St. Ignatius Boys, Lane Tech Girls Win LT- Taft Invite

Some of Chicago's top cross country programs were back at Lane Tech's homemade course with a few familiar talented faces. Some faces so familiar, you'd think you were seeing double. Nowadays, it's not too easy to find a cross country meet that produces a lot of noise from spectators since the capacity is very limited. But when you have athletes going undefeated all season, it'll be sure to make a small crowd go wild.

During the JV girl's race, St. Ignatius set the early pace. When they came around the track and out of the stadium, it was a sea of yellow over burgundy. The top two finishers unsurprisingly came from the Wolfpack's Zoey Holland and Rosie Sullivan. Holland was the winner with a time of 13:26.4 and her teammate Sullivan was behind her with a time of 13:34.9. For much of the race, Holland was on her own leading the rest of the competitors around the course. She usually runs three-mile races however she told us she liked the change in pace for the two-mile. We will see her back in action in the three-mile soon.

The corresponding JV race of the day was the boys and they had a sea of blue over blue. All of the competitors in the top 8 were from Jones and almost all were freshmen and sophomores. This race gave an insight into what Jones' team may look like in a few years. If it is a true reflection, then they will be a team to watch out for. The winner of this race was sophomore Matthew DeSantis running a 10:28.0. The times for second through the seventh place were all within one second of each other. You could tell they were all trying to push each other to greatness.

Later we had one of the anticipated varsity races of the day. The girl's varsity race was something to watch. Lexi Affolter of Ignatius took the race out hard. You could see the confidence and determination on her face as she came through the first mile. Veronica Fuller from Payton was trailing behind Affolter for most of the race. Even though the gap was a little big going through the first two miles, Fuller made every step count as she started the close on Affolter. Before going into the last mile you could see Fuller and Affolter stride for stride. When Fuller came through the stadium, the sophomore was all alone. She crossed the finish line at 18:41.8 and Affolter came behind her at 18:57.1. 

The next varsity race was the boys, and the familiar faces we saw made for a great day of competition. This race had Taft's Lucas Guidone (currently undefeated), the Kiley twins: Nick and Zack, and Samuel Hanson. Guidone and the Kiley twins were packed together through the first mile at 5:02. Guidone started to make a move going around a few corners through the back part of the course. When he and the twins were back in sight near the mile mark, the gap between the three of them were just a few strides. However, coming through the stadium for the last 300 meters, Guidone made every step put a larger gap between him and his competition. He came across at 15:46.5 allowing him to continue his winning streak this season. Nick and Zach Kiley took second and third respectively, running 15:57.7 and 16:03.9.

Some of the teams we got to see will make an appearance at Latin's meet on this upcoming Wednesday. Some of the top teams in the city will be running their best squads to see what they can do before the CPS Championships and Sectional meets. The competition will be jammed packed then so, stay tuned to see what crazy times these athletes might run next