By Aidan Leary ’26
On Saturday, Oct. 4, the cross country team competed in the Peoria High School Invitational at Detweiller Park. This is where the state meet is held and it is one of the most iconic courses in the country. The team showed some bright spots and some areas to improve for the last month of the season.
The top seven runners left school early on Friday and drove down to the course to get our practice in. After practice, we drove to the hotel and got ready for Alexander’s Steakhouse, a cross country tradition for the varsity runners. We ate an amazing dinner then returned to the hotel and had a strategy meeting with Coach Wazio before it was time for bed.
On Saturday we got up and headed down for breakfast, but there was no food being served, so Coach Wazio made the quick decision and took us to Walmart. There we got our breakfast and headed back to the hotel to eat and get ready for the race.
We arrived at the course to some hot and sunny weather which forced us to stay out of the sun until race time. We did our pre-race drills and prayers and just like that, we were at the line with confidence. The gun fired and we were off.
The team was led by top finisher Andrew Straley, who came in third with a time of 14:50 in a tough 3A field. Juniors Declan Nieto and Dylan Cody, and sophomore Kieran McGarry, all ran personal bests. Nieto had a breakout race and set a personal best by 37 seconds.
Nieto said, “I felt great and didn’t let the heat get to me. I want to put in the work and keep getting better.”
Senior Oliver Davis was on pace for a big personal best but twisted his ankle in the final minutes of the race and had to slow down. Davis said, “I was disappointed in the outcome because of my injury, but it’s only motivating me to do better for our last few races.”
The team finished in 22nd out of 38 teams right around where we were hoping to be. With it being our first year in 3A, we are still getting our feet wet in this highly competitive class. Though we may not qualify for state, we are looking to have a strong finish for the year. Andrew Straley is looking to qualify for state individually and earn All-State honors.
Straley said, “With the way training has gone this season, it’s not ridiculous to say we can do some crazy things in this championship season.”
