Back in late August, before Sandburg started its boys cross country season, coach John O’Malley wanted to make sure his team would cherish the journey.
“One of our pillars for the season is to look up and enjoy what we have here and who we have here,” O’Malley said at the time.
The Eagles did that — and then some.
Sandburg followed its Class 3A state championship with a victory in the Nike Cross Midwest Regional in Indiana, and then took fourth last weekend in the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon.
Sandburg was 15th in the national race last season, the first time the Eagles qualified for the event.
“It’s an awesome feeling, placing the best our team ever has,” Chris Torpy said. “We’re the only Sandburg team that ever made it to nationals. Our coach has done a great job. We really stayed on top of things.
“To place well and kind of perform for the guys who never were able to make it that far, it’s nice. We had a lot of support from alumni.”
Sandburg’s top five last Saturday were Sean Torpy (62nd), Brandon Lukas (68th), Chris Torpy (70th), Max Lehnhardt (80th) and Martin Skucas (102nd). Tom Brennan (149th) and Dylan Jacobs (189th) completed the Eagles’ lineup.
“It took a lot of work and focus and determination to get there,” Sean Torpy said. “There’s thousands of high schools across the country. You’ve got to be on top of your game if you want to make it to that meet.”
Sandburg had an impressive 18.6-second split in its top five. O’Malley complimented the Eagles for maintaining their focus after the Illinois season.
“This extended season is kind of tough for a lot of teams to get energy for and extend their effort for, still have that sort of aggressive mentality to go out and win,” O’Malley said.
“It was pretty neat to see their character throughout that. Going through Thanksgiving and extra weeks when we don’t have official school practices, their focus was just as driven.”
Only 22 schools qualified for the national meet: the top two teams from each of eight regionals and six at-large teams.
“It’s kind of an overwhelming experience the first time around,” Brennan said. “A lot of people are just happy to be there. I mean, you’re always going to be happy to be there. But it was our second time around, so we were a little less shell-shocked.
“It wasn’t the greatest finish we’ve had, but we ran probably as good as we could have that weekend. It was the best competition we had.”
The UIC-bound Brennan, the Torpys, Lukas and Lehnhardt are seniors. Leadership for the 2016 Sandburg team will be a role for Jacobs and Skucas, both juniors.
“This team was great,” Jacobs said. “Just being a part of them, learning so much. Me and Martin are the only ones coming back next year, so we obviously have to carry on the stuff we learned from these guys to the new guys coming in next year.”
“The seniors’ work ethic was absolutely amazing,” Skucas said. “Coach never had to tell them twice to do something. They went out and did it without any question, which was a great example for me and Dylan and the rest of the guys who are returning.
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“If you do what we’re told and really show that you care, you really can go a long way. We proved that with winning state and qualifying for nationals.”
Tim Tierney is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.