Charger Classic Ends Peak Week in Big Fashion for Knights

Varsity Earns 8th in a field that included 7 teams ranked in the Top 25 for varying Illinois Class 2A and 3A polls, as well as the defending State Champion from Iowa (Linn-Mar) and Kentucky's #8 ranked cross country team.

Our Frosh Soph team collected 4th, and just 3 points from a team trophy.

Here's more:

“Peak Week!” We knew it was upon us. We battled aches and pains, tired legs and a heavy field of top notch teams, and came away with great momentum for the remaining weeks of 2015.

Slight course modifications resulted in a :10 head start to awesome times. Kintz and Richtman wasted no time after the first surge point in passing 8-10 runners on their way to new course records. Sean Spaetzel couldn’t wait to get out of the traffic in the woods and start pushing toward his own course PR. Kuipers locked down a :29 improvement to run 4th for our squad, and Kainrath was on his heels just 4 seconds later. This tight knit racing by our 4-5-6 will be crucial in weeks to come. Kurz managed one of the biggest improvements with a 1:31 PR on the course. Messina also used surges and a very strong kick to outlast Kantola by one spot and net a new PR for the Oakhurst course. Again, pairing up to race is a necessity and a bonus for us; way to go Anthony and Andrew!

Aaron French and David Wojak were paired through the first surge point. The senior broke away and charged to a :25 improvement. As a team, our varsity improved their team time by 6:01 over last year! Their pack split also improved :36 from 2014.

In the frosh soph race, our team narrowly missed a team trophy, coming just 3 points shy of East Aurora. Webster improved :84 for a new PR, and started scoring at 13th. Nosek was just 6 places behind, also with a :82 PR. Wielgos had a big day, keying off of Henry, and running :01 behind. Scoring was completed when Peyton Heiser finished 9 places later (30), and Girolamo just 8 more (38). Cristian managed a :84 PR on a big day for this team. Purcell was three places behind (41), and was a factor in that pack most of the way. Freshman Aidan Lodwig ran his best mile pace of the season for 59th overall, easily in the top half of all competitors.

Our Open Team made history with the program’s best pack split for 3 miles this season (:53). Smith ran a :52 PR at ACC, Nemec hit his best mile pace of ‘15, with Wells (:26) and Gingrich (3:15) just 24 seconds off Smith’s pace. Orczykowski ran his best race of the season in 92nd place. Klingensmith and Babula were next, Babula at PR pace. Jablonski, Petrik and Osborne also ran PR pace for the season, with Kyle passing 7 in the last mile  for a dramatic finish.

We are really getting better despite the sore legs and heavy workload. We must keep our positive attitudes up, and need to challenge one another to stay in our packs. We’ll get better, but you need to want it.