DGN at First to the Finish Invite story (varsity)

At the 2013 First to the Finish Invitational, Downers Grove North senior Zac Christensen broke 16:00 for the first time in any cross country race at Peoria's Detweiller Park, the home course for the state meet.

In his return to the invite Saturday, Christensen ran 15:21.3 over the 3.0 miles for another new personal record by 20 seconds.

Fellow senior Ryan Clevenger also had a PR -- in fact the second-fastest Downers North time ever at Detweiller -- to finish second overall (14:32.4).

"It definitely felt great being able to run that much faster, especially for the same race a year later was definitely a confidence booster," Christensen said. "Knowing that I'm playing a different role this year, it's important to keep running well and dropping times. We're showing as a team we're still in contention to do well at state if things fall into place."

Not everything else went the Trojans' way, but their sixth-place finish among several fellow ranked teams showed the potential of the defending state runners-up down the road.

Clevenger, seventh at state last year, only was beaten by McHenry senior Jesse Reiser (14:20.5), who was second at state in 2013 behind graduated Patrick Perrier of O’Fallon.

Sophomore Alec Danner (35th, personal-best 15:14.7) and Christensen (50th) also earned individual medals for top-50 finishes. Danner overcame having his shoe come loose early in the race and eventually losing it in the homestretch.

Left to Right: Sophomore Alec Danner, Senior Ryan Clevenger, and Senior Zac Christensen

Seniors Jack Diamond (77th, 15:40.4) and Bruce Tam Lin (100th, personal-best 15:53.5) completed the Trojans’ top five, followed by senior 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.

"Things did not go completely as planned, but a lot of people had PRs for Detweiller," Christensen said. "We ran well for essentially how things turned out. Even though we didn't turn out to get a trophy, we're still proud of how everyone ran.

"Granted we lost some strong runners (to graduation) but the team is still bouncing back. Guys have it in them to lose time. If things come together, we should be able to put up a pretty good team score (at state)."

The Trojans (262 points) finished 39 points behind fifth-place Saint Ignatius (223) for the invite's last team trophy in a 49-team field that had nine of the 14 top-rated teams in Class 3A either by DyeStat Illinois or MileSplit Illinois.

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) and New Trier (209).

The Trojans entered the meet ranked No. 9 by DyeStat and No. 10 by MileSplit as the fifth- and seventh-highest rated team among the field, respectively. Besides Danner’s shoe issues, Carter, the Trojans' No. 3 runner in their first two races, was battling illness.

Varsity race competitors (L to R): Bruce Tamlin (sr), Zac Christensen (sr), Jack Diamond (sr), Joe Carter (sr), Ryan Clevenger (sr), Drew Pyburn (so), Brad Wilcoxen (jr), Alec Danner (so) 

"It's almost kind of good that we're dealing with it now to kind of show these guys, 'Hey, look what we did when we're not having our best day,' " Downers North coach John Sipple said.

"We still ran fairly well and we kind of weathered the storm with some performances we know we can improve on. We kind of know from here if we stay healthy, get the job done over the next seven weeks, what it's going to translate into in November (at state Nov. 8)."

That even includes Clevenger. Despite not winning Saturday, he beat his 2013 state time of 14:38 at state last year as the third-highest finishing non-senior. He also improved upon his 14:45 that was first overall at the Detweiller at Dark race July 25.

Graduated Zack Smith ran a program-best 14:23 on Detweiller to finish third at state last year. Clevenger's performance Saturday edged Smith's all-state, eighth-place 14:33 from 2012, the all-time record going into last season.

"It was a great race nonetheless, even if I got second. I learned a lot from it. I got a PR, which is nice to have and drop your time lower," Clevenger said. "I'm very happy with where I'm at right now in the season. A great learning race, too. The only time I've raced (Reiser) has been in the state finals. This is the first race where I get to see how he runs at invites and see how he races the course."

The race had four of the nine non-seniors who were top-25, all-state performers at the 2013 state meet. Clevenger and Reiser were the only ones Saturday who were among the top 15.

Clevenger was in contention with Reiser for the first two miles with splits of 4:41 and 9:30. At the 2-mile mark, Reiser had roughly more than a one-second advantage but soon opened a gap along the east side of the course that borders Route 29.

"Once we made that diagonal turn into the 400-meter loop, he was gone," Clevenger said. "He was about 10, 15 meters ahead of me. That's where he broke me pretty much."

Although the chance of winning began to wane, Clevenger finished out strong in 5:02. He was nearly 12 seconds ahead of third-place Buffalo Grove senior Kevin Salvano (14:44.2), who was 20th at state in 2013. Edwardsville senior Brydon Groves-Scott, 23rd at state last year, was fifth (14:46.3) behind Neuqua Valley junior Connor Horn (14:45.4), hampered by injuries as a sophomore.

"I still have my expectations set on winning state. It definitely put things more into perspective that I can't overlook Jesse or any of them," Clevenger said. "Especially just running the PR was a big deal for me, especially since (it had been) from last year, state meet. It just shows what kind of fitness I'm in, to show that I'm already a little faster than where I was at the end of the season."

Sipple said Clevenger also received tactical benefits while battling Reiser throughout most of the race.

"Last year with Perrier (the state favorite), guys were running off of him to some extent, but now when it was just Ryan and (Reiser), we knew it was going to be kind of mano y mano with some ideas about where he likes to move, what he likes to do," Sipple said.

"He was testing Ryan, throwing some surges, so we kind of know how to attack his race plan next time we see him. We'll see if there's a different result (at state), but it's nice to run 14:32 considering that 14:45 he ran at the course in July, it was rock hard. What he did was good because it was a little softer this time around."

Clevenger, Christensen and Diamond return from last year's state lineup. Besides Smith, the Trojans graduated their No. 3-4-5 state finishers in Marc Mathy, Jeremy Craven and Jared Spilky. Danner and Carter were state alternates.

For Danner, Saturday's primary foe in the race was his shoe. Like most major cross country races, the invite's timing was done through a computer chip system with sensor mats at the finish line. Individuals secured these chips into the laces of their shoes.

Everything started to unravel in just the first 800 meters, when the shoe came loose and Danner needed to stop to again secure it over his heel. The shoe later became untied and eventually fell off, forcing Danner to run without it for the final quarter mile.

"I kind of lowered the shoelaces and forgot to kind of put them back into the loops and re-tie them," said Danner, who reclaimed his lost shoe after the race.

"I didn't even worry about (the lost shoe). I just kept going until the finish. I was kind of getting worried can I make it through the race going like this, but I just kind of stuck it out. It might not be as fast as I wanted, but I still want to finish strong and get through the race with a good time."

Danner's ultimate goal was to break 15:00 but his 15:14.7 was yet another personal-best time. He recovered his fallen shoe after the race.

"I was pretty psyched about that," Danner said. "Not every race is perfect so I'm just looking forward to the other big invites so I can get a faster time, not having any shoe complications in the future."

Tamlin also had a big breakthrough. Like Christensen last year, the second-year cross country runner finished under 16:00 for the first time in a race. Tamlin also made the team’s biggest move over the final two miles, improving 84 places and finishing in 5:42. Wilcoxen improved 66 places after the first mile.

State-qualifying teams are allowed as many as 12 official runners -- seven to compete with five alternates. In order to replicate the state experience through the invite, the Trojans drove their top 12 runners to Peoria Friday to work out on the course, go out to eat together and stay overnight.

"It's seven new guys (compared to our 2013 lineup) so it's even better, bringing down more guys for that experience," Christensen said. "It gives them experience to see what that's like. It's something really good for them."

Among the Trojans' well-wishers Saturday was Spilky, who now is a freshman at Bradley University in Peoria. Christensen said there was a college meet at Detweiller Friday but the team did not connect with him then.

"Seeing him there was great," Christensen said. "Keeping up with those guys, staying in touch is always a good thing."

-- by Bill Stone