Oak Park and River Forest senior boys cross country runner Irwin Loud returned triumphantly to Peoria’s Detweiller Park Sept. 17.
In his first cross country race of the season at Peoria Notre Dame’s Richard Spring Invitational, Loud was fifth in wet and muddy conditions (14 minutes, 59.4 seconds for 3.0 miles) on the annual site of the state meet.
“It was pretty insane. A bit messy, but it was nice to get out there,” Loud said.
After an unfortunate end to his 2015 season at sectionals, Loud is hoping to return to Peoria for the Class 3A state meet Nov. 5 — and with the Huskies also qualifying as a team despite graduating several key seniors.
“I feel it’s a motivator. I’m still trying to do as well as last year and always improve on my times and places,” Loud said. “That’s always in the back of my head, but it’s always great to push myself at the sectional meet because we’re trying to get the whole team (downstate).”
In 2015, Loud appeared destined for at least a top-10 state finish, but collapsed while leading the Lake Park Sectional in the final mile and he and the Huskies did not advance.
After suffering a similar incident two weeks later while among the frontrunners at the Nike Cross Nationals’ Midwest Regional in Terre Haute, Ind., Loud was diagnosed with walking pneumonia.
By the track season, Loud was healthy. At the 3A state meet in May, Loud took third in the 3,200-meter run and fourth in the 1,600 – the only top-five finisher for both races.
“With more and more races, he’s been pushing himself to new levels,” OPRF coach Chris Baldwin said. “He had a very successful track season so I think that answered a lot of questions. It’s exciting to see him continue to race.”
Loud’s Spring Invite time was about 20 seconds from when he was an all-state 11th (14:39) in 2014. Junior Matthew Vietzen (55th, 15:43.9) and senior Matt Politis (87th, 16:05.8) also were among the top 90 out of 543 finishers. OPRF finished 12th of 58 teams.
Other contributors this season have been Robbie George, Peter Halloran, Lucas Carrillo, Christian Steinhofer, Declan Cavanaugh and Owen Savoy from a strong junior class and seniors Eric Mulshine, Chance Bayles and Charlie Cole.
Moved this year to a new grouping in the Marist Sectional Oct. 29, the unranked Huskies are expected to contend for the fifth and final team qualifying spot with unranked Plainfield South, Downers Grove South and Plainfield North.
“We’ve had some kids missing a couple of meets. There’s a little bit of sickness going around,” Baldwin said. “It’s going to be a challenge for us to make it down. Nothing’s easy, no matter what sectional you are at in the state.” Â
In their opening invite at Fenton Sept. 3, the Huskies were second to Hersey. Vietzen was fourth, Mulshine and Politis were 20th and 21st and Halloran and George were 42nd and 45th.
On Sept. 24, Loud was sixth at the Palatine Invite behind four top-seven 3A or 2A state finishers in 2015. Vietzen was 39th.
Loud then won Lockport’s Locktoberfest Oct. 1 (15:57.6 for 3.0 miles) over Neuqua Valley senior Jake McEneaney (16:02.3), 47th at 3A state last year. Vietzen (16th) and Politis (21st) were five seconds apart.
“The course was all over the place, super muddy and rain the whole day, but I thought I ran pretty well and able to lessen the gap between me and (Vietzen),” Politis said.
“We’re trying to get that split between the four of us (behind Loud) as minimal as we can and have the pack work up through the race.”