The road to State is never an easy one for Kaneland teams. For the 23rd time in program history, the Knights jerseys will be worn by a full seven lineup.
Meeting up with multiple Top 10 programs, we found a greater challenge with not the runners, but the saturated Fenton course. Runners won’t love the times on this course, but they’ll remember the challenges in the mud.
Evan Nosek wasted little time finding the front runners in this race, splashing into the top 5 for much of the run. In the final turns, Evan finished as an All Sectional runner with an 8th place medal, and an uncharacteristic time of 16:50.
Christian Phillips found himself working from the 30’s up to a teen position and held his own at about 15th for much of the run. Phillips cemented his important #2 scoring position at 16th overall in the meet, in a time of 17:21. Every single finisher at Fenton had at least a minute of extra running on this muddy morning.
Nolan Allen ran just like a senior would in the Sectional meet. Nolan worked his way from the 20s in the first half of the race up to high teens. In the final quarter mile, he turned it up a few notches to net 17th, running just :06 back of Phillips at 17:27. This is the type of push to the line that only a senior running at the end of a season makes.
Trevor Neal proved yet again that we have an arsenal of talent where there are no specific scoring places that our runners must fulfill. This week, Neal took aim at a top 5 scoring spot, and led David Valkanov through the muck for much of the race. Trevor kept pushing forward and held a spot in the low 30s through most of the race. In the final 800m, he moved up to score 27 points with his finish at 17:40, and just 13 seconds back of Allen. This was such a pivotal performance for our pack.
David Valkanov, also competing in his first Sectional like Neal, showed great valor and toughness while using everything in his tank to net our final scoring tallies. David maintained his position in the 30s to grab 36th overall at 17:49. He lay in an exhausted heap at the finish line, mud or no mud.
Logan Cunz found joy in the fact that he helped us earn another chance to run next week on drier grounds in Peoria. Cunz wasn’t pleased with his 49th/18:10 day, but he is grateful that he gets a chance to give this another shot in Peoria. Logan was able to push the score up on every single team below us on the final results including 7 other ranked teams.
Brady Babka also gave every bit of his energy for the team on a very tough course when torn up with six sloppy loops of long spikes on long grass. Brady raced to 58th overall (18:29), and was ahead of 38 scoring runners from other teams in the Sectional. We remember that not every day is going to be a “10” like it felt at the Regional.
