Northside frosh boys peak at conference
By Dave Surico
Consistency is a key to becoming a top program at any level. The boys of Northside's Class of 2014 kept up the pace for the Mustang program with a second-place finish in the CPL's conference meet Saturday at Washington Park on the South Side.
The team gave its performance of the season in a runner-up finish that matched Northside's freshman placing from last year.
"Going into this race we only had one guy break 13 minutes at Niles in our previous meet for the freshman," said coach Jon Gordon. "They were all under 13 or close to it; so that was a really good improvement."
Leading the way for the Mustangs was Brendan Kelly, who finished eighth in 12:36.58.
"I didn't run the second mile as strong as I would have liked to, but I'm happy with my place," said Kelly. "I would have liked to have been a little bit farther ahead. But I guess that was pretty smart of me because I didn't run the first mile too hard and didn't tire myself out for the second one. I wanted to be in the top 10 places. I'm pretty proud of myself.
"I think we could have done a little bit better (in the team competition). We didn't beat out Lane."
Alex Bologna finished second (12:42.13) for the team and 12th overall, and led the pack of remaining Northside runners who bunched together from 15th to 22nd.
"I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to do," said Bologna. "I was trying to do negative splits, because I hadn't been able to do those in the past. I think I might have done negative splits.
"I did good except at the end in the sprint. I lost to a Lane Tech guy (Adrian Gracia, 12;41.83), who I was trying to pass up, (by) a quarter of a second or so. Generally I kind of pass people as I go on. I caught up to him like in the last half mile. I was planning to sprint past him at the end, but I guess I sprinted a little bit too late."
Nick Parker headed the charge of the Mustangs with his 15th-place finish in 12:47.16. He was followed by 18th-place finisher Chaojie Gonzalez (12:55.64), Palwinder Sodhi (19th, 12:56.90), Brian Glatter (21st, 12:58.24), and Calvin Gang (22nd, 13:01.50).
Phillip Lee of Bogan was the individual champion. He covered the two-mile course in 12:16.66. Mansur Soeleman of Lane finished second in 12:17.54 in the 64-runner field.
Final team standings
1, Lane, 25. 2, Northside, 46. 3, Bogan, 64. 4 Urban, 109.
