Niles North reflects on placing second at invite
New Trier's Kacie Swierk runs in the 39th Annual Sean Earl Loyola Lakefront Invitational cross country meet at Montrose Harbor in Chicago on Saturday, October 1, 2011.
| michael jarecki ~ for Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 3, 2011 7:22PM
Already posting better finishes over New Trier in two big meets this season, the Niles North boy cross country team was looking to add another Saturday during the Loyola University Lakefront Invite at Chicago’s Montrose Harbor.
But the Trevians outpaced the Vikings in the 40-team field with 128 points to take the overall title. Niles North finished second with 151.
Niles North coach Dan Horyn said his runners were disappointed.
“It’s a paradigm shift for us,” the coach said. “It was not that good of a day for us, but we still finished second. A year ago, we would have been jumping up and down. We just didn’t have anyone stand out.”
Aron Sebhat placed 10th in 16:05 on a wind-swept, sunny day. Micah Beller followed in 15th (16:11), while Carlitos Rangel (34th, 16:35), Tim Vazquez (38th, 16:39) and Justin Suh (54th, 16:52) rounded out Niles North’s scoring.
“We knew that it was going to be challenging, and we weren’t going to be running swift times,” Horyn said. “We were hoping to beat New Trier again, and that’s what disappointed the guys. We have large goals for ourselves this season. If all of our guys run well, we can beat anyone. If we have a few that struggle, we don’t have the depth to overcome that. We are a little vulnerable there.”
Nevertheless, Horyn said this is the best club he’s had in his seven seasons guiding the program, and that these Vikings are the fastest group in school history. Six of the team’s top seven are back from last season’s starting lineup.
“Saturday was not an epic failure, and we’re still performing at a high level,” said Horyn. “But our expectations are high.”
Niles North is off until the CSL Meet on Oct. 15. The Vikings then will turn their attention to the State Meet, and will be looking to beat the 2000 team’s 10th-place finish at State.
“We know that New Trier is a great program, but we have beat them twice,” said Horyn, whose club went 5-0 against CSL North opponents this season. “We know what we are capable of, and the guys really want to go out there and win the entire (conference) meet.”
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