Glenbard West, Perez control girls’ race, York’s Mroz wins boys race

By Michael Newman

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Medinah, Ill --- New Trier Boys Coach David Wisner had just found out officially that his team had won the Boys Sectional race at Lake Park’s East Campus course. He was sitting in the stands waiting for the awards and for questions from the media.

“Can we do this in just a minute?” a happy Wisner asked. “I want to enjoy this moment.”

New Trier used top five finishes from Chase Silverman and Peter Cotsirilos and a race strategy to move during the race to win over a York team that got off to a bad start and never recovered.

“We wanted to pack it up, but we did not want to get out too fast because we have been in sectionals before where guys have blown up in the last mile,” Wisner explained. “We put ourselves in a good position for the first mile, then a hold position the next mile and closed really hard.”

It was anybody’s guess who was leading the team race at the half way point. York’s usually dominant front pack was all over the place, New Trier and St. Ignatius’s pack were back, and Lane Tech’s fourth and fifth runner were too far back. It was New Trier’s charge in that last mile that captured the team battle.

The big story was the movement by Cotsirilos. Approaching the two mile point, the senior was near 25^th place. He moved the last mile kicking past 8 runners in the final 300 meters to place fifth. It was good news for Cotsirilos who missed the last two seasons due to injury. What was even more amazing was the shape that the oft injured runner was in.

“We did not think he was going to run today,” Wisner continued. “He may have a stress fracture in his leg. It’s day to day, week to week. It has been a stressful week for all of us. I told him that this could be his last race of the year so make it count. We will see if he runs at state meet or not. He wants to, but we have to wait and see.”

Silverman finished third to lead New Trier’s thirty second split. Cotsirilos was next in fifth. Tarek Afifi (18^th), Austin Santacruz (21^st), and Om Kanwar (30^th) were the scoring runners for the sectional champs. They will celebrate the race now but know that they will have to face York again next Saturday.

“I’ve known all year that we have the talent to get a trophy next week. I know that York will be an entirely different team at Peoria,” Wisner concluded. “I am going to tell the guys the year (2002) that Lyons Township beat York at the sectionals. The following week, York came back to win the state meet.”

The only consolation for York was the individual race of Nathan Mroz. The senior let Oak Park’s Irwin Load lead the first mile, then stormed away from the pack to grow a ten second lead heading into the last mile. He cruised to an eight second win.

“We wanted to get out with our pack but that obviously did not happen,” Mroz said. “We kind of got boxed in at the beginning. I just wanted to work my up. I saw my opportunity when we made the turn and I got by the track. I thought if I did not go now, I would not have another chance.”

David O’Gara (Glenbrook South HS, Glenview) finished a surprising second just barely over New Trier’s Silverman. It surprised even his Coach Kurt Hasenstein during the race.

“We knew with that turn that way it was going to be tight at the start,” O’Gara explained. “The course was kind of narrow. The idea was to get the position early, not do anything crazy, and hold on from there.”

York finished second with 95 points. St. Ignatius, Loyola Academy, and Lane Tech took the final three qualifying spots. Maine South was in sixth seven points out of the fifth place.

The much anticipated showdown between two of the top three teams in the state, Glenbard West and New Trier, never materialized in the girls’ sectional race. Glenbard West got out in great shape in the first mile and maintained from there. The Hilltoppers placed five runners in the first eleven to easily win the team title with 30 points. New Trier’s pack started out slowly, but moved up as the race progressed. The Lady Trevians placed five runners in the first 22 to capture second with 76 points.

“We definitely saw improvement today. We were working on our start. We know that state is going to be fast. If we are going to compete at the level we want to be at, we have to get out fast,” said Glenbard’s Coach Paul Hass. “I thought the girls were strong. They maintained and looked strong throughout. Grace Rogers is our fourth runner and is one of the top runners in the state as far as I am concerned. She’s a kid that gets overlooked. She does not mind that other kids are getting the limelight. To get in the top ten in this sectional of this caliber, that says something.

Madeline Perez led West again with a strong run and statement in winning the individual title. Perez had the lead after the first 400 meters. She opened up a sixteen second lead over Mimi Smith (New Trier HS, Winnetka) passing the two mile. Smith closed in the last mile, but the lead that Perez had was too big for Smith to conquer. Perez’s margin of victory was 10 seconds running a fast 16:44 on the sloppy Lake Park course.

“I was just going to execute my plan whether there were girls there or not,” Perez said after her win. ”My goal was to go out there and push that first mile and just to be steady from there out. My focus was the team the entire race. I was happy how the race turned out.”

One of the reasons that Glenbard West will challenge for a team championship is from the front running efforts of Perez, Lindsay Graham, and Lisa Luczak. Graham and Luczak finished fourth and fifth behind Fenwick’s Olivia Ryan. With Grace Rogers finishing ninth and the eleventh place finish by Jamie Nabholz along with a 72 second split on the five runners, Glenbard should be challenging for a trophy next week in Peoria.

Behind Glenbard West and New Trier, Oak Park River Forest finished third behind the sixth place finish by Mary Blankemeier. Paced by the seventh place finish by Emily Leonard, Maine South bucked the form charts to place fourth with 188 points. Fifth place was a battle between GCAC rivals Loyola Academy and St. Ignatius. At their conference meet two weeks ago, St. Ignatius won the team title by one point over Loyola. The tables were turned as the Lady Ramblers took the fifth and final team qualifying spot by one point over St. Ignatius.