by Bob Hahn (Sandburg class of 1981)
With the 2017 annual Carl Sandburg Alumni Cross Country meet in the books recently, it is exciting to note that our alumni legends are among the finest cross country runners in the history of the Illinois High School Association. Names like Graves, Verzbicas, Torpy, Hicks, Dahleen and Lehnhardt provided the Eagles with some of the fastest times in the history of this great sport here in Illinois. And others such as Adamowski, Smith, Skucas, Homoly and Hahn were sub 14:50 at Detweiller Park and were All Staters. And other Eagle All Staters such as Kaye, the Borling's, Smith and Glaza also made their mark at Detweiller. We enjoyed returns to Turtlehead Lake from many of our alumni, along with the current team, highlighting legend in the making Dylan Jacobs.
The Sandburg Eagle harriers have had a long and storied history in Illinois cross country with recent team success culminating in the program's first state championship in 2015 and being ranked number one nationally for much of that season before settling in as the 4th best team in the United States. But one of the most impressive aspects of Eagle history has been the ability for individuals to stand out along with team success. Sandburg may, quite possibly, have the greatest collection of individual cross country athletes that the state of Illinois has ever seen. This article will explore the All Time Top Seven teams over the history of the IHSA starting in 1946 when the first IHSA State Meet took place at the Urbana Country Club and since has evolved into one of the nation's greatest cross country traditions at the legendary Detweiller Park in Peoria.
But first, let’s be clear. The general history of cross country in the state of Illinois has been dominated by the teams that Joe Newton put together from 1962’s first state championship for the York Dukes. His team from Elmhurst, IL ranks among the greatest programs in organized high school sports history anywhere in the nation, as highlighted by The Long Green Line’s 27 State Championships. York also had its share of individual State Champions. Names like the legendary Ron Craker, one of the first real studs for York who stood out among their team oriented concept of the 60’s and 70’s. Then Donald Sage of the late 90’s who ran the fastest time ever for the Dukes with a 14:03 clocking on his way to becoming state champion. But as concentrated as York’s success has been, there have been just as many dominating teams and individuals that have made Illinois one of the all time great states in cross country running. Who has had the greatest team ever? Was it one of York’s 27 state championship teams? Or was it the mid 70’s Deerfield team that dominated cross country for 2 years like no other team in history? And then there are the great individual State Champions like Craig Virgin, Dave Merrick, Dave Walters, Tom Graves, Lukas Verzbicas, Chris Derrick and Jorge Torres. And others who went on to amazing careers such as Jim Spivey and Evan Jager. And don’t forget about the athletes making history right now in Sandburg’s Dylan Jacobs, Lyon’s Danny Kilrea and York’s Charlie Kern.
In today’s sports world, we like to say “what if?” We like to try to compare different eras and argue who was the best. Everybody wants to put together a “Mount Rushmore” of the best athletes in a sport. Or create dream teams from different times to see who sizes up. I researched the archives of the IHSA history of cross country and tried to decide who had the greatest “Dream Team” of all time. Was it York’s consistent powerful line-ups since the 60’s? Was it Deerfield who had a short but amazing run in the 70’s? How about Lincoln Way with some amazing state champions in the early days of Detweiller Park? Neuqua Valley since the advent of the 3-class system in Illinois? Or is it Orland Park Carl Sandburg High School with a collection of individual State Champions and All-Staters that rival any cross country athletes that you can ever compare. I found the fastest top seven times in several school’s histories and compared them to see who is the fastest team ever! And what I like about this most, is that the majority of the greatest runners of all time in Illinois ran at Peoria’s Detweiller Park, essentially on the same course. This makes the comparisons reasonable to a great degree. Yes, sometimes Peoria can be an interesting place come November. Could be 90 degree’s, could be 23 degrees with flurries, and every weather condition in between. But generally, it has very good running weather when November rolls around and provides an excellent proving ground for the best athletes to shine. Let’s take a look at the Greatest Top Seven’s ever and try to decide who has had the fastest program in the history of the IHSA!
I generally worked from a list of about 30 schools, which looked like they had either great teams over the years, or outstanding individuals. I narrowed the list down to 8 teams: York, Sandburg, Deerfield, Lincoln Way, Neuqua Valley, Lyons Township, Lockport and Wheeling high schools. In the world of cross country racing, 7 is a very important number. Ask any runner who is eighth man on the team and he will tell you how important the number 7 is!! So we had our Top 7 Greatest Top Seven’s of All Time with Wheeling High School being an extremely honorable mention. Of course my goal was to find out who had the best top seven ever, and with very reliable times recorded at Detweiller I think this has been accomplished. And although there were some other teams in the running, and I may get some argument for a few other teams being close, I think it is safe to say that our fastest top 7 is among these teams without a doubt. I am also fully aware that there were certainly some fast times ran in the years before Detweiller Park hosted state meet, and some very powerful teams such as Evanston Township, Edwardsville and Bloom Trail. But again, I am very confident that the teams from the Detweiller era are the teams that I needed to focus on. One exception is the Lincoln Way Central team, which had one of the greats in Dave Merrick among its studs. I was able to gather enough information to perform a reliable conversion from the 2.67 mile course and the 2.75 mile course that he ran while winning consecutive state championships in 1969 and again in1970, the first year of Detweiller Park hosting the state championship. As you will see, it was important to include this data in evaluating the strength of Lincoln Way. Besides the Knights, no other teams from the pre-Detweiller era could quite compile enough individual and team strength to consider being among the top seven greatest programs of all time, not to mention the lack of recorded times from that era to prove it.
Here is the data for the 8 teams under consideration and the results of the “All Time Top Seven Dream Team Invitational”.
And York wins the All Time Sevens Dream Team Invitational with an incredible chase pack placing Achtien, Kern and Driggs 12th, 13th and 14th and posting a solid score of 53 to Sandburg’s 68. (I’m giving Craker the nod over Dylan Jacobs with the same time because of his state championship pedigree. Tom Achtien over Charlie Kern for the same reason. ) Also note that York put their top seven in the top 18. That’s a team power display that we are used to from the Dukes. Deerfield had the second fastest 7th man, finishing in 38th as a comparison. As for the overall time for the top 5, it was a dogfight with York coming out on top by 2 seconds. Interestingly, the 2017 State Championship could have an influence on these statistics. Dylan Jacobs and Charlie Kern are still active racers on the high school scene and will battle for the State Championship this fall. They both have potential to break the 14:00 minute mark and tilt the overall top 5 time one way or another. Don’t miss it!!
Here is a look at the top 5-man teams in regards to total time:
YORK 70:53:00 Sage, Craker, Achtein, Kern, Driggs
SANDBURG 70:55:00 Verzbicas, Graves, Jacobs, S. Torpy, Hicks
LINCOLN WAY 71:51:00 Walters, Merrick, Battista, Erickson, Barnes
DEERFIELD 71:58:00 Stevens, T. McCallister, Bauer, Erhard, Wallace
NEUQUA VALLEY 72:04:00 C. Derrick, Beattie, Pawola, J. Jett, Horn
LYONS TOWNSHIP 72:11:00 Kilrea, Zona, Allen, B. Gaffney, Telfer
LOCKPORT 72:14:00 Haut, Sartori, Knudsen, Saginus, Reed
WHEELING 72:38:00 J. Torres, E. Torres, Herrera, Loquercio, Valesquez
Here is the ranking of the Top 5 All Time Times for each team, along with a chart of the Top 5 Spreads and Top Seven Spreads:
SANDBURG 70:15:00 Verzbicas, Graves, Verzbicas, Graves, Jacobs
YORK 70:53:00 Sage, Craker, Achtein, Kern, Driggs
WHEELING 71:45:00 J.Torres, J.Torres, E.Torres, J.Torres, J.Torres
LINCOLN WAY 71:47:00 Walters, Merrick, Battista, Erickson, Merrick
NEUQUA VALLEY 71:50:00 C. Derrick, C. Derrick, Beattie, Pawola, J. Jett
DEERFIELD 71:58:00 Stevens, T. McCallister, Bauer, Erhard, Wallace
LOCKPORT 72:06:00 Haut, Sartori, Knudsen, Knudsen, Saginus
LYONS TOWNSHIP 72:07:00 Kilrea, Zona, Allen, Zona, B. Gaffney
Team Spread Team Spread
1. Deerfield 10 seconds 1. Deerfield 15 seconds
2. York 13 seconds 2. York 18 seconds
3. Lyons 26 seconds 3. Lyons 30 seconds
4. Lockport 33 seconds 4. Lockport 40 seconds
5. Sandburg 36 seconds 5. Sandburg 43 seconds
6. Neuqua Valley 44 seconds 6. Lincoln-Way 55 seconds
7. Wheeling 47 seconds 7. Neuqua Valley 57 seconds
8. Lincolnway 49 seconds 8. Wheeling 58 seconds
DEERFIELD
Widely considered one of the greatest teams ever in Illinois, you can see their strength statistically in the study, even though they were a power for such a short time. They did this all without a true “low stick” compared to some of the other programs they are up against here. Although, they may have moved up even further in this scenario if not for the injury of Mark McCallister in the 1977 state meet. Notice that they are #1 in the spread between their top 5 and top 7, the mark of a truly great team.
LINCOLN WAY
Lincoln Way provided a challenge to this scenario with the missing 3 mile times for Dave Merrick, but it was clear that the Knights had to be accounted for with the 3 individual state championships that they accumulated. They were one of the best programs early on in the history of Detweiller Park with Dave Merrick and Dave Walters posting 2 out of the first 4 individual State Championships. And Lee Erickson was absolutely no slouch finishing 2nd to Craig Virgin in 1971. These “low sticks” allowed Lincoln Way to rank 3rd overall in the All Time Top 7 standings.
NEUQUA VALLEY
Led by all time great Chris Derrick, Neuqua was more of a traditional team power similar to Deerfield with the exception of Derrick’s low stick. A perfect mix of a stud front-runner and super strong team allows Neuqua to rank 5th in Top 5 times and 4th in Top Seven All Time scenarios. Although they get edged out and finish 7th in the “Dream” Invite, they finish strong statistically in team times ranking between 4th and 5th.
LYONS TOWNSHP
Danny Kilrea provides a nice low stick and the rest of the team packs it up nicely as evidenced by their 3rd place ranking in Top 5 and Top 7 splits. Lyons also had some very strong teams in the “pre-Detweiller” era.
LOCKPORT
Of all the teams here, Lockport was one that I would not have guessed right away making it into the top 7. Two individual State Champions and a few All State performances along the way made this program a contender. Imagine if Soren Knudsen attended Lockport instead of Minooka. If anybody wants to consider that scenario, be my guest!!
WHEELING
Jorge Torres drives this train for Wheeling by being the most prolific champion in Illinois state history. His 2, 1, 1, 1 finishes at Detweiller along with his stud brother Eduardo move an otherwise honorable mention into a 3rd ranking among the Top Five All Time Times.
So for the hundreds of runners that make up Sandburg Eagle Alumni, congratulations on being among the top programs in the history of the sport!! And about that “Mount Rushmore” of All Time great runners in Illinois history? I don’t see it being any other way then below! Sandburg is proud to boast 2 of the All Time greats!!
Click here for the Illinois Cross Country Mount Rushmore.
So good luck Eagles in your mission to be among the top teams in the nation again this season! And for you grade school runners that will be coming through the Sandburg system, work hard and dream, and you too can contribute to one of the most successful programs in Illinois history!
References:
IHSA Cross Country website:
http://www.ihsa.org/SportsActivities/BoysCrossCountry.aspx
50 Years of IHSA Cross Country by Jim Ruppert