Jon Davis put the hammer down on Ben Veatch making it a clean sweep for Illinois in the championship races (Colin Boyle photo)
Jon Davis is clearly gaining notoriety outside of the Illinois confines this season. The fact that he had never competed in an NXN MW race was his only concern. "I am aware that Ben Veatch has run on this course 11 times in his career... this is like his home course," Davis took notice like a true scout stocking his prey.
The first kilometer is always a barometer for a 5k race and it went out in a fast 2:47. Then matters began to settle down hitting the mile in 4:40. There were about eight guys strong including Davis, Veatch, Sean Torpy, the resurgent Irwin Loud (Jr., Oak Park-River Forest IL), and a few others continued through the second kilometer in 5:50.
Loud, Davis, and Veatch began to assert themselves moving in the toughest portion of the course that starts its assent to the 3k. Loud seemed anxious when all he had to do was relax with Davis and Veatch. The two mile was breached in 9:39 with Veatch with a step on Loud and Davis.
At 4k in 12:00, it was still Davis, Veatch and Loud comfortably ahead of the chase pack. Sandburg donned uniforms similar to their school issued ones and they stood out well. The Eagles and Lafayette, Mo (in bright lime green) had three runners in the mix. Neuqua Valley wore white jerseys that made it hard to spot their personnel.
Inside of the final 800m, Davis and Veatch began to put down the peddle which put Loud in the back but still solidly in front of the rest of the field. The final 300 was Davis and Veatch- Loud appeared to have slipped out of sight and the rush of the top runners was coming hard. Davis hit the tape in 14:59.9 and Veatch 15:01. Isaac Harding (Sr., Rockford, MI) closed with Illinois 2A champion Jack Aho (Jr., Grayslake Central) for third, though both runners ran 15:08. The final individual entry to Portland went to Charlie Kern Jr. of Elmhurst (York) in fifth. Kern used his patent finish to run 15:09.
Illinois produced the top three teams and four of the top five in the team scoring ledger which justified the massive amount of teams the Land of Lincoln brought to LaVern Gibson. Of the top 10 squads, six were from Illinois. As well three of the top five individual qualifiers came from Illinois.
There were a few thoughts to what happened to Irwin Loud who for the second consecutive race fell apart at the very end. Loud suffered a disaster in state qualifying meet in the final half-mile and did not qualify. He was once in the mix with 400m to go seemingly ready to punch his ticket to Portland and then... poof! Loud stumbled and struggled to stay on his feet before finishing in 365th place. His father Irwin Loud III issued this statement: "Jan [Irwin's mother] and I are concerned as well and will be following up with Irwin's physician. He has lost races before, but he didn't collapse, so this is an alarming development. We will let him take time off from running between seasons and work with medical professionals and coaches to figure this out. Dehydration is clearly part of the issue and we thought we had it under control for this race."
We certainly wish Irwin IV the best in the future.