The championship portion of the cross country season kicked off on Saturday at Midlothian Meadows. Sandburg was hosting this 3A Regional meet. Normally we'd be running this in the morning, but there was a 2A regional on the same course, so we got pushed back to a 1:15 pm race start time - leaving just enough time for me to get to Cleveland, Ohio that night for a Frank Turner concert. In the end, everything worked out perfectly. The Sandburg boys ran great and Frank put on a heckuva show!
Fun times, indeed!
One of the greatest things about this team is that on "Race Day", they require very little coaching. They know the routine, they prepare themselves to be ready to race, they're confident and when they take the starting line, we know they are completely prepared to give their max effort.
As the starting gun signaled the start of the race, Tim Neumann from Downers Grove South blasted right to the front. As you can see from the photo, we had 5 Sandburg runners leading the main pack right behind him. Thru the mile, Brock Rice, Trent Anderson, Grant Giblin, Sean Marquardt and Ibrahim Tineh held steady at the front. Evan Diemling and Jonathon Vales followed behind them.
The race headed off into the woods for the second mile. This is always a key section of the race at Midlothian Meadows - you're on your own with no spectators. As they made their way back out of the woods, the guys were clearly holding their own. Brock and Sean were together in 2nd/3rd. Trent was trailing two Bolingbrook runners, with Grant behind him. Ibrahim was battling with a DGS runner and Evan was just in front of Vales.
As they passed behind the start/finish line with 800 to go, they were all holding their positions. Down the finish stretch, Brock Rice pushed to close the gap on Neumann, finishing in 2nd place in 14:46. Sean Marquardt nailed down 3rd place with a time of 14:53. Grant Giblin moved past Trent Anderson to grab 6th place in 15:11, with Trent right behind in 7th (15:13). Ibrahim Tineh had another great race to take 9th place in 15:27. Jonathon Vales finished in 21st with a time of 16:13 and Evan Diemling closed it out in 16:29, good for 25th place.
Overall, the Eagles wrapped up the Regional title with 27 points, with Downers Grove South (43), Bolingbrook (61), Stagg (98), Reavis (165) and Shepard (170) also qualifying to move on to Sectionals.
The only disappointing thing about this season is that it is flying by way too quickly. We have an incredible group of kids on this team - great runners for sure, but even better human beings - and it's so fun to have the privilege of coaching and cheering for them. I'm so pumped to have the opportunity to do that again at Katherine Legge Memorial Park at Sectionals on Saturday!