HP Varsity Finishes 10th of 45 Teams at First to the Finish Invite

The Highland Park High School boys cross country team took their overnight trip to Peoria for the First to the Finish Invite. This huge and extremely competitive invite takes place at the famed Detweiller Park. It is the same course used for the IHSA State Meet in November.  Despite the heat this year at the meet, the Giants raced well and came home with many personal best performances. 

The first race of the day for the HP boys was the Open 3 mile race. This race consisted of 1,166 runners from 68 2A and 3A teams! The Giants had a pack of 4  leading the way for the team as they passed through the mile together at 5:45. This included Lowell Redmond (Jr.), Spencer Pedraza (Jr.), Quentin Kelley (Sr.), and Luke Byrnes (Sr.). Redmond pulled away a little in the second mile with the other 3 together just 6-7 seconds behind him. Redmond ended up running 18:32.90 with Pedraza having a strong kick to finish just behind him in 18:33.0. Pedraza was 1:41 faster than what he ran at this meet last year. Kelley crossed the line in 18:35.7 while Byrnes finished the race in 18:56.10. Byrnes finished 1:01 faster than last year at this race. All four ran their best times for 3 miles. 

Gabriel Jackson (So.) did not get out as well for the first 2 miles of the race as the HP lead pack, but he had the fastest final mile of all the Giants in the Open race (6:16). This included his usual strong final 400 to finish in a personal best of 19:15.4. Joaquin Martinez (So.) showed huge improvement from last year at this meet. He was 3:01 faster this year with a finish time of 19:31.0. 

Shea Jackson (Fr.) and Dylan Stiller (Jr.) both ran well and finished just 7 seconds apart. Jackson ran a personal best 20:05.3 while Stiller also ran his best 3 mile time with a 20:12.1. 

Giancarlo Aguirre (Fr.) was the next HP finisher. He ran a smart race with a solid first mile, gave back a little in the 2nd mile, and finished with a strong final mile to run a 21:35.1. The next Giant to cross the line was Charlie Szot (Fr.). He ran well in his first full 3 mile race of the season. He finished the race in 22:09.3. David Miller (Jr.) had a tough day on the course and finished in 22:12.1 and will look to bounce back at the next meet. Chase Temple (Fr.) raced well and improved his time from the first meet of 23:43 to run 22:29.3 in Peoria. The next 3 HP runners were freshmen and were all within 14 seconds of one another in their first 3 mile races. Theo Hanold led the pack with a solid 22:56.0. Danylo Mykolyshyn was next with a 23:05.3. Manuel Jauregui was just 5 seconds behind him in 23:10.1. The next HP finisher was Joey Naftzger (Jr.). He got out well in mile one, but faded a bit in the next 2 miles. He still hung on to run 1:07 faster than he did last season at this meet. Jace Bennett (Fr.) raced well as he finished the 3 mile race in 23:40.9. Liam Hsu (Fr.) and Joaquin Krueger (So.) stayed focused and battled the heat and the competition to finish in 26:17.9 and 26:51.1.  

The HP Open team finished in 22nd place out of 68 teams. The team had only  a :43 gap from between their 1-5 runners. The Giants produced many personal bests and had a bunch of the boys running in their first 3 mile race. Many things to be excited about from this meet and moving forward for this crew of hard working boys. 

The Varsity 3 mile race was one of the deepest First to the Finish Invites ever. There were 12 3A state ranked teams competing and numerous top ranked individuals. The Giants current top 3 of Dylan Domiguez (Sr.), Lucas Hoobler (Jr.), and Henry Gamson (Jr.) got out well in the first 400 but still had work to do to move up through the competition. Dominguez went through the mile in 4:52 with Hoobler and Gamson coming through in 5:02. Dominguez battled tough throughout the race and passed several runners through the final portion of the race. He ended up finishing in an impressive 17th place with a personal best time of 15:17.2. His time is the 12th fastest non-state meet time by an HP runner on the Detweiller Park course. It was the 7th fastest First to the Finish Invite time by an HP runner. Dominguez continues to put in the work to have a historic season for the Giants. Hoobler and Gamson worked together throughout the race as they have been doing at each meet. Despite losing a shoe in the final 400, Hoobler ran a personal best 15:33.4 to take 36th place. This was 1:12 faster than last year when he finished in 193rd place! Gamson also ran a big personal best with a finish time of 15:37.5 for 44th place. He was :52 faster than last year at this meet where he crossed the line in 159th place!  

The gap that the team continues to need to shrink down is that time to the next pack. Usiel Rodriguez (Sr.) continued to show his strength in the final mile as he was once again the team’s number 4 runner in 16:48.4. In the first 3 meets he went from 1:45 to 1:15 to 1:11 back of the HP number 3 runner. Truman Evans (Jr.) was the next Giant finisher as he raced to a personal best 17:05.8. Daniel Doyle (Jr.) stayed with Rodriguez and Evans until about 2 miles. He faded back a bit but still ran 17:27.4 which was 1:10 faster than last season at this meet. Theo Soifer (Fr.) stepped up as a freshman and continued to show he can handle the pressure of big meets. He raced to a personal best 17:38.7 to be the team’s 7th runner. He was 14th of the 42 freshmen in the varsity race. Logan Liu (Jr.) ran 18:11.7 which is faster than his first 3 mile race of the season at the EIU Showdown. Tristan Perkes (Fr.) earned a varsity spot due to his race performance at Hinsdale. He took advantage of the opportunity and ran a personal best 19:00.3. Josh Brown (Jr.) continued to battle stomach issues and ran a hard fought 19:07.5.

The varsity ended up taking 10th place out of 45 teams. The team is still without Brian Hatoum (Sr.) due to a hip injury. Once he returns, the team will be significantly improved and will start to look to compete against the top teams at the big invites. Even without one of their top runners, the Giants had a strong showing and came away from this meet with a lot of positives. Now the team must stay focused on being FIERCE with every detail of their preparation.