Hobart/South Central-8/21
Summary: And because I feel like writing some more, I'm am making a summary. On the first day of school at Valparaiso High, somebody decided to schedule a meet. We kicked off the year with a meet against former DAC foe Hobart and a team new to our schedule this year, South Central. As the start of the meet neared, the heat at Sunset Hill Farm hovered around the 90-degree mark, which is wonderful weather for running. The gun went off, we ran 5000 meters, and Valpo took places 1 through 13. A job well done to start off the 2003 Cross Country Season. I don't want to sound like a prick or anything, I just want to congratulate our opponents, Hobart and South Central, for completing the race and the course. You may not have beat us, but your still better than the hundreds of other kids in your respective schools. |
MC Marquette/Wheeler Tuesday, 8/26
Summary: Valpo came out ready to dominate on Tuesday, and did just that. Mother nature decided to punish us again with temps in the nineties and pounding humidity, but we were able to grab the first ten spots. Dan Watts was once again victorious, winning in a time of 17:47. Almost everyone on the Valpo team improved their time from last Thursday's meet, which bodes well for the upcoming meet against archrival Cheesetown. Good race to Wheeler and MC Marquette. We are sorry our course is really hard, but blame the guy who donated the land to the county so a park could be made out of it. If you don't know what I am talking about, go to the house by the finish line and read the signs. |
Chesterton/Lafayette Jeff-Saturday, August 30th
Summary: Mother nature finally gave us a break on Saturday with temperatures around 70, but Chesterton did not by giving us our first loss of the season. Valpo lost a tough race to neighboring rival Chesterton 31-26, but the Vikes still pulled out a victory against Lafayette Jeff in the double dual meet. The Trojans beat the Vikings by putting four runners between Valpo's number one and number two. On a plus note, Valpo was able to put seven runners in front of Chesterton's fifth. The overall individual winner, Dan Watts, edged out Chesterton's Adam Martin at the line, despite taking a wrong turn right before the finish (boy, I'm an idiot). In an interesting twist, the last place finisher from Chesterton goes by the name Dan Watt. So Dan Watts won, and Dan Watt got last. Sweet. Lets walk away from the race for a little now as we talk about an amazing occurence today at the park. Valpo runner/stud swimmer Eric Vaughn was chugging along after the race when a baby squirrel jumped unto him. The squirrel stayed on Eric and wouldn't let go, so Eric had to take his jersey off to remove the squirrel. He set the baby down next to a tree, but the squirrel was so weak it could not move. We fetched some water and nuts for the squirrel, hoping he would regain his strength. When we checked back after our cool-down, he was moving around a little. Mr. Squirrel still is not strong enough to hop on home, so Eric is going to take him to the vet. We are praying that the vet will save the life of this beautiful squirrel. |
Kouts/Morgan Twp/Gary Roosevelt/Westville-Wednesday, September 3rd
Summary: Valpo had their third meet at Sunset Hills on Wednesday, and walked away with their third victory of the year. We sat out our top five runners, but we still were able to score just 19 points. Jeff Jensen scored his first career varsity victory, adding to his 2002 New Prairie Frosh/Soph victory. Our school's cheerleaders also came to the meet, but they did such a bad job supporting us, their presence went unnoticed. The highlight of the meet was the Gary Roosevelt runners saying thank you when we told them nice job. |
Pike Hokum Karem-Saturday, September 6th Varsity Hokum Karem
Two Mile JV Race
Team Results: Valpo 33, Center Grove 38, Carmel 57, Ft Wayne Snider 61, Whiteland 83, Ind. Pike 88, Perry Meridan 125, Columbus East 127, Connersville 128, New Castle 161 Summary: Valpo depth was the key element in their 33-38 victory over Center Grove at the Pike Hokum Karem Saturday. If the Hokum Karem scored just the first three teams, Center Grove would have pulled away with the victory. But since this Hokum Karem scores four teams, Valpo's depth led them to victory. Center Grove's number one team led the race for the first four of the six legs, but Ben Sundy pulled ahead of Center Grove's Adam Berning in his third and final leg. Dan Watts held off a late charge from Center Grove's Mark Brandenburg in the last 800 meters to secure the win for Valpo's number one team. But more importantly, Valpo's 2nd thru 4th teams ran well to ultimately lead the Vikes to victory. Overall, the Vikings ran better than last year's Valpo team which got fifth at state. Now that bodes well for the future. Later in the day, the meet managers decided to hold a 2 mile JV race for all the guys who didn't run the Hokum Karem. Valpo's Donny Johnson won the race by a few hundred meters to earn an easy victory. |
Crown Point/Lake Central-Tuesday, September 9th
Team Results: Valpo 32, Crown Point 23; Valpo 15, Lake Central 48 Summary: Oh boy, its tough to write a summary about a meet you feel so bad about, but it has to be done. It's kinda like in a workout that you know you can't finish, but you do it anyway, ya know? Well, Valpo lost their second DAC meet of the year, this time to Crown Point. We sat out two of our usual top five, but that is no excuse for the loss. Crown Point just straight up beat us. Valpo will get another shot at them on Saturday at the Rensselaer Invite (man hat city name is hard to spell). I hope our juniors and seniors plan to do good Saturday because most of CP's top runners are in those two classes. |
Rensselaer Invite Ok, I've put these results in twice and they haven't saved, so I am putting them some other time. |
| Portage/Michigan City-Tuesday, Sept 16th
1. Nuppnau-Valpo-17:17
Summary: Valpo had a great meet Tuesday at Sunset Hills versus longtime rival Portage and Michigan City. Valpo's Dan Watts, Ben Sundy, and Kevin Nuppnau grabbed the lead early and led the rest of the way. All three finished together at the line. If anyone has a good picture of that finish, send it to me. The rest of the team finished close together in tight packs, which is just grand. Valpo's win over Portage is one of the biggest in the dual meet history between these two teams. It was a nice burst of momentum for the Vikes as they go into the super large New Prairie Invite this weekend. |
| New Prairie Invite-Saturday, August 20th
Varsity Race Results
30. Nuppnau-16:39 52. Hennessy-17:04 70. Johnson-17:12 Team Results: Lawrence North 101, Carmel 147, FW Northrup 162, Valparaiso 178, Northridge 212 Summary:Valpo finished fourth as a team Saturday at the ginormous New Prairie Invite, which is rumored to be the biggest high school sporting event in the state of Indiana. Valpo had a nice little pack through the one mile mark but it fell apart after that point. On a plus note, we beat all the other teams that come out of the New Prairie Semi-state. Dan Watts was Valpo's top finisher, snagging sixth place in a time of 16:12. That 7-10 minute walk-jog around my house after I woke up really paid off. The overall winner was Mike Claeys of New Prairie, who pulled out the big "W" at his own course. Lawrence North won the team title despite this being their first appearance at New Prairie. And now for a few fun facts. Lafayette Harrison has four runners in the varsity race, but six in the Frosh-Soph race. One runner in the results had a mile pace of 5:60. Ricardo Hernandez of Merrillville was seen in both the AAA varsity race and reserve race by a few people. Next Saturday is the Culver Invite. Be there, or be square. Frosh/Soph Race
51. Higginbotham-18:32 62. Vaughn-18:46 Team Results: LN 92, Elk Memorial 99, Carmel 101, Valpo 133, Snider 142 |
| Culver Invite-Saturday, September 29th
Varsity Race
Summary: Valpo had a rather disappointing meet at Culver. I don't really have much to say since I am writing this the Monday after Culver. Lets go get em Tuesday and set some PR's Thursday. |
Merrillville/Laporte-Tuesday, September 30th
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| Hobart Invite-Thursday, October 2
Individual Results
Team Results: Valpo 32, Lowell 83, Merrillville 85, Morgan Twp 114, Hobart 125 Summary: Gees, I am starting to get lazy. Sorry I've been slacking off these last couple weeks, but times have been busy. Anywho, Valpo won the Hobart Invite decisively over Lowell. Steve Smith of Lowell won the race, and Dan Watts was Valpo's first finisher. Ben Sundy stayed close to Watts the whole race, setting a PR in the process. Almost the entire Valpo team ran their best times on the very fast Hobart course, which may be a good sign for the DAC Championship coming up on Thursday. I hope your all ready because I sure am. |
| DAC Conference Meet-Thursday, October 9th
Individual Results
Team Results: Chesterton 58, Valpo 59, Crown Point 66, Portage 81, Laporte 122 |
| Chesterton Sectional-Tuesday, October 14th
Individual Results:
Team Results: Valparaiso 33, Chesterton 50, Portage 56, Morgan 115, Kouts 172 |
| New Prairie Regional-Saturday, October 18th
Individual Results:
Team Results: Chesterton 51, Portage 62, LaPorte 65, Valpo 74, Morgan Twp 150 |
| New Prairie Semi-State
Individual Results:
Team Results: West Lafayette 122, Crown Point 126, Laporte 134, Portage 148, Chesterton 152 |