The Illinois HS XC Journal - August 29, 2020

Blog #3: Finding A Cross-Country Meet

By Michael Newman

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Northridge Prep Coach Mike Egle stood by the starting line waiting for his team to finish their warmups Friday afternoon at Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect. This would be his team’s first race of the season. He only has two more meets on his schedule for this season before the IHSA Regional Meets.

He is looking for more meets for his team to compete in.

That has been the story for some schools in the Chicago area along with schools across the state since the IHSA made the decision for a fall season for Cross Country at the end of July.

Schedules have been scrapped especially with the guidelines set forth by the State of Illinois and the IHSA. It has been a three week dash to get a schedule together for this shortened season. Some coaches came up with great ideas. Some Athletic Directors said no, we have a better idea. That is a subject to dive into for another day.

Egle has ties to Prospect High School. When he was an assistant coach at Prospect under Hall of Fame Coach Mike Stokes, he coached briefly now Prospect Boys Coach Jay Renaud. That connection gave him two opportunities to run on Prospect’s campus course. The first was Friday, August 28. The next will be in a week’s time when Northridge Prep runs again against Prospect along with Class 3A ranked Loyola Academy.

This is Egle’s 31st year of coaching at the private school in Niles. Never has he said anything like this.

“I had a solid schedule for this team. That is gone,” Egle said. “We have a great team that would have challenged for a state trophy. Now we are looking for just a meet to compete in.”

Egle knows about championships. He feels that his 1A team has the stuff to race against anyone. When he ran in high school at Maine East in Park Ridge, he ran in two state meets. His team finished sixth as a junior in 1978. The following year in 1979, he was the team’s top runner placing 12th as Maine East won the Class 2A State title.

Northridge Prep had not trained on grass for the last week. Egle called the race a rust buster that was run with temperatures near 90 degrees with high humidity.

“We have trained in this weather all summer,” Northridge Prep senior leader Andrew Brockmeier said. “We can’t use the hot weather as an excuse. We just have to continue to work hard and get the job done.”

Northridge Prep ran a start race working their way up after Prospect, led by TJ Garland, had pushed the pace the first mile. Brockmeier and his teammates worked their way towards the front in the second mile of the race with Brockmeier taking the lead with less than a mile to go.

He went on and finished with a 13:44.9 time for the 2.5-mile course. Prospect took the next spot with Jack Dechoudens finishing 13 seconds back in second-place. Northridge Prep had the advantage through four runners 17-19. Prospect put in their fifth through seventh runners ahead of Northridge Prep’s fifth runner. Prospect had the slight edge 28-29.

Both Egle and Renaud were happy with their teams. The key for the meet was the tremendous racing that took place on the Prospect Campus Course. Egle has a team that will send messages out to any opponents, either 1A, 2A, or 3A that they are able to compete against anyone.

Now he just needs a place for his team to race at.

If anyone has an opening for Northridge Prep to run in the Suburban Cook County Region, let Egle know.

Photo: Andrew Brockmeier just before 2-miles at Prospect – 28 August 2020