This past Saturday, October 2nd, the Titans, without the top 8 runners, traveled over to Niles West High School for the annual Pat Savage Invite. The weather certainly wasn't perfect as it was warmer than expected, but they did end up dodging the rain. It was a great day of racing even though the course was quite a bit slower than expected, and now, the boys begin to look forward with only two races left in the season for the majority of the team.
The Freshmen 2-mile started off the warm day. Cole Malecki ran in his first invite since Crystal Lake, but he still managed to run a great race with a time of 12:53 for 27th place. Max Goodman (13:11), Charles Finkel (13:25), and Cole Branstrom (13:31) came through soon after in 39th, 47th, and 51st respectively. The final scoring runner was Connor Herrington in 13:41 for 59th with William Fontana (13:41) right on his hip, half of a second later. The Freshmen secured a nice 10th place finish with some great competition.
Next up was the Varsity race, and with the top 8 runners in Peoria, the rest of the Juniors and Seniors had to step up to the plate. Senior Sebastian Zimmer made his awaited return and ran a phenomenal race, finishing in 18:09 for 62nd place. Junior James Hiltebrand broke away towards the end to finish in 18:14 for 70th, and Senior Matthew Penne came across next in 18:18 72nd. The top 5 was rounded out by Junior Sully Richards (18:42) in 83rd and Senior Jack Cleary (18:45) in 84th, donning the new spikes. Senior Lucas Houser finished just behind Cleary at 18:45 as well. The team managed to get 11th overall even without the top 8 runners at this meet.
The Sophomore race closed out the day as it just kept getting hotter at Niles West High School. The boys continued their amazing season with Cyrus Cooke and Sam Knezevich leading the way once again. Both ran in 18:20 with Cooke finishing in 20th and Knezevich in 22nd. Jack Qualkenbush came through next in 19:08 for 32nd. Jefferson Wei continued to work his way back from injuries in 19:47 for 47th place. Jan Jedynak came across as the final scoring runner, securing a nice 4th place finish just behind some great CSL rivals.
It was a great day of racing as the team was split up between two meets, and the boys at Niles West ran hard and fought from behind. Their next time racing is next Saturday when the team travels to Heritage Park in Arlington Heights for the Wildcat Invitational. Rest up and we will see you then!
