3 In The Top 5 Not Enough For HP To Win Regional Title

Highland Park went into Regionals with the hope of winning the team's first Regional title since 2004.   The team knew they would have a tough battle against a strong and young team from Buffalo Grove.    As has happened many times this season, not all of the top guys had their best race on the same day.  HP finished in second place with 71 points.   Buffalo Grove won with 53 points.   

Senior Jonah Hanig had a solid race as he went with the leaders early on until Lake Forest runner Billy Bund broke away from everyone.   Hanig battled with Buffalo Grove runner Steven Salvano and ended up finishing in 3rd place (15:35.44).   Senior Emmett Smith and junior Angel Estrada were in 6th and 7th late in the race until they put on big moves through the final 600 meters to chase down two runners and move into 4th and 5th place (Estrada 4th 15:50.87 and Smith 5th 15:51.86).  These two continue to show incredible mental toughness, poise, and desire in each race that they compete in!  Senior Luke Nudelman ran a much better race then the CSL meet and battled to the line to finish in 18th place (16:27.37).  Sophomore Ben Casey began to struggle early in the race and was never able to recover and fell back to finish in 41st place (17:06.34).    Casey knows that he will need to bounce back from this performance and come ready to have his best race at Sectionals.  The final finishers for HP were junior James Rector (45th 17:19.67) and sophomore Brady McDougall(48th 17:28.28).

The Giants have earned the right to race another week as a team.   The challenge is to get each guy to run their best race on the same day.   If they can show the mental toughness and the heart that it takes to compete at their best under pressure, then the team has a chance to do great things at Sectionals!   The opportunity is in front of them, the training has been done, now they have to execute the race plan!   GO GIANTS!