EPGXC Men on Course for Record Season

The EPGXC season got a late start due to the IHSA calendar in 2013, but the Titan harriers looked strong in their first race of the 2013 campaign. Leading the way was senior Jacob Ludy. Ludy ran a smart race, going out in perfect even splits of 5:27 and bringing it home in a blistering 5:21, good for third place out of 145 runners. Senior Tyler DeMarb was the second Titan, crossing in 13th place with a 17:15. Freshman Andy Layden and Sophomore Hunter Cobbley were the #3 and #4 in 17:44 and 17:48, and freshman Adam Ludy rounded out the scoring five with an 18:10. The Titans top five only scored 79 points in the 10-team invite, enough to place second as a team, two points ahead of Olympia, who was ranked as the #8 team in the state in the Dyestat preseason poll. This victory is owed to our 6th and 7th runners, Ryan Filkins and Luke Barnard, whose fast last miles were able to get them ahead of Olympia’s #5, giving the Spartans the two extra points they needed for third place. Our matchup against Olympia will be revisited many times this fall; we’ll see how both teams progress as we run towards November.

All of the top seven made it onto the Top Ten Titans board, as well as the Top Ten Times board. Today’s team average of 17:26 was a full 1:16 faster than any EPG team in history, and is within one second our fastest team average of any course all time (Tri-Valley’s 2.87 road race from 2008). It is safe to say that as we continue to get stronger as the season progresses, course records are going to continue to fall.

Also improving and running in the boys three mile race were Shelby Heffron (20:11), Nathaniel Schug (20:40), Brandon Stine (20:47), Quinn Killian (20:54), Enrique Sanchez (22:47), and Waite Uphoff (25:31). All of these times were faster than our times here a year ago, when we cut the course short by 170 yards. Shelby was six seconds faster, Nathaniel was 1:42 faster, Quinn was 1:30 faster, and Waite was 2:06 faster. Brandon and Enrique did not run for EPGXC in 2012.