Brandon Lukas was struggling to find his way on the Sandburg cross country team when he found motivation under his own roof.
“My sister is a huge inspiration to me,” Lukas said. “My sophomore year, Jade went out for cross country her freshman year and that really inspired me. It kind of pushed me from being an open runner to being a top-seven runner … her courage and determination.
“In eighth grade, I was actually pretty good, but I got iron deficient. I felt my life was in the gutter freshman year. I was sad all the time, but when she did cross country, it got me going.”
Now a senior, Brandon Lukas won the individual title in 15 minutes, 11 seconds Saturday in the Class 3A Sandburg Regional to lead the Eagles to the team championship at Midlothian Meadows.
Sandburg (21), Shepard (67), Oak Lawn (102), Eisenhower (124), Argo (137) and Stagg (148) qualified for the Hinsdale Central Sectional.
“This race especially, I felt like I really needed to prove myself,” Lukas said. “I wanted to win, but I also wanted my teammates to perform well, too.”
Sandburg’s top five were Lukas, David Gleisner (second, 15:14), Dan Laskero (fourth, 15:26), Paul Sieczkowski (sixth, 15:45 and Alex Szymanski (eighth, 15:50).
“These past couple weeks and the week to come are really hard training weeks,” Gleisner said. “We’re looking to keep improving, make sure state is our best race.”
Tom Brennan, Sandburg’s top runner, has been sidelined for two weeks with a hamstring injury.
“He’s the toughest guy we’ve got,” Sandburg coach John O’Malley said. “But just physically, is he going to be able to get ready for state or sectionals? If he’s able to, it’s just pure toughness.”
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Sandburg won the girls title thanks to Erica Cerva (third, 18:43), Jade Lukas (fifth, 19:00), Grace Foley (sixth, 19:04), Dana McKay (ninth, 19:16) and Casey Jensen (21st, 20:27).
Sandburg (44), Fenwick (52), Mother McAuley (54), Stagg (118), Shepard (167) and Oak Lawn (170) advanced to the sectional.
McAuley senior Ashley Canner raced to the individual championship (18:25), with junior teammate Ashley Bryja a close second (18:33).
“I think it’s really awesome, something to look back on my senior year, that I won regionals,” Canner said. “Toward the first mile, I was feeling strong, so I just pushed my way through and kept it the whole time.”
Going the extra mile: Thornton junior Harry Osborne proved he was committed to cross country when he made the trip from Harvey last summer to train with Sandburg.
“I trained with one of the top teams in the state,” Osborne said. “I thanked them for that, for taking me in as another individual and making me into a stronger runner.
“A lot of the workouts we did were very mental, but I was very tired, very fatigued. I was able to find in a lot of those workouts, the inner side of me and keep going forward.”
Osborne finished 10th (16:04.34) out of 62 runners in the Sandburg Regional to advance as an individual to the Hinsdale Central Sectional with teammate Allen Davis (24th).
Regional highlights: The addition of traditional Class 2A power Illiana Christian to the 3A field didn’t keep Lincoln-Way North from retaining the title at the Andrew Regional.
North’s top five were Demetri Panici (third, 15:37), Noah Healy (fourth, 15:44), Kyle Bechtold (seventh, 15:54), Mark Harris (10th, 16:13) and Mike Trost (13th, 16:26).
Illiana Christian’s Colin DeYoung, an All-Stater, finished first in 15:32.
Lincoln-Way West junior Evan Mitchell claimed his second consecutive regional victory (16:25) to lead the Warriors to the 2A Crete-Monee Regional championship.
Lemont edged Montini 65-67 to win the girls title at the 2A Marist Regional. Taylor Campos (fifth), Bridget Kunkel (seventh), Gabby Voltarel (ninth), Claire Gagen (15th) and Jaycee Schickel (29th) were scorers for Lemont.
Tim Tierney is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.