Five in a row! Cyclones men's cross country earned their fifth straight Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference championship after taking first in the 8K event at the Northwestern Medicine Cross Country Course in Geneva, IL.
"The men had a day one goal of earning a fifth consecutive conference title, and they did just that. Waubonsee has one of the fastest men in the NJCAA leading them and a good duo behind him. We knew if we broke up those three then we'd have it. Their trio was ahead of us early on, but our guys stuck in there and did what was needed," said Head Coach Dimitri Dimizas.
Santana Garcia finished second overall and crossed first for the Cyclones in 29:29.3. "He stayed strong the whole way through to emerge as our top runner," Dimizas said. "He's been getting better and better with the 8K, and my confidence in him continues to grow."
Coming in right after him in third place was Joel Vargas-Cortes in 29:35.0. "Joel has really stepped up the second half of the season," Dimizas said. "He stayed cool, calm and collected early and then started passing people, even making his way up to Santana in the final 800 meters."
Andrew Sima had an off day and wasn't the typical top finisher for the Cyclones. He fell back after the second mile and finished in fifth place in 29:54.5. "I know he'll learn from it and be ready next week. It wasn't the individual result he wanted, but he's a team-first guy, and the team accomplishing one of its goals made his effort worthwhile," Dimizas explained.
The seven through 11th place finishers went to Cyclone runners starting with Noah Rigoni-Kreczmer (30:54.3, 7th). "Noah had to miss out on conference last year due to injury, so I'm extremely proud of him for earning an All-Conference spot and playing a big role in the team title," Dimizas said.
Brennan Rudolph came across the finish line next (31:46.5, 8th) followed by Demario Angarita (31:48.7, 9th), Jacob Madera (32:26.6, 10th), Jesse Correa (33:17.9, 11th), Robert Slezak (34:44.3, 13th) and Josue Trujillo (37:59.5, 15th).
"Demario and Jacob had the responsibility of not allowing anyone in between them while competing with each other and they did that flawlessly. Jesse went out strong and ended up with a PR, which is impressive considering he was alone the last part of the race," Dimizas noted. "Robert just missed his PR, but I think this was his best race. He had a goal of who he wanted to beat and accomplished it. Josue has been on and off with running and wasn't healthy but wanted to put it all on the line, so for him to be so close to PRing on that course is a testament to his willpower."
The top 10 finishers earned All-Conference, which included Garcia, Rigoni-Kreczmer, Rudolph, Madera, Vargas-Cortes, Sima and Angarita, the latter three earning their second consecutive honor.
"I'm happy that we got seven men to be All-Conference but even happier that Andrew, Joel, and Demario can call themselves two-time All-Conference members" Dimizas said. "The men now have their sights set on the region race next week. Sauk Valley has been nationally ranked and has a really good pack of seven runners. We'll need all of our men to be at their best to have any chance, but I'm liking what I've seen from them lately and excited to witness what they'll do."
The Cyclones compete at the NJCAA Region 4 Championship at Lockport High School on Saturday, Oct. 26, 11 a.m. This will determine who competes at the national championship.
A complete list of results can be found here.