The Palatine XC Club boys capped a spectacular season by running to a fifth place finish at the Nike NXN National Championship meet in Portland, OR on December 3.
The NXN meet matches the top 22 cross country teams in the nation by automatically qualifying the top two teams from nine regions and selecting four additional deserving teams as at-large selections.
Palatine earned an at-large bid on the basis of its third place finish at the NXN Midwest regional meet in Terre Haute, IN on November 12.
Runners from Christian Brothers Academy in New Jersey, running as Lincroft XC Club, won their first national title with 91 points. The Palatine club, made up of runners from Palatine High School, scored 255 points to secure fifth place behind teams from Texas, Utah and California. Illinois’ other representative, Elmhurst XC Club (runners from York High School), finished 13th in the elite field.
Futsum Zeinasellaissie, from the Midwest region and North Central High School in Indiana, was the individual winner in a record time of 15:03 for the 5k course at Portland Meadows.
Palatine was led by seniors Peter Tomkiewicz (11th place in team scoring, 15:54), Anthony Gregorio (38th, 16:16), Marcus Garcia (57th, 16:28), Tim Johnson (67th, 16:33) and Tim Meincke (82nd, 16:42). Junior Christian Zambrano, senior Noah Brown, and freshman Graham Brown also represented Palatine in the meet.
“We wanted to win the state meet and we accomplished that,” said Gregorio before the race. “And we wanted to qualify for this meet, so we’re pretty excited to be out here.”
“This has been such a special season for so many reasons,” said Palatine coach Steve Johnson. “This is a championship year that has been in the making for four years for these seniors, and for many more years for the coaches and the program.”
Illinois was also well represented in the girls’ race as Wilmette XC Club (New Trier High School runners) earned 4th place in the team competition. Individual qualifier Amanda Fox (Sr., Naperville Central) earned all-American honors by placing 9th overall in a time of 18:01, as did junior Kaylee Flanagan (Lake Park) with her 18th place finish in 18:20. Sarah Baxter from Simi Valley, CA won the individual title in 17:38 while Manlius from Fayetteville, NY captured its sixth consecutive team championship.
In the boys’ race, Palatine planned to run aggressively and be near the front early in the race.
“We felt strong,” said Meincke. “We knew we were fourth (place) at the 1k through 3k (splits), so we were hoping for a top ten finish.”
“These guys just believe they’re the best in the Midwest,” said Johnson going into the NXN races. “And they also believe they’re one of the best in the nation.”
Lofty rankings are nice, but now they have proven on the race course that they are one of the nation’s elite programs.
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