Whitney Young Boys & Girls Sweep Own Regional Titles

Boys winner Clayton Mendez detailed his team's race plan

It was a somber and somewhat drastic scene at Washington Park on the southside of Chicago. Overcast skies and a thin crowd congregated amongst themselves. The expansive park which is located near the campus of the University of Chicago hosted the Chicago Public League final on Monday. But there was a silver lining to spending one's time at a regional qualifying meet would have its rewards. Select portions of the course that was under water now looked very respectable. But would we see solid times and efforts that correlate with good conditions? 

The girls were the first to explore the drained course. The pace did not go out exceptionally fast as 5:55 for the first mile showed. But what showed was a willingness by Whitney Young to pack it up and work together. The Lady Dolphins was incredibly disappointed with their 5th place finish at CPL. On the other hand, Northside prep came in as a three time city team champion. The Mustangs would not be a threat as they finished 4th in the standings with 72 points. Young stayed on point for the entire three mile race and put all five scorers under 20:00 using a 38 second split to tally 53 points. Fenwick of Oak Park held off Lane Tech by five points 64-69 to take second. 

Taft sophomore Sydney Partyka was determined to get the win that escaped her at the CPL just four days prior. Partyka came up short for the gold medal by two seconds and she indicated that it was the primary determination in staying in contact with junior Margaret O'Brien of Fenwick who led most of the race. They locked together at 2m in about 12:22. Partyka would eventually pull away inside the last mile and go on for the big victory in 18:37.

Boys-

The defending champion Dolphins did want to rest of any of their key runners nor did they want to cruise on to sectionals. Instead they used the opportunity to pack it up and improve on the back end of the scoring pack behind senior Clayton Mendez, junior Charlie Nevins, and junior Sam Rivera. The emergence of junior Luke Lasley would be foretelling if the Dolphins hope to make a third straight trip to Peoria in two weeks. Lasley ran in "Dolphin formation" for a good portion of the meet before falling behind enemy lines known as Lane Tech.

The Dolphins completed their second straight 1-2-3 sweep behind Mendez 15:04, Nevins 15:32, and Rivera 15:51. Whitney Young would place five scorers among the top 15 and score 25 points for the comfy win. Lane tallied 47 for second and Leyden took third with 64 points.