The Sandburg boys cross country team had qualified for the State Meet every year since 2003 - the entirety of Coach O'Malley's career. That string has included two state championships and eleven Top 10 finishes. Of course, we've had a few close calls at Sectionals, but we've always been able to pull through.
The COVID pandemic had impacted most every team in the State. Numbers were down significantly for a couple of consecutive classes. In 2021 we were able to manage well enough with the smaller numbers and kept everyone healthy and injury free. 2022 proved to be an even bigger challenge. With a grand total of 5 seniors and 3 juniors on this year's team, that task got even harder. In the end, we battled numerous respiratory illnesses and health issues that impacted our top runners near the end of the season. The Sectional squad of Grant Giblin (10th at Waubonsie Valley), Trent Anderson (22nd), Ibrahim Tineh (63rd), Evan Deimling (65th), Luke Atzman (77th), Mateo Ramiro Garcia (113th) and Jackson Canellis (121st) gave it their all, but came up just short - 30 points out of the last qualifying spot. The WV Sectional teams in front of us ended up finishing 2 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 12 - 16 - 20 at the State Meet.
Of course, Grant and Trent had run fast enough to make it to State as individuals. So we spent the week re-grouping and throwing the support of the entire team behind these two. The goal now was to end up with two All-State runners.
Saturday morning we loaded the team into two vans and departed for Detweiller Park in Peoria. The weather forecast had predicted cold, wet and windy - and that's exactly what we got for the drive. Grant and Trent didn't seem to be bothered - they were calm and confident. Upon arriving at the park, we got our tent set up very efficiently and the guys relaxed before starting their warmup routine. Fortunately for our guys, the rain had stopped by the time we arrived. But it was still very windy and the course was a muddy mess. Based on the results from the earlier races, times were going to be slow today. It would just come down to pure racing.
Without a full team to worry about, the stress level of the coaching staff was also somewhat lower than normal. We only had two runners to focus on and both of them were experienced at the State level. At the start, both Grant and Trent executed the race plan perfectly. Grant passed the mile marker in 14th place (4:54) with Trent right behind in 18th (4:55). Both looked very comfortable. Back in the North loop, Grant had moved up to 9th (7:24) at the halfway point and Trent was holding steady in 17th place (7:26). Churning thru the mud to the 2nd mile, Grant was holding on to 12th (10:01) and Trent was just behind in 15th place (10:05). Over the last mile, they both showed their determination and as they made their way thru the final S-curve and up the finishing straight, Grant was hammering past other runners and smoked the last mile in 5:02 to finish in 6th place overall (15:03). Trent battled the whole way home with a final mile of 5:13 and grabbed 17th place in 15:18.
1st - Tom Graves - 1976
1st - Tom Graves - 1977
1st - Lukas Verzbicas - 2009
1st - Lukas Verzbicas - 2010
3rd - Tom Graves - 1975
3rd - Sean Torpy - 2015
3rd - Dylan Jacobs - 2016
5th - Declan Tunney - 2021
6th - Dylan Jacobs - 2017
6th - Grant Giblin - 2022
7th - Zach Dahleen - 2008
9th - Will Giblin - 2019
The future is certainly bright for the Sandburg Eagles. We'll have the number 2 returner back next year and our freshmen and sophomore groups showed a lot of improvement and potential. I know they are ready to work hard to get back to where they belong. It's on to track season now, but next November will be here sooner than we think!