2015 Season Preview
Saturday, August 22 2015Season Preview:
The 2015 season looks to be a very promising one for the boys Cross Country team. After finishing the 2014 season as Co-WSC Gold Champions with Morton and a respectable 9th place finish in the tough Marist Sectional, the Mustangs have their eyes set on an even better 2015.
This year’s squad returns the majority of the top runners from last year, only losing two guys from the state series roster last fall. The majority of those returners continued after CC to have very strong Track campaigns as well.
For the first time in over a decade, DGS has a state-qualifier returning for another year in Jack LaLonde. Jack had a terrific junior season that was highlighted by his impressive 14:56 3-mile time at Sectionals. He followed that up by qualifying for the 3200m run in track in the spring and improved to track PRs of 4:21 and 9:22 in the 1600m and 3200m runs. Along with Jack up front will likely be Max O’Meara who was our #2 last fall and he also showed some big improvement on the track in the spring. He got down to 4:30 and 9:57 in the same distances. Battling with Max will be Stephen Pipilas. Stephen re-wrote the freshman distance running record book at South last year. His 15:55 at Sectionals was the top Freshmen 3 mile time at South. He followed that up by posting the #1 1600 and 3200 Freshman times in school history with his impressive 4:34/9:55 runs.
Another huge bonus for DGS this fall will be the return of Joey Eterno. Joey was a solid performer for us his sophomore seasons of both CC and indoor track before dealing with a combination of iron deficiencies and a stress fracture. Sophomore year he was an All-Conference varsity performer in CC and set the sophomore indoor 1600 record in track. He’s been healthy throughout the summer and looked strong in workouts. His presence should nullify the losses we suffered to graduation last year.
The strength of our team certainly is not limited to those four athletes as we have a number of other athletes who could enter the mix for our top 5. Alan Zhou is a senior who will be running on the varsity level for the 4th consecutive season. He was solid last fall running 16:00 for an official 3 mile race but impressed even more in a post-season time trial running 15:39 in adverse conditions. Zach Scheffel and Austin Rutkowski are two other seniors who will be a big part of our expected success this fall. Both have run in the low 16s in CC along with some solid times in both of their track seasons that were hampered by injury. Another senior who is training with a newfound intensity is Chris Lippi. Chris ran great to place 3rd in conference JV race last fall and already looks to have recaptured the form he showed at the end of last season.
Our junior class has steadily improved over the years and should provide our squad with much needed depth this year. After being the conference Frosh champion in CC in the fall and in the 3200 in track, Jacob Bullard struggled throughout his entire sophomore season with various injuries. If he gets healthy this fall, he could be in the mix for a varsity spot. Jimmy Slowik had a strong sophomore CC season and excelled on the track this spring. He should keep that momentum going and have an excellent fall for us. Also, at the junior level, we have a newcomer to CC this fall Zack Wascher. Zack played soccer the past two years but made the decision to focus primarily on running this fall after a great track season that culminated in his 3rd place 1600m run at conference with a nice PR of 4:55.
Our sophomore group has improved significantly from a year ago when they won the Freshman Conference Championship. They’ll look to follow that up this fall. Pipilas will likely spend the majority of this season at the varsity level and could be joined by fellow sophomore Luke LaLonde who’s had a very solid summer of training. Even if our sophomore team does not include the aforementioned athletes, they should have the depth to compete at an extremely high level this fall.
Last but not least, our incoming freshman class is already showing a great deal of promise. In the preseason 3k time trial, they posted times that match up well with any class we’ve had in my tenure here. The lot of them should be incredibly successful in the WSC Gold at their respective level, however, a couple could work their way up throughout the season and compete for varsity/state series spots. Eddie Siuda and James Weigel, both from Jefferson Junior High posted the 1st and 6th fastest Frosh TT times in the last 9 years. They clearly have a lot of talent, but what excites me as coach is their (and the whole frosh group so far) dedication, motivation, and enthusiasm, which have manifested even this early in the season.
It should be a fun and exciting season for the Mustangs!