On Saturday, October 3rd, the Titans ran their last home meet of the seasons against the Niles West Wolves. Due to the Niles District’s health restriction, the format of the meet was abnormal. Rather than running each race together, the Wolves ran their own race, cleared the course, and were then followed by Glenbrook South’s runners. While the Titan Varsity team ran alone, the Freshman and JV levels were able to run their races against Loyola in an unscored race. Though the meet’s format was strange, it was a good day of racing on all levels.

At the Varsity level, Brian Hiltebrand (JR) led the Titans in a time of 15:56. Behind him, Mrugesh Thakor (SR) finished at 16:29. Though he didn’t know it while running, he finished just barely behind Niles West’s top runner. The rest of the Titan pack took the 4th through 8th place spots, defeating Niles West in a score of 19 to 43.

Half an hour later, the JV team ran their race against Loyola. Niles West had no JV team. Loyola’s front runners finished with a perfect score of 15 to GBS’s 48, taking the 1st through 5th place spots. Ryan Schaefer (SO) was the first Titan through the line in a season best of 17:43. Behind him, Jacob Baim (JR) finished in with a time of 18:27.

The Freshman 2 mile was the real highlight of the meet. Loyola’s front runner, Xavier Klatt, finished way ahead of the field in a time of 11:01. Behind him, though, it was a tight battle between the Titans and Ramblers. Andy Ordway finished in 2nd place at 11:27. After battling it out with Loyola’s runners for much of the race, Geoff Maddalozzo (11:43), Jefferson Wei (11:44), and Matt Barney (11:47) came through the line in 3rd, 4th, and 5th place. Behind them, Jack Qualkenbush showed just how important the fifth man on the team can be. With just 300 meters to go, Jack was at least 5 seconds behind the three Loyola runners in front of him. Over the last minute of the race, Jack pushed past all three of those runners, finishing in 6th place and clinching the win for the Titan.

This was the last regular-season meet for most of the Titans. The Top 14 runners will run next Saturday at Heritage Park in an invitational hosted by Wheeling High School. The following Monday, the rest of the team will run their last meet of the season at the Central Suburban League Conference Championship. As the season starts to wrap up, we’re excited to see how the team will do in the coming weeks.