OP_110818
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
46 | November 8, 2018 | The orland park prairie sports<br />
opprairie.com<br />
CROSS COUNTRY<br />
State finish snaps five-year, Top 10 streak for Eagles<br />
TIM CRONIN, Freelance Reporter<br />
A three-mile cross country race<br />
isn’t a sprint, but one element of<br />
the race is: the start.<br />
At Peoria’s Detweiller Park, the<br />
site of the Illinois High School<br />
Association’s cross country championship<br />
since 1970, the first turn<br />
of the race, a sharp left-hander,<br />
is about 500 yards from the start,<br />
down a long downhill slope.<br />
Get to the turn first and you’re<br />
in good shape. Get there a few seconds<br />
later and you’re in the middle<br />
of a 210-man muddle, fighting<br />
for position and sometimes just to<br />
stand up.<br />
The key, then, is to get out fast<br />
no matter what the long-term strategy<br />
for the race might be.<br />
Sandburg, chasing a sixth straight<br />
top-10 placing in the Boys 3A team<br />
race on Saturday, Nov. 3, did not get<br />
out fast, and paid the price. The Eagles<br />
ended up 16th in the field of 25.<br />
Their top runner, junior Will Giblin,<br />
was 54th among individuals on<br />
teams (and 69th overall). Only two<br />
teams had their first finisher farther<br />
back in the field.<br />
This didn’t sit well with anyone,<br />
beginning with coach John<br />
O’Malley, whose preparation includes<br />
how to get off the line fast.<br />
“We were just very tentative,”<br />
O’Malley said. “We were thinking<br />
more about time than place. That<br />
first 800, they were buried. They<br />
were last place around the first<br />
turn. They gave themselves too<br />
much work to do, and in this kind<br />
of a field, you’re just not going to<br />
come back.”<br />
Will Giblin’s time of 15:11.91<br />
was about six seconds behind<br />
his sectional time at Midlothian<br />
Meadows, even though Detweiller<br />
yielded quick times in all six<br />
races. Team champion Wheaton<br />
Sandburg’s Ella Jeffries, the first female at the school to qualify for the<br />
state meet since 2014, approaches the finish line on Saturday, Nov. 3, in<br />
Peoria.<br />
Warrenville South had six of its<br />
seven runners across the line before<br />
Giblin crossed it.<br />
“I think we thought we were<br />
getting out fast, and in reality, we<br />
were almost dead last,” Giblin<br />
said. “We’ve been practicing a lot<br />
and usually we go out too fast, but<br />
I guess we were afraid to get out<br />
fast enough this time.”<br />
O’Malley couldn’t put a finger<br />
on why things went so wrong. He<br />
just knew his runners should have<br />
rocketed out of the box.<br />
“Accept that and go with it, be<br />
excited about it,” O’Malley said.<br />
“We didn’t quite do that to open.<br />
We were scrapping the whole<br />
race. We weren’t prepared to race<br />
that kind of a race.”<br />
The rest of the Sandburg times<br />
were Ben Giblin (79th, 15:14.11),<br />
Ismail Tineh (91st, 15:18.09), Sam<br />
Rodriguez (105th, 15:23.91), Ben<br />
Walter (145th, 15:41.23), Griffin<br />
Lehnhardt (161st, 15:49.15), and<br />
Nico Calderon (188th, 16:04.76).<br />
Ben Giblin was as surprised as<br />
his twin brother.<br />
“The plan was to get out hard<br />
Sandburg’s Ben Giblin (right) and his twin brother, Will, (in between two<br />
Wheaton Warrenville South runners) were the Top 2 finishers for the<br />
Eagles, which finished 16th in the Class 3A division of the IHSA State<br />
Meet. PHOTOS BY TIM CRONIN/22ND CENTURY MEDIA.<br />
and be in that second pack of<br />
guys, at least the top 35, and keep<br />
pushing after that,” he explained.<br />
The Giblins will be in their second<br />
year as team leaders next year<br />
so a trip back to the top 10 might<br />
be in the cards.<br />
“It’s nice that we have five returning<br />
kids,” O’Malley said.<br />
Hersey’s Josh Methner won the<br />
individual 3A race in 14:11.50,<br />
about six seconds ahead of Maine<br />
South’s Tommy Brady.<br />
Orland Park’s Thomas Leonard,<br />
a junior at Marist, finished 98th<br />
with a 15:20.62. It was his first<br />
state competition in Class 3A after<br />
finishing 48th in the state in Class<br />
2A last year.<br />
Ella Jeffries, the lone Sandburg<br />
girl to qualify, finished 188th in a<br />
209-runner field. The sophomore<br />
was caught in the first-turn crowd<br />
in her first state final appearance<br />
and lost ground from that point,<br />
finishing in 19:08.24, 24 seconds<br />
off her brisk sectional pace at<br />
Midlothian Meadows.<br />
Reach 96,000 Readers<br />
Each Week in the Classifieds!<br />
708.326.9170<br />
www.22ndcenturymedia.com<br />
THIS WEEK IN...<br />
SANDBURG VARSITY SPORTS<br />
BOYS SPORTS<br />
BOWLING<br />
■Nov. ■ 8 – at Lockport, 4:30 p.m.<br />
■Nov. ■ 13 – at Lincoln-Way West,<br />
4:30 p.m.<br />
■Nov. ■ 15 – hosts Stagg, 4:15 p.m.<br />
GIRLS SPORTS<br />
BASKETBALL<br />
■Nov. ■ 13 – at Hinsdale South<br />
Invitational-Holiday Tournament,<br />
7:30 p.m.<br />
■Nov. ■ 15 - at Hinsdale South<br />
Invitational-Holiday Tournament, TBD<br />
SWIMMING<br />
■Nov. ■ 10 – IHSA Sectional at<br />
Sandburg, 8 a.m.
Change language