DGN at First to the Finish Invite roundup

Downers Grove North senior Ryan Clevenger ran even faster than his seventh-place finish at the 2013 Class 3A state meet Saturday, Sept. 13 – and it earned him second place at the First to the Finish Invitational at Peoria’s Detweiller Park, annual site of the state meet.

The Trojans (262 points) finished sixth in a 49-team field that had nine of the 14 top-rated teams in Class 3A either by DyeStat Illinois or MileSplit Illinois.

Clevenger (14:32.4 for 3.0 miles) only was beaten by McHenry senior Jesse Reiser (14:20.5), who took second at state last year in 14:22, one second behind graduated Patrick Perrier of O’Fallon. Graduated Zack Smith, now at Illinois, was third at state in 14:23 – the fastest Detweiller time in Downers North history – while Clevenger ran 14:38 as the third-highest finishing non-senior.

Sophomore Alec Danner (35th, 15:14.7), despite losing his shoe during Saturday’s race, and senior Zac Christensen (50th, 15:21.3) also earned individual medals for top-50 finishes, followed by seniors Jack Diamond (77th, 15:40.4) Bruce Tamlin (100th, 15:53.5), and Joe Carter (161st, 16:16.8), junior Bradley Wilcoxen (215th, 16:36.6) and sophomore Drew Pyburn (223rd, 16:39.7) in his varsity debut.

Varsity teams were allowed 10 entries. Carter, the Trojans’ No. 3 finisher in their first two meets, was battling illness.

The Trojans entered the meet ranked No. 9 by DyeStat and No. 10 by MileSplit and the fifth- and seventh-highest rated team among the field, respectively.

Defending state champion and top-ranked Hinsdale Central put five runners in the top 30 and won with 86 points, followed by Neuqua Valley (153), Lyons Township (201), New Trier (209) and Saint Ignatius (223).

In the open race, sophomore Tristan Jahn was the Trojans’ top finisher (51st, 16:50.5) and just missed an individual medal by one place and 2.2 seconds. Freshman Nick Chudzik (62nd, 16:56.7), junior Robby Prescott (63rd, 16:59.1) also broke 17:00 and sophomore Zach Goliszewski (83rd, 17:10.1), freshman Jacob Ridderhoff (93rd, 17:19.7), sophomore Andrew Marek (100th, 17:23.0), senior Dillon Murphy (139th, 17:40.6), sophomore Don Knapp (151st, 17:44.2), junior Nick Torres (169th, 17:51.2), senior Jack McGinnis (172nd, 17:53.2), juniors Rocco Manzo (173rd, 17:53.5) and Ryan Cantlin (180th, 17:54.9) and freshman Ryan Birkmeier (190th, 17:57.5) broke 18:00. No team scores were kept.

The Trojans open West Suburban Conference Silver Division dual meet action against Hinsdale Central at home Thursday, Sept. 18, at Greene Valley Forest Preserve.

-- by Bill Stone

Complete First to the Finish results are available at RaceResultsPlus.com at the URL:
http://www.raceresultsplus.com/event/first-finish-xc-invitational