With the momentum of the Illinois Class 3A state championship leading the Eagles into Terre Haute, Indiana, Sandburg was coming into the Nike Midwest Regional with confidence that they could repeat as champions and punch their ticket to the National championship race in Portland, Oregon. The amazing pack run that the Eagles used last November to easily defeat Carmel, Indiana and the rest of the field at NXN Midwest was tempered with a 15th place finish at the NXN Nationals. But this season, the undefeated Orland Park team carried with them the number one ranking in the nation. With the emergence of Sean Torpy as one of the nation’s elite runners, along with a few challenging injuries to Tom Brennan and Dylan Jacobs, this was a powerful, yet slightly different looking team coming into Terre Haute.
Coming off the impressive win at Detweiller Park in the Illinois Class 3A State championships, even without their number 2 runner Dylan Jacobs, Sandburg’s 2015 version came into NXN Midwest with an uncharacteristic 1-5 split of 30 to 40 seconds. The two main reasons for the growing split were the brilliant 3rd place low stick of Sean Torpy and the injuries to Jacobs and Tommy Brennan. Following Sean’s 4:24 finish in Peoria were Max Lehnhardt’s 13th place finish and Chris Torpy’s 16th place finish, good for three All-State performances. Following them into the chute were Brandon Lukas (31) and Tom Brennan (38). Without the injuries to Jacobs and Brennan, the split would have been typical of 2014, probably around 20 seconds. There was little doubt Jacobs probably finishes in the top 10 and Tommy Brennan, more than likely finishes All-State after his 31st place finish in 2014. But, like the Eagles have always been, they ran confidently and resiliently to overcome any challenges that would get in their way. And it was on to the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country course to defend their NXN Midwest title in any fashion that was necessary.
The weekend started with a road trip on Saturday morning to Terre Haute and a tour of the LaVern Gibson course. In the line-up for the NXN race were Sean Torpy, Max Lehnhardt, Chris Torpy, Brandon Lukas, Tom Brennan, Martin Skucas, and David Gleisner. They checked out the course's near perfect conditions with temperatures near 60 degrees. Coach John Sipple ran with Dylan Jacobs as we were evaluating his progress in hopes that he would be ready for the National Championships in December. Everybody was loose and ready to go for the Sunday race. We finished the evening with a nice pasta meal in town and then picked up our racing bibs and tags at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The highlight of the evening was the boys posing for pictures and chatting it up with Nike Bowerman Pro steeple chaser Colleen Quigley. Max was the ring leader as he has quite a crush on the athlete/fashion model Quigley. Much to the delight of Max and the entire team, Miss Quigley seemed to pop up all over the place for the next two days alongside Sandburg’s busy itinerary on Saturday and Sunday. To finish off the evening, we had a team meeting to talk strategy and hand out the bibs and tags for the Sunday race. A good night’s sleep was had by all in preparation for a chance to return to Portland, Oregon.
The Championship race was next at 2:00 pm. The team was instructed to get out near the front of the race, but tone down the first ½ mile split compared to the start they had in Peoria the week before. Unlike Detweiller, where the sharp hairpin turn comes quickly after 400 meters, LaVern Gibson starts off in a wide and majestic 1,200 meter straight which allows plenty of time to get into position and make subtle adjustments to the pace. The Eagles did a nice job getting out to the front of the race by positioning the entire pack in the top 50 runners. Sean Torpy ran right with the elites as they turned for the long back stretch toward the mile mark. Chris Torpy and Max Lehnhardt established themselves in the top 35 runners. It was no surprise to see Brandon Lukas go out well as he has been one of Sandburg’s best post season runners over the last two seasons. Brandon moved up right with the lead pack after the mile mark and really looked comfortable doing it. It reckoned back to the week before at the State Meet when he took the reins coming up the hill just after the half mile mark. Brandon is thinking like an elite runner right now and it is awesome. At about the halfway point of the race it was sort of a mixed bag of races going on for the Eagles. Sean was in about 10th and working hard to keep contact with the lead pack as they were slipping ahead a bit. Brandon was slowing just a bit near 20th or so. Chris and Max were working super hard to maintain positions in the high 30’s and lower 40’s. Our top 4 were getting the job done! It was mentioned that no team had ever lost a Midwest Regional by putting their 5th man in the top 50. We had 4 men secured. It was number 5 on this day that was a question mark. Martin Skucas and David Gleisner were laboring a bit back in the low 100’s, and Tommy Brennan, after a good start, was really feeling the effects of the layoff that he had from his hamstring injury. He was not having any fun that was for sure. But by the 2 mile mark, you could see the determination begin to pay off as he finally started moving forward and picking guys off slowly, one at a time. By the 3 mile mark, he had begun his desperate kick, passing David and Martin.
Sean came around the last turn in about ninth place and decided it was time to go. He put on a tremendous finishing kick, even though he had been working about as hard as he could the entire race. He began picking off some of the nation’s finest runners and made his way all the way to third place only about 5 seconds behind the two leaders, Illinois state champion Jonathon Davis, and Indiana State Champion Ben Veatch, and he was gaining. But in the last 100 meters, Charlie Kern Jr. dragged a pack of runners, all desperately vying for that 5th coveted Individual qualifying spot for NXN Nationals, past Sean as his legs nearly gave out from the herculean effort. He finished an amazing race in 6th place coming across the finish line in 15:11. His legs were so spent that he nearly collapsed 5 meters from the finish, but managed to weave across in one of the finest races of his career. Then it was Chris Torpy’s time to shine. In the last ½ mile, Chris was running somewhere around 35th to 40th when he began a furious surge to the finish line. There is no doubt that he picked off at least 10 runners in the last straight as he worked his way up to 26th place with a fine time of 15:40. Another amazing effort was turned in by Brandon Lukas. Running in the top 15 for nearly 2 miles, Brandon battled and fought and scrapped until the very end finishing with nothing left in the tank in an impressive 15:46 good for 38th place. To sum up his race, you need to go no further than looking at the quality of runners that surrounded him. Not only his Illinois All-state teammates, Chris Torpy and Max Lehnhardt, but how about the likes of Vince Zona (6th in Illinois), Alec Danner (19th in Illinois), Jake McEneaney, Connor Madell and even finished ahead of Illinois 3A champion Kevin Salvano. Brandon has proved once again that he is up for the test when the post season pressure is on the line. He came through for the team in a huge way against some huge competition. Following closely behind Brandon in 47th place was the heart of the Sandburg squad, Max Lehnhardt. Max was a grinder this day, battling his way from beginning to end with the respect he deserves from a great season which saw him regularly be in the mix among the top runners in the State of Illinois and now among the Midwest’s finest. He finished strong in 15:50 refusing to yield any ground in the last 400 that may put the team in jeopardy. So with our first four in, scoring only 62 points, the challenge was finding the uncharacteristically elusive 5th man. The team split was already a little high at 39 seconds 1-4. To avoid disaster, someone was going to have to step up at the end of the race.
That man would be Tommy Brennan. No, he did not run a great race. In fact, he would tell you he ran a terrible race! But what he did was persevere. He could have written it off after 2 miles, but that is not what any of these Eagles would do. He made a steady and painful push to the finish in the last ½ mile, passing at least 20 competitors. Did he win the race for the Eagles? Maybe. Did Sean Torpy’s low stick win it for the Eagles? Maybe. How about Chris Torpy’s drive to the finish? Maybe that did it. All three efforts could have been worth around 20 points. And Brandon and Max were steady and stellar. This was your number one team in the nation doing whatever it took to get things done.