 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 POST 1 POST 2 POST 3 POST 4 POST 5
My name is Stephanie Simpson and I’m a junior at Luther High School North. Luther is a Class A school. We have a small girl’s team but we work hard together. I have an awesome time racing and you can pick me out of the crowd by the funky knee socks I wear. I started running in 3rd grade and my dad, Mark Simpson, was my coach throughout my grade school year. Without him I wouldn’t be running today.
Stephanie's Best Times:
4K – 15:03
5K – 20:18
3 Mile – 18:16
800 – 2:24.45
1600 – 5:12.56
3200 – 11:44.70 |
I run under Dave Grim at Luther North. I've known Mr. Grim since 6th grade when our grade school would run at meets Luther North would host. In 8th grade Mr. Grim let me run in the boys race to see if that would give me more competition and it did….I beat them too!! Luther North has a long tradition of very good runners. That is one of the reasons I attend Luther North.
I’ve really liked running in High School – it’s been a blast. When I first started on the team, I was put on the Varsity squad. As a Freshman I did pretty well. I was the #2 runner for the Cross Country season. I was overcoming an injury but still placed 7th in our Regional meet. It was a hard meet for me. What made it worth it was that I got interviewed by someone from the local paper! It was my first interview! My photo was in the paper too. Track season came around and I made it to State in the 800 and 1600 but I only ran the 1600.I missed the finals by 1 place. I did make it in the Top 15 of All Time for school times in 4 different events. In Cross Country sophomore year I had a better season than freshman year. I was our #1 runner and I finally made
it to State. I didn’t do so well at State but I plan on doing better this year. Track season was awesome! I ran the IPTT meet which is like a State Indoor meet run by Bob Geiger. I ran the 1600 and got 2nd place and just missed 1st by a second. I was so close! Outdoor season was so much fun. I did really well in all of our meets and made it to State again. I got to run in the finals of the 1600 with my friend Stephanie Brown!
I had a great race finishing 4th.
I trained during the summer months with Janet Leet, the Director of Sub 5 running camp for girls.
I also went to Sub 5 this past year. It was my 4th year there. Sub 5 is so much fun! I continue to meet
with Janet twice a week.
| Stephanie & teammate Ryan Muench place 2nd
|
My first race of this year was the Elmwood Park relay race which is boy; girl and we each run 3 miles in 1 mile intervals.
My teammate Ryan Muench and I placed 2nd. I was really proud of our first race and we both did really well.
I ran my second race in Mequon, WI last weekend. It was a 4K and I placed 2nd right behind Kristen Garwood of
Springfield who is an All State Runner. I improved my time by 30 seconds from last year at the same race!!
I plan on having a great season. I will keep you updated!!
 Hey everyone its Stephanie again from Luther North. So last week Tuesday I had a relay race with my teammate Sam Blasé in Rockford with our new conference the NAC Conference. We came in 1st and it was a 3 mile race with mile and a half splits. My first split was a 9:28 and my split was a 9:48. Pretty good times for having a really nasty cold. We took some fun pictures when we received our medals. Our school received a “Got Milk” grant last year during track season so every time I go up to get a medal I bring a carton of milk. Sam brought one too and we both wore our “sunglasses at night”! Also this week we traveled to Wisconsin for another meet. We spend the weekend in Lake Geneva but the race is at UW Parkside. It is a really hilly course. The first ½ mile is straight up hill and the rest of the course is up and down. The course was fun though, it was like a roller coaster and I seem to do really well on hilly courses. It was another 4K race and I finished 6th overall with a time of 15:03! Fastest time of the year and another PR and 31 seconds better than last year’s time. I am having a great season so far and I’m very proud of myself. I hope it continues. We had a picnic in the park near the college and played two hand tag football. I caught a pass and made a touchdown!!! That afternoon we went back to the Conference center we stay at in Williams Bay for team building activities. We split into groups – guys vs. girls and played water balloon volleyball with sheets, bozo buckets with blindfolds and a trust pass activity. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner and a nightfall we played a night game like hide and seek and we all dress in black so it’s harder to find each other. We stayed up until early morning hours. It is a great weekend with the team and I also have a great time there. Homecoming is this week and I’m very excited about the activities planned for the week. Have a great week!
Hi everyone. This week was Homecoming week and we had a lot of Spirit Activity Days…Pajama day, Sports Day, Blue/Gold Day and Twin day. In the middle of the week  | Stephanie Simpson and her homecoming crew!
|
we had a Powder Puff game which is a girl’s football game. The Championship game was between the seniors and juniors. We lost by one touchdown. Before the game, the entire student body went bowling. My highest score was a 102, not bad for an amateur. Practice was a little difficult this week. Things just didn’t go too well. On Friday we hosted a grade school meet and I was the rabbit for the 5th/6th girls and boys and then again for the 7th/8th grade boys. The weather was terrible, wet and rainy. The little kids didn’t seem to mind though, splashing in puddles and having a good time. That night I got my hair done for Homecoming. It took 2 hours!! I really like the color and cut though, it was worth it.
Saturday was a big meet hosted by Whitney Young. There were 2 divisions this year, a Blue Division for the bigger schools and an Orange Division for the smaller school. Luther was in the Orange division, but my coach, Mr. Grim, put me in the Blue division. I ran a pretty good race with a time of 19:33 and I placed 6th. I felt good after the race. The course had a killer hill that we had to run up 4 times. It was tough. The girls who ran in the Orange division from Luther did very well. We had three girls place in the top 20, Sam Blasé, Miriam Bromley and Raluca Birza. I’m really proud of all of the girls that ran including Natasha Salinas and Ally Stephens. They worked so hard that they ended up getting a team trophy which is the first team trophy we’ve had in 2 years!! Later that day we had Homecoming. I went with my boyfriend, Tim Schaefer. We coupled with Sam Blasé and her date, Jake White. The dance was a lot of fun and I had a good time. This week we have the big Lisle meet. I hope we take home the Spirit Award!!
Hey everyone, it’s Stephy. During the week last week, we had a NAC conference flight meet at Schiller Woods. 3 of our girls came in 1st place in their flight. We came in second as a team just 2 points behind Christian Life. Then, last weekend’s race was an exciting race. The race was in Lisle and it was a 5K course. I ran a 20:26, not one of my best times. I was hoping to do better but it was an up and down course. Right before the 1 mile mark there was a decent sized hill but it was steep and muddy. My mile time was good at a 6:06 but I slowed down a lot. I have been fighting a little cold but I’m getting better. Anyways, so after the race we have this HUGE spirit pep rally. A lot of schools got all pepped up and we had a spirit battle. Ryan Muench, a senior this year, went all out and our team was all pumped up too. We all had face paint and fun socks on. The team with the most spirit during the race and during the spirit rally won….that was us this year!! Yes, we are the Most Spirited Team! It was really exciting. We all won T-shirts. On Monday, we did a team charity event for Feed My Starving Children. We filled enough food bags to fee d 21 children for a year. We practiced at the course where our Conference race will be held and then had a team dinner at A&W. It was a good day. We had an easy week this week. On Sunday, our team is going to run in the High School part of the marathon. The high schools in the city were invited. It should be a fun race, but really COLD! 35 degrees Sunday morning! Have a great weekend everyone!
 | Northside/Southside winners Stephanie Simpson and Kyle Counter with Matt Tegencamp (left), Shalene Flanagan, and Chris Solinsky (right)
|
Hey everyone! I have some pretty exciting news. This weekend Nike hosted the First Annual Northside/Southside Challenge. The race started at Michigan and 31st street and we ran the last 2.62 miles of the Marathon course (gotta love those odd numbers!) There were schools from Class 1A to Class 3A, so a wide variety of kids running. When the race began, Julia Buford and I ran most of the race together, we had a pretty solid splits running about a 6 minute mile pace. The last quarter of the race I took off and ended up winning. I was so excited. I have never really been interviewed before and I was at least interviewed 4 times! Then…that’s not even the best part….I was on Channel 5 news LIVE! I was so nervous but it was really cool. They interviewed the 1st place guy too, Kyle Counter. He was really nice and we had a good time answering questions together. After the interviews we went into a huge tent Nike has arranged for all of us to eat and warm up in and we watched the marathon on a big TV in the middle of the tent. The top 10 guys and girls received awards which were super cool…it was a Nike spike shoe on a plaque. The higher the place, the better the shoe. I ended up getting the Nike Zoom Victory signed by MATT TEGENKAMP, CHRIS SOLINSKY, and SHALANE FLANAGAN, all members of the USA Track and Field team and Olympians. They also signed the banner I ran through at the finish line. All in all a pretty sweet day. We have Conference this weekend. Good luck to everyone in their races. See you next week!
Hey everyone! Sorry I’m a little behind; I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. Last weekend on Saturday the 17th, I had NAC Conference finals.
It was hosted at  | Stephanie Simpson at the Luther North Regional
|
Mooseheart and Luther North was in charge of the course set up. The 1st mile was just a loop but our 2nd mile was around a big pond which was nice. The course wasn’t too bad. My first and second miles were decently paced but I had no competition so my 3rd mile was slow. I won conference by over 2 minutes which was really exciting because I’ll be NAC’s first conference champion. My coach was really proud of me. Then to top it off, the girls team won! We are the Conference Champs. I am so proud of all of my teammates especially the other top 5 varsity girls - Sam Blasé, Miriam Bromley, Raluca Briza, and Brandi Corral. I also have to give props to Haley Hoffman and Sara Schaeffer who also ran great races to round out our Varsity team. Great job ladies, I’m so proud of you! In the boy’s race our top finisher was Ryan Muench who ran a great race and finished 12th. Our other Varsity guys also did a fantastic job – Andy Nistor, Joey Loose, Alex Smolinski, Christian Randle and Erik Figueroa. Most of them had PR’s for the day. Way to go guys! In the open race, we had Kyle Luna, John Gomez, Alex Jimenez, Trevor Schaeffer, Ally Stephens and Haley Judge. Our Freshman, Kyle Luna ran a great race which earned him a spot in on the Varsity team for Regionals. Way to go Luther North!
Regionals –
On to our Regionals. Our Regional meet was hosted by Luther North at LaBagh Woods. It wasn’t such a good day to run. Our whole course got flooded so we had to change a lot of the layout of the course. It was really wet and muddy and chilly. It cleared up in time for the race to begin which was nice. This course also ended up being 3 loops of the same thing. Not very exciting but you have to work past the things you don’t like and look at the good things ahead of you. I ended up getting 3rd at Regionals. I had an off day. I hadn’t practiced all week because of a tweak in my lower back and I could barely walk at the beginning of the week. The race was disappointing for me but all I can worry about now is Sectionals. I can’t change the past, only what I can do for the future – lesson learned. Our Varsity girls had great races, they all PR’d and we came in 5th – just enough to get us onto Sectionals. Our guys all ran great races too – most PR’d but it is the end of the season for them – they missed out on going to Sectionals. As for the girls – GET READY LADIES!!! We’re going to Sectionals – another week of practice, let’s give it all we’ve got!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
