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Roadrunners lapping up new training techniques
Nazareth's Mitchell Rubino runs to the finish on Saturday, September 22, 2012 in Northlake, IL. | Jon Durr~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 2, 2012 11:35AM
NORTHLAKE — Improvement will come with consistency for Nazareth.
The Roadrunners have adopted a different approach during practices this season and they hope it will pay off in the long run.
“We revamped our training so we’re starting to see the times drop,” said head coach Kevin Milos. “We’re excited about running Lisle next week and then gearing up for our conference championship at Midlothian Meadows.”
Practices are now more focused on time intervals, where runners need to hit their marks and aim for similar times each lap. The runners are finding the change a big challenge, but they know a steady pace will push them up the charts.
“It’s pretty difficult because you need to be consistent,” senior Trent Mitchell said. “Consistency is what’s making it a lot more difficult so you need to make sure you can do the same thing over and over again.”
Sophomore Ruben Gonzalez, who runs JV and qualified for sectionals last year, sees the results.
“Everything we’ve done is so different from last year,” Gonzalez said. “Last year was more run to this place and run back. This year is doing laps and laps and it’s helping our lungs get more adjusted to the running and our legs to just get better.”
The Roadrunners have already seen drops in times. Both Mitchell and Gonzalez ran personal bests at Peoria Notre Dame’s invitational September 15. Mitchell clocked 20:23 and Gonzalez 19:00 at the three-mile run.
“I’m a lot faster than I have been in the last three years,” Mitchell said. “We’ve never done that kind of workout before so I definitely think it’s helping a lot.”
At Saturday’s Leyden Eagle Invitational in Northlake, teams had to fight 30 mph winds. Nazareth took eighth.
“It was kind of hard to judge with the wind, but the fact that they came out and competed, I was happy with their places,” Milos said. “We had two medalists at the JV level that we’re pretty excited about.”
Junior Sean Green placed 27th in 18:53, senior Mitchell Rubino took 42nd in 20:37 and Mitchell crossed 47th in 21:24. Junior Ethan Flanagan (21:51) and senior Ed Ashe (22:12) rounded out the varsity scoring.
The Lady Roadrunners finished second.
Freshman Gianna Levato was fifth in 21:08 and classmate Kelly Renehan came in sixth in 21:11. Sophomore Emily Beedie posted a run of 21:24 that placed eighth.
