Prospect Girls pack it up for Nike XC Town Twilight win

Plainfield South third in Boys Race of Champions; David, Watcke finish in top five individually

By Michael Newman [email protected]

If Prospect was looking for a challenge in Saturday night’s Nike XC Town Twilight Invitational in Terre Haute, they never found it in the Girls Race of Champions on the Lavern Gibson National XC Course unless it was the challenge that they had within themselves.

Results

The Knights were in control from the start in this race ending with placing 5 runners in the top 18 as well as their first 4 in the top 10 to score a miniscule 34 points in winning the team title. Noblesville IN scored 111 points to finish second ahead of Mason OH in third (118 points). #16 ranked nationally Columbus North finished fourth with 120 points ahead of Assumption KY (180 points). Class 2A top ranked Grayslake Central scored 306 points to finish tenth overall.

Ciara O’Shea of Madison Central KY made a last second detour north to Indiana to run in this meet after the Great American XC Festival was cancelled on Friday. That move paid off for the senior who will attend the University of North Carolina next fall. O’Shea pulled away from Addison Knoblauch of Homestead IN just after 3000-meters into the race to completely dominate this race.

O’Shea’s winning time of 16:52.1 was 29 seconds ahead of Knoblauch who ran 17:21.3. O’Shea’s time was the fourth fastest ever on this course. Sydney Thorvaldson’s time of 16:37.3 run in 2020 is the standard that O’Shea was trying to pass.

Tatum David of Richland County moved up from 20th after the first mile to finish third overall with a 17:28.3 time.

Prospect ran their best race of the season in this meet staying in a pack near front most of the race. Hailey Erickson and Veronica Znajda finished within a second of each other placing fifth and sixth. Meg Peterson was eight seconds behind in finishing eighth. Lily Ginsberg was another four seconds back in finishing tenth. Cameron Kalaway was the team’s fifth runner placing 18th. The team’s top five split was a season’s best of 37 seconds. Their split on the top four runners was only 13 seconds.

Grayslake Central’s tenth-place finish was led by Sara Armstrong finishing 24th and Ava Henne finishing 52nd. O’Fallon, who finished 16 in this race, was led by a 54th place finish from Ellie Bush and a 60th place finish from Britney Brown.

Illinois top ranked Plainfield South used a top 10 finish from Camyn Viger and great pack running from their second through fifth runners to finish third overall with 140 points. Jesuit High School of New Orleans also made a last minute change to run in this meet and won the Boys Race of Champions scoring 97 points. Carmel IN had top 10 finishes from Kole Mathison and Anthony Provenzano to finish second with 106 points.

Mathison defined the individual race pushing the pace from the outset. Andrew Hauser of Rock Bridge MO, Daniel Watcke of Hinsdale Central, and Cameron Todd of Brebeuf Jesuit IN kept the pressure on the Carmel senior until about a kilometer left in the race. Mathison made a series of surges to break himself away from the other three runners to put himself in position to win. Hauser made a surge in the final 400-meters of the race, but it was too late.

Mathison’s winning time of 14:51.7 was about three seconds behind the course record set by Futsum Zeinasellassie in 2011 of 14:48.8. Hauser at 14:56.4, Todd at 14:57.3, and Watcke at 14:58.9 were the other runners under 15-minutes in this fast race.

Plainfield South was led by Camyn Viger who ran 15:05 to finish eighth. Their next four runners were only separated by six seconds led by Dylan Maloney in 29th, then Owen O’Shea (32nd), BJ Sorg (33rd), and Ethan Reynoso (38th). The Cougars top five split was 37 seconds.

3A #2 Hinsdale Central finished eighth overall with 268 points and led by Watcke’s finish. Aden Bandukwala finishing 14th and Michael Skora placing 31^st were the team’s second and third runners. There was a 54 second gap before their fourth runner Max Lowe finished in 113th. Josh Smak was seven seconds behind his teammate finishing 122nd.

2A top ranked Grayslake Central scored 542 points to finish 20th behind Trey Sato running 15:53 in his 54th place finish.