2017 Meet The Team Mahomet-Seymour Boys Cross Country

   As a Freshman, Joe entered our program with junior high experience. He was one of the strongest runners on his junior high team. Joe took his summer training seriously as he ran over 300 miles in the summer before his freshman year. Joe joined our team's 300 mile club. Joe showed incredible determination in our early season workouts. The workouts are made to mentally and physically challenge the toughest of high school runners. Joe held his own in these workouts and finished even some of the most grueling runs. Joe opened his season with a great first run at the Charleston Invitational where he ran a 18:56. This was one of the strongest times run by a Mahomet freshman in the past 10 years at that invitational. Joe made his way onto the News Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in September. Joe showed his extreme loyalty to the team by making a special trip from band camp and back to be able to race at the Springfield Invitational freshman race. It paid off as he ran a lifetime best of a 12:11 which was a 55 second improvement from his previous best. Joe placed 11th overall to earn his first high school cross country medal. He placed 4th for his team and helped his team win the Springfield Invitational freshman race team title. Joe ran a solid race at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational with a time of 19:17. He earned enough letter points after his Peoria Notre Dame performance to earn his first high school varsity cross country letter. Joe ran a big improvement at the East Peoria Invitational. His time of 18:33 was a 23 second improvement as he broke into the 18s again. Joe's time was fastest enough to earn him a spot on our team's fastest top freshman times list for the East Peoria Invitational. Joe is a very determined runner. He became the 2nd freshman ever to finish our York Workout. It is an incredibly mentally and physically challenging workout that seems overwhelming to most. Joe handled it with great success. Joe made his way onto the News Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in October. Joe had an excellent race at the Metamora Invitational. He broke into the low 17s with a 17:22. Joe's time was fast enough to earn him a spot on the team's fastest times list for the Metamora Invitational. Joe's improved a massive 1 minute and 11 seconds from his season best to run this great time. He had the second largest improvement on the team helping lead our team with his tremendous effort. Joe ended his freshman season by running a lifetime 3 mile best time at the Conference meet. He ran a 17:44. This was a huge improvement of 1 minute and 12 seconds. It was the second biggest improvement on our team. Joe earned a spot on our team's fastest freshman times list for the Conference meet with his strong time. Joe earned a spot on the News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in November.
    As a sophomore, Joe drastically increased his summer miles. It paid off as he moved up to the top pack on our teams and his times majorly improved. He ran over 700 miles in the summer. He earned a spot on our team's 700 mile club. He earned the honor of being captain his sophomore year. Joe's work paid off in our first meet. Joe improved 1 minute and 24 seconds from just one year earlier to run a 17:32 at the Charleston Invitational. This was a 12 second lifetime 3 mile personal best time. He ran in the top 12 for our team. Joe's time was the biggest improvement of anyone on the team from last year's race. Joe earned a spot on our team's fastest sophomore list at the Charleston Invitational. Joe earned a spot on the News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in September. Joe ran another lifetime personal best at the Springfield Invitational. Despite it being a tougher course he still managed to run a 17:29.   He helped his team win the runner-up spot in the open race. He ran 4th for his team placing 12th overall. His 12th place finish earned him a medal. His time earned him the 23rd fastest spot on our fastest top times list for sophomores at the Springfield Invitational. Joe earned enough varsity letter points to earn his second varsity cross country letter. Joe ran an incredible race at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. He broke into the 16s for the first time with a 16:43. He earned a spot on our team's 16 minute 3 mile club. Joe did this by improving 46 seconds from his lifetime best. He was 2 minutes and 34 seconds faster than he was last year at the same meet which shows his work ethic paid off. He earned a spot on our team's fastest top sophomore times list by running the 17th fastest sophomore time ever at this invitational. Joe ran a competitive race at the East Peoria Invitational. Joe placed 6th in the fresh/soph race earning a medal. He helped his team win the invitational. Joe earned the 21st spot on our team's fastest top sophomore times list at this invitational. He improved one minute and 20 seconds from his race at East Peoria just one year ago which shows how hard he worked this past summer. Joe earned a spot on the News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in October. Joe ran in the 16s again at the Metamora Invitational where he ran a 16:47. His time is the 16th fastest sophomore time we have had at this invitational. His time was a 35 second improvement from his last year's time at this invite. Joe ran an amazing race at the Conference meet. He ran for a lifetime best of 16:14. This was a 29 second improvement for the year and a 1 minute and 30 second improvement from his last year's conference race. Joe placed 6th in the open race helping his team win it with a low score of 17 points. He earned the 11th fastest spot on our team's fastest sophomore times list for the Conference meet with a 46 year history. His great improvement is just a reflection of his hard work the past year. Joe earned his way onto our team's State series roster. Joe went on to break onto our team's Sub 30 minute South Mahomet Loop club. Joe was a State qualifier as an alternate his sophomore year. Joe also earned a spot on the News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in November. Joe earned out team's scholar athlete award for his great grades the previous year. Joe earned our team's most consecutive days in a row award. Joe won the most improved fresh/soph award for improving 1 minute and 8 seconds. Joe and his teammates earned at medal at the State meet for placing 2nd.
   As a junior, Joe ran tough in the summer. He ran over 1000 miles to join both our 1000 mile club and 1000 York mile club. He earned the title of captain again his junior year. Joe had a great first meet. He ran a 16:26 to earn a spot on our team's 16 minute 3 mile club. He placed 18th to earn a medal at the 13 team invitational. He earned the 15th spot on our team's fastest junior times list for the Charleston Invitational. He improved 1 minute and 6 seconds from his last year's time at this race. Joe earned a spot on the News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders list in September. Joe helped his team win the Springfield Invitational with the lowest team score ever of 16 points. He earned a medal for his high finish of 3rd. He earned a spot on our team's fastest junior top times list at the Springfield Invitational. He earned his third varsity XC letter after this meet. Joe ran in the varsity race at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. He helped them place 2nd in the 72 team invitational. They beat out 23 State ranked teams and 2 nationally ranked teams. The course was slow due to wet ground. Yet Joe still ran in the 16s with a 16:49. He earned the 25th highest spot on our team's fastest junior times list at the PND Invite. Joe ran a solid race with his teammate Garret at the East Peoria Invitational. Joe ran a 16:39 to place 28th in the 21 team invitational. His time earned him the 22nd highest spot on our team's fastest junior times list for the East Peoria Invitational. He improved 34 seconds from his 2015 East Peoria Invitational time. Joe ran a season best of 16:22 at the Metamora Invitational. Joe earned the 19th spot on our fastest junior times list at the Metamora Invitational. He earned a spot on the News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders list in October. Joe tied his season 3 mile best at the conference meet. He ran a 16:26. He placed 9th in the open race. He earned the 24th spot on the our team's fastest junior times list at the Conference meet. Joe earned a medal at the State meet where his team won the State championship. He earned our team's scholar/athlete award for his high grades. Joe earned a spot on the final News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in December. Joe earned the honor of the News-Gazette All Area Honorable Mention.
   As a senior, Joe came in with such great experience. He earned a spot on our team's 700 mile club and 1000 York mile club. He earned the title of captain for a third year. He stepped right up into our top 7 runners right away. He ran well in his first race at Charleston where he placed 30th to win a medal. His time of 17:20 earned him a spot on our team's top fastest times list for Mahomet seniors at that invite. Joe ran in the top 7 at the Springfield invitational where his team placed 2nd. He ran a 17:50 to place 55th in the varsity race. His time was fast enough to earn him the 31st fastest senior time for a Mahomet runner at this invite. He earned enough points after this meet to earn his 4th XC varsity letter. Joe earned a spot on the News-Gazette prep cross country leaders list in September. He ran in the top 7 varsity race at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. He helped his team place 9th. He ran a 18:18 in a very hot day. Joe earned our team's most consecutive days in a row award for an impressive streak. He also earned our team's scholar/athlete award for his great grades. He ran a 17:59 at the East Peoria Invitational to place 73rd. His time was fast enough to earn him a spot on our team's fastest senior times list for the East Peoria Invitational. Joe ran a season best by 5 seconds at the Metamora Invitational. He ran a 17:15 which was fast enough to earn the 30th spot for our team's fastest senior times list at the Metamora Invitational. Joe ran 9th for our team at Conference with a 18:07. He once again made our State series roster. He earned a spot on the News Gazette Area Cross Country Leaders List in October. He earned a spot on the News Gazette Area Cross Country Leaders List in November. He earned a medal for being part of our State championship team.