Cross Country: Lyons Township's Danny Kilrea wins state

Lyons Township senior Danny Kilrea received quite a compliment after his Class 3A boys cross country state championship race Saturday.

“Coach [Mike] Danner hugged me for the first time ever. It’s pretty meaningful,” Kilrea said. “He’s not emotional, but I could see the happiness in his eyes. He’s such a great coach trying to get me to accomplish everything I can. I think it was such an accomplishment for us both. He deserves almost as much credit.”

Kilrea captured the state title in 14 minutes, 8 seconds over 3 miles to join Warren Druetzler in 1946 as the Lions’ only individual state champions. Druetzler, who passed away in September, was later the NCAA mile champion at Michigan State and a finalist at the 1952 Olympics.

With rain and five earlier state races softening the course, Kilrea equaled his second-place time from 2016 state, which shares the 13th-fastest time at any state finals. Kilrea was 10th as a sophomore.

“It’s really a surreal feeling. It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Kilrea said. “I’ve thought about this moment ever since I was a sophomore. It’s just only become a more realistic dream every year since. Now that it’s finally happened, I’m just overcome with joy.”

Last season, Kilrea was second to graduated Minooka standout Soren Knudsen’s 14:02. This time, it was projected to be a showdown between Kilrea and Sandburg senior Dylan Jacobs, third in 2016 just two seconds behind Kilrea. They will be teammates at Notre Dame with Kilrea’s former LT standout teammate Vince Zona.

In their only other meeting this season Oct. 28, Jacobs beat Kilrea by eight seconds in winning the Hinsdale Central Sectional. On Saturday, Prospect senior Jack Terry was second (14:18) with Jacobs seventh (14:36) after being among the frontrunners the first two miles.

“Sectionals didn’t concern me at all. My main focus the whole time was state. Since Nov. 5, 2016, this moment has been on my mind,” Kilrea said. “Just crossing that line, knowing I was a state champion, all of my work I’ve put in since June just kind of running into one crossing of the line, it was just awesome.”

An only slight disappointment was that course conditions inhibited Kilrea from challenging Craig Virgin’s legendary record time of 13:50.6 from 1972. At Detweiller Sept. 9, Kilrea ran 14:02.3 in winning the First to the Finish Invite by 46.2 seconds.

“I think the more important thing at any state meet is place,” Kilrea said. “You can’t always get the best of both worlds. If this was in the same condition when I ran 14:02, maybe it would have been a different story, but you never know.”

The LT boys finished fifth (191 points) – their sixth straight top-five finish.

Kilrea was followed by seniors Charlie Harders (42nd, 15:01) and Patrick Kane (61st, 15:14), junior Colin Costello (66th, 15:15), sophomore Jack Ehlert (89th, 15:25), freshman Owen Hays (131st, 15:36) and senior Andrew Tarasuk (181st, 16:34).

The LT girls finished third (184) to earn their third state trophy and first since 2007.

Junior Marta Kogucki was 29th (17:35), 11 seconds from top-25, all-state honors, followed closely by junior Emily Henkel (32nd, 17:38) and freshman Kate Dickman (38th, 17:41), seniors Cara Paliakas (56th, 17:52) and Kirsten Meyer (90th, 18:08), sophomore Maddie Cranny (139th, 18:29) and senior Lily Kedzuch (150th, 18:35).

“[Our trophy] makes up for [all-state] because we run for this team. We don’t run for ourselves,” Kogucki said.

All but Kogucki and Dickman returned from last year’s fifth-place state lineup with Sarah Barcelona (11th) and Henkel (16th) all-state sophomores. Despite losing Barcelona to injury this season, the Lions continued gaining momentum from winning regionals and sectionals.

“Winning doesn’t really define who we are, but I think we looked at each other and said, ‘We have something special. We have a chance [at state],’” Henkel said. “Just being such a close and special team, we came together and realized we needed to pick it up."