Giants Take 2nd Place at IHSA 3A Loyola Regional; Wehner 2nd and Hatoum 3rd

After a subpar varsity team performance at the CSL Conference Meet last week, the Giants looked to bounce back at Regionals. The team competed at the IHSA 3A Loyola Regional with the goals being to qualify for Sectionals as a team and have a better team race than at Conference. 

Junior Brian Hatoum led the team through the mile with the leaders. Seniors Nate Wehner and Barak Goldstein were several seconds back. Senior Robert Oboza and junior Dylan Dominguez were also together at the mile another 7-8 seconds back. Seniors Eli Neiman and Zach Coren were shoulder to shoulder at the mile another 10 seconds back. 

By mile 2 Hatoum was holding on to 2nd place and Wehner was 5 seconds back in 3rd place. Goldstein struggled to hang on and battled around 15th place. Oboza continued to have a strong race with Dominguez falling back several seconds. Neiman and Coren were still just 1 second about at the 2 mile. 

As the runners started coming into the finish, Wehner moved into 2nd place. He had a strong final 400 and finished in 15:25.9. This was a great bounce back race for Wehner after having a bad race at the Conference Meet. Hatoum finished with another strong race and took 3rd place at 15:30.4. He was 16 seconds ahead of 4th place. This was a tremendous 1-2 punch for the Giants as both runners earned Regional medals. 

Goldstein showed his toughness at the end of the race with a strong kick to hold off several runners. He finished in 9th place despite not having his best race and ran 16:07.0 for 3 miles. 

Oboza ended up crossing the line in 18th place. He ran 16:26.8 and showed he is ready for a breakthrough race at Sectionals. Despite being sick, Dominguez gave it his all to hold on for 28th place. He ran 16:43.7 for 3 miles and will hopefully be at 100% for Sectionals. 

Neiman had a strong last mile to end up taking 37th place. He ran 17:02.6 for the 3 mile course. After getting the back of his shoe stepped on early in the race, Coren battled with his shoe half off to run 17:09.5 and take 42nd place. These 2 seniors will look to have even better races at Sectionals. 

The team ended up taking 2nd place behind New Trier (39-60). Overall, it was a better performance than Conference, but still not the team’s best race. Hopefully, their best races will come in the final 2 meets of the season. The team will focus on getting ready both physically and mentally for the Sectional Meet. They will be looking to earn a trip as a team to the IHSA 3A State Cross Country Meet.