Hinsdale Central’s second straight title worth the wait.

By Michael Newman

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Peoria, Ill – Jesse Reiser (McHenry HS) knew that he would have to give it all to win the individual state championship. He was totally exhausted last season when he finished second behind O’Fallon’s Patrick Perrier’s win. Anyone who has run the state meet at Detweiller Park knows that you have to be in the best shape of your life both physically and mentally when you stepped to that starting line.

Reiser showed that Saturday in the 3A Boys race at the IHSA State Cross Country Meet. He pulled away from a pack of 10 runners in the last half mile and stormed across the finish line state champ in 14:11.

This 3A race was not like no other state race that I have seen. There is usually a defined pack of a couple of runners after the half-way point. That was not the case in this meet. There was the huge pack at the mile that you normally see in every state meet. There up front was the usual suspects. Reiser, Zach Dale (Conant HS, Hoffman Estates), Ryan Clevenger (Downers Grove North HS), Matt Pereira (Lake Zurich HS), Sam Oh (Stevenson HS, Lincolnshire), Blake Evertsen (Central HS, Hinsdale), Kevin Salvano (Buffalo Grove HS), Keagan Smith (Huntley HS), Dorrian Gordon (O’Fallon HS), and Chris Buechner (Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn) all went through the mile in 4:45 with at least 60 runners within 5 seconds of the lead.

There was no separation in the triangle of this pack. No one was willing to put their cards on the table yet. The pace was slowing down as they went through the 1 ½ mile point in 7:13 and the 2 mile in 9:45. The pace was slower than the two previous Boys races run on this day. As they turned the corner going behind the starting line, no one blinked. No one budged in that pack.

As they made the turn to cross the field with a half mile to go, Reiser bolted to the lead trying to break the pack. Dale stayed right on Reiser’s shoulder refusing to lose contact. Pereira, Clevenger, and Gordon were following close behind.

“At that moment, I was not sure that he (Dale) was going to have an extra kick in him in that last 400 meters,” Reiser said. “I felt when I moved (with a half mile to go), that was already my kick. I thought I could not go faster than that. In the last 400 meters, it was all out.”

When you run for a state championship, you dig deep inside of yourself to find that extra 33% to make it to the end. Reiser and Dale did just that with Reiser having a little more. He opened up 10 seconds on Dale in the final 500 meters to win in 14:11. Dale crossed the line second exhausted in 14:21.

“I’ve never experienced so much pain at the end of a race before than I did today,” Reiser added. “It was pure happiness. All the work has finally paid off in these four years. This is what it is all about.” Reiser move at the end was one for the ages. He ran the last mile in a quick 4:27.

“I did not think there would be that many people at 2 miles. It was state so I knew it was possible,” Dale said after the awards. “We had six guys with us in that last half mile. I was sitting back the whole race just trying to stay calm. I knew I could close pretty hard. I got close to Jesse and pushed it a lot. I wanted to put it all out there and I definitely did.”

Matt Pereira was one second back in third place. Two seconds behind came Ryan Clevenger. Then Kevin Salvano was next finishing fifth running his best race of the year.

Lost in the pack was the performance of York freshman Charlie Kern. He was 25^th at the two mile point seven seconds behind the lead pack. He stormed down the final straight only to be passed by Connor Horn (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville) in the final few meters to finish eighth overall. His time of 14:36 was just one second behind the time run by 3 time state champ Jorge Torres did when he was a freshman. The future looks extremely bright for this York youngster.

The talk heading into this meet was the performance of Sandburg at the Marist Sectional Meet the Saturday before when they easily won the team championship ahead of a field where the top four ranked teams in the state was there. Hinsdale Central was in second that race and had to recover quickly to get ready for the state competition on Saturday.

“We felt last week that we just needed to get through the sectional however it plays out. The following week we just had to get back to the grind,” Hinsdale Central Jim Westphal said. “We needed to get that momentum back. We felt after conference with Matt McBrien’s injury to his foot and Chris Brenk’s IT Band injury, you start to think if the wheels are coming off. We just went back to the basics. We ran 800’s on Monday collectively. Each day last week became more positive.”

The key in the state meet is usually the first 800 and getting around the first hairpin turn where some hopes in the race come to die if you are caught on the inside. “The thing that killed us today is that we did not get the job done in the first 800 meters,” said Sandburg coach John O’Malley. Sandburg started out of Box 8 getting pinched on the inside at the turn. “500 Meters in I was wondering what did we just do. We were buried at that point. I think our first guy was in the 80’s.”

The top four teams in the state and from the sectional (Sandburg, Hinsdale Central, Neuqua Valley, and Lyons Township) were again the teams to watch and it showed during the race. The scores were announced at each check point with at first Sandburg in the lead, then Hinsdale Central taking over. Lyons Township and Neuqua Valley were fighting for the finish and a trophy.

It was so close at the finish as runners were coming across the line 5 a breast. It took 45 minutes for meet officials to go through the video to correctly determine the exact place. Hinsdale Central stood together as a group standing by the board waiting for the results. Other teams and coaches were comparing notes wondering who would end up on top.

Finally, Hinsdale Central got the signal from the officials’ trailer that they had repeated as the state champs. A huge cheer followed by joyous celebration. Tears were flowing among the Hinsdale runners celebrating the obstacles that they had overcome the past few weeks. There was not a dry eye in that area.

“Last year, York got sick right before the state meet. It was out of there control. This year, Sandburg was full force as you could see by the sectional results,” Hinsdale Central junior Chris Brenk said. “We knew that this state meet had to be a fair fight. We were both at full strength. It was a fair fight.”

“Honestly, I was tearing up just trying to hold my tears back,” Hinsdale senior Griffin Gartner added. “I just wanted results to see how well we worked together.”

Hinsdale Central’s state championship was won with 104 points and three all-state runners. The performances of Josh Feldman and Griffin Gartner were the difference in the Red Devils capturing their second straight championship. Hinsdale did get top 25 performances by Blake Evertsen (12^th, first man) and Chris Brenk (25^th, third man) that were expected. Josh Feldman stepped up and ran his best race of his life placing 22^nd running 14:50 as the team’s second man. The same could be said of Griffin Gartner who finished 43^rd just ahead of teammate Alex Domiano as the team’s 4^th/5^th man. Gartner did not run cross country his freshman year. He was a converted football player and ran the sprints in track in the spring. During the season, Gartner was normally the team’s sixth runner. He stepped up at the right moment when his team needed him.

“Our goal was just to go out and execute. If we finished third, we would be very happy. Whatever we placed and ran our tail off, we would be happy,” Westphal concluded. “Last year was new the emotions we had after the meet. This year it was different because our perspective was different. I think it was equally as fun. Griffin Gartner was crying afterwards because in his senior year, he came through for his teammates. It was tears of joy.”

Sandburg’s start at the beginning hurt their team chances. It showed as they finished second with 138 points. Their split was only 11 seconds, but their pack was outside of the top 25. Tom Brennan was the team’s first finisher placing 31^st. It was the first time that this Sandburg program has won a trophy at the state meet. A great accomplishment but not the trophy that they wanted.

“I would like to say that second was satisfying but no. I am satisfied with whatever they are satisfied,” O’Malley added. “I just hurt for them. When you live and die by high expectations, it’s the only way you are going to be great. Sometimes it hurts but that is the risk of trying.”

Perhaps one of the best team performances of the day was that of Lyons Township. The only people that might have believed that the Lions would be in the top three was the team, their coaches, and their followers after they finished fifth last week at Marist. Just like last season when they finished fourth, Lyons Township ran their best race of the season to place third with 180 points. Junior Connor Madell led his team with a 15^th place finish. Lyons Township had a 36 second split on their five scoring runners.

Neuqua Valley finished fourth missing a trophy by only one point. The Wildcats had two all-state runners with Horn’s seventh place finish and the 18^th place finish by senior Michael Widmann. Daniel Weiss finished 28^th as Neuqua’s third man.

Glenbard West finished fifth despite the fact that two of their runners fell in the first 100 meters of the race. The Hilltoppers did have Chris Buechner as an all-state runner as he finished 19^th.

The other team performance that would have to be noted was that of the sixth place finish of York. The Dukes have that standard of being a top three team every season. This season has been a down one for the Dukes. They were on life support after they barely made it out of the Niles West Sectional on a fifth place tie. They ran their best race of the year to get 6^th. Some coaches after the race noted to me that this could have been legendary Coach Joe Newton’s best coaching jobs for this meet. I would have to agree.