Thode takes the road less traveled
While the Thode name is not new to Conant running - his oldest brother Jeremy ran cross country and track while his other brother Joey competed in track for the Cougars - senior Jeff Thode never envisioned that his would be mentioned as one of the school's best ever.
Not to mention one of the state's elite.
"Coming into high school, winning a state (cross country or track) championship never crossed my mind," Thode admitted. "But that started to change during the state meets last year."
Finishing 15th at last November's state cross country meet and missing a state 1,600-meter championship by a little more than a second last spring will do wonders for your confidence.
"I'm actually going to try and win state for both races (this season)," Thode said matter-of-factly.
With the impressive results he's posted, it's hard to imagine the 17-year-old senior not reaching or getting close to his goals of 14:05-14:20 in cross country and four-minutes flat in the 1,600 meters.
Thode, who finished 50th (16:59) at the Rolling Meadows regional as a sophomore, made his state cross country debut last season after winning the Lake Park regional in 14:56 and taking 13th at the Schaumburg Class 3A sectional (15:33.50).
"I was a little nervous (at state) since I didn't have a good pace to start out with," said Thode, who ran 14:37 and finished sixth at last fall's MSL meet. "I just picked someone out in the crowd. Other than that, I was just by myself."
With the Cougars missing a state berth for the fifth consecutive season - finishing eighth at the Schaumburg sectional - Thode was the only Conant runner to advance to the 3-mile course at Detweiller Park. Running without a teammate apparently didn't affect Thode's stride as he crossed in 14:48 for the school's best finish since senior Mike Cropper took seventh (14:41) in 1998 as the Cougars took 13th in state.
Thode was also the fifth non-senior to finish last season, trailing only York junior Steve Sulkin (fifth, 14:26), Neuqua Valley junior Danny Pawola (eighth, 14:34), Marmion Academy junior Josh Stein (11th, 14:38) and Neuqua Valley sophomore Aaron Beattie (13th, 14:45).
Giving Thode even more reason to believe he'll achieve his double-championship goal this year.
"When you look at those (who finished ahead of Thode at state cross country) and their track season, you've got to figure that Jeff has a pretty good shot this season," said Conant coach John Powers. "It would be tough to say they had a better spring than Jeff did."
The record-setting, 1,600-meter performance Thode offered up last May at Buffalo Grove during the MSL meet positioned him among the nation's best. Facing four-time top-5 cross country finisher Kevin Havel (third in 2007, 14:17), Thode out-kicked the Hersey senior in a conference-record time of 4:10.80 - also one of the fastest times in the country last year.
"It was really good competition and it went down to the last 100 or 200 (meters) of the race," Thode recalled. "I didn't really know I won until probably 20 meters left to go. I knew (Havel) was right there."
A week later at the Palatine sectional, Havel held off Thode for first place - 4:14.7 to 4:15.1 - but the Conant junior nearly raced to a state championship at O'Brien Stadium in Charleston as he finished second (4:13.47) in the 1,600 to Lockport senior Kyle Engnell (4:12.29). Havel, now running at Stanford, finished fourth in the 1,600 (4:14.38) to complement his 3,200 championship (9:01.37).
"In my mind, (Jeff has) come up to where those guys are," Powers said. "He now sees himself as a contender."
Whether he wins state cross country and track gold medals this year or not, Thode, who is undecided on college, has ambitions far beyond the high school athletic fields. U.S. Olympic Team bids in 2012 and 2016 remain bright blips on his radar.
"I think he's really starting to see how good he can be," Powers said. "I think it kind of snuck up on him."
With the name he made for himself last year, it's unlikely Thode will sneak up on anyone during this or any other season.