After the hundreds of miles and smiles the LT boys cross country team have run over the past summer and fall, it all came down to about 15 minutes on Saturday, Nov. 7 at Detweiler Park, a three mile course, in Peoria, Ill. Building from a third place finish at state last year, and a successful track season due to the 4×8 team, the boys had nothing but momentum coming into this season, and they had one collective goal— to improve. And improve they did, finishing second to Sandburg High School, who finished in 78 points as opposed to LT’s 118.

“It was really our goal going into the season, to improve, so it’s a really good feeling right now being able to go home and feel like we can move forward,” Head Coach Michael Danner said.

With discrepancies on who would be the boys seventh runner the week prior to the race, Roland Van Tassel ‘17 was the decided runner.

“We came here to run with any one of the twelve guys and they would all have the same focus, the same attitude, so we preformed well,” Danner said.

The top five finishers for LT were Vincent Zona ‘17 with a sixth place finish running a time of 14:30, Danny Kilrea ‘18 finishing in 10th place running a 14:35, Connor Madell ‘16 finishing 29th place running a 14:52, Matt Begeman ’16 in 33rd finishing at 14:55 and Alex Pall ’17 finishing in 72nd place running a 15:18.

Zona, who was sick during conference, sat out during regionals, and did not run as well as he wanted on sectionals was determined to do well at state.

“I was just trying to get better, and I knew I ran really well at the beginning of the season, so I figured that by state if I was completely healthy I would be running really good again,” Zona said. “I was hoping to get healthy as quickly as possible. And I am satisfied with [the second place finish] but next year, we are returning four guys out of seven, so we are going to be looking for first place.”

The dynamics of the team have also contributed to the ability for the boys to finish second.

“The leadership influence me hugely, especially Madell and Zona,” Kilrea said. “Since I had not run a varsity race before this season, they told me everything I needed to do and how to do it. They have been a major help and without them I don’t know if I could have been as good.”