Maine South’s Tommy Brady will likely begin the 2018 boys cross country season as the favorite to capture the Class 3A state title.
Brady, a junior, finished third behind two seniors in a career-best 14 minutes, 29 second at this year’s state meet on Saturday at Peoria’s Detweiller Park. Teammate Brandon Christopher, a senior, came in 11th (14:38). They were Maine South’s only competitors at state.
Brady’s finish was the best in school history, besting Jack Carpenter’s sixth-place finish in 2013. Brady’s time eclipses his previous best of 14:31, which he ran on the same course on Sept. 30.
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Maine South coach Greg Nordahl said the rainy conditions, which left the course muddy after several other state championship boys and girls races, might have made times 10 to 15 seconds slower than they should have been.
Even with the slower course, Brady came close to the school record of 14:28, which was set by Steve Senf at Detweiller in 1976.
“I expected to be successful (this season), but I didn’t expect to take third in this race, even (on the day of the race), I didn’t expect it,” said Brady, a Park Ridge resident who came in 29th as a sophomore in 2016. “I just had great workouts and great coaching. Our team always peaks at the end of the year.”
After finishing behind Lyons’ Danny Kilrea (14:08) and Young’s Clayton Mendez (14:22), Brady admitted he’d already given thought to next year.
“I started thinking a little about next year after the race,” Brady said. “I started looking forward. It could be a pretty exciting year.”
While Nordahl said he didn’t want to put too much pressure on Brady by calling him the frontrunner for 2018, he added, “that’s what the numbers are saying.”
“(Brady) is a very tough competitor and very goal-oriented, and he works toward those goals and does everything he can to achieve them,” Nordahl said.
Christopher’s time, meanwhile, was about 1 second better than his previous career-best of 14:39, run at Detweiller on Sept. 30.
Christopher said making all-state had been his goal since his freshman year, though he amended it slightly this season.
“All-state was the ultimate goal and I had been working on that since 2014. But coming into this year, I wanted to do more, I wanted top 15 in this race,” said Christopher, a Park Ridge resident, who plans to run cross country at Dayton next season. “I’m really happy how it finished, 14:38 and 11th place. Honestly, my dream came true.”
Niles North boys
Conor Perreault’s fifth-place finish in 14 minutes, 34 seconds at Saturday’s Class 3A boys cross country state meet might have been one of the more surprising results of the day. Then again, maybe it wasn’t.
The Niles North senior ran a 22-second personal record, improving on the 14:56 he had run at the previous week’s Lake Park Sectional, where he finished eighth.
“I finally got my breakout race, and it came at the right time,” said Perreault, who lives in Skokie. “I was a little surprised when I could count the guys ahead of me at the end of the race (because they were so close, and there were so few of them). It was extremely exciting.”
Niles North coach Dave Shafron said Perreault’s performance left everyone associated with the program in a little bit of shock.
“If you had asked every coach in 3A, whom they thought the top 10 runners would be, I’m pretty sure Conor would not have been in anyone’s top 10, let alone top 5,” Shafron said. “What I saw (from Perreault) out there, was one of the most amazing running performances. It was absolutely unbelievable.”
Of course, Perreault had been an up-and-comer in 2015 when, as a sophomore, he finished 91st at the state meet, running a 15:25. However, he did not progress as expected due mainly to illness and injury.
Battling pneumonia and a stress fracture in his left hip, Perreault finished 80th in 2016. The injury began to heal, but he still struggled through what Shafron called a “not very productive track season” in 2017. Even this fall, Perreault was healthy and training well, according to his coach, but just couldn’t get his time below the 15:04 range. Until the sectional, and then state.
“(After his sophomore year) this is where the projection was, top five or top 10, for his senior year,” Shafron said. “But it was hard to think that way because his junior year was so disappointing. It’s not like (his race) was a fluke. He had it in him. I think we did a good job understanding his body and what training works for him.”
As difficult as it was at the time, Perreault said he learned from the adversity of his junior season.
“I learned how to take care of myself, better stretching, things like that, and making myself stronger,” Perreault said “On the mental side, it made me realize that if I can get through a race with a stress fracture and pneumonia, then I could get through whatever I was going through that day.”
Perreault’s finish was the second best in school history after Vadim Nemad, who won the Class AA state title in 1990.
Maine South girls
Olivia Niziolek finished 10th in the Class 3A girls cross country state meet, running a career-best time of 16 minutes, 58 seconds on Saturday in Peoria.
It was another achievement for the Maien South senior, who came in 12th in 2016 and finished third in the 1,600-meter run at the 2017 Class 3A state track meet.
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Niziolek’s finish at Detweiller Park was the third best in school history behind Emily Leonard’s sixth-place finish in 2011 and ninth-place finish in 2012. Megan Lemersal also took ninth in 2011.
“It’s hard to compare (Niziolek to other Maine South runners),” Maine South coach Jeff Downing said. “But Obviously Olivia has the ability to go to state (track) and take third in the mile, as well. Those are some pretty impressive chops there as far as having a ton of leg speed on top of the conditioning for the three miles (of cross country).
Maine South came in 25th (573 points) as a team. Senior Kathleen Glockner (152nd, 18:37) was the Hawks’ second finisher.
Notre Dame
Senior Jeremy Ermilio finished 134th in a career-best time of 16 minutes, 30 seconds in the Class 2A boys cross country state meet.
The Niles resident was the first Notre Dame runner to compete at state since the team qualified in 2012.
“He ran well, about where he’s been running all year,” Notre Dame coach John Barrett said of Ermilio. “He got out faster than he had all year, his body made some adjustments during a rough second mile, and he ran a pretty good third mile. Overall, a solid performance to cap a solid career.”
Dan Shalin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
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