On Saturday, November 7th, one big dream became reality. State Champs!
It doesn't get much better than that.
For our incredible senior runners, this dream began with a nice group of incoming freshmen in 2012. While showing some promise as young runners, these guys were beaten badly by a very talented Lincoln-Way Central frosh-soph team in their first race. But they didn't give up. Instead they worked together as a team to improve in any and every way possible. They paid attention to all the details - the big ones, like the workouts & nutrition & sleep, as well as the small ones, like washing your hands and staying hydrated. And as a team, they learned to trust each other and they set some huge goals. They dared to dream BIG!
You can read more about their 4-year journey in my earlier blog here.
By the time they reached Detweiller Park for this year's State Meet, this team had already accomplished so many things. As a freshman, Tommy Brennan ran on the 2012 State team that finished 11th. In 2013, he was joined by Sean Torpy, Chris Torpy and Dan Laskero and the team moved up to 7th at the State Meet. Of course, last year Martin Skucas, Max Lehnhardt and Brandon Lukas earned their spots along side Brennan, Torpy & Torpy for a State team that fell just short - finishing with the second place trophy. They would go on to win the Nike NXN Midwest regional and finish 15th at the Nike NXN Finals in Portland.
With the pressure on, the team responded by running the table leading up to State, winning every Varsity Invite - including two in one weekend where they split their squad. Along the way, they worked their way up to number one in the nation for both DyeStat and MileSplit. They had a huge target on their backs, but didn't flinch. After two big 2015 invites at Detweiller Park, eight Sandburg Eagles had run sub-14:55 on the State course.
But few things go completely according to plan. So when Tommy Brennan strained his hamstring before the conference meet, the team faced its first true adversity. Racing without Tommy, the team dominated the conference race, picking up their injured teammate by running 1 thru 7 to score a perfect 15 points. By Sectionals, Brennan was back running, trying to shake off the rust of being out for 12 days. Unfortunately, Martin Skucas developed an illness during Sectionals week and was far less than 100% during a cold and rainy race at the Hinsdale Sectional. And then during the race, disaster hit as our number two runner, super-soph Dylan Jacobs, strained his hamstring and struggled to the finish. But once again, the team rallied in difficult conditions to win the Sectional with Tommy Brennan gutting it out as our 5th man to secure the victory.
We had driven down to Detweiller on Friday to pickup our race packet and give the guys a chance to check out our starting box. For the third year in a row, we had been assigned the "dreaded inside box" - this time box number 4. We wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable with our game plan for the start of the race. Then we returned to Orland Park to let the boys sleep in their own homes Friday night.
On Saturday, we loaded up the bus at Sandburg and hit the road at about 8 am. Typically, I'm not very nervous about these races. Yes, I'm very competitive and love to win, but I've been to a lot of State Meets (my first was Tom Graves' senior year victory in 1977) and don't get too worked up beforehand. But this one was different. This is such an incredible group of seniors. Not only are they talented and hard-working, but they are just genuinely great kids. They've been so much fun to be around for 4 years. And not one of them is in this for themselves - it's all about the team.
If any group "deserved" to win, it was these guys. And here we were, down to their last chance. Things had gone along so smoothly this season that I was extremely confident that we were unstoppable - at least when we were at full strength. But now we had two injured runners and one with an illness. Dylan Jacobs was officially out, so we'd lost our number two runner. Without him, the margin of error had shrunk. I didn't want to see this unravel, so I was definitely more nervous than usual.
Given the aggressive nature of our team, the only strategy that made any sense for our Box 4 start was to get out hard and get to the front by the turn. The guys executed this to perfection, rounding the turn in the lead and blowing thru the first 800 in 2:10/2:11 with Brandon Lukas leading the charge.
At the mile, things were looking very good. Sean Torpy led the way in 2nd place in a quick 4:40, with Max Lehnhardt (4:41) in 12th, Brandon Lukas (4:41) in 13th and Chris Torpy (4:42) in 14th - that's four Eagles in the top 14! Martin Skucas (4:44) in 31st and Tommy Brennan (4:45) in 34th were not far behind. Danny Laskero was out slower in 4:52. At this point, Sandburg led with 55 points, followed by Lyons Township with 86 and Hinsdale Central at 156.
By the time they hit the 2 mile mark, the early aggressive pace was beginning to show. S. Torpy was still looking good in 2nd place (4:57 2nd mile), but the other six runners had all dropped back. M. Lehnhardt was now in 15th place after a 5:00 second mile, while C. Torpy held on to 21st (5:02 2nd mile). B. Lukas had dropped off to 32nd with a 5:04 mile and T. Brennan (49th on a 5:11 mile) had moved past M. Skucas (58th in 5:13). Danny Laskero was now in 87th place. Although they were sliding down, Sandburg still held the lead at 2 miles with 94 points. Lyons now had 123, with Neuqua Valley up to 3rd with 160 points.
The questions now was - could they hold on to that lead, or had the early pace taken a toll that would make them pay over the last mile. A year ago, these guys couldn't close the deal and let someone slid into their seat. Would it happen again? Or would they be bold enough to take it back?
By the time they came around to my spot at the top of the course at the South end, things had started to stabilize. They weren't fading anymore. They weren't giving anything away. Sean Torpy was leading a pack of 7 trying to chase down Kevin Salvano. And our next four guys were all moving up over the last mile. Clearly, these guys were determined to win this thing. Nobody was going to deny them their goal.
Sean Torpy closed the last mile of his last State cross country meet in 4:47, finishing in 3rd behind Salvano and a hard-charging Charlie Kern Jr. His final time of 14:24.7 was a new PR, good for 3rd on the All-Time Sandburg list (click here) trailing only Eagle legends Lukas Verzbicas and Tom Graves.
Max Lehnhardt moved up two spots over the last mile (4:58) to finish as an All-Stater in 13th place with a time of 14:38.1. He just missed his PR which was set at PCI this year and ranks 7th All-Time. What a year for Max!
Chris Torpy used his strength to muscle past 5 runners in the last mile (4:59) to claim 16th place and the third Eagle All-Stater. His finishing time of 14:41.4 was a new PR and ranks 8th All-Time.
Brandon Lukas had to tough it out that last mile and moved up one spot to finish in 31st place. He also set a new PR in 14:53.9 and moved up to 19th on the All-Time list. He ran a bold race and dug deep to hold his spot.
As I watched Tommy Brennan cross the finish line in 38th place, I was pretty certain we had locked this thing up. Tommy had moved past 11 runners in the last mile (5:03). It was an incredible performance, coming only a couple of weeks after a serious injury. He's one tough runner and has been the heart & soul of this team for 4 years. His 14:57.2 finish time was not a PR in terms of time (his 14:45 at PCI is 10th best All-Time) , but it was easily his personal best race. I don't know how he did it, but I'm darn glad that he did!
The 5-man team time of 73:35 (14:42 average) is a new Sandburg record and now ranks 4th on the All-time list for State meet team times - trailing only the York teams from 1999, 2005 & 2006. Here's a link to that list - it's not updated with our 2015 time yet.
The awards stand presentation was great, with Coach O'Malley bringing his wife and two-month old son on stage. The team all presented their medals to their parents - thanking them for making this all possible. After all the pictures and congratulations, we still had to tear down the tents and pack everything away. By this time, the park was almost silent. The fans were gone - only a few Park District workers were left cleaning up the grounds. As we loaded the last items back on the bus, Craig Virgin stopped over to take a few pictures and congratulate the team on his way out of the park.
I think the first time is always the sweetest. I can't imagine that we will ever have another group like this one. They are some of the most dedicated and determined high school kids that I've every met. They have so much respect for the sport, as well as for each other. It's been a joy to be around them. I know they are all going to do some great things in life. This is one of those great things!