Jon Stiglic took to running long distances when he was halfway through grade school.
“I ran a 5K and I thought, ‘This is pretty good. I’d like to start running,'” Stiglic said.
That was the summer between fourth and fifth grade. Now, the Lincoln-Way West junior is among the top runners in the Southland.
Stiglic ran to a comfortable victory Saturday in the Jimmy Daniels Olympian Run Invitational at Rich Central. Stiglic covered the windy course in 16 minutes, 24.6 seconds to 16:45.3 for Bloom’s Roberto Garcia. Lemont’s Andrew Deuschle was third (16:58.8).
“By the lake in the back part, you definitely felt the wind because there’s nothing blocking it,” Stiglic said. “It wasn’t too bad the rest of the course.”
Lincoln-Way West finished fourth in the 20-team field behind meet champion Palatine, Homewood-Flossmoor and Lemont.
West faced plenty of elite competition leading up to the Rich Central meet. The Warriors’ schedule also included the Lyons Invitational, the Richard Spring Invitational in Peoria and Locktoberfest at hilly Dellwood Park in Lockport.
“The team has gone back and forth,” Stiglic said of the season so far. “We’ll see how postseason goes.”
Running against Lyons’ Danny Kilrea, last year’s Class 3A runner-up, and Sandburg’s Dylan Jacobs, who was third in the state a year ago, this season benefitted Stiglic.
“It motivates you to want to be like them,” he said.
Stiglic qualified for the 2016 state meet as an individual with teammates Ryan Taylor and Evan Mitchell, a two-time All-Stater who placed 16th (14:40) in his final meet.
Stiglic clocked a personal-best 15:21 and finished 87th. He wants to get under 15:00 this year.
“It’s felt like a pretty good season,” he said. “My times are faster compared to last year. Still haven’t hit a fast time (personal record) PR-wise, but I’m hoping my training will pay off by the end of the season.”
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On top again: Two weeks ago, Marist junior Jill Borza overcame 90-degree heat to win the Tinley Park Invitational Championship Division race. On Saturday, Borza won again at Rich Central to lead the RedHawks to another team title.
“The mentality was to go out as a team for the first mile, so we all went out really hard together,” Borza said. “We didn’t focus on the wind, just kind of raced.”
Marist’s top five made the top 10: Borza (19:27), Cece Light (second, 19:41), Colleen Murphy (fourth, 19:54), Amanda Tracy (seventh, 20:01) and Lindsey Richter (ninth, 20:14).
“I definitely feel all the miles put in over the summer helped me a lot this season,” Borza said. “Now that we started tapering for sectionals and state, we’ll really get to see a payoff.”
Next for Marist is the East Suburban Catholic meet Saturday in Arlington Heights. Benet edged Marist by a point last year for the conference title.
“That hurt a little bit, but we’re going to come back strong this year,” Borza said.
Bremen winner: Lincoln-Way Central sophomore Jared Kreis won the individual race (15:32.8) to lead the Knights to the team championship Friday of the Bremen Invitational at Midlothian Meadows.
Kreis was second to Sandburg’s Jacobs in the SouthWest Suburban Conference Preseason Meet. Kreis will be a runner to watch with conference, regional and sectional events coming up.
Lincoln-Way Central and West race Saturday in the SouthWest Suburban Red meet at Turtlehead Lake. West’s Mitchell, Taylor and Stiglic were the top three finishers last year.
Tim Tierney is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.