Summer Pierson's performance was pure euphoria after missing her sophomore season to injuries
The choice was a wise one for more than two dozen Land of Lincoln athletes who trekked out to Southern California for the weekend. No, it wasn't a time to go and hang out under a palm tree on Venus Beach or stroll down Hollywood's Walk of Fame. The main objective was attending the 49th Annual Arcadia Invitational and putting in some serious work and obtaining favorable results. Though it rained heavily over the course of the meet, the alternative was better than being home in arctic conditions where it snowed and forced cancellations of many meets for the weekend.
The Friday night action was mainly of the relay sort mixed in with some open races which produced many solid efforts.
- Yorkville girls kicked off the meet in the Invitational 4x800 relay and placed 13th out of 20 teams running 9:37.92. Though the time is a new state leader it was perhaps not the desired outcome the Lady Foxes wanted. Two freshmen competed on the national stage for the first time and could have had jitters against some of the national elite talent that Arcadia possesses.
- Naperville (Neuqua Valley) boys may have found a piece to their state championship puzzle if their 4x200 can emerge together over the next month. The Wildcat quartet which consisted of Myles Gascon, Dan Gaynes, Ryan Lukas, and Chris Muoghalu actually had the lead at one time during the Rated section before slipping slightly to third in a very respectable 1:30.42. It should be noted that the hand offs were very conservative because of the falling rain or else the unit would have dipped below 1:30.
- The interchangeable Neuqua Valley crew returned several hours later in the seeded 1600 medley relay. The event consists of 200, 200, 400, 800 legs. The first three runners kept matters close for anchor Isaiah Robinson. Robinson immediately mashed his foot down on the accelerator hitting the opening 200 in 25.xx and 400 around 53.xx. He had the lead with less than 200 to go but began to rig up a bit and faded to third with an unofficial split of 1:54.9. It was great to see what many fans back home billed as the next great 800 runner. The overall time for the team was a school record 3:29.64.
- In watching the first section of the Girls seeded 4x1600, it was scary imaging a distance power Great Oak, CA run five teams- the "E" team clocked a good 21:39. What would Yorkville do in the loaded Invitational section? The Lady Foxes got to work right away with freshman Nicole Greyer. The pace was fast as several of the front runners were under 5:00 on the first exchange. Greyer was able to log 5:08-5:09 for her leg. The rest of the crew maintained composure and finished up with a time of 21:09.44 which was good for 7th.
- A stream of 3200s broke up the relays. In the open section #2 Jacob Meyer (Sr., University of Chicago HS) ran 9:46.80; Alex Keeble (Sr., Mahomet-Seymour) placed 10th in the open section #3 clocking 9:23.14 (4:44 first mile).
- The biggest surprise of the evening was Summer Pierson (Sr., Yorkville). The talented Lady Fox put together her best ever race to date placing third in the seeded 3200 rocking 10:46.04. Pierson's best prior was 11:01. 5:22/5:24 mile splits is a good blue print on how to run a "two mile" race.
- The final race of the evening was the highly anticipated Boys Invitational 4x1600. National Cross Country Champion (NXN) Great Oak had big plans on capturing the meet record. They earned a little bit more like the national record 16:55.85. Hidden in between the excitement was Lyons Township and Neuqua Valley. The Lions quartet of Danny Kilrea, Connor Madell Matt Begeman, and Vince Zona placed 7th in 17:36.18. The splits were 4:25.95, 4:19.49, 4:28.59, 4:22.13; Neuqua Valley ran well also taking 9th in 17:37.54. The crew of Aidan Livingston, Scott Anderson, Patrick Wolak, and Connor Horn hit on splits of 4:28.52, 4:24.55, 4:29.47, 4:14.99.