The Giants knew that it would be a tough battle against a Niles North team that has been running really well recently.   The quad meet hosted by Maine West went out strong with a lead pack of 6 Niles North runners, 5 from Highland Park, and 1 from GBN.   It was Highland Park senior Emmett Smith that took on the chore of leading past the first mile.   Two of the Niles North runners started to fall off the back of the pack and another Highland Park senior, Luke Nudelman, took the lead to keep the pace moving.   The 5th man for Niles North was able to work his way back into the pack coming near the 2 mile when NN senior Micah Beller and HP senior Jonah Hanig took off.  This stretched the pack out as Beller won the meet in 15:11 with Hanig not far behind in 15:16.   HP junior Angel Estrada was able to outkick the NN number 2 runner to finish in 3rd with a time of 15:27.   NN took the next 2 places but were followed closely by HP's next 3 runners (Smith 15:34, sophomore Ben Casey 15:35, and Nudelman 15:35).    The team had a 1-5 gap of only 19 seconds!    This superb display of pack running allowed Highland Park to win the meet against all 3 of their opponents.   HP had a close race with Niles North and were able to put 5 in front of both GBN's and MW's teams:  

HP 26-NN 29, HP 15-GBN 40, HP 15-MW 48

If the varsity can continue to race like this the rest of the season, Highland Park Cross Country history will be made!  They know they must continue to train hard and take care of all the details to remain healthy and running well!!

In the frosh-soph 2.15 mile race, Highland Park once again ran only freshmen.   They did well and were led by Brett Davidson (6th, 12:30).  Following Davidson was Joe Pinsky (8th, 12:46), Daniel Arias (10th, 12:54), Jason Fox (21st, 13:46), Michael Salgado (29th, 14:24), and Max Thompson (48th, 15:45).