Mines starts off season with 14:43 for Yorkville win

McCollum pulls away for Girls race win; Minooka edges Yorkville by four points for Girls Team title; Oswego East packs it up for Boys team win

By Michael Newman [email protected]

Yorkville, Ill – The last race of Monday evening was the Boys Varsity race at the Yorkville Invitational. Marcellus Mines of Joliet West hammered a final 4:43 mile to take home the win in 14:43. Oswego East was short handed in this race by they still put 5 runners in the top 14 to take home the Boys Team title.

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Two of the top 10 teams battled in the Girls race. #5 Minooka edged Yorkville 36 to 30 behind the individual win from Gabriella McCollom.

The Boys race had some of the top runners in Class 3A at the starting line with Mines, Oswego East’s Parker Nold and Alex Das, Zach Balzer of Minooka, and Brady Nelson of Oswego the top runners. Within the first 500-meters of the race, the five runners formed a pack in the front that no other runner will stay with them after the first mile.

Temperatures in the 70’s seem to be not normal historically in this meet where some of the competitions have been cancelled due to high heat. The runners in all three races were loving the temperatures. The five runners were feeling the first mile where the group passed in 4:58. The rest of the field were falling back while the front pack was feeling each other out.

The pace stayed the same for most of the next mile. At approximately 1.75 miles, Alex Das looked around at the four other runners sensing their feel of the race. 100 meters later, Das broke away from the field if just momentarily. Mines saw his competitor’s move and reacted to it and stayed on Das’ shoulder.

The two runners went past 2-miles in 10:00. The pack was a couple seconds behind not letting that move get away from them. About 10 seconds after passing the time point, Mines dropped the hammer and the pace picked up dramatically. You could tell by the reactions from the junior. He was as cool as the other side of the pillow as he continued to break away from the field.

It was effortless. No strain on his face or overstriding. He remembered his state final race in the 1600 Meter Run where a hamstring pull slowed him down. You could tell he had done his homework this summer with the training he had done. His first race showed that.

“All the expectations that I had was to start where I left off last year when I ran 14:30 (at Peoria Invitational),” Mines said. “I felt really in control today. The pace felt slow. I like to start my kick earlier in the race to my max speed instead of kicking just at the end.”

Parker Nold passed his teammate after Mines has made his move. He held that position the rest of the race running 14:51 to finish second. Balzer ran 14:58 to finisher third ahead of Nelson who finished fourth (15:01). Das finished fifth running 15:11.

Oswego East’s Dhairya Trivedi, one of their top five runners, did not run in this race. #6 Oswego East still put all of their scorers in the top 11 to score 36 points for the team win. Their top five split was 76 seconds but that was expected with Nold up front. The split from Das to their fifth runner Noah Velasquez was 56 seconds. #29 Minooka finished second (64 points) ahead of Yorkville (68 points) and  #25 Oswego (77 points).

Gabriella McCollom of #5 Minooka led a 1-4-7-11-13 pack with a 76 second split to claim the Girls team title with 36 points. McCollom took over the lead that Oswego East’s Morgan Dick had for most of the race. Oswego East did run a good first half of the race even though they had transportation problems. Their scheduled did not come on time. The Varsity team did not get to the Yorkville campus until 10 minutes before the start of the race. Minooka and Yorkville ran towards the middle of the pack early on and then moved hard for the second half of the race.

#7 Yorkville’s pack was dynamic especially at the end of the race. The Foxes put their first four runners in the top 10 with their fifth runner 12th. Yorkville was only four points behind in finishing second with 40 points. Yorkville’s Ava Calloway and McKenna Edwards had a 5-6 finishing leading the Foxes with only a 38 second split on their top five. #22 Oswego East finished third (74 points) just ahead of 1A #2 Rosary who scored 83 points to finish points.

McCollom’s winning time of 18:12 was 18 seconds ahead of Morgan Dick (18:30). Chiara Surtz of Rosary finished third (18:31). Minooka’s second runner Maya Ledesma ran 18:33 to finish fourth.