One of the prevailing feelings coming in was the boys and girls chess piece landscape had not been completed.
In her team's home invitational, Peoria Notre Dame junior Maryjeanne Gilbert had the race of her life as she knocked 34 seconds off her 2013 Illinois state meet performance at Detweiler with her 16:30 victory at the Richard Spring Invitational. After seeing US #9 ranked Jesse Reiser roll out a 14:20 performance at Detweiler Park last week at the First to the Finish Line Invitational, US #13 Zach Dale was chasing Reiser's time on Saturday in Peoria.
The name Zach and Zack has come up startling big over the past few years on the Illinois prep distance running scene and even on the national spotlight. Of course, by now, most running fiends in the state in the past running season or two know Zack Smith, the former Downers Grove North standout now at the University of Illinois. But there is another kid with a Z by his name. He is Zach Dale...
his is the reason that the commonly phased Peoria Notre Dame Invitational or PND will be officially referred as the Richard Spring Memorial Invitational on paper: “Richard Spring, a 1981 graduate of Bergan High School in Peoria, ran cross-country, the mile, and the two-mile. Participating on two state championship teams, Richard personally finished third in the single-class IHSA state tournament in his senior year. Richard died running at Augustana College in 1982.”