For this trip to Peoria, it was a "varsity-only" event. 1A/2A Girls, 1A/2A Boys, 3A Girls and finally, 3A Boys. So we had our 7 varsity runners ready to compete.
I arrived early enough to watch the 1A/2A boys race, which includes several very talented runners. Dylon Nalley from Marion High school had run 14:00 at Peoria Notre Dame two weeks earlier and had made the decision to race here again to take a shot at the State record (Josh Methner - 13:49) and/or the Peoria Central meet record (Dylan Jacobs - 13:57). As it turned out, the course was a bit soft from some recent rain and Nalley had to settle for a slower time of 14:17.
To compound the situation, the final race of the day was going off at 11:15 am. Whereas the temperature for the first race was in the 60's, by the time the 3A Boys raced it was now almost 80 degrees and humid. So we knew you had to throw the times out the window and just go and compete.
Although this is a little smaller meet than PND, there were still a bunch of quality teams. Per Mike Newman's rankings, we had #7 New Trier, #11 Fremd, #12 St. Charles East, #17 West Aurora, #20 Jacobs, as well as 2A #9 Morton (from downstate). He had the Eagles at #22nd. There were a total of 44 full teams competing in the 3A Boys race.
We were starting out of box 44 - nearly the farthest to the right / East end of the start line. The boys got out pretty well and put themselves in good position thru the 800. At the mile mark, Grant Giblin was leading the Eagle charge in 16th place in 4:51. Luke Atzman followed in 4:54 (25th) with freshman Brayden Gaffud and sophomore Mateo Ramiro-Garcia both at 5:00 (39th place). Jack Easterhouse was holding his own at 5:09 (89th place) and Jackson Canellis and Myles Jacquez were together at 5:17 (135th place). At that point, the Eagles squad was in 4th place overall.
Over the final mile, we faded a bit - still need to work on that finish! Grant crossed the line in 15:19, good for 16th place. Luke closed in 15:38 and 30th place overall. Brayden was right behind in 15:45 (35th) with Mateo at 15:52 (45th). Jack completed the scoring as the 5th man in 90th place (16:19). Sophomores Jackson Canellis (16:50 / 131st place) and Myles Jacquez (16:51 / 135th place) completed the day for the Eagles.
The final results showed the team in 4th place - two points out of 3rd.
New Trier - 83
Fremd - 138
St. Charles East - 211
Sandburg - 213
Morton (2A) - 239
As far as that goal of closing those gaps, it was an overall success on the day for the Eagles. Luke went from 27 seconds behind Grant at PND to 19 seconds behind. Brayden went from 27 to 26, Mateo from 37 to 33 and Jack made huge progress - cutting that gap from 75 seconds to 60 seconds.
We've got the next weekend off - working hard in training - and then we move on to the championship season with Conference, Regionals, Sectionals and State over the following four weeks. It's going to be exciting!
Full Varsity Results