DePaul College Prep climbs to top of mountain for 1A Boys team title

Genisio plows through rain to win first state title

By Michael Newman

Peoria, Ill – In a season of ups and downs for DePaul College Prep, the downpour that hit Detweiller Park 10 minutes before the start of the 1A Boys race could have been an excuse that they could have used.

The Rams did not want any excuses. They just wanted a state championship.

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The combination of two all-state runners with 5 runners in the top 49 was the race that they needed to win the 1A Boys State title with 113 points. Riverdale (130 points) and Latin School (154 points) both ran strong races to finish second and third.

A solid move in a downpour from Gavin Genisio in the final half mile gave the Benton junior his first state championship ahead of area rival Isaac Teel of Pinckneyville and Tommy Murray of Riverdale.

Conditions at Detweiller Park on Saturday were rough with an over night rain and rain during both Class 1A race made finding a dry spot on the course a premium. Genisio somehow found a safe path to the finish. His winning time was 14:57 as he barely made it across the line.

“I was deciding whether I should make that move or not. To be honest, I barely finished. I had nothing left,” Genisio said. “ I was so tired. I looked behind me and there was no one there. I just finished and I was so happy.”

Genisio is the second state cross country champion in the school’s history. The first was his coach Brent McLain who won his title 40 years ago to the meet date.

Teel, who finished second behind Genisio by seven seconds last week at the Benton Sectional, was again second and a gain seven seconds back in 15:04. Tell held off Murray for third as he ran 15:05. Akili Parekh of Latin School ran 15:05 to finish fourth. Daniel Winkelman of Harvest Christian Academy finished fifth (15:20) ahead of Ethan Hogan of Columbia (15:29).

DePaul College Prep has gone through minor injuries through most of the season. On this day, they were all together on a rain soaked starting line aiming to be together at the end.

“We really knew today that we had to put it all together,” said senior captain Mac Kittrell. “If we did, we knew we would be really hard to beat.”

That they were as the Rams had a 55 second split to get them to the top of the mountain. Kittrell led the way earning all-state honors by finishing seventh. Bryan Makowski also earned all-state honors finishing 14th overall. Owen Flom did not run in the team’s lineup in the sectional race when the team finished fourth. Flom ran and was the team’s third runner finishing 28th. Elias Roldan (40th) and Charlie Richardson (49th) were the team’s fourth and fifth runners.

Riverdale moved up the rankings as the year went on getting to a good race to win the sectional and a better finish here at Detweiller Park to finish second. The Rams had three runners that earned all-state honors. Murray third-place finish led the team with Landis Musser (11th) and Peyton Sand (20th) finishing in the top 20. Braeden Bode (57) and Mitchell Hasenour (77) ran fourth and fifth for Riverdale. The team’s split from Musser to Hasenour at 65 seconds.

Latin School finished third to earn their second state trophy as in many years. Parekh’s led the way for the Romans with his top five finish. The team had 4 runners in the top 49 with Ben Gibson again all-state as he finished 16th. Daniel Goodman (29th) and Jackson Ballard (47th) were the team’s third and fourth runners. The three runners were only separated by 30 seconds. Matthew Kotcher and Miles Daly finished together in 105th and 106th places.

Normal University missed the top three by 12 points finishing with 164 points. The Pioneers did have two all-state runners with Mitchell Hayes finishing 20th and Landon Alcorn finishing 23rd. Benton had a great meet scoring 185 points led by Genisio winning along with all state finishes from Gabriel McLain in 9th and Cole Buchanan finishing 15th.