 10th and 11th on our all time fastest seniors at this invite.  Freshman Jake Keller beat Bobby by a stride to run 16:54.  Jake's 13 second improvement helped him earn the 5th fastest freshman spot.  Our team set a record with these 3 runners' efforts.  Our team now has 13 runners that have run in the 14s, 15s, or 16s this year.  Our previous best was 9 runners in one year.  This statistic reveals the depth of this year's team and how hard they have worked for years to get to these times.

Jack Hyde ran a 17:02 which places him 8th in our all time freshman list at this meet  Jack's time was the same time that Jonathan Schaap ran as a freshman on this course.  Curt Kupferschmid ran a season best of 17:43 to earn the 15th spot on our fastest juniors list.  Joey Magyar ran a 15 second lifetime best with a time of 18:01.  This places Joey as #15 on our all time fastest freshman list.  Freshman teammate Mason McAnally finished on his heals to run a 18:18.  Mason's time was a 24 second improvement and placed him 18th on our fastest freshman list on this course.

Daniel Middendorf ran a lifetime best of 18:28.  This was a 1 minute and 40 second improvement from his last year's time at this meet.  Nathaniel Cebulski ran a lifetime best of 19:00.  This was a 1 minute and 7 second improvement from his time last year at this meet.  Jeff Coburn ran a lifetime best of 19:16.  This was a 1 minute and 24 second improvement from his last year's race time at this invite.  These three juniors had the biggest improvement from last year's time.  They really deserve a lot of credit for all the increased miles they put in this summer.  It really showed at this invite. 

Kyle Appelquist showed a lot of courage as he came back after battling an injury for the past 3 weeks.  His time of 20:11 doesn't show how much of a great effort this was for him to finish with a hurt leg.  Ryan Huff finished close behind Kyle with a season best time of 20:23.   Christopher Williams had the biggest improvement of the day for our team with a 21:20.  Christopher improved an amazing 2 minutes and 22 seconds.  His legs were incredibly sore after this great run due to him pushing it past his limits.  I was extremely proud of him.  Niko householder ran in the 21's for the second meet in a row.  He ran a 21:36 which was another strong effort.   Kenny Pauley had the second biggest improvement of the day for our team.  Kenny had a 1 minute and 23 second improvement to run a 20:56.  It was great to see him break the 21 minute barrier.  Senior John Williams finished off a 7 year cross country career with a season personal best time of 22:49.  His 35 second improvement was a great way to finish almost a decade of being a MS cross country runner. 

I was very proud of the team as they continue to make improvements each meet and each year.  They are starting to win more invitationals each year and showing that they are one of the strongest cross country teams in the state.  Our team is currently ranked 5th in the state.

Jonathan Schaap, Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, and Alex Keeble were given IL elite ranking by dyestat.com for their performances.

3 seniors (Jonathan Schaap #1, Matthew Chupp #10, and Bobby Butler #11), 5 juniors (Forrest Smoes #1, Ethan Russell #3, James Williams #6, Chris Carlton #10, and Curt Kupferschmid #15), 1 sophomore (William Wolf #9), and 4 freshman (Alex Keeble #1, Jake Keller #5, Jack Hyde #8, and Joey Magyar #15) earned a spot in our team's top 15 fastest times list at the East Peoria Invitational. Fastest times at the East Peoria Invitational list.  
2012 East Peoria Results.

Metamora Invitational:
The team placed 1st out of the 26 total teams represented at the Metamora Invitational.  This is the first time our boys have won this invitational.  A total of 9 of the top 23 State ranked teams were at this invitational.  Going into the invitational Mahomet-Seymour was ranked 7th in State this past week.  Mahomet-Seymour was able to beat #5 ranked (U-High), #6 ranked (Springfield), #11 ranked (Glenn Ellen South), #12 ranked (Dunlap), #14 ranked (Springfield SHG), #19 ranked (Pontiac), #22 ranked (Peoria ND), and #23 ranked (Metamora). 

Our team set some of our team school records at this invitational. 
Our top 5 runners ran the fastest top 5 runner average that we have ever had at this meet with a 15:21.8 average.  Our previous best top 5 runner average was 15:48 done by our 2011 team that placed 5th in the State meet. 
Our top 7 runners ran the fastest top 7 runner average that we have ever had at this meet with a 15:37.0 average.  Our previous best top 7 runner average was 15:57.9 by our 2011 team. 
Our team ran the fastest overall team average with a 17:20.3 average.  Our previous best was 18:00 at this meet in 2011.
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Our boys set a few class records at this invitational as well.
Alex Keeble ran the fastest freshman time that any Mahomet-Seymour runner has run with a 15:36.  Our previous freshman record was by Forrest Smoes with a 16:25 in 2010.
William Wolf ran the second fastest sophomore time with a 16:12.
Forrest Smoes ran the fastest junior time that any Mahomet-Seymour runner has run with a 14:58.  Our previous junior record was by Jonathan Schaap with a 15:42 in 2011.
Ethan Russell also bettered Jonathan's junior time with a 15:25.  He would have had the junior record had his teammate not beat him.
Jonathan Schaap ran the fastest senior time that any Mahomet-Seymour runner has run with a 14:51.  Our previous senior record was by John Butcher with a 15:29 in 2011.
Jonathan Schaap ran the fastest time that any Mahomet-Seymour runner has ever run on this course.  In fact he broke into the elite top 25 list of top times ever run on the Metamora course by any runner from any school.  The course has been used for many decades which reveals the significance of this feat. 

Our team ran great from our fastest runner to our 22nd runner of the day.  I couldn't have been prouder.  16 of the 22 runners ran lifetime bests and an impressive 17 of our 22 runners earned a spot on our team's fastest times list for this invitational.
Our team was led by Jonathan Schapp and Forrest Smoes.  Jonathan placed 2nd and Forrest placed 4th.  These were not only the two highest places that we have ever had for our team at this invitational, but it was the first time in the 43 year history of our program that we have had 2 runners from our team run in the 14s in the same year or even the same decade.  Jonathan's 14:51 and Forrest's 14:58 are two of only 5 runners that our program has ever had run in the 14s.  Mark Johnson accomplished this in the 70s, Neil Mathis accomplished this in the 80s, and Jordan Johnson accomplished this in 2000.  Close behind was Ethan Russell with a lifetime best of 15:25, Alex Keeble with a lifetime best of 15:36, and James Williams with a 15:59.  This was a big breakthrough for James Williams as it was his first time running in the 15s.  This was extremely important for not only James, but our team, as it helped us round out our team score.  William Wolf and Matthew Chupp came in 6th and 7th for our team.  Both ran a lifetime best with a 16:12 and 16:18 respectively. 

We had five additional runners also run in the 16s.  Chris Carlton ran a lifetime best of 16:26.  Jackson Powell despite being sick ran a 16:33.  Curt Kupferschmid had a big improvement and broke into the 16s for the first time with a 16:51.  Bobby Butler ran in the 16s for the second time this season with a lifetime best of 16:53.  Jake Keller broke into the 16s again with a 16:59.  With Curt breaking into the 16s, our team set our school record of having more runners in the 14s, 15s, and 16s with a grand total of 14 runners in the same year.  This is over half our team.

Jake Hyde ran close to his best with a 17:06.  Three of our runners broke into the 17s for the first time in their careers.  Joey Magyar ran a lifetime best of 17:30, Daniel Middendorf ran a lifetime best of 17:44, and Mason McAnally ran a lifetime best of 17:45.  It is always great to see runners break into the next minute mark.  The next minute mark is as much of a mental barrier is it is a physical barrier.

We had four runners run in the 18s.  Despite being injured, Kyle Appelquist ran a 18:41.  Jeff Coburn, Nathaniel Cebulski, and Ryan Huff all ran lifetime bests to break into the 18s for the first time ever with a 18:28, 18:33, and 18:46.

Niko Householder and Christopher Williams ran their 2nd fastest times of the season with a 21:36 and 22:17. 

Jonathan Schaap, Forrest Smoes, Ethan Russell, Alex Keeble, and James Williams were given IL elite ranking by dyestat.com for their performances.

3 seniors (Jonathan Schaap #1, Matthew Chupp #8, and Bobby Butler #10), 6 juniors (Forrest Smoes #1, Ethan Russell #2, James Williams #5, Chris Carlton #8, Curt Kupferschmid #11, and Daniel Middendorf #12), 3 sophomores (William Wolf #2, Jackson Powell #6, and Ryan Huff #12), and 5 freshman (Alex Keeble #1, Jake Keller #5, Jack Hyde #6, Joey Magyar #11, and Mason McAnally #12) earned a spot on our team's fastest times at the Metamora Invitational list.  
2012 Metamora Invitational results.

Conference:
The team placed 2nd in conference out of 8 teams.  While they beat a state ranked Pontiac team , a very tough state ranked U-High team managed to beat us by a mere 2 points.  This is the highest team finish that any Mahomet-Seymour team has had in the Cornbelt conference since we joined the conference in 1986.

We had 3 runners earn all-conference honors.  Only the top 10 finishers at conference earn this honor.  Forrest Smoes, Jonathan Schaap, and Ethan Russell all are 2012 all-conference runners.  Forrest Smoes and Jonathan Schaap stole the show by placing 1st and 2nd in the meet.  Forrest and Jonathan became the first Mahomet-Seymour runners to ever go 1st and 2nd in the conference meet since we joined the Cornbelt conference meet in 1986.  Forrest is the first meet champion that we have had since 1990 when two time all-state runner Dan Nielsen won.  Forrest ran a 15:07 and Jonathan ran a 15:13 on what it known for being a slow course.  Both Forrest and Jonathan's times are the two fastest times run by any runner from any team in the last 10 years of conference meets.  Many of the conference champions from past years went on to lead their college teams as freshmen and one past champion even ran in the 2012 USA Olympic track and field trials.  Both Forrest and Jonathan have not missed a day of running in over a year to prepare for this race and the season.

Ethan Russell placed 9th to earn all-conference honors with a 15:48.  He outran Wes Ward from U-High who was last year's conference champion and a former all-state runner in XC.  Just 2 seconds behind Wes Ward was freshman sensation Alex Keeble who once again broke into the 15s.  Matthew Chupp ran 5th for the team for the first time this year with a 16:45.  Matthew's time was a 48 second lifetime personal best in the 3 mile.  James Williams ran 6th for the team with a 16:47 and Jackson Powell ran 7th for the team with a 16:50.

Our boys ran very well in the open race.  The course was slow, but the efforts by our boys were great.  Curt Kupferschmid led his team with a 3 mile lifetime personal best of 17:03.  Curt placed 3rd in the open race. Jake Keller tied his lifetime 3 mile best of 17:07 and placed 5th as a freshman.  Freshman Jack Hyde ran a 17:15 to place 6th in the open race.  Senior Bobby Butler was close behind with a lifetime 3 mile best of 17:18 to place 7th.  Chris Carlton ran a 17:23 to place 8th.  Kyle Appelquist came in next with a 18:00 to place 11th.  One of the biggest improvements of the day came from freshman Mason McAnally.  Mason improved 33 seconds from his past best 3 mile time to run a 18:08 for a 12th place finish. 

Daniel Middendorf ran a lifetime best 3 mile time of 18:51 to place 19th.  He has the 8th biggest improvement over a career for our team with a 6 minute and 10 second improvement from his first 3 mile race to his best 3 mile race.
Joey Magyar ran a 18:55 to place 20th.  Jeff Coburn ran a 19:36 to place 28th.  Nathaniel Cebulski ran a 19:50 to place 30th.  Niko Householder ran a 22:16 to place 54th.  Christopher Williams ran a lifetime 3 mile personal best of 23:29 to place 60th. 

Ethan Russell and Alex Keeble were given IL elite ranking by dyestat.com for their performances.  Forrest Smoes and Jonathan Schaap were given top 100 US ranking for their performances.

2012 Conference Results
The history of the cornbelt conference meet since 1986.
Conference Highest individual finishes. 

Regional:
The team placed 1st beating out 8 other teams.  This is the 2nd Regional title in a row and the 4th in the last 7 years that our team has won.  Our team was lead by Forrest Smoes.  Forrest out kicked Johnny Leverenz (a AAA All-State runner last year from Danville) to place 2nd.  Despite the course being slow due to having too many tight turns and being wet from the rain the past several days, Forrest still managed to run a lifetime personal 3 mile best of 15:06.  He was only 13 seconds behind Riley McInerney who placed 3rd in the State meet last year.  This shows great promise for Forrest as we are just two weeks away from the State meet.  Close behind was Jonathan Schaap who placed 4th in the Regional with a 15:43.  Ethan Russell had one of the strongest races of his life to place 5th with a 15:57.  The top 5 runners earn All-Regional status as well as earn a medal for their performances.  This ties the most amount of All-Regional runners that our team has ever had in the Regional meet in the past 43 years of our program.  The only other time our team has had three runners in the top five finishers at the Regional meet was in 1987 when Jamie Fancher, Dan Nielsen, and Brian Easter accomplished this feat by placing 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. 

Close behind was freshman Alex Keeble with a 16:02.  He just missed the All-Regional team by 5 seconds.  Alex placed 7th.  Rounding out our team score was senior Matthew Chupp.  Matthew joined us from track after earning All-State status in the 3200 meter relay this past spring.  Matthew Chupp has been coming on strong at our last two meets running lifetime 3 mile bests in both races.  He improved 20 seconds again this race to run a 16:25.  He has placed in the top 5 of our team for the past two races.  James Williams just missed his lifetime 3 mile personal best by a mere 2 seconds with a 16:30 and only 5 seconds behind his teammate.   Matthew and James finished 13th and 16th in the Regional meet.  Sophomore Jackson Powell ran his first Regional meet with a time of 17:08. 

Forrest Smoes, Jonathan Schaap, and Ethan Russell were given IL elite ranking by dyestat.com for their regional performances.

Our team advances to the Sectional meet this weekend at the Hickory Point Golf Course in Decatur.

Regional top 10 individual finishers list.
The history of our team at the Regional.
2012 Regional Results.

Sectional
The team won this invitational for the first time since 1979.  This is only the second time in our 43 year history that our team has won the Sectional meet.  The team had to outrun 20 other teams including 6 State ranked teams in order to win the meet.  The team to beat was #5 State ranked Springfield.  On paper there was no mathematical way that our team was supposed to win the meet.  In the race Springfield's number one runner was disqualified, but even if he had been counted in the team score our team would have still won.  It was great to see a group of runners that have worked so hard get rewarded with the Sectional plaque. 

Alex Keeble ran over 500 miles in our 68 day summer.  Jackson Powell ran 600 miles in that time.  James Williams ran 700 miles in that time.  Ethan Russell has run over 2700 miles so far in 2012.  Jonathan Schaap has over 2800 miles in 2012.  Forrest Smoes has run over 3000 miles in 2012.  All their hard work is starting to pay off. 

Jonathan Schaap led our team with a 15:01 on a slow and wet course.  This was his lifetime best 3.0 mile time.  He placed 2nd only 8 seconds behind the Charleston runner that has been predicted to win the State meet this year.  Close behind was Forrest Smoes who placed 3rd with a 15:14.  Both Jonathan and Forrest earned All-Sectional honors by placing in the top 10.  This is first time in 43 years that we have had more than 1 runner place in the top 10 at the Sectional meet.  We have only had 9 other runners in the history of our school previously place in the top 10 at the Sectional meet which shows how hard this is to accomplish.  Only 4 previous Mahomet-Seymour runners have ever placed in the top 3 at the Sectional meet.  Mark Johnson, Neil Mathis, Dan Nielsen, and Josh Mock.  These are 4 of the 8 runners that are in Mahomet-Seymour boys cross country team's Hall of Fame. 

Ethan Russell just missed All-Sectional status by placing 11th with a time of 15:51.  Ethan is the highest 3rd place finish our team has ever had.  Alex Keeble traditionally runs 4th for the team, but had to pull out of the race due to an injury.  Alex is only the 5th freshman Mahomet-Seymour boys cross country runner to be a State qualifier.  James Williams really stepped it up and ran 4th for the team.  He ran a lifetime 3.0 mile best of 16:26 to place 26th.  This is James' first time qualifying for State as a high school runner.  Matthew Chupp and Jackson Powell, both first year high school cross country runners, fought for the 5th spot on our team and finished within seconds of each other.  Matthew placed 5th for our team and 33rd overall with a 16:33.  Jackson placed 41st with a time of 16:37. 

One thing that can't be seen from the results is the bigger team picture.  One of the main reasons our team has been so successful is how hard our entire team trains year round.  We have one of the strongest overall team's in the State if you include all of our runners.  They work incredibly hard in practice to push each other to being better.  Unfortunately we only get to have 7 runners represent us in the State series.  They were the best fans of the day for their team and helped encourage our runners all throughout the course which made a huge difference.  We are also very fortunate to have two volunteer coaches (Coach Todd Lafond and Coach Gary Garrison).  Both coaches sacrifice a lot to give to our student athletes.  I am very grateful to them. 

Jonathan Schaap, Forrest Smoes, and Ethan Russell earned elite IL status by dyestat.com for their performances at the Sectional meet.

Our team qualified for State for the second year in a row.  They will be racing at noon this coming Saturday (Nov. 3rd) at Detweiller Park in Peoria. 

The history of our team at the Sectional.
Our team's highest individual places 
Past State qualifiers. 
2012 Sectional Results.

State
The team placed 11th at the State meet.  The team ran very well against the fastest competition at the State meet since 2007 when the IHSA went to three classes for cross country.  Our team posted the fastest 3 mile 5 runner team average that we have ever had with a 15:27.  This beat our previous State team top 5 average by 15 seconds.  This team average would have placed us 2nd in State in 2007, 1st in State in 2008, 1st in State in 2009, 3rd in State in 2010, and 3rd in State in 2011.  Our team also set a team record with a top 7 average of 15:42 at the State meet.  This beat our previous State team top 7 average by 21 seconds. 

Individually, our runners ran very well.  Jackson Powell placed 7th for our team and 173rd overall with a time of 16:37.  This was Jackson's 2nd fastest 3.0 mile time of the year.  Jackson ran the 12th fastest Mahomet-Seymour sophomore time our team has ever recorded at the State meet.   Matthew Chupp, Alex Keeble, and James Williams all finished within a second of each other.  James Williams placed 6th for our team with a lifetime 3.0 mile best of 16:02.  This was a 24 second lifetime 3.0 mile best.  James placed 127th overall.  James moved up to number 28th in our team's most improved over a career list with a 3:28 improvement over his career.  James' time was the 7th fastest Mahomet-Seymour junior time ever recorded at the State meet.  Alex Keeble ran the fastest Mahomet-Seymour freshman time ever recorded at the State meet with a 16:01.  Alex placed 126th overall.  Matthew Chupp placed 4th for our team and 124th overall.  Matthew ran a 16:01 which was a lifetime best and a 24 second improvement from his previous best.  Matthew ran the 14th fastest senior time ever recorded by a Mahomet-Seymour runner at the State meet.

Ethan Russell came in 3rd for the team with a 15:43.  This was his second fastest 3.0 mile time of his life.  He placed 86th overall.  His time was the 4th fastest time ever run by a Mahomet-Seymour junior at the State meet.  Ethan improved 49 seconds from his time at the State meet last year.

Jonathan Schaap and Forrest Smoes both had lifetime bests to end their season.  Jonathan had a 14 second improvement and Forrest had a 19 second improvement.  Jonathan ran a 14:47.2 and Forrest ran a 14:47.8.  This is the 2nd and 3rd fastest times we have recorded in the 43 year history of our program in the 3.0 mile race.  Both Jonathan and Forrest became All-State runners by placing in the top 25 runners.  Jonathan placed 10th and Forrest placed 11th.  These are the two highest finishes at the State meet that our program has ever had.  Jonathan and Forrest became our 11th and 12th All-State boys cross country runners that our school has had.  Jonathan's time earned him a spot on our team's most improved over a career list with a 3:17 second improvement in his career.  Jonathan's time was the 2nd fastest senior time run at the State meet by a Mahomet-Seymour runner.  Forrest's time was the fastest junior Mahomet-Seymour time at the State meet by 30 seconds.  Jonathan improved 31 seconds from his time at the State meet last year and Forrest improved 53 seconds.  Jonathan and Forrest join an elite list kept by the IHSA of runners that have run 14:59 or better on the State meet course since 1970.

Ethan's time earned him Illinois Elite status by dyestat.com.  Jonathan's and Forrest's time earned them US top 100 elite status by dyestat.com.

What was especially nice at the State meet was how much support our team had.  Our runners on the team that weren't in the top 7 did a great job of cheering on their teammates throughout the race.  We had almost the entire 2011 cross country team return to support their former teammates.  Many of the 2011 runners parents also made the drive up to Peoria as well.  2008 All-State alumni Jacob Mahaffey also made the drive to the State meet.  The parents of our current team went out of their way to make it a great experience for the runners.  Our administration gave up their Saturday to watch the girls and guys teams race.  I am very grateful to all of our fan support.  I am also extremely grateful for the support of our volunteer coaches (Todd Lafond and Gary Garrison) who give up so much of their time and energy for the team.  We wouldn't have as strong of a team without them.  Last, but not least I want to thank my wife and God for always being there for me.

MS State Qualifiers list.
Fastest Times at the State meet.
2012 State Meet Results