6-0 and Senior Night (Steve blogs from his lunch break...and then doesn't hit "Publish Post" until a few hours later)

NORTHWOODS!!
Last night was the one and only home meet for the Morton Potters in the 2009 season and they made it a good one. They combined an evening of victory with an evening of food, celebration, skydiving and general merriment. And festivities. You've got to have your festivities. The only damper on the evening was that Coach Zehr decided to lengthen the previously short course out to a full 3.0 miles, just to keep his successful team from getting a big head. This writer estimates that the new changes make the course about 30-45 seconds slower than previous years. The times run at Northwoods now truly reflect the difficult nature of the course.

The Girls Race
Nonetheless, Ashley Pribble, undaunted by the lengthitudinal increasification of the Northwoods path measurementization factor, nor by the powerful yearning for victory of her opponents, jumped to the early lead. Ashley stretched her lead throughout the race and ran in for a very comfortable victory over...some girl from Washington whose name I don't know. I also don't know her age, height, or social security number. It'd be weird if I did. About all I can tell you is that she was running for Washington, and I think maybe she had dark hair.

That some girl from Washington held on for second place, but was soon followed by Grace Jankowski and then Macaela Bennett. Next for the Potters I believe was Hannah Behle, who did an excellent job of making up ground in the second loop. The fifth Potter was Caitlyn Pribble, followed by I believe Ashley Coon and Nicole Lockwood in the 6th and 7th spot. All of the Potter ladies ran well, and ran very respectable times, despite the tough, slow course. While there were a few Washington runners sprinkled in amongst the Potters scorers, the Potters comfortably won over the orange and black team, and the blue uniformed runners of Limestone were a non factor in the team decisions.

The Guys Race
In the men's race, Tyler Morse of Limestone jumped out to a fast early start and was just able to hold his lead to the finish, as the Potters' Joe Zeller was gaining on him slowly but steadily during the second loop. Behind Joe, Nick Piper was chugging away in 3rd place, followed by an ever changing sea of red runners. Early on it was Austin Bradford, followed by Dale Domnick and Nathan Smith, chased by Alex Stowers, then Dan Getz, Nick Steffen and Andrew Young. Oh did I mention that all of those top 5-6 runners were running in front of Limestones #2 man, and in front of Washington's #1? A pretty cool sight to see.

In the end Dale moved up to place as the third Potter, and Nathan Smith came in as the fourth. Austin Bradford just barely held off a hard charging Washington runner and Dan Getz to complete the sweep. That's right, Morton put all 5 of their guys in front of Washington's 1st, and came pretty close to putting 6 in there, as Dan Getz is narrowing the gap on the front 5 Potters. Behind him, Alex Stowers held on to finish as the 7th man, while Andrew Young closed well right behind him to end the evening as the 8th Potter. With the Potters sweep of Washington, they beat them 15 to something-much-higher-than-15 and they beat Limestone 20 to something-much-higher-than-20. The Potters got their first 15 point score of the year, at home, on Senior night.

The Festivities
While all the parents, friends, family and most of the athletes waited, the Potter varsity guys, accompanied by some old guy who needed to shave, did a 3ish mile cooldown. The angry mob was growing restless, and as the Potters came by to finish their cooldown, there were pitchforks and torches a waving. After a brief welcome by Coach Zehr, the growing discontent abated, and the hunger was placated, as the crowd was released into the food line, generously provided by the 10,923 Potter parents of the 2009 season. And not a moment too soon. I suspect that had the mob had to wait moments longer, they would have lynched the varsity men - and bearded old guy - who had so caused their delay...or at the very least shoved them to the back of the line and told them they could eat whatever was left.

After partaking in the feast and festivities, it was time for the announcement of the Potter seniors. On this large Morton team, there were 11 seniors this year. I hope I can remember them all, but here goes:

Alex Blunier
Dale Domnick
Dan Getz
Ryland Ivins
Ashley Mclollum
Lydia Nace
Rachel Ogden
Nathan Smith
Jordan Thomas
Andrew Young
Dan Ziemniak

That seems like 11, so I don't think I missed anyone. We wish these Potters well as they finish their senior year, and move on to new, exciting things, even if those new things are just 'not running in college.' Seniors, there's no way I'll remember all of your advice if I tried, but feel free to post your favorite memories and advice in the comments of this post, so it will be preserved forever. Or at least as long as blogger.com is around and free of charge.

The next few weeks
But first, before these seniors can leave us, we have the rest of the season to go. We're not quite halfway done. Both Potter teams are currently 6-0, but the biggest tests are yet to come. Next week, they'll face Metamora and Pekin. For both boys and girls, Metamora is one of the top teams in the area and in the Mid-Illini. But before that, the Potters travel to Springfield for the Springfield Invitational. This is a fun course which has a wickedly steep downhill/uphill combination that must be traversed twice. The Potters will likely see many teams they don't often see in the Peoria area, including ranked teams such as Chatham Glenwood and Springfield.

T-Shirts anyone?
I'm officially announcing Potter Fan Club t-shirts. We're going to try and have them available by the Mid-Illini meet, if not sooner. The current plan is that the front of the shirts will be the same as the team's shirt from this year. The back will say something along the lines of

• Potter Fan Club
  
• Proud Potter Fans
• We came here to witness Potter victory and chew bubble gum. And we're all out of bubble gum.

Suggestions are appreciated. These shirts will be sold for $15, and all proceeds will go toward the Morton Cross Country Endowment Fund, or the MCCEF. I will be at the Springfield invitational and the Metamora/Pekin duel next week with an order sheet. I also imagine you'll be able to contact Coach Zehr if you want to order one. We'd like to place the order by this time next week to be sure of having them in plenty of time for the Mid-Illini meet, the last meet in which all Potters are able to compete.

So if you, your friends, your family, anyone, would like one of these shirts, look for me at the next two meets. I'll just need your name, shirt size, and $15/shirt. We will need money ahead of time, please.

Stay Tuned
Coming up soon, Steve's first analysis of the guys East Peoria Sectional, which will likely be the most important meet of the year for the Potter men, on a quest to be the first Morton team to qualify for the IHSA State Cross Country Championships.