Parkside Cross Country

Alex and Nick pose with their Cross Country Team after an away meet.

 

That really large trophy is for 1st place overall, the other four are 1st and 2nd place trophies for 4 other categories. Basically, they did very well.

Victory!

 

Last night it was Parkside vs Tremont, and the final match of the evening featured our one and only Alex who came out on top. He fought like a champion.

More Jazz

Alex and the Parkside Jazz band performing their Christmas concert. These guys just keep getting better, and better.

 

Jazz Concert

Here are a few shots taken at Alex's first Jazz Band concert. He is one of two 6th graders who were offered positions in the band, the rest are 7th and 8th graders. They sounded great, we found ourselves dancing in the atrium.

Cross Country - State Finals

 

1st place went to the Parkside boys, the girls took 7th. As expected, Carly Pederson of Chiddix (pictured above) broke the State Record by 11 seconds, capturing the Girls state title for the second consecutive year.

Michele and I worked at the event as computer chip collectors. We had lots of fun, our booth was right at the finish line so we had the best seats in the house. Alex worked concessions with a few of his friends, Nick (still fighting pneumonia after two weeks) stayed at his cousins house. It was a great event to cap off the season, we're already looking forward to next year.

Cross Country - Meet #10

 

Yesterday we watched Parkside run through the cornfields of Delavan for the final regular meet of the season, Sectionals start next week followed by the State Meet the week after. Parkside did very well against the other 33 teams competing by placing first for the boys, and second for the girls. Alex set his own Personal Record (PR) with a time of 14:26, beating his prior PR of 15:22 by nearly a minute!

Congratulations Parkside, it's been a great season.

I've uploaded some great photos that can be viewed here. Enjoy!

Cross Country - Meet #9

 

On September 24th there was a small inner city meet held at Parkside. Our team did very well and as usual, I was taking pictures, the best of which can be viewed here.

What made this event unique was the addition of a race by future Cross Country runners. The coaches at Parkside extended an invitation to Elementary school aged children to come out and run as an extension of their PE class. Nick and his buddy Brian both ran, and finished in the top half of a large group of kids. This accomplishment will get them a free pass from having to participate in the next "fitness day".

Distance 2.1 miles Alex's time 15:48
Distance 1.5 miles Nick's time 13:19

Cross Country - Meet #8

 

September 21st found us just North of Peoria at the Dunlap Invitational. We again witnessed another dominating performance by the Parkside team with the boys taking first and the girls capturing second. I posted some great photos of the event here. Enjoy!

Distance 2.1 miles Alex's time 15:46

Cross Country - Meet #7

 

September 15th found us up near Chicago at the Troy invitational. This was a huge meet, with over 50 teams competing. Parkside continued their season of domination by taking home the first place trophy, a first for Parkside.

I captured some terrific photos at this event which can be viewed here.

Distance 1 mile Alex's time 7:14

Cross Country - Meet #6

Saturday, September 8th was the big Parkside Invitational, our biggest meet so far. With 44 schools represented, Parkside did very well, here is the blurb from the website:

" The boys team scored 17 points to win the meet. The girls team tied Chatham for 1st place, but lost on the 6th runner tie-breaker (39th to 40th place). Logan Abeling won the race in a time of 11:02. Carly Pederson from Chiddix set a new invitational record time of 11:33. Brooke Gordon finished 2nd in a personal record time of 12:09. The boys team placed all seven runners in the top 10 and under 11:31."

Some of the Pythons parade their mascot around the field.

Alex and some fellow athletes watch as the girls varsity prepare to race.


Leading the girl's varsity are Carly Pederson from Chiddix, and Brooke Gordon from Parkside. They held these positions throughout the race, all the way to the finish line.


Parkside volunteers assist one of the runners.

This girl collapsed right after crossing the finish line.
Michele takes a break and heads for the concession stand.
Alex and Nick take in the sights with some other athletes from Parkside.
The boys varsity at the starting line.
Leading the boys varsity was Logan Abeling and Logan DeGroot, seen here neck and neck. Logan Abeling edged out Logan DeGroot in the last 20 feet to finish first.
Dneesha Hamiel from A.M. Jackson Math Science Academy finishes first in the girl's open.
Taking second in the girl's open was Brittany Peterburs from Chatham Glenwood.
These next three shots show a girl perfectly content with walking, while her Mother tries desparately to get her to run.


Here is the official discharging his gun at the start of the boys open. This was the race that Alex was in, so I made sure to get a good spot at the finish line.
Here are the 3 leaders, all from Parkside.
Justin deDianous finished in the top ten.
I thought Justin was going to lose his position near the finish since this guy behind him looked awfully determined, but he held on.
Evan Goodyear finished strong, garnering his second invitational medal.
Reed Henry finishing strong.
J.T. Goodman has a strong performance.
This was my first view of Alex as he made his way down the home stretch.
Alex flies by in passing mode, making a strong finish.






This was a great event, the Cross Country Team did all of us parents proud.

Distance 2.02 miles, Alex's time 15:44

Cross Country - Meet #3

Our 3rd meet took place in Champaign on August 25th, where we competed against 29 schools. As with the prior 2 meets this year, Parkside dominated. Here is the writeup posted on the Parkside website:

The team had its most dominant performance in program history earning 28 out of 60 available medals. Logan Abeling and Brooke Gordon won the individual title in both varsity races. Alex Anderson won the open boys race and Kelsey Kinley was runner-up in the open girls race.

Here are the medal winners from Parkside for this event.

 

It was exciting to watch as over 500 athletes competed in 5 different running events. I took a lot of pictures and I would love to post them all, but I'm not sure the internet is big enough to absorb them, so I've condensed them down to a few dozen of the best. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fastest time for the girls came from a Chiddix student.

 

The fastest time for the boys came from a Parkside student.

 

Alex shares a laugh with a couple of his teammates.

 

Distance: 2.08 miles, Alex's time 16:19