Downers Grove North Boys/Girls win at EIU Showdown; headline first weekend of Illinois Meets
Close, Eddington dominate at Neuqua Valley
By Michael Newman
Naperville, Ill – Most meets that are run at the end of August can be termed rust busters. Runners training all summer to get to the starting line more two months ahead of their destiny and Detweiller Park.
Temperatures that were near 100 degrees during the week moved down to a more reasonable 70 degrees with some wind and high humidity kicked in.
It did not seem to bother #1 Downers Grove North and Neuqua Valley’s Zac Close at Saturday’s EIU Showdown held on Neuqua Valley’s Campus Course. The Neuqua Valley senior was near the front with Plainfield North’s Quinn Davis as the two pushed the pace in the opening mile passing that point in 4:52. Close made some tactical moves in the second mile in the race pulling away from Davis. Close opened it up increasing the lead and earning his first win of the season crossing the line easily at 14:15 on the 2.9 mile course.
Downers North, the top team in Class 3A to begin the season, built into this race with 10 runners together situated between 15-25 snug in the middle of the race with teammates chatting with each other making their running look effortless.
The race plan was to move up through the rest of race and they did during the second mile moving into the top. In the final mile, Ryan Eddington, Caden Weber, and Grant Schoeder moved closer and closer to Plainfield’s Davis as they narrowed in towards the finish passing Davis right before the line. All four runners crossed the line at 14:38 with the three Downers runners finishing ahead of Davis.
Six teams scored in the Boys Varsity race. Downers Grove North ran a 42 second split on their top five winning with 29 points. Phillip Cupial was the team’s fourth runner as he finished in 8th, some eight seconds behind his three teammates. John Courtney was the team’s fifth runner 24 seconds behind Cupial finishing in 12th. Downers North was without one of their top five runners Zach Bender who was a part of SAT testing on this Saturday.
#18 Highland Park edged host #13 Neuqua Valley 68-71 for second place. The Giants were led by top finishes from Nate Wehner (7th), Brian Hatoum (9th), and Barak Goldstein (11th). #4 Plainfield North ran short handed in this meet without their top runner Owen Stahl taking SAT’s. The Tigers scored 80 points to finish fourth behind top 10…
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