Chicago Public League Sports Blog

CPS Wrestling Notebook

The CPS frosh-soph city wrestling championship was held yesterday at Curie. Pictured above are members of Lane Tech's frosh-soph team.

• I added Mike Ramirez  of Juarez to the list of 145lb weight class of the CPS wrestlers to watch. Ramirez finished 3rd at the Lisle Tournament(results) on Saturday and he is now 15-3 for the season. The 145 weight class is one of the more loaded weight classes in the CPS. Dpending on which weight class they end up in, 145lbs could have #1 state ranked Max Schneider of Lane Tech, Francisco Lozano Taft the defending 140lbs city champ, Bobby O'Banner(jr) - Bowen,Lawrence Moore(sr)- Fenger, Daniel Hernandez(jr)- Kelvyn Park and Miran Ciramagic - Amundsen (2011 city 3rd place at 145lbs). Again, some of those wrestlers could end up in different weight class.
• I also added a couple more Juarez wrestlers to the watch list. Omar Ibarra is 16-5 and placed 4th at Lise at 182lbs. Daniel Fulgencio is 17-3 and placed 2nd at 220lbs at Lisle.
• Curie's Luis Morales (jr, 21-10) placed 5th in 120lbs at the large Wheaton Warrenville South Tournament(results). Curie is one of those schools that is stocked with a ton of potential raw wrestling talent, but for some reason has neven been able to put a sustained wrestling program. Curie has a chronic number of wrestlers and is nowhere near competing even against CPS only competition.
• Speaking of Curie and Juarez. The frosh-soph city wreslting championship was held yesterday at Curie. Juarez and Lane Tech square off in a dual meet this Thursday, 4:00pm, at Jaurez.
• The first round of the city championship is Friday, January 27, 2012 at various spots in the city. Defending city champion Lane and many north side schools will be at Roosevelt High Shool. The finals of the city championships will be Saturday, January 28th at Chicago State University. (tentative schedule)

#1's

I'm probably not going to name a CPS runner of the year for reasons I mentioned in a previous article. (in short, I think anyone can achieve success). Instead, I'll run down who is generally considered the #1 runner from some schools and my thoughts on them.

David Timlin (jr) of Lane Tech soared beyond my expectations as he went from an 18's type runner last year as a raw sophomore to a bonafide #1 on a Lane team that took city and placed 10th at sectionals.

Abe Haji (jr) of Mather - city champion! - beating Oscar Medina of Lake View in a race that counts. Abe followed up off that feat by qualifying for state out of the Niles West sectionals - with some of the top teams in the nation.

Oscar Medina (sr) of Lake View - city runner up, 8th in the state in class2A!


Andrew Zotti (jr) of Lincoln Park - all-city with a time of 16:35. He has sub 16 talent; led Lions to a 7th place bounceback finish. A vast improvement from last years team that did not even score at city.


Eric Shan (jr) Whitney Young - one of the most improved runners of the year. Went from 38th last year to a whopping 4th this year at city. He beat Timlin, Lucas Beltran,Dale, Mesimore!

Charlie Mesimore (sr) of Northside - finished very strong to end the season with an 8th place city finish to lead Northside. Also had great post-season meets. Teammate Wesley Laytham and Mesimore are probably best considered 1A and 1B runners - in that both can be #1's.

Omar Tall (sr) of Kenwood - 84th at state to lead Kenwood to a surprise state appearance. Teammate Joseph Laseter(sr) was the number one runner for Kenwood most of the year.


Jeffrey Rector (jr) of Roosevelt - running in his first year of cross country while also playing football, the very talented junior still finished an impressive 3rd at city and 38th at state. Can you imagine what he could have done if he only focused on cross country.

Felix Peralta (sr)of Juarez - all-city and state qualifier!

Jamison Dale (so) of Jones - all-state (19th place) with a time of 15:04. Only a sophomore!

New UNO Soccer Academy on the Southwest Side

The southwest side is home of some of the best soccer in the city, including Juarez (above). The area will get an addtional boost with the building of a new soccer academy.

The southwest side is already a soccer hotbead. The southwest side features soccer powers Juarez, Farragut, Little Village, Kelly, and Curie. Juarez, Farragut, and Kelly all made the CPS semi-finals this year. The southwest side will soon have an additional soccer force as a new charter school with a soccer focus will be built in the southwest side neighborhood of Gage Park.

According to WBEZ:

One of the largest charter school networks in Chicago is beginning construction on a massive, multi-million dollar campus located in the Southwest Side neighborhood of Gage Park. The United Neighborhood Organization, or UNO, is using part of a $98 million state grant to build a soccer academy that includes a charter elementary school, a high school, and a soccer stadium.

"We're going to be using soccer--because it's the sport of our community--as the hook to encourage kids to not only learn, but to also learn how to be healthy and have healthy lifestyles," says Juan Rangel, the chief executive officer of UNO.

Rangel says he hopes the campus will not only help alleviate school overcrowding, but become an anchor for the city's Latino community. The first phase of the campus--an elementary school for nearly 600 students--is expected to be completed next year.

The CPS Already Made History Prior to the State Cross Country Meet...More history to be made?

Fellix Peralta (sr) of Juarez. The CPS qualified 4 individuals and a record number of teams (2) to the state meet.

The IHSA state meet is tomorrow at Peoria.

Since 2008, the CPS has seen an improvement at the state meet. In 2008, the CPS qualified 0 teams and one indivdual to the boys state meet. We had one individual place in the top 100 (Jose Mora of Payton placed 93rd in 2008).

Last year, we made further strides as Jones unexpectedly became the first team since the elimination of the automatic Public League berth to qualify for the state meet. Furthermore, all 4 individual qualifiers finished in the top 100.

This year, no matter what happens, the CPS has already improved from last year as the CPS qualified 2 teams (Jones and Kenwood). By the way, I admit not giving Kenwood much of a chance to qualify for the state meet. Big props to Kenwood as the Broncos ran big at sectionals and squeaked in by taking the 5th and final spot by a mere 4 points over Ridgewood.

More History to be Made?

Abe Haji (sr) of Mather - has a chance to eclipe the top class AAA CPS finish of Cuit Pineda of Northside last year when he ran a 15:23 to finish in 58th.

Oscar Medina (sr) of Lake View has the CPS's best chance of a top 10 state individual finish. A state championship is unlikely as there are individuals from team favorite Belividere North and other individuals like Decatur McArthur's Celvenger that are more likely to take the top spot. But a top 10 state finish of Medina is a great goal.

A healthy Jeffrey Rector (jr) of Roosevelt and maybe even a Jones runner also has all-state finish possibilities. Sophomore Jamison Dale of Jones finished 2nd to Medina at sectionals has the talent to finish all-state. But he will definitely have to run in the mid 15's at the least and he has yet to break 16 at the state course yet.

The state meet course is very fast and the weather is forecasted to be good for running. I can't wait to see what happens. Good luck to all CPS participants.

Let's Talk CPS Boys Soccer Quarterfinals

Cole Keutzer (sr) and defending city champion Whitney Young came up with a victory of Foreman in the round of 16 (above), but will face a difficult task today versus an undefeated Washington team. (Lyles photo)

CPS Boys Soccer Schedule

Today, October 11, 2010 (all games at Lane Stadium)

9:00am - Kelly vs Mather
Kelly prevails in penalty kicks over a very good Taft team in the round of 16. It's a shame those two soccer programs met so early in the playoffs, that game would have been worthy of a final. Mather can either be good or bad and has goal scorer Chisom Dbonna.

Neilski's pick - Kelly in penalty kicks

11:00am - Farragut vs Curie
Farragut upset Lane and Curie got by a tenacious Payton team in the round of 16. The popular pick is Curie. I'm picking Farragut in a close one. Farragut is in what I call the "caliente valle" of soccer. That is the "hot valley" of soccer - the predominantly Mexican resident schools near the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. Juarez, Farragut, and Little Village from the caliente valle are my biased picks in the playoffs. Because at these schools soccer is king - or using my broken Spanish "futbol es el rey".

Neilski's pick - Farragut by 1

1:00pm - Little Village vs Juarez
Two more schools from the caliente valle. Little Village and Juarez came into the round of 16 as top seeds from their groups and came up with victories over Lake View and Amundsen. Little Village has been on a roll all season and goes into this game with only 1 loss. This is one of my top games of the day. The winner will be my favorite to advance to the finals.

Neilski's pick - Little Village by 1

3:00pm - Whitney Young vs Washington
The defending city champions Whitney Young have their work cut out. Washington goes into this game very confident as they are undefeated this season with a 13-0-2 record. However, Whitney Young has played a tougher schedule and will not go down easily. Washington, from the south east side of Chicago - yes there is a south east side - has a boatload of talent including Rafal Alarcon, Misael Martinez, and all-city Guadalupe Canedo (jr).

Neilski's pick - Washington by 2

8 Days to City....Outliers and Randoms....Part 1

 

Joseph Laseter (sr) of Kenwood. Ran 16:16 at Whitney Young. He could play role of a spoiler for some Big 5 teams.

The CPS boys city cross country championship is going to come down to the big 5 (Lane, Mather, Jones, Whitney Young, and Northside Prep). However, there are other individuals from outside of the Big 5 that will impact the scoring. Call them Outliers, Randoms, or whatever you want to call them. An Outlier is an individual from a scoring CPS team that will finish high enough to affect the scoring of the Big 5. The goal of every Big 5 team is to finish your first 5 runners (better yet 7) ahead of the first 5 from any of the Big 5's first 5 and from as many outliers as you can.

Obvious Outliers
1. Oscar Medina (sr) of Lake View - He is the clear cut individual champion favorite. Having anyone finish ahead of Oscar is very unlikly if Medina runs his game. Mather is looking to get Abe Haji and Juan Mendez as close to him as possible. Lane may have David Timlin and Lucas Beltran hang with Oscar for a while.

2. Joseph Laseter (sr) of Kenwood - Kenwood's #1 man. Finished 9th at Whitney Young ZI invitational with a time of 16:16 - beating out Dale and OConnor of Jones and Barder and Sebek of Whitney Young. Goal of every big 5 team is to have 1st and 2nd man finish ahead of Laseter. Then have Laseter finish ahead of other guys teams as possible.

3. Felix Peralta (sr) of Juarez - Ran a PR of a 16:16 at UHigh #3 a few days ago. If he dips into the 15's, he will finish in the top 10 and affect the #1's and #2 places of many of the Big 5.

10 Days to City...U-High #3

Kurt Degilio (sr) of Jones College Prep is one of the few senior on a Jones team filled with freshman and sophomore talent.

10 more days to the city meet. Some teams have stopped running meets to prepare for city. Others are still running meets. One meet was U-High #3, run yesterday.

U-High #3 Results

Some highlights:

* Felix Peralta (sr) of Juarez won with a great time of 16:11. I believe that is his PR. The senior is really coming on strong. He won the Lane Tech Invite earlier in the year and now won U-High #3. Juarez is in class 2A. So Peralta has a strong chance of advancing downstate and do his school proud. Juarez is also one of the favorites in the CPS boys soccer playoffs.

* Jones won the meet. Luke O'Connor (so) finished first with a time of 16:57 to finish in 4th. He is capable of running much faster than that. Maybe, Jones was trying a strategy to bunch up their runners. If that was the goal, then it worked because their 1-4 split was only 19 seconds. The 1-5 split was 42 seconds. Armando Rodriguez (so) was their 5th runner with a time of 17:39. Jones has a very strong 1-3 of Jamison Dale, Luke O'Connor, and Kirby Lawson. Lawson is much improved over last year and has really given Jones a boost. If Jones can get their 5th man closer to their top 3, Jones could be a major factor come city.

But, I feel this is team that is looking beyond city. Jones is proving itself to be a class 2A power and will finish much better than their 19th place state finish last year. This is a team that will qualify for state, the only question is how much better will they do than last year.

But first things first, Jones still has to run a race Saturday, then prepare for city. Realistically, I'm not sure they have enough to run with Lane, but a 2nd place finish is a strong possibility.

Felix Peralta of Juarez takes Lane Tech Larry Gnapp Invite

Felix Peralta (sr) of Jurarez won the meet in 17:32 for a 5k. He and a teammate (Aldair Solano?) finished 1-2.

Morton won the boys race over Lane's JV team.

Full results coming soon....

Who is going to emerge out of the jungle?

After the Big Invite Week Abe Haji (jr)(above) and Mather seem to be leading the pack of CPS teams trying to be king of the jungle in a year where there are so many nasty good teams.

I was thinking of ranking all the teams in order, but at this point of the season after most teams have only run only one big meet in Big Invite week, it is hard to rank em. Instead, I'll put em in groups.

Group 1 - Mather
Mather is ahead, but only slightly. The ran well at Peoria, in a meet which seemed like a mini-state meet- with good teams including Nequa Valley and New Trier. Mather finished a more than respectable 18th out of 38 teams. Mather finished within 25 points of Glenbard West, Niles North, and Naperville Central. Whenever you finish near teams like that in a big meet, that means your team is doing something right. Abe Haji finished first for Mather with a time of 15:49 (44th place).

Here is how Mather finished:

1. Abe Haji - 15:49
2. Bana Negash - 16:12
3. Juan Mendez - 16:22
4. Tarik Estrada - 16:34
5. Abdel Elyousouffi - 16:44
6. Victor Maldonado - 17:42
7. Ahmed Aidrous - 17:59

I putting Mather ahead of the rest of the CPS because no team has run 5 runners at 16:44 or better. This includes converting 5k's to 3 mile times. I also like their top 3 of Mendez, Haji, and Negash. From what I hear Mendez was playing soccer, so he missed the St. Pat's invite. With his talent, I expect him to be running with or even ahead of Haji by the end of the season. Then, it looks like Bana, Estrada, and Elyousouffi are starting to find their grooves.

Group 2 (alphabetical order)-  Jones, Lane Tech, Northside Prep, Whitney Young

I am going to let you commenters debate on who is ahead in this group. To me, at this stage being so early, it is too hard to say who is tops. I will say that all of the teams have run well so far.

Jones 1-3 of Dale, O'Connor, and Lawson were only an impressive 21 seconds of each other at the Marmion Invite.

Lane Tech finished 6th - their highest if not one of their highest finishes ever at the Wauconda Invite. Not only that, but the JV team, led by a revitalized Max Silva, finished 5th at the JV level. This is the deepest Lane Tech team I have seen. Lane is running their best team at Peoria next week on the same course that Mather ran, let's see if Lane can run 5 under 16:44.

Northside Prep took 2nd at Riverside-Brookfield. Ezra Edgerton has stepped up to be a solid varsity contributor in his first year of cross country.

Despite a new coach, Whitney Young ran well at Peoria - running 7 runners under 17:24. The strength for Whitney Young this year will be it's pack. Whitney Young finished 7 runners ahead of Mather's 6th man at Peoria.

Group 3 - Payton, Kenwood, Curie, Juarez
Payton is rebuilding. Curie and Juarez have a couple of promising individuals. Some relatively fresh names you may hear more of as the season progresses is Curie sophomore Erik Diaz, Juarez's Aldair Solano, and Payton's Porter Truax.

Group 4 - the rest of the CPS


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Morgan Park, 8 other CPS Schools with Sports Programs Changing Classifications

The CPS track and field scene will probably be the sport most directly affected as Morgan Park moves from class 3A to class 2A. They will be competing in track with class 2A teams like Calumet, Kelvyn Park, Robeson and Kenwood.

The IHSA announced school classification changes for the 2010-11 season. Morgan Park and 8 other CPS schools with more than a minimal amount of sports programs have been affected.

Here is a breakdown of the affected schools and my thoughts.

Marine Military, Uplift, Wells - moves down from AA to A (in 2 class system), moves down from 2A to 1A (in 3 class system), moves down from 3A to 2A (in 4 class system)

Neilski's take: For the most part, these schools with a few exception have developing programs that are far away from making the competition fear them regardless of which class they are in. Some glaring exceptions is Uplift in wrestling and Wells in soccer. Uplift has a very advanced wrestling program. They were the only CPS team (including Lane Tech) to make it to state sectionals. Uplift fell to eventual state champion Montini in state sectionals. Their move from class 2A to class 1A in wrestling will greatly enhance their state chances. I'd be willing to say that this move from class 2A to 1A is so "UPLIFTING" for the Uplift program that it gives them about a 300% change greater chance to advance past sectionals than in previous years. Come on, who would you rather face Montini or a class 1A team like downstate Reed-Custer. The Wells soccer team will also benefit from the move down from 3A to 2A in soccer. Soccer is the number one sport at Wells. Wells was the only CPS team last year to advance to sectionals.

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Austin - moves up from A to AA(in 2 class system), moves up from 1A to 2A (in 3 class system), moves up from 2A to 3A (in 4 class system)

Neilski's take - This move up will make Austin teams who are already athletically challenged, even less competitive. The main sport at Austin is basketball where they played above .500 basketball and finished with an impressive 7-2 record.

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Juarez, Julian, South Shore, Morgan Park -stays in AA(in 2 class system), moves down from 3A to 2A(in 3 class system), moves down from 4A to 3A(in 4 class system)

Neilski's take -This is the level which will have the biggest implications. Juarez has one of the best soccer programs in the CPS. They go from being heavy underdogs by having to play first round games against teams like Oak Park and Lyons to playing first round games against teams like Riverside Brookfield and Nazareth. The road is open for Juarez to advance to sectionals or beyond. Morgan Park's moving down will have a major impact in a couple of sports. 4A basketball teams will be glad to see the defending city champs and 2010-11 state basketball championship contenders move out of 4A and into 3A. Morgan Park now becomes an instant state championship contender in basketball. Track will be shaken up as well. If Morgan Park stays down in 3A, they could easily be a team that will send multiple individuals and relay teams to state every year. The girls track team becomes an instant trophy contender. They were already strong in class 3A. In 2A they will feast downstate every year in sprint events.

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Westinghouse College Prep - stays in AA (in 2 class system), moves up from 2A to 3A(in 3 class system), moves up from 3A to 4A(in 4 class system)

Neilski's take - Westinghouse College Prep is only two years old so the Warriors will have only freshman and sophomores next year. Their reward will be a move up to all the big classes. Even with an all freshman-sophomore team, Westinghouse will be able to battle with most varsity teams in boys basketball. I can't say the same for the other sports.