Championship Season Kicks Off

Championship season is a special time, a time where the weather turns, the leaves fall and the races bring an extra level of excitement. The first step is the SPC Championship run at Channahon Community Park.

The day kicked off with the frosh/soph, the young guns race a very aggressive race with Arnold Arce leading the pack through the 1K mark on the race, he would pay for that early pace but the beauty of XC is as he faded his teammates Raymond Churchill and Ubaldo Rodriguez picked him up and encouraged him along and those three all finished within 8 seconds of each other to give the team a strong pack up front. Tyler Weir fought tough with Brogan Terry close behind to round out the scoring. Luke Adair hit a rough patch in the middle but came back strong the last mile. Colin Elder battle through shin splints to leave it all on the course for his teammates. A 7^th place finish for the frosh/soph crew in a very tough conference, congrats to PN for the win.

Varsity was up next, we knew the pack would be deep with the quality in the SPC. The goal was to trust our fitness and move up the second half of the race. Paul De Avila led the way finishing 13^th overall and earning all-conference and running his fastest 3 mile time ever (on a course that is not lightning fast) a great start to the post season for Paul. Paul was 19^th at the mile and moved up well to get 6 more places. Aaron Wyckoff was our next finisher in 24 place (just outside of all-conference), running his fastest 3 mile XC time as well, Aaron moved up masterfully he was 41^st at the mile and moved up 17 places over the next two miles. Mike Forbear did not have his best race but fought tough to finish right behind Aaron. Cam Mulyk ran with strength and confidence running just off a PR. Alex Rojo rounded out the scoring as he moved up a few spots the final mile to just miss a PR. Sophomore’s Tyler Schick and Harlen Matson rounded out the varsity race. The team finished 5^th overall, which is the Wildcats highest finish in a long time. Congrats to Oswego on the SPC title.

The open race had a great race up front from Jayson Matula, he ran a 3 second PR and finished in the top 10. Kyle Schick also earned medalist in the open race. Tanner Torri ran a season best and snagged the final medalist spot in front of his teammate Patrick Kacena who also ran a season best. Rounding out the scoring for 4^th place in the open race was a PR from Michael Kawa. The open race had PRs continue to flow in: Richie Ruane, Asher Bradley, Josh Kodura all came in within 15 seconds to run season bests. Justin Matula was the next PR, Justin ran 26:42 in his first race and he finished his season with a 20:10! Hunter Porn finished his career with a season best. Kaden Baker became our 29^th guy to break 21 minutes this season. Luke Huntowksi and Gabe Ibarra rolled in with PRs to finish their seasons. Adrian Castillo is another guy who has made massive improvements going from running 26 minutes to running 22:35 to finish his season.

The Wildcats had a great day at the SPC Championship and now the goal is preparation for the IHSA Regional.