Crane and Kotler find their way to wins at Hinsdale
Hersey edges New Trier for Boys title; Shorthanded Prospect defends Girls team title
By Michael Newman
Hinsdale, Ill – The expected heat that was supposed to hit the Chicago area waited until after the races were over at Katherine Legge Memorial on Saturday morning. There were too many rated teams to count as they lined up for the Varsity races in the Red Devil Invitational.
#2 Hersey was a newcomer in this meet having run at Fenton for over a decade before the meet was postponed this year due to construction on the Fenton campus. The Huskies found a new meet to call home on Labor Day weekend. They also found the course welcoming to them as they edged #7 New Trier to win the Boys team title 95-97.
Prospect is the defending meet champion and the Class 3A State Champion coming into this season. The Knights were shorthanded without top seven runners, Lily Ginsberg, and Bridget Derengowski, but still handled the field in this meet defending their team title with a 71-130 win ahead of #6 Naperville Central.
Mia Kotler of Latin School came back from an injury plagued sophomore season and showed she is ready for the 2023 season with a convincing win in the Girls Varsity race. Ben Crane of New Trier pulled away from the field to win the Boys race holding off pre-race favorites Aden Bandukwala of Hinsdale Central and Zac Close of Neuqua Valley.
Boys Varsity Race – The first race of the day was a game of cat and mouse. Ben Crane needed to put himself ahead of the field with a large enough margin and having the fear not to be caught. “I knew I had to make the move when I did,” Crane said after the race. “My coaches told me it was essential to go when I did because there were a number of good kickers that could run me down.”
The two runners that were feared the most were defending Class 3A Champion Aden Bandukwala of Hinsdale Central and Zac Close of Neuqua Valley who in the previous week stormed away himself from the field on his home course. The pack in the opening mile of 5:02 were feeling each other out with pacing and who would make the initial move. Close, Bandukwala, and Close were joined by Josiah Narayanan of Wheaton-Warrenville South, Finn Richards of Benet Academy, Alex Krieg of Palatine, and Nate Wehner of Highland Park in the front.
The moves started to happen as they entered the south fields of the course. Close and Bandukwala…
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