Yesterday, the Potters made history. The guys team qualified for the State meet, marking the first time in Potter history that a full team has qualified to run in the State Finals. Ashley and Caitlin Pribble also qualified for the girls race, and while I think it might have been done before, it's been at least 15 years since two Lady Potters qualified. The Mid-Illini was well represented, led by the Potters, as the Mid-Illini claimed 4 of the 7 individual qualifying spots in both the guys and girls races. Results are here for the guys, and here for the girls.
Last week, I said I thought the Potters had run their best race, possibly ever. and that I looked forward to them repeating it, or topping it. Last weeks race was so fast that it cast some doubt on the validity of the course measurement, but yesterday's race reinforces in my mind that last weeks times were legit. The times yesterday averaged 24 seconds slower than last week for the 7 varsity guys, and in my experience the EP course always runs about 20-25 seconds slower than 'fast' courses. This gives me high hopes for next week, especially considering that this Sectional is arguably the toughest 2A Sectional in the state, and certainly one of the top 2.
It's been a record-breaking and milestone setting year so far for the Potters. Ashley Pribble founded the 17 minute club, and inducted Caitlin last week. Hannah Behle ran into the 19 minute club (with several younger athletes under 21 as well). The guys went undefeated for the regular season, qualified for State, and inducted two new members into the 15 minute club (with Joe Zeller already a member), with all of the top 7 under 17 minutes. So how about one more milestone? The last Potter team that had four 15 minute club members on it was in 1994. (Technically, there were four 15 minute club members on my 1999 team, but we didn't all run our sub 16s in the same year. Only two of us ever did it in the same year. The 1994 guys did it all in the same season.)
So what say you, Potters? Go out with a bang? A new girls school record again for 3 miles? How many Potters can get All-State? How high can the guys team place? Get 4 guys under 16 next week? More? Let's get everyone in that top 7 down there before they end their Potter career? As impressive as this team is, what's even more impressive is that there are only two seniors on it, and there's a lot of depth right behind that top 7. I look forward to next year seeing this team show that this is now a tradition, and not a one-time thing. It's been great to see how this team has improved year after year for the past 3-4 years. I look forward to the future.
Now for picture time.
As usual, the full galleries are up at Fartlek Photography.
After the race, you had the period of anxious waiting. Here are the Potters trying to climb over everyone else to see the full results and learn their fate.
Here are Caitlin and Ashley accepting their tickets to State:
But I think the look on Joel's face as he accepted for the guys team was the funniest thing I saw all day:
Here's the guys team that qualified:
And here are all of your State qualifiers:
And for good measure, here's a copy of the team picture we took a couple weeks ago, that will memorialize this team in the hall's of Morton High (not sure if they're using the smile or the no-smile version):
Finally, one of my favorite things about the EP course is how open it is, and how often you can catch good action shots of the coaches, parents, fans, etc, as well as the athletes. Last year, I had some good ones of Coach Zehr zipping all over the place, and this was one of my favorites from last year.
This year, was even better, though, as we had the following of Paul Riffle yelling at Walter:
But it gets better. This one is my favorite from the meet:
You've got Paul Riffle again, cheering for Luke and Grant(who's looking at the camera), both running together, along with a Redbird with slobber all over his face. Now I'm not one to make fun of Metamora (cough***didn't qualify their team***cough), but for some reason a lot of them were sporting the drool look during the race.
