Forest Park Invitational, Saturday, Sept. 8th, 2018

One of the joys of traveling abroad is the freedom of anonymity. Familiar eyes carry expectations, and our acquaintances own little pieces of our identities. Every graduate and expatriate knows the thrill of walking into a foreign room unburdened by a past. Of course, the danger of unrecognizability lies in losing oneself. So much of a man’s integrity depends on the shared memories of everyone who knows him; how will he know himself when all of them are gone?

This question weighed on us this summer. We graduated a special class of athletes. Some of our friends and teammates moved on. Parents and boosters we’d grown used to were suddenly cheering in other fields, their sons running for new teams. Even the Hornet-Red Devil Invitational abandoned us—how’s a team supposed to start its season without the creek?

Thus, we boarded our bus with a sense of unease on Friday, making the trip down to St. Louis for the 13th annual Forest Park Cross Country Festival. The forecast for storms was prominent. We had never met these teams and coaches. We knew nothing of the course. Our program had never raced in Missouri. And few there knew anything about us.
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We introduced ourselves in the JV Green Division 5K. Though still early in the day, the rolling course of arbors and hillocks had been churned to mud, and the rain-slicked hills were more easily descended on buttock than feet. Our pack broke out early, led by sophomores Nick Dovalovsky and Vasant Fong. Dovalovsky (18:18) won the race, his first as a member of NVXC, trailed by Fong (18:35) and seniors Jack Orengo (18:45) and Blake Storoe (18:46) and junior Ramsay Johnson (19:03). The team championship secured, we were further blessed by strong performances from sophomores Leif Anderson (19:07), Brian Jett (19:16), Luke Mennecke (19:16), Stephen Smilie (19:23), Ryan Horn (19:28), and Luke Suman (19:47). Quinn Kennedy (19:54) and Sam Stuart (20:02) further represented the junior class, while Erik Thompson (21:11) and Sahil Yemul (22:05) brought additional glory to the seniors. ​

We brought a team of seniors to the line for the Varsity race (digression: as in Track, Missouri Cross Country has their athletes get to the start with a short dash on the starter’s command. This is fun, and Illinois should adopt it!). It was a source of both honor and intimidation to look over and see nationally-ranked Rockhurst in an adjoining box. But it’s all just jerseys once the fight starts, and our team set about trying to find one another in the melee.  Chris Keeley, Michael Madiol, and Michael O’Connor got out in the lead chase pack, but Matt Jett, Spencer Teske, and Kevin Daneliak found themselves pinched and fighting for position. Nick Drechsler seemed to drift above it all somehow, looking light on the hills while others seemed weighted by pounds of sod. At the two mile mark, Jett and Teske were climbing, while Madiol and Keeley had fought up to the lead pack. Madiol (17:21) finished 4th, with Keeley (17:49) in 13th and Drechsler (17:52) in 15th.  Matt Jett (18:11) charged into 26th, while O’Connor (18:21) held on for 33rd. With Teske (18:23) and Daneliak (19:07) in soon after, Neuqua found itself improbably clutching the team championship.

Of course, the seniors knew what they were doing; the freshmen, on the other hand, hadn’t a clue. Some of them had not logged any summer miles; a few more had never raced before. But a day crammed on a bus and in hotel rooms with upperclassmen can be a fast teacher, and they soon had their own exam to take. A Festus runner claimed first place, followed by Sachin Fong (11:19). Two more Festus runners came through before Noah Schalliol (11:30), who was so spent by the effort that he collapsed. Charlie Rook (11:44) came in 6th, closely trailed by Liam Dorsey (11:46). It then fell to Nate Howard, who was in 25th place with 800 meters to go. Incredibly, Nate (11:50) began passing runners in bunches, bellowing in triumph as he passed Festus’s 4th and 5th man to finish 10th.  His kick was no more impressive than many of his teammates, however, including Alex Del Genio (12:46), Adam Johnson (12:48), Jacob Nauman (12:54), Andrew Gutierrez (12:54), Corey Papastathis (12:58), David He (13:03), Josh Kubicki (13:13), Ben Serna (13:33, with one shoe!), and Luke “Pretzel” Balika (13:45). They started the race green and ended gassed, sodden, and caked in mud. But they, too, were champions.
It was comforting to cross the Mississippi and return to the jimsonweed and ale-colored grasses of Illinois. The sun peaked out and dried the road before us, which seems more familiar all the time. “Think you’re escaping, and run into yourself,” wrote James Joyce. “The longest way around is the shortest way home.” He’s right. Sometimes it’s good to take a trip just to remember exactly who you are.

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