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IL#3 Loyola Upsets IL#1 York at Palatine Invite

Published by
patrick   Sep 27th 2009, 6:29pm
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By: Scotty Bush
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The much anticipated showdown between IL#1 York and IL#3 Loyola took place Saturday morning at the Palatine Invite.  With near perfect race conditions, this race promised to be fast, and it certainly lived up to its billing.  For York, Palatine generally signifies the start of their invitational competition, but Loyola only raced in their second big meet of the year, after turning in an outstanding performance last weekend in Peoria.

As the gun sounded Saturday morning, a large pack shot to the front, led by Palatine’s Chano Bernardo and Loyola’s Nico Composto.  As the mile approached, Loyola, York and Palatine were each making a strong push for position, looking to where they needed to be.  Composto and Bernardo crossed the mile marker in 4:46, dragging along a long line of runners.

Into the second mile the runners ran, as the 1.5 mile mark, a front pack had clearly distinguished themselves, as Composto, his teammates Mark Donohue and Jack Seeberg, York’s Andrew Smith and Jack Driggs, Lyons Township’s Sam Telfar and Dundee-Crown’s Anthony Manfrin all looked strong.  The pack remained much the same through the two mile marker, which the front runners hit at 9:49.

At that point, Loyola was clearly established up top, but York’s top three weren’t scoring more than 3-4 points behind Loyola’s.  Many were wondering if Loyola’s fifth man, Mac Ford, could do the job, and at the two mile he was sitting in the top 30 and looking strong.

DSC_0135In the final straight, Driggs and Smith pulled ahead of Composto for the lead, but with 200 meters to go, Composto shot to the lead and never looked back, crossing the line victoriously in 14:12.  York then placed Smith and Driggs 2-3, while Seeberg and Donohue finished 4-5 overall.  The race for the team title was on and it was all coming down to the two teams’ 4-5 runners.  The crowd knew it and the energy continued to build.

York junior Ron Hedman ran a great race, finishing seventh overall, finishing as their third runner, while Loyola’s fourth Patrick Smith finished 14th, two spots ahead of York’s fourth in Khushpal Sangha.  The difference maker was Mac Ford, who finished 23rd overall, five spots ahead of York’s Matt Schacht (their fifth man), giving Loyola a decisive 47-56 victory over York.

While the Loyola v. York battle stole the headlines, and rightfully so, IL#5 Palatine ran the best race of their season, placing third overall with 85 points.  The Pirates were led by the 8-9 finish of Alec Bollman and Chano Bernardo, while running a 23 second 1-5 split.  Loyola’s top five ran a 47 second 1-5, while York ran 51 second 1-5.

Rounding out the top ten teams were Lyons Twp. (179 points), Maine South (222), St. Charles North (230), Fremd (237), Moline (250), Lake Zurich (262) and Barrington (294).

Full Boys Varsity Results

Palatine Invitational Race Results

 

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