Cross country: Newman, Erie-Prophetstown run well at 50th Amboy Columbus Day meet

AMBOY – Although it doesn’t have the same prestige it once did, the Amboy Columbus Day Cross Country Meet celebrated its 50th anniversary with Eureka claiming titles in the boys and girls races.

“Outside of Peoria [site of the state meet], this was perhaps the premier Class A meet, and had been for most of the years,” said Dale Eller, former coach at Amboy and longtime observer of the race.

The brainstorm of former Amboy math teacher and cross-country coach Bruce Wall, the event began because school was out on Columbus Day and no meets were to be found anywhere.

“We used to have 60-70 schools, including one time I remember, nine of the top 10 teams in the state,” Eller said. “Schools from all over Illinois wanted to come here to see how they stacked up against the best in the state.”

[ Photos: 50th Columbus Cross Country invite in Amboy ]

This year, 33 schools were represented with only about half of them fielding a full team.

“Small schools everywhere are hurting with numbers,” Eller said. “Another factor with meet participation is some schools have gone back to having school on Columbus Day, and don’t forget about budget for travel.”

The Amboy meet is restrictive in that only 1A schools are invited. Rock Falls, which had added greatly to the competitive flavor over the years, was bumped to 2A and opted out.

“Since they were 1A last year, we would have let them in,” Eller said. “But I talked to their coach and he said they decided to concentrate on 2A competition instead.”

Losing other schools that have increased in enrollment have dampened the luster, such as former entrant Sandwich with the top female runner in 2A.

For the girls, the top local finisher was Erie-Prophetstown in sixth place among 16 teams. E-P has never qualified for the state meet, and coach Liz Green is hopeful that will change.

“We need to stay healthy, have a good mindset and work together,” said Green as she photographed runners. “What helps is that they are really good friends and build each other up.”

It was a pair of freshmen leading the way with Sarah Link at 20:20 to place 20th. Jessie DeNeve was 30th at 21:18 among 133 competitors.

“I was terrified,” Link said. “I wasn’t sure I would run this meet with my hip and shins bothering me, but glad I did.”

Besides Link, the only other local to place in the top 25 was multi-sport athlete Ella Dannhorn of Oregon, who ran 20:49 for 25th.

On the boys side, Erie-Prophetstown continued its impressive season with fifth place out of 18 teams. Considering Lucas Dreisbach (hip), Wyatt Goossens (hamstring) and Zane Romero (knee) were out with minor aches, E-P demonstrated its depth.

Top runner Charlie Link took sixth with a time of 15:55. The winner was Patrick Hilby (15:21) of Aurora Central Catholic, who was second last year.

“I was just going for time,” said Link, a senior who ran the Amboy meet for the first time after injury and Covid derailments. “I’m 100% healthy.”

Close behind E-P in team scoring was Newman in sixth. Eureka nipped Elmwood/Brimfield 43-52 for the championship, with E-P tallying 134 points and Newman 183.

“I’m happy with the first two guys [Lucas Simpson and Lucas Schaab], and I think 3-4-5 were okay,” Newman coach Pat Warkins said. “We’re peaking at the right time. If you take the [state champ] 2009 team out, we’re close or better than some of the other Newman teams.”

Simpson moved up from 17th last year to 12th with a time of 16:26. There were 155 entrants.

“The weather cooling down helps,” Simpson said. “It also helps having everyone back and healthy.”

Schaab chased his teammate to the finish line with a 16:36 time, good for 17th. That was an improvement of 10 spots from 2022. Both are seniors and hoping their team can be remembered as one of the best in a program that is a perennial state qualifier.

“It would be great to break into the top 20 at state,” Schaab said. “This was the first meet all year we’ve seen competition like this.”