At the New Balance Outdoor Nationals championship track meet in Greensboro, NC, on the weekend, graduated senior Jack Keelan finished fourth in the 5000-meter run with a time of 14 minutes and 29.20 seconds on Friday and then second in the 1600-meters in 4:08.73 on Sunday.  He earned all-american status in both races.  Keelan has now finished his high school career.  He holds three official varsity school records in the 3200 (8:50.74), the 1600 (4:05.8), and cross country (14:05 on the state championship Detweiller course).  He holds unofficial records in the mile (4:07.50) and the 5000.  Keelan will move on to Stanford University, where he will run for the cross country and track teams.  

Newly graduated from Saint Ignatius but still running for the Wolfpack’s summer and off-season running club, the Chicago Pack-Men, Jack Keelan won the mile run at the Midwest Distance Festival held on Saturday, June 8, at Illinois Benedictine University, setting a new school record of 4 minutes and 5.8 seconds (hand-timed) in the 1600-meter run on the way to a 4:07.50 mile (FAT).  Keelan broke his own record in the 1600 (set earlier this year) of 4:09.62.  When he began his assault on the school record book in the spring of 2012, the record (4:14.0) was held by Mike Patton ’81.  Freshman Dan Santino also competed for the Pack-Men at the all-star event, running 9:31.37 for two miles and passing 3200 meters in 9:28.0.  It was a personal best for Santino, and, unofficially, the fastest time ever run by an Ignatius freshman.  Among frosh-soph runners, only Keelan has run faster as he holds the 3200-meter frosh-soph mark of 9:14.38.  “Jack’s new mark seemingly puts that metric mile record out of reach for a long time,” said coach Ed Ernst.  “But two years ago we felt like Mike Patton’s records were out of reach, too.  Dan Santino is ahead of pace as a freshman in terms of catching up to those records.  He’s run a lot faster than Keelan ran as a freshman.  So tonight was kind of like a passing of the torch.”  Keelan, who will officially begin running for Stanford's cross-country team at the end of August, will travel next weekend to the New Balance Nationals track championships in Greensboro, NC, where he will compete in the 5000 meters and the mile run.

The Wolfpack was one of four Jesuit High School sailing teams competing at the National Invitational Team Race Regatta this past weekend at the Milwaukee Yacht Club.  Ignatius, captained by senior Rose Edwards, came in a respectable 6th place.  The regatta concluded the spring season which saw the team win the Illinois State Sailing Championship for the second consecutive year.

The Wolfpack Junior 4 with Coxswain raced to a silver medal finish at the Scholastic National Championships on Saturday in Camden, NJ.  The crew of Katie Luchette, Anne Zwick, Briggs Mroz, Morgan Mroz and Caroline Hurley coxswain were second in the nation, racing crews that had advanced from the six regions to the national championships.  In the heats on Friday, the Wolfpack won with the fastest time of the event.  On Saturday morning they were second in their semi-final.  Under strong winds of 20-30 mph, the Pack sprinted to the silver medal, just losing to Merion Mercy in the last 250 meters. 

The Wolfpack finished fourth at the IHSA 3A State Championship on Saturday with 28 points, the best finish ever by a Saint Ignatius track team.  Senior Jack Keelan won both the 3200- and 1600-meter runs (8:57.61and 4:12.11).  Junior Conor Dunham placed third in the 300-meter hurdles, setting a school record with his time of 38.36 seconds.  The 3200-meter relay team of seniors Sean Kampe, Elliot Gibson and Andrew Reardon and junior Chris Korabik won the ninth place medal and set a school record of 7:54.50.  All medal winners earn All-State status.  Congratulations to the entire Wolfpack track team for a great season.

The Wolfpack qualified five individuals in seven events at the 3A Saint Ignatius Sectional at Concordia University last Thursday.  The team will also take two relays in the 4x800 and 4x400.  Senior co-captain Jack Keelan goes to the IHSA 3A meet as the top seed in the 1600 and the third seed in the 3200; he holds the top personal bests in both events among all the competitors: 8:50.74 in the 3200 and 4:09.62 in the 1600.  Keelan will attempt to be one of only ten or so runners who have won the state cross country title and then both the 1600 and 3200 in track.  Junior Conor Dunham qualified in the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles.  School record holder in the 110s, Dunham hopes for a medal on his better event - the 300 intermediates.  Senior Elliot Gibson cleared 12 feet and 9 inches to win the pole vault at the Sectional.  Junior Chris Hawkins qualified in the 110-hurdles and the long jump.  The 4x800 team is seeded 12th at 7:55.01.  Senior Andrew Reardon ran 2:00.3, Gibson ran 1:58, junior Chris Korabik 1:59.4 and senior Sean Kampe 1:56.9.  Dunham, Reardon, Kampe and Gibson also combined to finish second in the Sectional 4x400 to qualify in 3:23.99, which ranks them 21st in a field of 26.  But in the tightly bunched field, the sixth place team is just 1.7 seconds ahead.  In 1980 Saint Ignatius sprinter Darryl Canady won the 200-meter dash, finished second in the 100-meters, and then helped the 4x100 relay to fifth place.  The team’s 22 points were the highest point total for Ignatius at the state meet.  The team’s 22 points in 1980 were the highest total for Ignatius at the state meet.  “We have hopes to better that total in 2013,” said Coach Ed Ernst.  “And we hope for the first time to score more than one individual while scoring in a relay as well.  All our guys think they can go faster—and we hope they are right.”  You can follow the Wolfpack on the weekend by twitter @ernsttracksicp and on Coach Ernst’s blog:  ernstblog.wordpress.com.

Hinsdale Central rallied for three fourth quarter goals and ended the season of the Saint Ignatius varsity lacrosse team (12-8) in a 9-6 loss to the suburban hosts. The Pack jumped to a 3-0 lead on first period on goals by Chris Basili from Will Yorke, Jack Gavin from Basili and a solo Yorke tally. The Red Devils rallied for a 3-3 tie at half. After a Devil goal, Brendan McNicholas found Gavin who tied the game at four. The hosts pushed to a 6-4 margin before Yorke answered with a pair of goals for the game's third tie at six apiece early in the fourth set.  A three-goal Hinsdale rally then ended the Wolfpack season in a 9-6 loss. Longpoles Mike Flynn and Mike Fuentes combined for three grounders and six takeaways while Luke Mulchrone, James Krumme, Tim O'Neil, John McGowan and John Browne added ten grounders and four steals in defensive play.  Goalie Jabari Copeland stopped a dozen shots for the Pack who played a strong game and rallied twice but fell just short late in the season finale.

The Wolfpack defeated Schurz last night 25-18, 25-18 in the IHSA Regional Semi-Final. Juniors Cooper Hardy (20 assists), Zach Gortowski (7 kills), Michael Knight (6 kills), Joe Loftus (5 kills) and Stephan Iwanik (3 kills, 2 aces, 4 blocks) led the way for Ignatius. The team is now 12-23 overall and will play St. Patrick at St. Patrick for the Regional Championship at 6 p.m. tonight.

On Saturday the Wolfpack made school history when they beat Lincoln Way Central 12-9 in the IHSA State Championship game at Stevenson.  The win marked the first time in Ignatius’ 144-year history a team sport won an IHSA State Title.  Led by Metro Catholic Aquatic Conference Player of the Year Becky Insalaco and All-State standout Tammy Stelnicki, the Wolfpack put together an overall season record of 22-4-1 heading into the State Tournament where they would meet familiar foes on their road to destiny.  The Wolfpack matched up with Catholic League rival and the state's top-ranked team, Mother McAuley, in the semi-finals.  The game proved to be an epic battle with neither team having more than a one-goal lead at any given time.  But as time expired, the Wolfpack were crowned the 8-7 victors and earned another trip to the state championship game for the program's third time in the past seven years.  The title game was truly a team effort with offensive contributions from Insalaco, Stelnicki, juniors Rebecca Martinez, Maggie Maloney and Nikol Lagodzinska, sophomore Karen Juarez, and freshman Diana Fernandez, and on the defensive end the Pack lived up to its reputation as one of the stingiest in the state behind freshman goalie Jenny Stelnicki who had over two and half dozen saves in the net.  Water Polo received varsity status at Saint Ignatius in the spring of 2000; since then the program has won nine IHSA sectional championships and one MCAC conference title, earned IHSA 3rd Place honors three times, and has been the State Runner-Up twice.  The championship is a true testament to the program's motto of "Players Graduate Tradition Continues"!

The Pack traveled to Stevenson for the IHSA State Tournament and walked away with a 4th place finish.  After defeating Brother Rice 9-6 in a tightly contested quarter-final, the Pack fell to host Stevenson 8-5 in semi-final play.  The Pack couldn't regain their momentum as they also fell to Naperville North in the State 3rd Place game.  Congratulations to everyone on a great season!