2013 Meet The Team Mahomet-Seymour Boys Cross Country

     As a freshman, Jeff comes to our team with jr. high cross country experience under his belt. He drastically improved since 8th grade where he ran a personal best of 24 minutes in the 2 mile. His first high school 3 mile race was in 20:04 at the Charleston Invitational. He was a member of the freshman meet championship team at the Springfield Invitational freshmen race. Jeff went on to run a personal best at the Eureka FS invitational with a time of 19:35. He was part of the Eureka FS meet championship team. Jeff continued to improve as he ran a 3 mile PR at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. Jeff had another break through at the U-High Invitational where he ran a personal best of 19:29. Jeff earned enough points by the Metamora Invitational to earn a varsity letter. He earned his way onto the News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in November.
     As a sophomore, Jeff opened the season by helping his team win at the Charleston Invitational. Jeff helped his team win the Springfield Invitational in the open race where he ran a season best time of 22:15. This was the first time in the history of our school where we won the open race as a team. Jeff had a major break through at the East Peoria Invitational where he ran a season best of 20:40. Jeff ran a season best at the U-High invitational with a 1:40 improvement. He ran a 19:35 with a tremendous effort. Jeff improved 40 seconds from 2010 at the Metamora invitational where he ran 20:32. Jeff really went after it at the Conference meet. He ran a lifetime best of 19:29. He earned enough letter points to get his second varsity letter.
As a junior, ran over 200 miles in the summer and can in the best shape that he has by far. Jeff's miles definitely have paid off as he is much stronger in practice and is having much faster time trials. Unfortunately Jeff was unable to run in his first meet at Charleston as he was home sick most of the week. In Jeff's first meet of the season he ran a 19:32 at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. His time was a great start and was only 3 seconds off his lifetime best. Jeff ran a lifetime best of 19:16 at the East Peoria Invitational. This was a 1 minute and 24 second improvement from his time last year at this invitational. After some incredible workouts, Jeff ran another major improvement at the Metamora Invitational. His new lifetime best time of 18:28 is the 16th fastest time we have had any junior run on this course. Jeff earned his way onto the News Gazette Prep Area Cross Country Leaders list in October. Jeff ran close to his lifetime 3 mile best at the conference meet with a time of 19:36 despite wet conditions. He placed 28th in the open race. He earned enough varsity letter points after this meet wo earn his third varsity letter in high school cross country.
    As a senior, Jeff came into the season looking the strongest he has ever looked. His age and experience are really starting to pay off as he is comfortably running a strong pace. Jeff showed great leadership from the start as he would take the younger and new runners under his wing in the warm-up. He would take the time to encourage them and to give them quick advice to make their running easier. The younger runners really appreciated Jeff's caring about them. Jeff opened up the season with a 20:45 at the Charleston Invitational. This was a personal best on that course for Jeff. Jeff earned his way onto the News-Gazette's prep cross country leaders list in September. Jeff ran a solid race at the East Peoria Invitational with a 21:45. His team won the East Peoria Invitational for the 3rd year in a row. Jeff earned his way onto the News-Gazette prep cross country leaders list in October. Jeff ran his best race of the season at the Metamora Invitational. He broke into the 18s with an 18:55. Jeff ran a 20:13 on the challenging conference course. Jeff was one of the few runners on our team to run a season 3 mile best on this course. He helped our team win the open race at Conference for the first time in our school's history.