HP Finishes 2nd At EIU Showdown

The 2016 cross country season began with the EIU Showdown.  The Giants were hoping to get the season off to a strong start.  In the varsity race HP got out well early and had 6 guys within 8 seconds at the mile.  That pack was led by junior Fitz Laurie, sophomore Jose Reyes, and senior Jonathan Rosenfeld.

By the 2 mile the team still had 5 guys within 15 seconds with senior Charlie Skurie and junior Alec Glazier trying to hang on to our top 3.

Coming into finish, Rosenfeld outkicked a runner from Downers Grove North to take 9th in 16:36.  Right behind him were Reyes and Laurie finishing with the same time (16:39)  in 11th and 12th.

Skurie was the next finisher for HP, taking 14th (16:51), while Glazier rounded out the top five for the team with an 18th place finish (17:14).  Only 6 others competed in the varsity race at this meet: seniors Ben Bloom (29th, 17:45), Hayden Schott (35th, 18:19), Juan Estela (38th, 18:30), junior Sebastian Arias (43rd, 18:46), and seniors Josh Drummond (54th, 19:42) and Ethan Small (71st, 21:07).  

The team finished in 2nd place behind a very strong DGN team and beat Shepard on a 6th man tie breaker.   The varsity knows that they have much work to do if they are going to reach their goals, but they were able to take some positives to build on from this meet.  

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

HP only raced three guys in the frosh-soph race.  They were led by sophomore Jordy Mazza as he took 9th place in 18:58.  This is Mazza’s first year running cross country and he raced with tremendous toughness in his first ever high school cross country meet.  Freshmen Jake Margolick also ran well in his first race taking 34th in 20:34.  Sophomore Jack Schulman battled through hip pain to take 37th in 20:46.   The coaches are excited to see what the freshmen and sophomores can do once they all are healthy and have been training enough to race together.