2013 Meet The Team Mahomet-Seymour Boys Cross Country

   As a freshman, Nathaniel comes to our team with three years of jr. high cross country experience under his belt. He showed drastic improvement in the first month of the season by improving about 10 minutes from his first 3 mile time trial to his first 3 mile race. He ran a 24:59 in his high school 3 mile debut at the Charleston Invitational. He was a member of the freshman meet championship team at the Springfield Invitational freshmen race. He was also a member of the Eureka FS Invitational meet championship team. Nathaniel went on to run a personal best of 24:36 at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational while running in the Varsity race. Nathaniel had a big break through at the U-High Invitational where he ran a personal best by 85 seconds with a time of 23:11. Nathaniel was one of only two runners to run a personal best on our team at the conference meet since the course was slow. Nathaniel ran another personal best 47 seconds. It was our best performance of the day and a great way to end his season. He ended the season with a 22:24. He earned his way onto the News-Gazette Prep Cross Country Leaders List in November.
   As a sophomore, Nathaniel returns as a drastically improved runner from just one year ago. He gained a ton of intensity and his times aren't even comparable to his previous year's times. Nathaniel ran over 200 miles in the summer before his sophomore year. Nathaniel opened his season by running 2:45 faster than his first meet last year at the Charleston Invitational. He was only one of two runners on our team to run a personal best at the Charleston Invitational in the extreme heat with a time of 22:14. Nathaniel had an outstanding race at the Springfield Invitational where he ran a lifetime personal best on a very challenging course. Nathaniel had a major break through at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational where he improved 1:26 over his previous lifetime best to run a 20:27. This placed him #17 in our all-time most improved over a career list with a 4:32 improvement from his first high school race to his best time. Nathaniel ran another lifetime best at the East Peoria Invitational with a 20:07. Nathaniel went on to run a lifetime 3 mile best of 20:03 at the U-High invitational. He earned enough varsity letter points at the Metamora Invitational to earn his varsity letter. Nathaniel ran a lifetime best in the Conference meet with a 19:22. That was a tremendous 41 second improvement in just one week. Nathaniel's time moved him up to 10th in our all time most improved over a career list with a 5:37 improvement. He also earned the 2011 most improved fresh/soph award with a 3:02 improvement from his freshman best time to his sophomore best time.
As a junior, Nathaniel drastically increased his summer miles. He doubled them and ran over 500 miles. Nathaniel joined our 500 mile club. His hard work showed right away in his first meet where he ran in the 19's. He cut off 2 minutes and 17 seconds from his time last year at the Charleston Invitational. Nathaniel is truly an example of how hard work can pay off. Nathaniel made his way onto the News-Gazette prep cross country leaders in September. Nathaniel went on to run a season best at the Springfield Invitational with a time of 19:45. Nathaniel helped drive his team to win the open race championship as he ran 6th for the open team. He helped his team win the open race for the second year in a row. Nathaniel ran a lifetime best at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational with a time of 19:11. His time places him #10 on our all-time most improved over a career list with a 5:48 improvement. Nathaniel earned enough letter points after his 3rd meet to earn a varsity letter. Nathaniel ran a lifetime best of 19:00 at the East Peoria Invitational. This was a 67 second improvement from his time at this course last year. Nathaniel ran a lifetime best at the Metamora Invitational with a 18:33. His 27 second improvement really showed his gutsy effort. Nathaniel made his way onto the News-Gazette prep cross country leaders in October. Nathaniel ran a 19:50 at the Conference meet where he placed 30th in the open race.
     As a senior, Nathaniel started the season with another good summer of running. He ran over 400 miles and joined our 400 mile club. Nathaniel started the early season workouts with much more confidence and speed. His experience is really paying off as his workouts are going very well. Nathaniel opened up his season with a lifetime personal best at the Charleston Invitational. He moved up 2 seconds on the Most improved over a career list to a 5:50 improvement over his career. This ranks him 10th. His 2013 Charleston Invitational time was a 48 second improvement from his 2012 time. Nathaniel earned his way onto the News-Gazette's prep cross country leaders list in September. Nathaniel ran a personal best time at the Springfield Invitational with a time of 18:58. His time improved his career improvement to 6:01. Nathaniel ran in the top 7 for his team at the Springfield Invitational helping lead them to the open team championship. Nathaniel had another amazing improvement at the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational were he improved another 39 seconds to run a 18:19. His time was fast enough to move him up to #8 on our all time improved list with a 6:40 career improvement. He earned enough varsity letter points after his third race in order to earn his 3rd high school varsity cross country letter. Nathaniel is one of the few runners that seems to run a lifetime personal best almost every time out. Nathaniel ran well at the East Peoria Invitational. His team won the invitational for the 3rd time in Nathaniel's career. Nathaniel earned his way onto the News-Gazette prep cross country leaders list in October. Nathaniel ran his fastest time yet at the Metamora Invitational with a 18:02. His time was fast enough to earn him a spot on our team's fastest senior times list at the Metamora Invitational. Nathaniel ran a solid race at the Conference meet. The course was a slow course, but Nathaniel still managed to run a 19:18. He helped his team win the Conference open race for the first time. Nathaniel earned his way onto the News-Gazette's prep cross country leaders list in November.