Downers South is expected to perform well and book a trip to Peoria
Teams: #8 LaGrange (Lyons Township), #9 Downers Grove South, #10 Orland Park (Sandburg), #14 Plainfield South, #15 Downers Grove North, #22 Hinsdale Central, Chicago (Brother Rice), Palos Hills (Stagg), Burbank (Reavis), Oak Lawn, Chicago Lindblom
Downers Grove North senior Jack Roberts will be competing for the first time in a while. A hamstring injury has kept the Trojans #1 guy on the shelf since the Minooka Flight Invite in terms of competing. Roberts is back because he has nothing to lose, he either makes it to state or he doesn't make it at all. The question is Roberts 100% or just trying to coast to a state birth? If he is not at 100% there are a few others that may be able to win the whole thing. Additionally, the Trojans may have had their worst race of the season at regionals. It seems that most of the unit was around 20 seconds off of their personal bests. That was not the case for some harriers such as Matt Moravec and Evan Cummins who were 40-45 seconds off. The Trojans desperately need for Moravec to find the mojo after two average performances at the West Suburban Conference (Silver Division) Championships and the Hinsdale Central Regional. They need him on an all-state level if they want to be top 10 at the state meet.
The Cougars won their first regional title since 2004 this past weekend at the Sandburg Regional on the strength of senior Christian Knowlton's first place. It was the best the Cougars looked all season. Their second runner, Timmy Wade, ran a much needed race as he has not been running the same way he was last season. The Cougars will need Wade to perform the way he did at regionals to qualify. Their fifth runner, Austin Ivec, had a good race at the Sandburg regional taking 14th place with a 16:12. The Cougars will need him to be under the 16: 00 barrier to qualify to the state meet.
Lyons Township has been possibly the most improved unit this season. They came into the year after graduating several key members of their state team from last year including state champion Danny Kilrea. The Lions only had a total of three returning guys who ran under broke the 16:00 last season. Now they have seven guys that have eclipsed the mark. The biggest asset to the Lions have been their strong ability to pack run. That has been their calling card all year long. They will all need to be within 25 seconds of each other to win the sectional title.
Lyons Twp should expect a tough battle from Downers Grove South. The Mustangs bested the Lions in their encounter at the Peoria High Invite with a surprising victory. Much like the Lions, the Mustangs have an excellent pack seeming to be within 30 seconds of each other the past few meets. They only lost by 10 points to the Lions and a possible change that could affect that point total is senior
Eddie Siuda getting back on track after a not so great performance at regionals. He took sixth place with a 15:39. That is not the Siuda the Mustangs need, they need the Siuda that competed at the Peoria High Invite as he ran a amazing time of 14:35. He is another runner that may have an outside chance of winning the individual race if some slip-ups happen.
The Red Devils of Hinsdale Central have had a rough going this year. Injuries have taken a huge toll on them as they came into the year trying to restock their depth pools. They leaned on the performance of
Alec Hill who ran great at the state meet last November, running a 14:58. Sadly they had to go without him for the majority of the year as plantar fasciitis pushed his season debut back until the conference meet. He got injured again not long after that and missed the regional meet. It sounds as if he is back along with
Piyush Mekla who was also out of the Red Devils lineup last week due to injury. They will be missing a key contributor as the fourth runner,
Keegan Caveney is again not racing due to injury. He was part of their state qualifying team last year and is a huge blow to the Red Devils. They will need a phenomenal performance by both Hill and fifth runner
Will Ricker if they wish to qualify.
The Eagles of Sandburg lost at regionals for the first time in five years to Plainfield South at their own regional. Coach John O'Malley opted to rest his top four runners of
Ben Giblin, Will Giblin, Sam Rodriguez, and
Nico Calderon. Sandburg should easily get out of the sectional and if their fifth runner can be within 10 seconds of their fourth runner, they may be able to win a sectional title for the first time since their memorable 2015 team.
The individual race will be a good one-
If Roberts cannot hold a fast pace expect Knowlton to be the next in line to win this meet. Knowlton had a great performance at the Sandburg Regional winning in convincing fashion over junior Tyler Cushing of Bolingbrook by 10 seconds. The crazy part about the race was that Knowlton put those 10 seconds on Cushing in the final 800 meters of the race. If Knowlton is within two seconds of
the winner going into the final 800 meters of the race, it is almost certain that
will walk away with his first sectional title. Cushing will want redemption against Knowlton on Saturday. Cushing is a smart runner as he seems to dissect every race he is in. He took notes of Knowlton's race strategy and most likely has come up with a plan to counter it. It didn't help him that he has been sick for the past two weeks. He is possibly the biggest wildcard in the entire race.
