The boys have been training through the summer and are looking strong. With 5 runners returning from last year's State Meet (senior Greg Burzinski and juniors Tom Brennan, Sean Torpy, Chris Torpy and Dan Laskero) the expectations are very high for this team. Also expected to be major contributors this year are seniors Brady Walter, Mike Brower, Matt Benz-Weeden & Brian McMahon, juniors Max Lehnhardt, David Gleisner, Brandon Lukas & Anthony Lifonti, sophomores Martin Skucas & Alex Szymanski and freshman Dylan Jacobs.
This past week we got a couple of opportunities to see how far the team has progressed.
On a scorchingly hot & humid Saturday morning, the Sandburg Eagles kicked off the season with their annual Color Wars Time Trial. Greg Burzinski took the race out hard, with the rest of the team giving chase. Around the lake at Turtlehead, Sean Torpy was able to work his way past Greg in the last mile - bringing home the win in 15:37. Burzinski followed in 15:49, with Tom Brennan (15:55), Chris Torpy (16:03), Brandon Lukas (16:13), Martin Skucas (16:14) and Max Lehnhardt (16:25) rounding out the top 7. Dylan Jacobs was the top freshman, finishing 11th overall with a time of 17:32.
Complete results of the time trial are here:
http://sandburgrunners.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/6/5/17655745/time_trial_results_-_8-23-14.pdf
On Tuesday, the team travelled to Channahon Community Park for the 2014 SWSC Pre-Conference meet. In the Frosh/Soph race, freshman Dylan Jacobs showed that he's going to be a future stud, finishing second overall with a time of 17:06. Sophomore Alex Szymanski ran very well too, grabbing 5th place in 17:31. Another soph, Alejandro Claure showed that he is ready to make a big jump this year, finishing 10th in 18:10. Fellow sophomores, Josh Nolan (18:27 for 14th place) and Danny Papan (18:45 for 17th place) closed out the scoring. Freshman Nick Gonsch came thru as the Eagles 6th man - finishing 23rd in 19:06, with soph Ben Cachares right behind in 24th with a time of 19:08. Overall, the Eagles Frosh/Soph team wrapped up first place with 48 points over Lockport's total of 86 points.
In the Varsity race, Greg Burzinski led the way with a 4th place finish in 15:55. Next up was Sean Torpy in 5th place with a time of 16:05. Close behind came Max Lehnhardt (16:18 in 7th place), Chris Torpy (16:19 in 8th place), Tom Brennan (16:21 in 10th place) and Martin Skucas (16:22 in 12th place). Brandon Lukas came thru in 16th place in a time of 16:48. With a very impressive 27 second split from 1 to 6, the Varsity Eagles were able to post a victory over a strong Lincoln Way Central squad 34 to 39. All in all, a very promising start for the Sandburg harriers.
Here are all the results from the SWSC Pre-Conference meet:
http://sandburgrunners.weebly.com/2014-cross-country-results.html
Next up for the Eagles will be the Lions Pride Invitational at Lyons Township High School on Saturday, September 6th.