LOCKPORT - Its been a tradition for almost 25 years, as Lockport hosted the annual Loctoberfest boy’s cross country meet on Saturday at Dellwood Park.
“I can’t tell you for sure, but this has to be around 25 years for this meet,” Lockport coach Tom Razo said. “The Crete-Monee Pow Wow used to be the big early October meet, but we wanted to establish this meet and it has worked out so well. Dellwood Park is a great venue to have a real cross country meet with all the hills and terrain in the park.”
Behind the three-four individual finish from Jack Roberts and Justin Falejczyk in an identical time of 16:41.70, Lincoln-Way East defeated Wheaton North 44-46 in this 21-team meet. Lincoln-Way Central finished third with 128 points, with Lockport fifth, Plainfield North seventh. Plainfield South (13th), Lincoln-Way West (14th), Lemont (15th), Joliet Central (17th) and Bolingbrook (18th) rounded out the local teams in the race.
Wheaton North’s Caleb Youngstedt was the overall winner in 16:27, but the Griffins 3-4-5 runners of Drew Arnold in seventh, Michael O’Brien (17th) and Miguel Garcia in 18th proved to be the difference for the team title.
“This was our first time running this course, it was fun, but it was definitely a grinder, " Roberts said. “Every time I saw those hills on the backside, I knew I just had to kick it into gear. Coach [Ross Widinski] gave us the heads up about the gravel trails, the hills and all the different surfaces that we would be on and that really helped.
“Our goal is to get to Peoria for the state meet and place as high as a team as we can.”
As Roberts and Falejczyk approached the final straight-away to the finish, Roberts had a slight lead on his teammate, but Falajczyk made a move and passed two other runners and leaned with Roberts at the finish line, as both were given the same time.
“We didn’t know who got who at the end, but we are teammates, so as long as we were together, but we did have a good laugh about it,” Falejczyk said. “This was a real cross-country course. I didn’t think I would like it, but it felt really good and it was definitely a challenge, but everyone on our team likes challenges.”
Widinski likes where his Griffins are at this point of the season, with just over a month to go and saw this race as a huge confidence builder moving forward.
“This is the first time we have been back at this meet in about ten years and it was a great way to return,” Widinski said. “Myself and our coaching staff are very proud of this group and today, on a very difficult course is a big confidence builder. The key at this time of year is to stay healthy, but yet always be competitive. That is what is so outstanding about this group, they are so competitive everyday in practice and that has made us a better team”
Central was led by the fifth place finish of senior Ethan Hoff (16:43), with Plainfield North freshman Thomas Czerwinski finishing ninth (16:49). The host Porters had a 12th place finish from senior Michael Welcome (16:52).
“We are starting to figure it out as a team and we were missing one of our top five today and you couldn’t have ask for nicer weather,” Razo said of his Porters.”
Plainfield South, which is the number one ranked team in the state, did not run their top seven, as they were to participate in a meet on Saturday evening in Indiana. North, which is ranked 10th in the state, did the same. as they prepare for the Naperville North Twilight Meet on Wednesday evening under the lights.