EIU Showdown

The EIU Showdown consists of schools that have at least one coach on their staff that competed in cross country and track & field at Eastern Illinois University. That is where Coach Buti went to school and ran. The meet is always very competitive with some really strong programs participating. This year Illinois’ #1 ranked team Downers Grove North and #11 ranked team Plainfield North were great early season tests for the Giants.

The team did not have everyone competing on this day, but those that did took some risks and had several strong performances. The varsity race saw three of our top runners move to the front of the pack early. Senior Nate Amster, junior Jose Reyes, and senior Alec Glazier battled well through the mile and tried to stick with the top runners. As the race progressed Amster and Reyes were running strong in the chase pack as the top 3 began to pull away. Reyes had a strong final mile to finish in 8th place at 15:49 for the 3 mile race. Amster faded a bit in the final mile, but still had a nice showing with a 10th place finish in 16:02. Glazier also had a solid race with a 16:16 for 13th place. Junior Sebastian Arias took an early risk as he tried to stay close to the team’s top three. He was not able to hold on as close as he would like to yet, but he ran tough for a 17:36. Junior Richard Heller also had a nice first race of the season with an 18:02.

In the frosh-soph race, HP had another small crew competing. The highlight was having a nice pack of three freshmen really working well together throughout the race and finishing close together. The pack consisted of Nathan Kornberg (21:45), Levi Pasikov (21:54), and Ari Kaden (21:59). They performed well and will only get faster as they continue to work hard (along with the rest of their freshmen teammates).

The hope is that a majority of the team will be racing at the next meet! The coaches are excited for the rest of the season as the team continues to train and work together to improve. They have big goals to accomplish and if they are committed to doing what it takes to reach those goals, then this could be a very special season for the Giants!