Laurie, Reyes, and Glazier Earn Medals At First To The Finish Invite

The Peoria First To The Finish Invite was another great challenge for the team. The varsity race had numerous state ranked teams and top individuals. The Giants looked to get out well and see how they measured up against the competition.

The team’s top four wanted to go through the mile around 4:50. Senior Alec Glazier went through in 4:48 with junior Jose Reyes at 4:50, senior Fitz Laurie 4:51, and senior Nate Amster 4:55. In the back loop, Laurie pushed the pace with Reyes and Glazier close behind while Amster was several seconds behind them. Laurie continued to run strong the final mile as he finished in a personal best 15:27.5 to take 33rd place. Reyes was next in with his best time on the Detweiller Park course taking 37th in 15:32.9. Glazier also ran a personal best to take 41st in 15:36.6. The top 3 HP runners each earned medals. Amster was not able to hold his pace this day, but still ran 15:59.6. These four hard working runners will need to lead the way in training and races for the team to reach their goals the remainder of the season.  

After the top 4 the next HP finisher was junior Richard Heller with a solid 17:52.7. The team had two freshmen in the varsity race and they both had great races. Erik Anderson finished in an impressive 17:56.3 while Jason Polydoris ran a gutsy 18:17.5. These two freshmen have tremendous futures ahead of them as HP distance runners if they continue to work hard. Recent graduate Brett Davidson ran 18:23 at this meet as a freshmen and then went on to run 14:39.95 his senior year at the State Meet. We can only imagine what Anderson and Polydoris can become if they are as relentless as Davidson was in the pursuit of excellence. The two freshmen were followed by Jack Casey who despite a hamstring injury battled tough to finish in 18:40.8. Senior Alex Frank ran 18:52.7 and sophomore Ryan Rosenfeld was 19:04.1. The team finished 16th of 49 teams.

The open race was filled with outstanding performances by the HP runners! The team was led by junior Sam Lothan who was running in his first cross country race. He had a great sprint finish to run 18:39.7. Next in was freshmen Max Friedman running an 18:54.8 and continuing to show tremendous improvement since he started training this summer.

Sophomore Jake Margolick was a few seconds behind Friedman in 18:58.1. Freshmen Evan Diethrich had a breakthrough race as he ran 18:59.6! He ran 6:19.6 per mile which is faster than what he ran for his first timed mile in mid August (6:20.5). After running 19:44.9 at the Hinsdale Invite, junior Ben Gordon ran a 19:05.9 in Peoria. The next four finishers for the Giants were a pack of freshmen: Nathan Kornberg (19:37.9), Jason Werneth (19:44.8), Levi Pasikov (19:59.2), and Jack Levine (20:01.3). Each of these freshmen have shown great improvement due to the commitment they have had this season. The next HP finisher was sophomore John-Henry Ohlwein who ran 21:48.5 last year at this meet and improved to 20:02.6 this year. Junior Andrew Biondi showed his toughness as he lost one of his shoes at the start of the race and still completed the race in 20:17 with only one shoe! Three more freshmen, Ari Kaden, Albert Klayman and Chance Martin, ran well together as they finished in 20:32.6, 20:32.9, and 20:33.6. Not far behind this pack was freshmen Mason Goldstein running a strong 20:42.8. Freshmen Max Laky ran 22:05.7 which was a big improvement from the 23:15 three mile race he ran at the EIU Showdown. Junior Jack Gonzalez had a strong race to finish in 22:41.7. Freshmen Kevin Weinberg (25:23.1) and sophomore Haiven Garcia (25:25.0) each ran 3 mile personal bests and averaged faster per mile in this race then their first timed miles this season.

This Open race was a wonderful display of what hard work over time can produce. The team was buzzing about how well all of the freshmen raced and what the possibilities could be for their future as distance runners if they are willing to be ALL IN these next four years. The entire team has a great deal of work to put in as they try to attain the many challenging goals they have set for themselves.

First To The Finish 3A Video Highlights

Interview with First To The Finish 3A Individual Champion Danny Kilrea of Lyons