This was a busy week for Neuqua Valley Track and Field. We started the week with the Mustang Relays at North Central College and then ended with our athletes competing in three different meets. 

The weekend started with Matt Appel (Jr.) competing in the Louis-Charles Throwastravaganza at Rolling Meadows High School. Some of the top throwers in the State were there to give their best in the Shot Put. On one his last throws, Matt posted up a mark of 55' 0.5", which broke the indoor school record. This record was one of the oldest on our books and was held by Babatunde "OJ" Oshinowo, who later go on to play in the NFL. Some of Matt's warm up throws show that he has even more distance to go during this indoor season. 

Next, on Saturday, nearly all of our team competed at York High School in their annual open meet.  As we near the end of the indoor season, it is encouraging to announce that we achieved 103 personal bests, which are listed below. As athletes examine their performances, they should ask themselves if they are improving. If not, what can they change to help themselves improve? Everyone should ask themselves the following questions.

Am I taking care of the "little things" like sleep, nutrition and water intake? These things may seem little, but they are how you fuel your body and help yourself recover.
 
Am I working hard in practice? Could I push harder on quality days? If you want the body to respond, it needs to receive a manageable level of stress. Pushing yourself in practice will also help you learn how to push harder in meets. 

Am I working on the technical aspects of my event? Try to become a student of the sport. Resources are everywhere! Do you know the best people in the country or world in your event? Look it up and watch a video of them competing. You can learn from the best. 

Am I avoiding injury? If so, what steps can I take to help this process? You need to take ownership of your body and make sure it is functioning properly. 

PERSONAL BEST LIST FROM THE YORK MEET

55 Meter Dash
Jared Malcolm 7.21a   
Ryan Finneran 7.23a   
Aidan Byrnes 7.38a   
Tony Cai 7.48a   
Sathya Subramanian 7.59a   
Anvit Nidadavolu 8.11a   
Anthony Bates 8.78a   

200 Meters
Jonah Covarrubias 24.13a   
Max Mitchell 24.18a   
Patrick Hoffman 24.21a   
Aditya Sathyaprakash 24.38a   
Ryan Finneran 25.74a   
Ethan Thomas 25.95a   
Michael Grawe 25.99a   
Ethan Briones 26.09a   
Aidan Byrnes 26.13a   
Eugene Jang 26.39a   
Sathya Subramanian 26.53a   
Emiliano Vargas 26.62a   
Paul Lee 26.75a   
Fatehmaan Sidhu 26.76a   
Farouq Desmaratti 26.83a   
Chase Parkhurst 27.06a   
Jonathan Martinez 27.15a   
Tony Cai 27.16a   
Michael Lavelle 27.92a   
Ayush Ganju 28.04a   
Anvit Nidadavolu 28.91a   
Kevin Zeng 28.94a   
Angelo Lavacchi 29.02a   
Michael Toomey 29.12a   
Triston Price 30.40a   
Nicholas Shabaker 30.91a   
Anthony Bates 33.56a   
Hisham Alam 34.56a
   
400 Meters
Jonah Covarrubias 53.52a   
Max Mitchell 55.04a   
Ethan Briones 57.63a   
Ethan Thomas 58.10a   
Daniel Wu 59.57a   
Michael Lavelle 1:03.18a   
Chase Parkhurst 1:04.26a   
Joshua Slinkman 1:05.00a   
Michael Toomey 1:05.15a   
Emiliano Vargas 1:05.51a   
Angelo Lavacchi 1:05.58a   
Angad Agrawal 1:08.62a   

600 Meters
Patrick Kelly 1:50.73a   
Nicholas Shabaker 2:00.31a 
 
800 Meters 
William Fu 2:25.82a 
 
1600 Meters
Nicholas Drechsler 4:47.77a   
Quinn Kennedy 4:50.08a   
Noah Schalliol 4:51.19a   
Aidan Stone 4:53.18a   
Brian Jett 4:56.73a   
Austin Burke 5:06.01a   
Kyle Kretovic 5:12.62a   
Jacob Nauman 5:19.97a   
Ashwin Rajan 5:20.05a   
Andrew Gutierrez 5:20.21a   
Adam Johnson 5:21.26a   
Avik Vaish 5:22.51a   
Joseph Spencer 5:24.58a   
Aleksandras Majus 5:37.86a   
Josh Kubicki 5:38.81a   
Nick Rokosz 5:45.59a   
Ethan Smetana 5:49.54a   
Pranav Rajaraman 6:10.71a   
Prithvi Thakur 6:39.73a
   
3200 Meters
Spencer Teske 9:55.63a   
Michael O'Connor 10:17.82a   
Jordan Matthews 10:23.91a   
Ramsay Johnson 10:32.50a   
Luke Mennecke 10:32.55a   
Daniel Gutierrez 10:44.58a   
Erik Thompson 10:56.56a   
Sachin Fong 10:56.94a   
Josh Rodriguez 10:58.36a   
Kevin Saju 11:00.31a   
Liam Dorsey 11:02.57a   
Dominick Gramarosso 11:09.85a   
Ethan Lockwood 11:13.05a   
Jack Hastings 11:56.54a   
Jeffrey Heitman 12:07.89a   
Akshat Maheshwari 12:18.47a   
Henry Golden 12:32.36a   
Samuel Wrobel 12:36.66a   
Connor McConnell 12:42.45a
   
55m Hurdles - 39"  High Hurdles
Paul Lee 9.43a   
Enoch Kim 9.59a
   
Shot Put - 12lb
Jacob Remack 43-05.00   
Hunter Danton 43-01.50   
Martin Kiefer 33-05.00   
Alex Mattson 32-07.00   
Samuel Turner 28-03.00   
Matt Hassell 18-00.00 
  
Pole Vault
Goutham Baskaran 10-02.00
   
Long Jump
Jacob Guthrie 17-03.00   
Eugene Jang 16-00.00   
Joshua Slinkman 15-06.00   
Angad Agrawal 9-10.00   
​
Triple Jump
Ej Oketona 39-10.00   
Jacob Guthrie 37-01.00

Complete results can be found at the link below. 

 www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/366848/results 

Finally, we had one more meet with Neuqua Valley representation this weekend. Donovan Turner (Sr.) competed in the New Balance Indoor Nationals Meet at the Armory in New York City. Donovan was the only hurdler from Illinois to compete in the 60 m High Hurdles and broke the school record in the 55 m High Hurdles en route. (An en route record means that the result was recorded at 55 m even though the race was 60 m long. There were two FAT cameras to make this happen.) Donovan has rewritten our hurdles records several times over these past two years and it will be exciting to see which ones will fall next.  

As we look ahead to the DVC Conference Championships this Friday, we need to make sure that we are getting plenty of rest and are ready to compete the best of our ability as we end the indoor season! We hope to see everyone at North Central College this Friday! 

On Monday, our Varsity relays competed in Downers Grove South's Mustang Relays at North Central College. While everything did not go according to plan, all of our relays set season bests. 

In the 4 x 800 m, we tried an experiment and put Donovan Turner (Sr.) into his first 800 m based on his impressive performances in the 400 m and the 300 m Intermediate Hurdles. Running lead off, Donovan ran 2:07.3, which ranks well among our team this season so far. The baton next went to Michael O'Connor (Sr.), who pressed hard for the entire race and set a huge personal best of 2:01.3 for his split. It was clear that Michael was on a mission during his race. Spencer Teske (Sr.) charged through his leg to a 2:04.0 split, which is just under his season best split. Finally, Michael Madiol (Sr.) finished off the relay with a 2:02.1 which is another season best and brought the team to a 10th place finish in a time of 8:14.80. 

In the 4 x 200 m, the relay team of Jonah Covarrubias (Sr.), Kel Foley (Sr.), Aditya Sathyprakash (Sr.), and Donovan Turner (Sr.) ran 1:36.08, taking 12th place amid collisions, falls and congestion on the track. Donovan Tuner's anchor leg was the fastest indoor split in the 200 m that we have ever recorded and was so fast that we need to check the video to verify the result which was right around 22 seconds flat. 

Ending the evening was the 4 x 400 m, and the team of Kel Foley (Sr.), Jonoh Covarrubias (Sr.), Max Mitchell (Fr.) and Donovan Turner (Sr.) took 9th place in 3:32.54. Kel took took out the race hard and his 200 m split was nearly as fast as his 4 x 200 m split. Next, Jonah ran in lane 2 as he kept trying to pass people and would not give up the position. As a freshman, Max was running in his first serious Varsity race and he did not disappoint, putting up a 54.0 split. Donovan closed out the night with a strong 50.9 split, his fastest of the season so far. 

Complete results can be found at the link below. 

www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/351903/results

Look for Matt Appel to compete Friday night in the Rolling Meadows Throwastravaganza and our entire team on Saturday at York! 

Plainfield East Meet

Some meets are just about getting a chance to compete and our meet last Thursday at Plainfield East was just that. Our entire team was able to either try for a personal best, try a new event or get in a rough workout by competing in some challenging combinations. Meets like this do not really have a story, so we want to simply recognize those athletes that achieved a personal best at the meet. For some, this accomplishment might be the result of trying an event for the first time. Also, please remember that these marks are indoor personal bests and please let me know if see any mistakes or omissions. 

Complete results can be found at the link below. 

www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/367009/results

Personal Bests:

​55 Meter Dash
Max Mitchell 6.8h 
Aidan Byrnes 7.3h 
Enoch Kim 7.4h 
Tony Cai 7.4h 
Emiliano Vargas 7.5h 
 
200 Meters
Goutham Baskaran 24.5h 
Michael Grawe 26.2h 
Farouq Desmaratti 27.1h 
Nate Passaro 27.9h 
Arul Palaniappan 28.8h 
Elijah Hasan 29.0h 
Kevin Zeng 29.3h 
Michael Toomey 30.3h 
Angad Agrawal 30.4h 
Kabir Chawla 30.6h 
Nicholas Shabaker 30.9h 
William Yeh 31.4h 
Hisham Alam 35.3h 

400 Meters  
Kieran Tharbs 1:00.2h 
Fatehmaan Sidhu 1:01.5h 
Patrick Conniff 1:03.0h 
Michael Lavelle 1:04.2h 
Angelo Lavacchi 1:06.5h 
Emiliano Vargas 1:07.2h 
Arul Palaniappan 1:07.6h 
Michael Toomey 1:07.9h 
Triston Price 1:09.3h 
Angad Agrawal 1:10.2h 
 
800 Meters
Leif Anderson 2:13.0h 
Kyle Kretovic 2:17.0h 
Sachin Fong 2:21.0h 
Noah Schalliol 2:25.0h 
Ethan Thomas 2:26.0h 
Jake Klimek 2:30.0h 
Christian Allen 2:36.0h 
Patrick Kelly 2:42.0h 
Nicholas Shabaker 2:49.0h 
 
1600 Meters  
Sam Stuart 5:05.0h 
Ramsay Johnson 5:06.0h 
Sahil Yemul 5:07.0h 
William Fu 5:16.0h 
Liam Dorsey 5:16.0h 
Ethan Lockwood 5:20.0h 
Jack Hastings 5:23.0h 
Jeffrey Heitman 5:23.0h 
Connor McConnell 5:40.0h 
Wei Jiang 5:46.0h 
Samuel Wrobel 6:02.0h 
Arnav Shrivastava 6:34.0h
Prithvi Thakur 6:44.0h
 
3200 Meters
Austin Burke 10:54.0h 
Jordan Matthews 11:21.0h 
Daniel Gutierrez 11:23.0h 
Avik Vaish 11:32.0h 
Jacob Nauman 11:32.0h 
Adam Johnson 11:37.0h 
Andrew Gutierrez 11:57.0h 
Joseph Spencer 12:06.0h 
Ian Kim 12:10.0h 
Jacoub Letourneau 12:34.0h 
Josh Kubicki 12:46.0h 
Ethan Smetana 13:12.0h 
 
Shot Put
Elijah Darden 39-6 
Sam Jourdan 38-6 
Jake Dauod 38-1 
Martin Kiefer 33-3 
Alex Mattson 32-4 
Nick Noga 28-5
Samuel Turner 28-2 

Pole Vault 
Rahul Nair 10-7 
Paul Kiefer 9-7 
Jonathan Martinez 9-1 

Long Jump
Prakash Tata 17-7 
Ayush Ganju 16-5 
William Yeh 14-0 
 
Triple Jump 
Daniel Shin 35-2
Prakash Tata 34-4 
Ayush Ganju 32-6 

Windy City Pole Vault Summit

On Saturday, Alex Kiefer (Sr.) competed in Windy City Pole Vault Summit, which is an invitation only Pole Vault meet contested at Rolling Meadows High School. Against some of the best pole vaulters in the State, Alex took 6th place with a jump of 13' 9". Some of his early jumps had Alex well over the bar, showing what he is capable of achieving by the end of the season. 

Complete results from the meet can be found at the link below. 

www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/367339/results


This upcoming week is a busy one for us. We have the Mustang Relays on Monday Night at North Central College for our top Varsity relays, Matt Appel (Jr.) competing at Rolling Meadows in a Shot Put only meet on Friday and the entire team at York this Saturday. We hope to see everyone at all of these events! 

It has been nearly four years since Neuqua Valley competed at Batavia High School. When the school left the Upstate Eight Conference for the DuPage Valley Conference, we were leaving behind some years competing at Batavia for the indoor conference meet at a facility well known for its fast track and  field event areas. To find ourselves back in Batavia was a pleasant surprise to say the least. However, as we competed there on Friday night, the pleasant surprises kept happening. 

It started with the field events where Jared Malcolm (Sr.) returned to the team after a one year hiatus. When Jared was a sophomore, his best mark in the High Jump was 5' 7". Therefore, it was a little surprising when he decided to enter the event at 5' 6". Nine inches later, Jared would clear 6' 3" to win the event, set an 8 inch personal best and achieve a State Qualifying Mark. Another event victory would come from Alex Kiefer (Sr.) in the Pole Vault, where Alex cleared 13' 6" and was just shy of the 13' 8" State Qualifying Mark. The Triple Jump would see EJ Oketona (So.) and Abood Armouti (Jr.) take 3rd and 4th respectively with marks of 38' 4" and 38' 0". EJ and Abood would also put up solid 400 m relay splits later in the meet during the 4 x 400 m relay. Finishing off the field events was another event win with Matt Appel (Jr.) thowing 53' 7" in the Shot Put, which  betters the State Qualifying Mark of 52' 8". However, Matt scratched a huge throw that showed that his best marks are ahead of him. 

Moving to the track events, Michael Madiol (Sr.) took first place in the 3200 m with a time of 9:50.11, continuing the pattern that he set during the Cross Country season and showing that he has the range to run all of the distance events. He was followed by Vasant Fong (So.) and Aidan Stone (So.) placing 4th and 5th places with times of 10:15.47 and 10:20.31, which are both indoor personal bests for the 3200 m. After a long recovery from an injury, Aidan has shown that he is ready to race! 

The 55 m High Hurdles promised to be another fast time for Donovan Turner (Sr.) and he did not disappoint. Running 7.65 seconds, he broke the field house record and the school record in this event. The previous field house record was held by Sam Conger of Batavia, who just beat Donovan in the 110 m High Hurdles at the State Meet last season. Donovan would then run the next race, the 55 m dash, and take 3rd in a time of 6.83 seconds. Jonah Covarrubias (Sr.) took 6th in the 55 m with a mark of 6.90 seconds and Christian Allen (So.) took 7th in 6.92 seconds. Later in the meet, Donovan and Jonah would team up with Kel Foley (Sr.) in the fast heat of the 400 m where they would take the top 3 positions. Donovan was first in 52.67, Kel was second in 53.16 and Jonah was third in 53.79. These three athletes will be three legs of a fast 4 x 400 m in some upcoming meets! This trio would later run the 200 m with Donovan again taking first in 23.66, Kel taking 8th in 24.40 and Jonah taking 12th in 24.54. Many of these marks were indoor personal bests. 

Michael O'Connor (Sr.), fresh off of his Mr. NVHS win, took 5th in the 800 m with a time of 2:05.66. Jack Orengo (Sr.) took 7th in the same event with a time of 2:08.95, and both of these athletes put up indoor personal bests. Spencer Teske (Sr.) took 3rd in the 1600 m in an time of 4:34.91 and another indoor personal best. Jordan Matthews (Jr.) returned from a long injury to also record a personal best in a time of 4:48.93 in the 1600 m. 

Complete results from the meet can be found at the website below. Athletes should review their marks and see if they achieved a personal best and then figure out what changes they need to make to continue their improvement. 

www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/363980/results 

If you look closely at the names listed above, many of these athletes are seniors. We know that we have a strong senior class. However, we have a good number of inexperienced athletes that need guidance and leadership from these seniors as they try to grow and improve. Some people think that leaders are born, but I would disagree. It takes practice and commitment to be a leader and people can get better at it. As we move into the latter part of the indoor season, I want to challenge our seniors to step up their leadership role. This is their team and the leadership that they give will determine where we go from here. 

Our next meet will be at Plainfield East on Thursday! We hope to see everyone there! 

This past Saturday, our team returned to Homewood-Flossmoor High School for a great meet with Argo, Homewood-Flossmoor, Minooka, Neuqua Valley and Shepard. In the team competition, Homewood-Flossmoor took 1st with 116.5 points and Minooka took 2nd with 116 points. Neuqua Valley finished 3rd with 76.33 points. While some may point out the fact that this meet put the top two teams in the State from last season together, it is worth noting that in this sport, our record does not matter. The only meets that matter are the Indoor and Outdoor Conference Meets, the Sectional Meet to qualify you for the State Meet and the State Meet itself. Winning any of the meets means that our team will have won that championship. We use these early indoor meets to help our athletes sharpen their skills and learn to compete. 

This bring me to the idea of rankings. In pre-season polls, our team is ranked 2nd or 3rd in the State. What does this mean? Nothing. It is fun to see our team in the polls and these polls help athletes and fans get excited about the season. However, we do not pay much attention to them. We simply try to prepare our athletes the best that we can to get them ready for the important meets at the end of the season. If you do not perform at the end when it matters, no poll is going to save you. 

Therefore, despite the team scores, our team performed well. However, we were missing a few key players that are dealing with injuries, involved in other sports or were attending another meet. 

The meet began with with the 4 x 800 m relay team of Kevin Daneliak (Sr.), Michael Madiol (Sr.), Blake Storoe (Sr.) and Spencer Teske (Sr.) taking 1st place in a time of 8:36.95. Michael and Spencer put up 2:04 splits on their legs, which is impressive this early in the season. Following up this relay was another distance event, the 3200 m where Neuqua Valley would take the top 4 places. Leif Anderson (So.) took 1st in an time of 10:19.60, followed by Ryan Horn (So.) in 10:21.69, then Stephen Smilie (So.) in 10:25.18 and Quinn Kennedy (Jr.) in 10:38.51. 

Moving to the short sprints and hurdles, the 60 m would see Jonah Covarrubias (Sr.) and Aditya Sathyaprakash (Sr.) take 8th and 9th respectively with times of 7.48 and 7.49. Aditya would place 8th in the 200 m later in the meet with a mark of 24.88.  Jonah would also be part of our fastest 4 x 200 m and 4 x 400 m relays at this meet. Jacob Guthrie (Sr.) took 2nd place in the 60 m High Hurdles with a time of 9:41. One athlete that we were missing at the meet was Donovan Turner (Sr.) since he was competing at the University of Kentucky's High School Invitational. Donovan took 5th place in the 60 m High Hurdles there, breaking the school record twice. In the preliminary heat, he ran 8.14 and then followed this up with an 8.07 in the final heat. Both of these marks break his own school record. 

Donovan's Interview after the race can be seen at the link below. 

il.milesplit.com/videos/339060

In the middle distance events, the 800 m would return Michael Madiol (Sr.) and Spencer Teske (Sr.) from the 4 x 800 m to place 2nd and 4th with times of 2:04.67 and 2:07.70. Michael and Spencer only had about an hour of rest before racing again. Kel Foley (Sr.) would take 6th in 2:08.79 and would later anchor our fastest 4 x 400 m relay with a 54.0 split. In the 600 m, newcomer Nate Passaro (Sr.) ran 1:39.70 to take 9th in a race where he showed that he has some true determination. 

The 1600 m saw a herd of Neuqua Valley athletes pushing themselves to top places and new personal bests. Michael O'Connor (Sr.) took 2nd overall in a time of 4:39.98, followed by Jack Orengo (Sr.) running 4:47.39 in 4th and Aidan Stone (So.) in 7th with a time of 4:54.53. Aidan kept making surges and fighting for every place during the race and broke his personal best that he had just set last week. Luke Suman (So.) took 9th in 4:58.53 and Noah Schalliol (Fr.) broke the 5 minute barrier, running 4:59.79, good enough for 10th place.

Moving to the field events, our Pole Vaulters took many of the top places. Alex Kiefer (Sr.) won the meet with a jump of 14' 0", and is currently ranked 3rd in the State. Rahul Nair (Sr.) and Trevor Lambert (Sr.) jumped 11' 6" and 10' 0" for 3rd and 4th place, respectively. Jailen Poole (So.) jumped 10' 0" to tie for 5th. 

The Long Jump showed that we have a strong contingent of young jumpers almost ready to compete at the Varsity level with 4 Neuqua Valley Frosh-Soph Long Jumpers jumping 18' or better. These jumpers are Ethan Thomas (So.), Jailen Poole (So.), Paul Lee (Fr.) and Jack Wharton (So.). In the Triple Jump, Abood Armouti (Jr.) took 3rd with a jump of 37' 7" and also jumped 18' 3" in the Long Jump. The fact that we continue to produce horizontal jumpers is impressive considering that the only place where they see a pit and runway is at meets. 

Finally, Matt Appel (Jr.) threw 52' 8" in the Shot Put to easily win the meet. However, what was more impressive than his final mark was the potential in his last throw, which was well over the present school record of 54' 7.5" but Matt fell out of the ring, fouling. Matt is presently ranked 6th in the State and had he stayed in on his last throw, he would be in 5th.  

Complete results can be found at the link below. Find your mark, think about how you competed without emotion and then ask yourself what you can do this week to focus on so that you can improve. If you pick one thing to work on and translate it to a meet performance, you will see improvement in no time at all. 

www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/359625/results

Please see the link below for pictures that the Kiefer Brothers took at the meet. There are some great shots!

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1zb5am5qdC31aqz7ivZ0XFor11RRC0uaR

We compete this Friday night at Batavia. We hope to see everyone there! 

We opened our indoor season on Saturday with a triangular meet against Minooka and Plainfield South at Plainfield South. The goal of this meet was two-fold. We wanted to put down some early season marks and we wanted to compete. From top to bottom, our athletes showed that they are ready for the competitive part of the season to begin.

In the short sprints, we showed great depth with 11 athletes running 7.0 seconds or better. Jonah Covarrubias (Sr.) grabbed the top Neuqua Valley place with a mark of 6.7 seconds, tying for 3rd place overall. In the 55 m High Hurdles, Donovan Turner (Sr.) took 1st place in 7.6 seconds, only 0.8 seconds slower than his 55 m time. Donovan would later claim another 1st place in the 200 m, with a time of 23.7 seconds. In the longer sprints, Kel Foley (Sr.) and Jonah Covarrubias (Sr.) took 1st and 2nd place respectively in the 400 m with marks of 54.8 and 55.2 seconds.

Our distance squad had the Gauntlet 1600 m to show their strength and fans lined the track to support the athletes as AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" roared over the loudspeaker. A Neuqua Valley senior quartet took places 3rd through 6th. Michael Madiol (Sr.) took the lead for our team in a time of 4:32.1, followed by Spencer Teske (Sr.) in 4:36.9, Matt Jett (Sr.) in 4:37.7 and Michael O'Connor (Sr.) in 4:38.9. 

Not to be outdone, our field event athletes put up some impressive early season marks. Matt Appel (Jr.) threw 52' 0" in the Shot Put to take 1st place. In the Pole Vault, Alex Kiefer (Sr.) also took the top position with a jump of 13' 0". Finally, in the Long Jump, EJ Oketona (So.) took 2nd place with a jump of 19' 1". 

While our team performed very well, this was just the starting point. Therefore, here is what I would ask of our athletes (and parents too). First, look up the meet results at the link below. 

www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/362594/results

Once there, find your name in the results by clicking on the events. By clicking on your name, you not only see all of your marks at this meet, but all of the marks in your entire career. (You can also achieve the same results by putting your name into the search bar.) Put simply, athletes should know their marks and personal bests. Marks that athletes achieve in meets are a way of measuring improvement and the website Athletic.net is a way for athletes to keep track of their progress. 

However, I would like to offer athletes some advice as they begin this season. Do not get focused on marks. Focus on process and competing. When an athlete discovers their mark at a meet or later in the results, I would recommend that they relax, and without emotion, reflect on the competition by asking themselves two questions. 

1. What did I do well during this event?
2. What do I need to improve on for next time?

During the next week, athletes should then focus on what they need in order to improve. Maybe they need to concentrate more on form, maybe they need to follow their race plan, maybe they need to abandon the plan and simply compete, maybe they need to get more sleep or watch their nutrition. Whatever the improvement needs, athletes should then take this self-given advice and use it during the next week and beyond to help themselves improve. In other words, they should focus on process.

All too often, athletes will respond to events or marks as if the event was something that happened to them, rather than something they had active control over. They need to shift their mindset to one of process during practice and then do the same process in meets. Pick one or two things to concentrate on during practice in the next week to work on your biggest issues. By focusing on their biggest deficiencies, they can make the greatest changes. As the saying goes "A person either hates losing enough to change or hates changing enough to lose."

Our next meet is next Saturday at Homewood-Flossmoor High School and we hope to see you there!

This summer, Zach Kinne moved away. We haven’t talked about it much publicly because the bold-face things one might say—that we were losing an all-state runner, the public face of the team, and a true friend—were obvious. But more critically, we all understood that’s Zach’s departure threatened to define us before we had even taken a single stride. We would not be the team of Michael Madiol, Chris Keeley, Michael O’Connor, or Matt Jett; we would be The Team That Zach Left. The Also-Rans. The No-Names.

​State Meet Analysis      Daily Herald Article       NCTV Recap       Naperville Sun Article

Coaches Interview      Mike Newman Recap       Video Race Highlights      MileSplitIL Highlights

It was a fitting moniker, first suggested by legendary North Central coach Al Carius during a talk this summer.  It’s disingenuous to say that no one in the state had heard of our athletes—Madiol and Keeley both ran the State Meet in 2017, and Dovalovsky was an alternate on the 2018 State Track Team. But Kinne’s shadow was long; he had so often been the focal point of team previews and recaps that his teammates had never had to develop a competitive identity. More pointedly, they had never had to confront the burden of legacy on their own. How are you going to expect others to know who you are if you don’t know yourself?

When it was finally time to tell the team, Coach Vandersteen gathered the top runners after a June workout and delivered the speech he’d been rehearsing since just after the Track State Meet. “We’re going to have some fun this season,” he promised. “There are no expectations for us now.” “Aw [expletive],” said Michael O’Connor afterwards. “Steen just gave up on us!”

But he hadn’t; just the opposite. He was challenging those left behind to invest in one another. The night before the State Meet, the top 14 gathered for a final meeting. In that session, we saw just how deep their bond had grown. To a man, each testified to his love and commitment to his brothers, often moved to tears and silence by the exercise. “I’m not running this race for myself,” said Nicholas Dovalovsky. “I’m running it for you. The seniors.” The next day, he showed the state just how seriously he meant those words.  

Every team’s State story is impossible to communicate in a Tweet or a blog post; it’s the incalculable accumulation of tiny moments, quiet revelations, and grayscale epiphanies spread out over hundreds of otherwise unremarkable miles. But the beauty of our sport is that over those miles, you figure out who you are, and so does everyone else. Thus, to properly capture a season, we need to explain the journey to self that the runners undertake. The English-American poet W.H. Auden once wrote that “proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.” What follows is the meaning of those names.  


BRIAN JETT, Sophomore: Fire

Brian is the third Jett to come through our program, and by far the brashest. He joined like lightning, electrifying some, burning others, and short-circuiting just about everything around him. There were days where he could be callous or disrespectful, and non-contact days where he ghosted. We called him “swear-jar” for much of his freshman campaign for reasons that are probably obvious.

But something happened to Brian over the course of the past year: he grew up. He overcame injury and disappointment; he showed his teammates deference and good esteem. He showed up for every workout ready to test himself and carry others. He listened to his coaches, honored his family, and improved both his times and his grades. He was our top sophomore finisher at Twilight, and our second finisher at Conference, and watching him comfort his brother after the State race showed that he had traveled much farther than the soles of his trainers could reveal. To be sure, he is still Brian, and his trademark “Let’sGO!” echoed out from the stage as he accepted his medal. But like the flame trimmed for a lantern, he found that he could still offer heat and light without burning everything down.


RYAN HORN, Sophomore: Consistency

Our sophomore team fluctuated wildly over the course of the season. Often, Dovalovsky ran up; sometimes he was joined by Vasant Fong. Leif Anderson spent time injured, as did Jett. Some weeks Luke Mennecke, Luke Suman, and Stephen Smilie rose to provide heroics; other days, they missed the race’s critical summoning.

Yet Ryan Horn remained the fixed point around which our success revolved. He is not a flashy runner. No one talks about the Ryan Horn finishing kick. His haircut is competent and unobtrusive. But there might not be a more important ingredient to our future’s cohesiveness. Ryan has a meaningful relationship with everyone; he is quick with praise and even faster with a joke. He cares about the team’s success and the individual performances around him. He understands the science of running and takes seriously the art of mental preparation. Most critically, in workouts and humdrum runs, Ryan shows the same methodical commitment, the same discipline and personal responsibility, the same wordless acceptance that there is work to be done, and it must be done well.

It wasn’t until the Conference race that Horn stepped forward and led his team in point-scoring. But those who had watched him closely since June understood that he’d been leading all along.


VASANT FONG, Sophomore: Service

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant."
— Max DePree
 
Vasant has been afraid before every big race he’s ever run, starting with the first one his freshman year. Entering the box at Hinsdale, he was suddenly seized by crippling stomach pains. Yet Vasant controlled his breathing, re-centered his focus, and took the line. He finished third in that race.

Nothing since then has come easy, and yet Vasant has met the challenge of the moment more consistently than anyone else in his class. Coming off a F/S Conference championship in the 3200 meter run, Vasant had early varsity ambitions, and he put in an impressive summer to ready himself for elite competition. His sophomore races draped him in medals. He finished seventh at Richard Spring, fifth at York, and second at Forest Park and Locktoberfest.

But his Varsity races forced Vasant to confront the limits of youth. He was no longer leading the race or the chase pack. In lesser runners, doubt and resignation might reign. It is Vasant’s consistent response to these results that elevated him to the rank of our eighth man. He reflects on his effort, confers with coaches, and humbles himself the very next day. Vasant is a servant to the God of Long Miles, and his example reminds everyone that all gods demand patience, faith, and sacrifice before they reward their followers, and that the men who master these virtues will be most favored of all.


QUINN KENNEDY, Junior: Self-Assurance

For Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, the problem with defining people through opposition is that it robs the individual of choice and self-definition. Slaves only exist in relation to masters, and masters only exist so long as they have subordinates. In The Breakfast Club, Bender tries to show himself strong because he’s a rebel, but he’s only relevant as long as there are Brians to bully or principals to annoy. Bender’s great shame is that he’s completely defined by his father.

Like Horn and Jett, it would be easy to define Quinn Kennedy in relation to his older sibling. And yet Quinn is wonderfully, stubbornly his own man. He is a musician with unique tastes, blending classical strings with contemporary guitar. He makes his own dinners and seasons his own chicken. Most critically, he runs his own race. Following inconsequential races at Forest Park and Richard Spring, Quinn shifted his racing mindset and began to see improved results.  He was third in JV races at Locktoberfest and Twilight. He PR’d in the Conference race. Most critically, he was doing it his own way, for himself and his teammates.

The night before the State Meet, Quinn sat in our meeting, the only one not wearing an NVXC shirt. Yet he spoke of commitment, fellowship, and brotherhood in the same voice as his teammates. He was confident and assured, at once one of us and unlike anyone else. And that, of course, was the point.


BLAKE STOROE, Senior: Determination

Perhaps the most reserved member of our top-14, Blake has also traveled the farthest. He finished 160th at Twilight as a freshman; in 2018, he was 9th. He cut three minutes off his PR in four years. On September 29th of this year, he won the Open race at Locktoberfest by eight seconds. For context, All-State runner Chris Keeley has never won a race.

In a sport that covets phenoms and endlessly hypes the latest up-and-comer, Blake represents the most valuable archetype: the self-made champion. There is no secret to his climb, and there is not much to say about it that isn’t familiar. He had a little bit of talent, steadily applied himself, bought into team culture and values, reflected on failures and resolved to correct them. He listened to his coaches, respected his teammates, and refused excuses. And at the end of the odyssey, Blake Storoe was onstage with a hand on the trophy.

Blake, too, spoke on the night before the State meet. He talked about the thrill of running open races with his JV teammates, of taking control of a race. But of course, that meant more to Blake than most. He also knew the view from the back.


KEVIN DANELIAK, Senior: Fellowship

The hardest element for a coach to control is chemistry. There are workouts for aerobic thresholds and VO2 max, for mental toughness and conditioning. We can even correct strides with the right buy-in. But you can’t make teammates come together. You can’t run intervals for ‘liking one another’ or fartleks for friendship. Runners can be cliquish and standoffish, and the same qualities that help champions separate themselves from their competitors can also isolate them.

This is why an athlete like Kevin is so vital. Like Quinn, he has staked his own identity separate from NVXC (check out “Chillin’ With Kev” on YouTube!). And like Blake, Kevin has traveled the longest road to JV and Varsity success. “People give me a hard time for telling so many kids that they could be top 7,” joked Coach Vandersteen. “I don’t know if I would have ever thought to say that to Kevin as a freshman. It just shows how far he’s come.” Indeed, Kevin was second in the Open race at Richard Spring, and the JV champion at Twilight.

But it’s Kevin’s ability to bring together people that makes him most valuable. No one is quicker to defuse tension with a joke, and no one is better at inventing games on long runs. He deflates Varsity anxiety with laughter and inflates JV brio by involving everyone in the gag. It was Kevin at the center of so many pre-race circles, Kevin leading the cheers, Kevin setting the mood on the back of the bus as we traveled to Alexander’s.

The knock on ‘chill’ is that it’s a mockery of accountability; it’s a vacancy, a muting; it seeks to excuse people from caring about things. But in Kevin, Chill is just the opposite—it’s a young man who laughs without ambivalence, competes without restraint, and loves without apology.


JACK ORENGO, Senior: Courage

                “Can a man be brave when he’s also afraid, father?”
                “That is the only time a man can be brave.”
                                                --Ned Stark, A Game of Thrones

On most days, Jack Orengo can be found running as though his limbs were made of balloon-art and his bones filled with wind. He has a charming smile, kind eyes, and contagious laugh. He likes video games and cartoons, most especially in the company of others.

But like all of us, Jack also has episodes of fear, doubt, and anxiety. He worries what others will think of him. He fears that his successes are fraudulent, his relationships are conditional. He feels, at times, like an imposter.

We know this because Jack has told us. He has shared with his teammates and coaches what he sometimes goes through. And he is honest about how difficult that can make his life.

This is why Jack’s season is so remarkable, why his impact runs deeper than times and places. Jack improved throughout the season, correcting earlier race strategies and learning to trust his own legs. He let go of consumptive expectations and celebrated the race above the results. He joined six other seniors to race at Sectionals, bettering his mark from two weeks earlier. He was never free the quiet voice of worry, tugging at him like webs. But Jack ran past it all. He found another voice.

He spoke with it the night before State, tremulous at first, but increasingly with confidence and coherence. He talked about the program, his teammates, and the journey they’d shared. He sounded like a survivor, a winner, a champion. “Wow,” said Jack. “That’s like, the best talk I’ve ever given.” Of course, he was right. He’d spent four years learning it.


SPENCER TESKE, Senior: Integrity

As a freshman, Spencer was adrift. Frustrated by injury, left out of lead training groups, and suffering from personal losses, he found himself at one of those fractal moments where any number of paths were possible. Yet something kept him lacing up, joining his teammates, plying his efforts. A promising track season became a strong sophomore summer, which led to a breakthrough fall campaign. And Spencer never looked back.

What made the difference was his fidelity to training. Spencer’s commitment was unshakable, his habits methodical. On mornings when the team didn’t meet, he’d hit the sidewalks on his own, sometimes joined by his father on bicycle. Spencer made the decision not to let anything else in his life define him save for the loyalty he showed his friends and the team.

He set PRs at Richard Spring, Culver, and Locktoberfest, later finishing 12th in Conference. And while his race at Sectionals was off from two weeks earlier, there was never any question that Spencer would be one of our seven at Detweiller. He’d been there all along.


NICHOLAS DRECHSLER, Senior: Faith

Nick’s first race this season was one of his best. Pinned back from the lead chase packs, he steadily moved up throughout the 5k, seemingly floating above the muddy fray and rollercoaster drops of the Forest Park Invitational. Nick was our third man that day, finishing 15th and just two seconds back of Keeley. A week later he PR’d at Richard Spring, but had faded back from the pack. It was a conundrum—how could both races belong to the same athlete, exerting the same effort?

Coaches always tell their athletes to run their own race, but it’s a hard edict to obey when the margin for error is so narrow. A number of race strategies were proposed before only the original truth remained: let Drechsler be Drechsler. Released to run according to his own rhythms and judgments, Nick found a new confidence, running some of his best races at Conference and Regionals.

In the end, Nick saved his fastest race for the State Meet, besting his previous mark by 20 seconds. Once again, he was the lone gold-and-black jersey amidst a hostile throng; once again, he seemed to dart between the bodies, somehow drifting to the front in the final straightaway.

“Faith,” observed Martin Luther King Jr. ”is taking the first step, even if you cannot see the whole staircase.” This team learned to trust Nick to ascend, even when only he could see the way up.  


MATT JETT, Senior: Sisu

Versatile though English may be, some concepts can only find expression in other languages. “Sisu” is an untranslatable Finnish word that mixes tenacity, persistence, determination, perseverance, and sustained courage: it is the psychological strength to ensure that regardless of the cost or the consequence, what has to be done will be done. It is derived from the word sisus, meaning “guts”; in its first invocation in 1745, it was defined as “the place where strong emotions lived.”

One wonders if upon that publication, the Finnish might have included a drawing of Matt Jett, though he was more than 250 years from being born. From the time that he joined our program, Matt has been driven almost pathologically to perfect himself as a runner. He exhaustively records his workouts and catalogues his races; he is fanatical about his diet, hydration, and sleep habits. At times, his dedication threatened to derail him, for there aren’t many people more aware of the gap between their ideals and their reality.

Yet the 2018 season helped Matt find a measure of peace. He maintained his confidence while battling a stubborn glut injury and kept his composure when early races revealed rust. He grew closer to his teammates and increasingly trusted their pacing. He adopted greater patience and emotional remove. He let loose with a bit more dry wit.

After the State race, he was briefly despondent, worried that his finish had cost the team the deciding points. It was, like much of his worry, unneeded guilt, born of the place where strong emotions live. When the team needed him, Matt was right on time, ready to do what needed to be done.


MICHAEL O’CONNOR, Senior: Love

Aristotle believed friendship to be among man’s greatest virtues, and he defined three types. There are friendships of utility, which exist between yourself and someone useful to you (the coworker who fixes the printer when it jams). There are also friendships of pleasure, the people whose company you enjoy in laughter or activity. But highest of all is the friendship of goodness, which are based on mutual respect and admiration. These friendships take longer to build than the other two kinds--but they're also more powerful and enduring. They often arises when two people recognize that they have similar values and goals; that they have similar visions for how the world (or at least their lives) should be.

Few athletes in our program have more embodied friendships of goodness than Michael O’Connor. He speaks openly and often of his affection for his teammates, praising them with specificity and sincerity. There’s an awe-shucks simplicity that seems positively anachronistic in Michael, like he belongs in another era where people spoke plainly and warmly to those they cared for.

But however cornpone one may find these expressions, they became the lingua franca of the team. One by one, Michael’s teammates joined him in declaring their admiration and appreciation towards one another, so grateful were they to have spent so many years in pursuit of a shared goal. It was an affection that developed over countless miles by slow degrees, and it was Michael who best gave language to what they all realized: they had all been saved by it.

Minutes before the results came in, the team huddled together, a clumsy embrace where they spoke quietly about the race and the oath their effort had fulfilled. It was Michael who taught them to speak this way, to celebrate the bond that was deeper than bone, more elemental than blood.


NICOLAS DOVALOVSKY, Sophomore: Audacity

Twelve months ago, Nicolas Dovalovsky was a freshman soccer player. He had flirted with the idea of Cross Country, but had too long invested in other team sports to seriously pursue his true gift.

But the members of this team stayed after him. The sophomores in particular reminded him daily how much his temperament, talent, and tenacity would be better served running around the soccer fields than on them. It took an act of courage for Nicholas to listen to them and join this team.

That boldness came to define him as a runner. Nicolas won his first race at Forest Park; in fact, he is undefeated at the F/S level, owning victories at York and Locktoberfest. Indeed, his prodigious talents summoned him to Varsity, but here too he seemed dauntless, shouldering his way into the chase pack of more experienced runners.

As the season wore on, Nicolas’s results flagged a little; it had been so easy to overlook his inexperience that it seemed surprising he could tire. But through it all, his teammate’s confidence in him never wavered, and Nicolas rewarded that faith with a stunning 28th place finish in the State race, posting a 14:50, the third-fastest November time for a sophomore in NVXC history. Incredibly, he passed nearly 20 runners in the last mile. It was one final act of defiance for a remarkable young man who had finished 32nd only six weeks earlier at the Richard Springs Invitational. For Dovalovsky, all that was required was a challenge worthy of his courage.


CHRIS KEELEY, Senior: Resiliency

Last year, Chris Keeley collapsed 150 meters from the chute at State. Here’s what we wrote afterwards:

Chris Keeley left Detweiller with a medal around his neck, and a trophy that would one day bear his name. But for ten minutes before the ceremony, Chris lay on the ground alone and wept.

This is the hardest lesson to learn, and one we would spare our runners if we could. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we convince ourselves that victory is possible when it is completely out of our hands. Chris Keeley loved this team so much that his inability to consummate his vision felt like dying. Yet the foundation of every great thing that Chris will ever do—as a husband, a father, and a man—exists in what happened next. For a long time on Saturday, he lay on his back gasping. And then, after a while, Chris Keeley got up.

Chris most certainly got up. He went on to a successful track season, setting PRs in the 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. He put in a phenomenal summer. He invested in his teammates, listened to his coaches, kept up his studies. He plays the piano like an angel.

But perhaps the most significant change came over the course of several races where Chris learned to relax in the middle and save his intensity for the final push. The act of maintaining his personal intensity over three miles was psychically exhausting, and Chris learned with practice to channel that energy rather than burn with it. Sharing low-stick responsibility with Madiol further lessened the pressure, allowing Chris to become the athlete he always promised: a gritty front-runner with a lethal kick.

The hero’s journey often takes him into the underworld, a process called katabasis, where the light is dim and despair is high. As a junior, Chris Keeley went as low as one can go. That is, of course, what true heroes have to do. After the race on Saturday, the eyes of the Illinois were all on Keeley as he crossed the stage, a pair of medals around his neck. Everyone was looking up.  


Michael Madiol, senior: Indefatigability

Here’s what you don’t do:

You don’t tell a kid whose freshman squad just finished fifth at Hornet-Red Devil to quit. You don’t tell him that he can’t improve from a 30th place finish at Conference, almost a minute behind freshman teammate Chris Keeley. You don’t tell him that he’ll never get closer, never get better, that he should talk more—“Be more of a rah-rah guy!”—that he should wear contacts and work on his stride.

You don’t tell him to be satisfied with finishing fourth at Conference as a sophomore, 56th in State the next year, or 82nd at Footlocker Regionals. You don’t tell him that his nagging knee injuries will keep him from elite status, that the Track team already has enough 800 and 1600 meter runners. You don’t say, “Hey, Michael, why don’t you be more like Keeley or O’Connor?”

You don’t tell him that without Kinne, he can’t win. You don’t remind him that no one in the state ever talks about him as a front-runner or fears his finish or even remembers that he was our fourth man the year before. Don’t mention that he can’t beat all those pre-season luminaries, the names highlighted in the first paragraph of every preview and recap. Don’t ask him to sit in the chase pack, to bide his time, to let others do the work for him.

Whatever you do, don’t tell him that he can’t be All-State or lead his team to the most improbable trophy in program history. And don't tell him to do it with both shoes on his feet.

In fact, don’t tell Michael Madiol anything. Just shut up and let him run.
 

Epilogue

“It’s Doval-OV-sky,” he explained to the announcer. “Doval-OV-sky.”

“That’s what I said,” said the announcer, checking his notes.

“No, it’s Doval-OV-sky,” Nicolas repeated.

Nicolas wanted to be sure. All season long, we had been battling for legitimacy, more in our own minds than anywhere else in the state. We had done something never before accomplished in our program’s history, beating teams that soundly whipped us at Richard Springs, Culver, and the sectional the week before. Now it suddenly felt important that everyone else knew who we were.
​
But we, of course, had made that discovery months ago. It was planted after that early summer huddle, nurtured in workouts and meets, in mud and flood and canicule. It was finally spoken the night before the State meet, where the boys finally called each other by our name.

The irony, of course, is that years from now, all that will remain of the no-names are the monograms on a trophy. A new class replaces the old, and over time the stories will fade. “Tigers leave their skins, the dead their trophies, and heroes their names,” says the old Chinese proverb. So be it. But for the rest of our lives, the members of this team are part of a secret lattice, a silent kinship made blood through thousands of miles. There are things that last even longer than what we call each other.

At Saturday’s Conference Meet, I was visited by a high school teammate in town for our 20-year-reunion. As she watched the high school runners pouring into the chute, coaches calling out splits and urging on their athletes, she shook her head. “Wow,” she said. “Nothing really changes, does it?”
​
That is not how it feels to be a senior at that meet. Everything has changed. Where once they were neophytes, shoes unmarked by mud or miles, now they were in sight of a finish line marking the end to a very particular race. It is a time for review and reflection, of asking questions about the sacrifices made to shave just a few seconds off a PR, and to honor the friends made along the way.
We were fortunate to come away with Conference Championships at both levels, our 13th consecutive Varsity title. With two races condensing the various distinctions between Varsity and JV, the story of the day—and the season—is perhaps best told by class. ​

SOPHOMORES: Smaller meets are decided by tight splits, and on Saturday the sophomores met showed themselves to be peerless in this regard. In the Varsity race, Nick Dovalovsky (15:44) and Vasant Fong (16:14) ran within decimals of their teammates, showing their mettle and nerve. But without them in the F/S race, the remaining sophomores needed to run with greater discipline and patience. After finding themselves pinned behind the lead pack through the one-mile, the sophs slowly worked their way up, with Ryan Horn (16:36), Brian Jett (16:40), Luke Mennecke (16:40), Luke Suman (16:41), and Stephen Smilie (16:44) finishing in the top ten with an incredible eight second 1-5 split, securing the victory. Similarly impressive results were recorded by Daniel Gutierrez (17:23), Leif Anderson (17:26), Aidan Stone (17:49), William Fu (18:05), Dominick Gramrosso (18:28), JD Hastings (18:46), Akshat Maheshwari (18:56) and Max Keenan (18:59), with Avik Vaish (19:01), Vedanth Ganesh (19:43), Hugo Hinze (19:49), Evan Restuccia (20:11), Andre Park (20:36), Henry Jordan (20:37), Angad Agrawal (21:31), Goutham Baskaran (21:59), Ted Walsh (22:35), Tony Cai (22:48), and Chris Chow authoring fitting codas to their seasons. ​

JUNIORS: Our smallest class proved no less committed to one another and our race plan, popping into the chute one after the other. Quinn Kennedy (16:33) led the way with his usual intrepid performance, followed by a banged-up Ramsay Johnson (16:57), a resurrected David Tassone (17:21), and a surging Sam Stuart (17:27), Josh Rodriguez (17:32), and Ethan Lockwood (17:51). Meanwhile, Joey Spencer (18:24), Jacoub Letourneau (19:26), James Teune (20:13), Ethan Smetana (20:15), Abood Armouti (20:17), Kevin Shaffer (20:29), Pranav Rajaraman (20:37), and Matthew Vivo (25:55) paced with purpose and kicked with gusto, fulfilling honorable seasons, each of them.

SENIORS: The day belonged, as it should, to the class of 2019, who spearheaded the Varsity effort and locked down our 13th consecutive Conference title. The Twin Turbines of Michael Madiol (15:08) and Chris Keeley (15:13) locked in early, and Matt Jett (15:40), Michael O’Connor (15:44), Spencer Teske (15:57), and Nick Drechsler (16:10) each did their best to keep the gap small. But everywhere you looked, there were different seniors reaping the harvest of so many faithful miles: Jack Orengo (16:21), with a tough second mile; Kevin Daneliak (16:27) lunging across the line; Blake Storoe (16:35) outkicking a competitor; Erik Thompson (17:37) pacing a teammate. There was Nate Spencer (18:35), charging over the hill; Andrew Scholderback (18:39), catching a passing a Mustang; Sahil Yemul (18:55), taking a risk; Joey Klaips (19:17), rippling his glorious mane; Patrick “P-Man” Kelly (19:28) outlasting a Huskie. Fitting conclusions were also authored by Evan Cooke (20:17), Neel Pai (20:24), Luke Hennecke (20:28), Vikram Sunderrajan (20:37), Alex Kiefer (20:29), Aidan Bell (20:52), Nick Pope (21:01), Shaheryar Raza (23:13), Michael Pintar (23:44), and Rahul Nair (26:33), each bringing their season—and in some cases their high school running career—to its coda. ​

The awards ceremony was a familiar scene, with our hardest-working and most courageous athletes draping themselves in glory. But it was hard not to feel more in the winds than just the autumn crispness; some books were opening to a fresh chapter, while others were turning their final page. Yet it is comforting to know that after four years—or 20—the fundamentals remain unchanged. The courses are the same. A mile remains a punishing, fixed distance. The screaming coaches, striving athletes, and stalwart parents are treasured archetypes. Fall comes, then winter, and everything is different in the spring. But the best things—those we build our lives upon—never change.   Results