HP Varsity Takes 2nd At Libertyville Invite

The Highland Park Boys Cross Country Team came into the Libertyville Invite with the hopes of continued momentum after the strong showing at the First To The Finish Invite in Peoria last weekend.   The Giants top 3 runners continued to show their physical and mental toughness as they raced head to head with top runners from a very good Prospect team.  Senior Jonah Hanig was with the leaders the entire race and with 600 meters to go made a move to try to win the race.   Quentin Shaffer of Prospect responded to that move and was able to get the win with a time of 15:25.28 and Hanig coming in at 15:29.27 for 2nd.  Junior Angel Estrada and senior Emmett Smith got out into good position off of the races slow start and raced tough all the way to the finish.   With 2 Prospect runners close behind them with 400 to go, Estrada and Smith closed well to finish in 5th (15:52.78) and 7th (15:56.84), ahead of the Prospect runners.  HP's 4th and 5th runners, sophomore Ben Casey and senior Luke Nudelman, did not get out in the first mile like they needed to in a race like this on a challenging course.   Casey was able to close well enough to finish in 18th (16:38.44) just ahead of Propect's 5th runner, but well behind their 4th runner.   Nudelman continues to work his way back into racing shape after being injured, but struggled this meet in the final mile and especially the final 400 to finish in 28th (16:50.38), 4 places ahead of Propect's 6th man.  Prospect won the meet by 7 points over HP.  The team knows that if they race like this at Sectionals, the Giants will not be going to State as a team.    It is still fairly early in the season and the coaches know that the team will continue to improve and be ready when it counts in late October and early November!  This is the time of the season when teams go through a gut check and really need to step up their training and test their limits in races.   

In the Frosh-Soph race, Highland Park finished in 7th place.   They were led by sophomore Brady McDougall who had a strong race finishing in 26th place at 17:44.45.   The rest of the scorers for the F/S squad were sophomores Kevin Merkel (31st, 17:58.58), Dylan Kahn (33rd, 18:03.51), freshmen Brett Davidson (44th, 18:25.26), and Daniel Arias (57th, 18:50.89).

In the Open Race, Highland Park finished in 4th place led by junior James Rector in 16th place at 18:00.00.