HP Team Competes at Richard Spring Invite

The Highland Park Boys Cross Country Team had many outstanding individual performances at the Richard Spring Invite in Peoria hosted by Peoria Notre Dame.   In the varsity race the team was able to finish a solid 15th place out of 63 teams, but they realize that our top two runners need more help if the TEAM is going to make the trip back to Detweiller in November.   The frosh soph had a nice team race with a top five gap of 60 seconds.   Everyone on the team knows they need to improve and they are all confident that they will as they continue to follow the training progressions and take care of ALL of the details.

Senior Angel Estrada felt like he had a sub-par race as he finished in 11th place.   Despite running 14:51 (the 6th fastest time ever on this course by an HP runner and the fastest non State Meet time), Estrada felt he could have raced better.   He knows that he will do that when racing on Detweiller in November.  Junior Ben Casey had the race of his life running a 22 second PR to finish in 17th place with a time of 15:02!   That time ties Casey for the fastest time ever run on this course by an HP junior (Estrada at the State Meet last year)!  With this kind of 1-2 punch the team can do some major damage at all of the big meets the rest of the season.   These two superb runners must make sure to stay focused on their goals while taking care of all of the details that will keep them healthy and running their best at the end of October and the beginning of November!

The team's third runner was once again sophomore Brett Davidson (16:05).    He continues to improve each race but is not yet satisfied with the times he his running.   He knows he has to be well under 16 minutes by the end of the season.  He has the confidence, work ethic, and toughness to get there.   The next two finishers for the Giants came to the line passing people as one was on the left and the other on the right of a pack of runners.  Seniors Griffin Bojan and Jeremy Bloom finished with the same time and a PR for both of 16:24.   It was a cool sight to see at the finish, but they know they are still too far back from Davidson.  These two, along with the rest of the HP guys behind them in the varsity race got out too slow in the first mile.   Senior James Rector was the team's next finisher in 16:52 as he continues to make progress in his comeback from illness.   After that was a pack of four runners that finished within 7 seconds of each other (junior Dylan Kahn 17:08, junior Evan Lissoos 17:09, sophomore Joe Pinsky 17:12, and junior Kevin Merkel 17:15).   Each of them running lifetime PR's, but still knowing the team needs more from them.

In the frosh-soph race the Giants had many breakthrough performances and huge 3 mile PR's!   The team was led by freshmen Jonathan Rosenfeld running an outstanding time of 17:21!   We can't think of too many freshmen that have been able to run faster at this point of the season.   The future looks bright for this tough and hard working young man.  Not too far behind him were two more all-time great freshmen in the brothers Matthew Drummond (17:35) and Josh Drummond (17:36).   Just three seconds back, running his best race, was sophomore Daniel Arias in 17:39.   Rounding out the top five for HP in the frosh-soph race was freshmen David Heller.   He had a huge breakthrough race as he went through the first mile in a big PR of 5:39 and finished in his best time by a large margin with an 18:21.   Also racing in the frosh-soph and running some good times were freshmen Juan Estela 19:28, sophomore Jason Fox 19:29, and freshmen Matthew Casey 19:30, Ian Goldberg 19:36, and Hayden Schott 20:12.

The open race included many lifetime best 3 mile times for the Giants!   Check out the splits and you will see the number of guys that have improved throughout this season; some by tremendous amounts of time.  

The team has a big week of training ahead of them and need to focus on the details and not only train hard, but also train smart!