Hubbard's two sub 5 minute milers Adrian Barrientos(so-left) and Manuel Lule(sr-right)
Up and coming programs like Hubbard, Curie, and Jones are making CPS Cross Country more competitive. Pictured above is Hubbard sophomore Adrian Barrientos(so) stretching with the aide of teammate Luis Reyes(sr).
Saturday's city championship was amazing. Jones's 17 point win with their top 5 runners all under 15:20. This year's Jones team has to be the fastest CPS team in at least the last 30 years or more.
What Jones has done has raised the bar to win the CPS title.
Not to denigrate the effort from past CPS runners and teams, but only a few years ago, a time in the 15:30's would have been good enough for a top 3 finish. Jones had 3 below 15:00. A few years ago, a time in the 16:40's would surely get you an all city top 20 finish. Saturday, it took a time of 15:54 to make all-city.
It's not just Jones making it happen. Other teams have raised the bar just ot compete in the CPS.
Traditional powers Lane and Whitney Young have stepped it up. Lane's entire top 7 was in the 15's. Whitney Young had 5 runners in the top 25 - all running below 16:12. Whitney Young's performance last Saturday would have been good enough to win it all in many years past.
Up and coming programs like Curie and Hubbard have stepped up. Curie had 2 all city varsity runners for the first time. Hubbard is a story by itself. Over the summer, I was shocked to hear that they had lofty goals (for Hubbard) of having 5 runners run in the 18's. They surpased that goal. At the CPS championship, Hubbard had 4 runners in the 16's, 2 in the 17's, and a 7th at 18:07.
Hubbard looks to be strong once again due to a new crop of up an coming players such as Malik Robinson(jr,6-5, TE/DE, 6-5, 245lbs).
Hubbard had one heck of a season last year. They advanced to the state quarterfinals by beating two non-CPS teams before finally falling to powerhouse Lemont. But, a boatlaod of starters graduated from last year's team including starting quarterback Quincy Skanes and future Division I players Mikhail Dubose and Mario Jones (NIU).
So why do I have Hubbard ranked so high in my pre-season rankings? Becuase I have faith that Hubbard will reload. Few programs in the CPS have sustained such a high level of success as Hubbard has ever since long time Elton Harris or Coach E as Hubbard folks call him. I'm confident that Hubbard will find more than adequate replacements from the loss of 18-20 of the 22 starters (many of which played both ways).
Some new names will have to emerge. Below are just some of the names you could hear about from Hubbard this year:
Malik Anderson(sr, QB/DB, 6-1, 190lbs)
Ladell Mason(sr, WR/LB/S, 6-1, 171lbs)
Antwon Johnson(jr, RB/QB/S, 5-7, 145lbs)
Armando Rodriguez(sr, DT, 5-9, 205lbs)
Malik Robinson(jr,6-5, TE/DE, 6-5, 245lbs) (update: transferred to a Florida High School)
Hubbard's Fall 2012 Schedule and Neilski's Outlook
Week 1 vs. Proviso West - Toss up
Week 2 @ St. Laurence - Toss up
Week 3 vs. Curie - Toss up
Week 4 vs. Orr - Win
Week 5 vs Robeson -Win
Week 6 @ Urban Prep - Win
Week 7 vs Bogan- Win
Week 8 @ Morgan Park - Toss up
Week 9 CPS playoffs or CPS cross over game
Ricardo Robles(sr) is part of a Hubbard team whose prospects look good to improve on its 10th place varsity finish last year.
Losses: Saul Salinas(53rd @ varsity meet), Joshua Ruiz(85th @ varsity), Jose Reyes(110th @ varsity meet)
Key Returnees:Richard Lucio(so- 44th at last years CPS soph meet), Luis Reyes(sr- 64th @ varsity meet), Adrian Barrientos(so- 71st @ varsity), Ricardo Robles(sr- 77th @varsity), Felix Vasquez(sr-78th @varsity), Manuel Lule(sr, 49th @ JV)
Last year: 12th place @ cps soph meet, 10th place @ cps varsity meet, 7th place @ cps JV meet
For a school like Hubbard, it's not about winning the city championship but making improvements in the program. They definitely showed some progress on the distance side in track. Just graduated Saul Salinas ran a 10:35 in the 3200 and a 4:44 in the 1600 at the CPS meets. Those are some pretty good times and in past years, they would have been good enough to score at the city meet. As it turned out the 10:35 placed 11th at city and the 4:44 just missed making the 1600 meter finals. The 4x800 meter did manage to score as they ran a 9:07.10 to place 8th at the city meet. Hubbard beat teams from Kenwood and Kennedy.
All 4 legs of the 9:07 4x800 team ran cross country last fall for Hubbard and all 4 are going to be seniors this year. The 4 are Luis Reyes(sr- 64th @ varsity meet), Ricardo Robles(sr- 77th @varsity), Felix Vasquez(sr-78th @varsity), and Manuel Lule(sr, 49th @ JV). I got a chance to see this group of 4 run and warm up at the city meet. I'll tell you what, I had to do a double take. I thought they were from Curie. This group looked lean, fit, and in shape. They seemed like a group of serious distance runners which at Hubbard until recently has been lacking.
Add rapidly develop sophomore distance runner Adrian Barrientos(so- 71st @ varsity) to the above 4 and you got the makings of a more than decent top 5 for Hubbard. Barrientos showed some promise last year as a freshman. He broke into Hubbard's top 5 and ran a good time of 18:28 at the city meet running at the varsity level for Hubbard.
There is talk that Hubbard wants to get 5 runners running 17 minutes. Based on how I have seen their program progress the last year, why not!
Quincy Skanes(sr) and Hubbard opened up at DeLaSalle
Mikhail Dubose(sr, 6-3,240lbs, DE/DT) of Hubbard took an official visit soon after Hubbard's last game of the season in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs. After his official visit to Bowling Green on December 2, 2011, Dubose decided to make a verbal commitment.
Dubose is what you call a motor. He is a relentless pass rusher. At 6-3, 240lbs, he's got a big enough frame to bulk up in college. I think Bowling Green had a great pick up in Dubose and I wish him all the luck in college.
"Great four years of high school...now time for college," said Dubose.
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