First up was our Frosh-Soph team. We raced 7 freshmen in this one and they came thru with some great performances! Luke Atzman has been super consistent all year long and raced well again at Reavis. He was holding down 4th place, but missed the final turn to the finish and had to retrace his steps to get back on course - ending up in 6th place in 18:49. Damian Martinez has had a great season also and held off a challenge at the line to grab 11th place in 18:57. Matt Coleman followed in 14th place in 19:33. Connor Wholley had a huge battle down the stretch, out-sprinting 2 runners to finish in 25th place in 20:54. Our final scorer was James Coppinger in 31st (21:04). Jack Easterhouse had his best race of the year to take 36th (21:42) and Alex Van Alst was 51st (22:35). That team effort was good for a 2nd place finish with 75 points - with Brother Rice winning with 38.
The Varsity guys followed next. Evan Deimling, a junior running his first year of cross country, led the Eagles with a 9th place finish in 17:31. Will Kupczyk followed with a solid 13th place finish in 17:39. Jonathan Vales was our 3rd finisher, taking 20th place with a time of 17:55. Owen Harty finished in 38th (19:09) and Nick Kut closed out the scoring in 40th place in 19:20. Juniors Ben Meyer (48th in 19:49) and Matteo Lugo (51st in 20:06) closed things out for the Eagles. The final team totals put the team in 3rd place with 106 points - behind Homewood-Flossmoor (53) and Stagg (56).
Wrapping up the day was the Open race. Although there are no team scores for this race, Nick Charles led the way for the Eagles in 6th place with a time of 21:01. Jack Nicholas followed closely in 8th place in 21:24. Our third finisher was sophomore Jakub Pikul who place 12th in 21:46. Andrew Barrera closed in 18th place in 22:26 and our final Top 20 finisher was sophomore Zelalem ("Zee") Ebert in 19th place (22:31).
Now it's on to Detweiller Park and the Richard Spring Peoria Notre Invitational this weekend and a chance to test ourselves against 75 other boys teams. Go Eagles!