This year’s FTTF meet was huge on many counts. We saw the largest field on record for the event, in the 2A race. Finishing 7th out of 59 teams is quite an accomplishment! Our pack utilized the excellent course conditions and weather to produce an abundance of Personal Records (PR) for 3 miles. Matt Richtman kicked off the parade of PRs surging to 14th overall, in 15:23. This is one of the top 5 fastest performances ever by a Knight at Detweiler. Austin Kintz got his first taste of Peoria and medaled in 30th place. Noah Duffey ran a :51 PR, finishing 83rd in a highly competitive field, with Sean Spaetzel close behind in 16:25. Sam Webster knocked off 90 seconds from ‘14’s race, to finish as our 5th runner, in PR time. Will Kuipers rallied from illness during the week to also set a career and course PR. Matt Kainrath bettered his best by :69 to skip the 17’s and drop down to 16:57 in his third race ever.
Henry Nosek led the next wave of Knights with his own :96 PR at Detweiler, finishing in 17:00. Zach Kurz managed a :55 career PR at 17:08, followed closely by a surging Kantola (17:12) and first three mile (17:20) effort from Wielgos. These four add a lot of depth to our line up! Another pack of Knights began entering the chute with Peyton Heiser smashing his Detweiler time of a year ago (17:58), with Girolamo (18:02, :90 PR), and Konrad (18:06, PR) on his heels.
Courageous running from our sick athletes was not uncommon today. Anthony Messina refused to back down from the struggles he’s faced with illness, and held tough for 18:32. Ben Smith notched a career PR next at 18:43, and Aaron French shortly after at 19:04. Leadership comes in many places on this team. Keep watching for it!
Wojak started the next group of checkboards, at 19:23, followed by PR efforts for 3 miles from Lodwig (19:29), and Nemec (19:39). Wells finished with a great kick, running 20:04 to lead Orczykowski (20:20, PR), Alex Gale (welcome back!), and Klingensmith (20:22, PR) into the chute. Grant Gingrich put up an :86 PR at Peoria, which was also a career best time. Jablonski earned a record mark at 22:51, and Petrik completed our day’s work in 24:21 for his current PR.
On the day, we found out that we are right in the mix with numerous teams from our (probable) Sectional field, and our best races are yet to come. Seeing some of the teams ahead of us running so fast, so early, is a difficult task to maintain. Our best efforts are yet to come. Historically, we’ve proven this. What’s most important is that we demonstrate fortitude, and work relentlessly to catch them.
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