This meet never disappoints with the level of competition we get to see. First to the Finish is a high octane, ranked team rich field of performers. Our Knights rose to the occasion, coming off a very challenging week of rigorous workouts. Junior Evan Nosek wasted little time moving out to the lead pack of runners, and surged to a strong career best performance of 14:57. Nosek is only the second runner in program history to crack the 15:00 barrier for three miles. David Valkanov was the next Knight to the finish mats, setting a :48 course best and :11 career PR (15:28, 17th). Sophomore Evan Whildin could see Valkanov the whole way and surged to his new :43 career PR of 15:34, good for 24th overall. Only meet champion Glenbard South had more firepower from their front three.
Partnering up all week, Collin Reutimann and Zachary Murdock wove through the thick and dusty field of competitors to have great runs. Reutimann smashed a :30 career PR, running 16:43, good for 123rd overall. Murdock had a :06 meet PR, which is exactly what we have been focusing on; one PR meet at a time. Rounding out our top 7 on the day, senior Devon Kowalczyk raced to a new career best time of 18:09 (:10 PR). Newcomer Joey Schuch (fr.) put up a :55 improvement to set his new career best time of 18:15 (309th).
More PR racing for the varsity Knights included Johnny Neville, who ran a course best time of 18:34 (:04 improvement, and freshman teammate Nathan Kowalczyk, who dropped :24 for a young career best time of 18:50.
The Open included an enormous field of 1,023 competitors, pulling more Knights to meet and career best times. Junior Jack Polloway capped off a meet best time of 18:35, which was a :28 course PR. Ricky Anderson (fr.) sped to a new career best time of 18:47, with a :41 improvement on his 2023 time. Jack Nevenhoven continues to build his own momentum, this time running a :37 career best time on the Detweiller course (18:55, 252nd).Ben Broz (sr) took the fourth spot in our Open lineup, running a meet best time of 19:30, a :75 course best. Nolan Reutimann (fr.) took his first race of the season with gusto, starting and finishing fast, with a time of 19:42. Our Open pack split was just :67.
Jessub Hardy was in the ballpark of his season’s best time, finishing Detweiller in 19:58 (408th). Fellow freshman teammate Sahel Torres came to the stripe :27 seconds later (20:25), closing strong at the end. Lucas Fiedler felt he was going to have a big day and didn’t leave without a new career best (:14 CPR) at 21:05. His brother was next in the chute, when Elijah polished off a 3:14 meet PR, running 21:27 (631st). Eli was shadowed by new KXC runner Sean Meagher who ran an impressive 7:10 mile pace for his first career race longer than 200m on the track. Meagher ran 21:28 (633rd). Brayden Cattero was also near his course best time, this despite losing a shoe in the first half mile of the race. Brayden ended the day for Kaneland running a solid individual effort of 22:35 (783rd).
The meet featured 13 of the Top 20 Class 2A teams.
