STORY: DGN at First to the Finish (varsity)

Downers Grove North junior boys cross country runner Alec Danner returned to Peoria’s Detweiller Park Saturday, Sept. 12, with his doubts.
Although Danner was coming off his first major varsity invite victory by 5.8 seconds, he had higher time goals and faced a much stronger field in the Class 3A boys race at of the First to the Finish Invitational.
“My confidence was a bit hindered by the St. Charles Invite (Sept. 5). I ran 15:18 and I was a bit unsure of where my fitness was at, even though I won the race,” Danner said.
By the end of the 3.0-mile race, Danner not only had finished sixth. More importantly, he ran a lifetime-best 14:43.4 – his first race under 15:00 and slightly under his goal time of 14:45.
“This really, really built up my confidence,” Danner said. “Now I’m sure I can be up with the frontrunners when state comes around and possibly in the top 10 because that’s my goal for this whole season.”
Danner had plenty of company. There were several happy Trojans after all nine performers in the race came away with personal records.
Downers North, ranked No. 18 in 3A by DyeStatIL, took seventh (269 points) in a field with 12 top-25 rated teams. They finished behind the six teams ranked ahead of them. No. 2 Lyons Township defeated two-time defending 3A state champion No. 5 Hinsdale Central 80-96 for the title.
Senior Robby Prescott (18th, 14:59.0) also broke the 15:00 barrier for the first time and earned a top-50 medal.
Sophomores Jacob Ridderhoff (66th, 15:38.1) and Nick Chudzik (79th, 15:43.8), junior Andrew Marek (114th, 15:54.6) and sophomore Ryan Birkmeier (121st, 15:56.5) all broke 16:00, followed by senior Nick Torres (169th, 16:17.5), sophomore Sam McCool (180th, 16:20.2) and junior Zach Goliszewski (191st, 16:26.6). Teams were allowed as many as 10 entries.
“I think seeing everybody smiling on their face (is great). I think everybody’s so pumped that they had a great race today,” Prescott said.
“We went 9 for 9 in PRs so that was good -- a lot of good performances,” Downers North coach John Sipple added.
“It’s a beautiful day. I’m glad the guys took advantage and got it done. The nice part is we can run better. We're such a young group. It’s good that they’re getting the exposure in a huge race like this. It’s a different experience than normal and to get (those times) here on this course is a big step forward for us.”
Danner was 35th at last year’s invite in 15:14.7, when he also lost his shoe during the race. He then finished 50th at the 3A state meet in 15:06 – his PR prior to Saturday.
As the meet announcer read a DyeStat preview article prior to the race, Danner was mentioned as a contender in a list with another 16 runners.
“People on the team and even Sipple point me to read (articles), and also like reading some of those DyeStat articles,” Danner said. “Having my name on there is nice, just to be recognized by Illinois and how great of a state the cross country program is.”
Danner got out with the frontrunners and stayed there. The frontrunners soon broke into a title battle between Buffalo Grove senior Kevin Salvano and Hinsdale Central junior Blake Evertsen and others in contention for third through eighth.
Salvano edged Evertsen 14:25.8 for the title. Salvano, fifth at state in 2014, is the second-highest non-senior finisher behind third-place Lake Zurich junior Matt Pereira. Evertsen was 12th at state for state champion Hinsdale Central.
Danner ended up 3.2 seconds behind Lyons Township junior Vince Zona (14:40.2), 35th at state last year, and 3.1 seconds ahead of New Trier senior Josh Derrick (14:46.5), who wasn’t part of the Trevians’ state lineup.
“For the longest part of the race, I was in fourth and with this other guy. We were both pushing each other and it was an essential part of why I ran fast today,” Danner said.
The only other 2014 all-staters in the race were LT senior Connor Madell (15th) and Hinsdale Central senior Chris Brenk (25th), who were 14th (14:55.8) and 16th (14:56.1), respectively. Danner had beaten Highland Park senior Brett Davidson (14:43.3) by eight seconds and two places en route to winning the season-opening EIU Showdown Aug. 25 at Greene Valley Forest Preserve in 15:22.
“I know all of the elites weren’t here for this race, all of the big names, but I’m just confident that I can race them and beat the guys -- some of the guys that beat me today because I was in a three-second gap to third,” Danner said.
“Sometimes it doesn’t always work out. You set goals for yourself and they don’t really hit but this is on the big, main goals that I hit spot on. Coming up to the finish, I see the time on the clock and I was just blown away.”
Prescott also was elated when he saw he was going to break 15:00 -- with some slight reservations. His previous best was 15:19 at Detweiller this summer at the annual Detweiller at Dark Meet July 24.
“That was my goal coming in here and I was excited as soon as I crossed the line to see the time,” Prescott said. “I’m hoping, ‘(Fully automatic time) doesn’t push me back a little bit (over 15:00).’ I’m pretty stoked.”
“That was pretty much what we were looking for. (Danner and Prescott) accomplished exactly what we were hoping to do today,” Sipple said. “It’s nice when they can execute like that. It makes my life easier. We’re well on our way now.”
Prescott continued his tremendous strides from a strong ending to 2014. He ran 54 seconds faster than at the state meet (172nd, 15:53) and about one minute faster than at the 2014 invite, when he was 63rd in the open race (16:59.1).
The big difference since then has been focusing on running year-round after splitting time with traveling baseball his past cross country seasons. He also played for the Trojans’ baseball teams as a freshman and sophomore but joined track for the first time as a junior.
“I feel a lot better training. I’m putting the mileage in. I’m all in, all out. That’s like our mantra this year,” Prescott said. “This is a lot tougher than baseball because you’re always going. You really can’t stop. I like this a lot more, though.”
The sophomore trio of Ridderhoff, Chudzik and Birkmeier continues growing up fast. They received their first dose of varsity action together at St. Charles’ Leavey Invite and now were on the bigger stage Saturday.
“I was kind of nervous. (But) I knew the weather was perfect, nice and cool, and my legs felt good. I knew that I could do well,” Ridderhoff said.
Still, Ridderhoff ended up quite surprised by his time – a 1:41 improvement from being 93rd in last year’s open race in 17:19.7. It was his best race and marked the first time he finished ahead of both Chudzik and Birkmeier this season.
“I always start off a little faster than they do. Once I started going, I just never looked back,” Ridderhoff said.
“I hit the first mile and was just surprised. Once I hit the second mile at 10:15, I just knew that I had to keep going. When I came around to the finish and saw the time, I was just surprised that I was right there.
“Just training has been improving and I’ve been putting in the work and I just benefitted today. It’s just encouraging, knowing that I can hang with these guys that are really good.”
Also making big strides from last year’s open race times at the invite were Chudzik (16:56.7), Goliszewski (17:10.1), Marek (17:23.0), Torres (17:51.2) and Birkmeier (17:57.5) and McCool (18:37.9).
Five of them improved by at least one minute Saturday -- McCool (2:17) and Birkmeier (2:01) by more than two minutes.
Torres said he felt he had his best 2014 race at the invite. He was 1:34 better Saturday.
“A course PR for myself is pretty big,” Torres said. “Being possibly my last race here, I wanted to give it my all and just put it all out there on the course and leave nothing out there, which I think I did. I felt great about how I finished.”

First to the Finish Invitational
Saturday, September 12
Detweiller Park, Peoria

Class 3A boys

Top 10 teams: 
1. No. 2/3 Lyons Township 80
2. No. 5/4 HINSDALE CENTRAL 96
3. No. 11/11 Buffalo Grove 160
4. No. 9/7 New Trier 209
5. No. 15/NR Fishers (Ind.) 231
6. No. 12/8 Whitney Young 242
7. No. 18/16 Downers Grove North 269
8. No. 19/19 Marmion 270
9. NR/NR McHenry 277
10. No. 13/17 Lincoln-Way North 309
(Last week’s rankings by DyeStatIL/MileSplitIL)

Downers North finishers (3.0 miles): 6. Alec Danner 14:43.4*, 18. Robby Prescott14:59.0*, 66. Jacob Ridderhoff 15:38.1, 79. Nick Chudzik 15:43.8, 114. Andrew Marek15:54.6, 121. Ryan Birkmeier 15:56.5, 169. Nick Torres 16:17.5, 180. Sam McCool16:20.2, 191. Zach Goliszewski 16:26.6
*- Top 50 medalwinners

Open boys

No team scores kept

Downers North top-500 individual finishers (3.0 miles): 13. Donny Knapp 16:25.1*, 15. Rocco Manzo 16:25.7*, 23. Miles Christensen 16:37.3*, 30. Bradley Wilcoxen16:43.1*, 34. Brendan Lockerby 16:46.4*,

98. Tyler Mertes 17:28.5, 101. Robert Falconer 17:29.7, 104. Reilly Britt 17:30.9, 125. Jack Ramsden 17:37.0, 129. Devun Pontrelli 17:38.4, 149. Nate Doro 17:46.3, 181. Nate Jefferies 17:59.7, 183. Collin Leger 18:00.1, 185. Jack Lanagan 18:00.3, 212. Max Krause 18:12.3, 259. Jack Roberts 18:28.5, 262. Spencer Casey 18:28.9, 280. Drew Pyburn 18:35.3, 309. Liam Johnson 18:46.1, 334. Phil Ruggiero 18:54.7, 340. Ryan Chan 18:55.6, 378. Mitch Rapach 19:11.2, 384. Thomass Mejdrech 19:13.5, 425. T.J. LeBlanc 19:35.4, 434.Kevin Sachtleben 19:40.3, 437. Steven Calvanese 19:41.9, 445. Reynolds Boone19:50.2, 456. Ed Rybowiak 19:55.6, 464. Ben Gartlan 20:00.9, 498. Michael Conkright20:23.7
*- Top 50 medalwinners

Complete results available at: http://www.raceresultsplus.com/event/first-finish-invitational