Karanveer Patil en route to the finish line at the Palatine Meet of Champions (photo by Griffin Forberg)
Not many freshmen boys come into high school ready to star on the big stage... Karanveer Patil appears to be one of the rare gems. You can see a quiet confidence and a tiger's eye when you glance at him. These are necessary traits for greatness.
Patil is a student-athlete for Lake Zurich, a school known for producing young phenoms. One such runner was Matt Pereira in 2013. He ran 15:25 and finished 69th in the state meet.
Patil appears to be a few steps ahead of Pereira and most incoming freshmen of recent years. A former soccer player, Patil won the inaugural 4A IESA cross country two-mile title last year at 10:09. The time was one of the fastest in middle school history. Patil put out a notice that he would be someone to watch in the future.
Patil has run three high school races, producing a three-mile best of 14:56--tops for all freshmen--and has an outside shot of earning all-state honors.
As an eighth grader on track, Patil ran 4:28.64 (1600m), 9:22.98i (3000m), and 2:06.13i (800m). As you can see, he has all the bases covered and is ready to shine at the high school level.