Eisenhower gets going with Jacobo
Senior leads way on ‘special’ day as Cardinals chalk up impressive win over Lemont
Eisenhower coach Jeremy Ceja had an emotional moment when talking about his 2020 boys cross country team.
Ceja, who’s inhis sixth and final season with the Cardinals, had just witnessed his team Tuesday come up with an impressive 23-32 victory over Lemont on the Blue Island campus to stay unbeaten in five dual meets.
He presented seven runners with flowers, balloons and Fathead photos for senior day. He got choked up describing how special this team is to him.
“I’m getting goosebumps and I don’t want to cry,” he said. “This group worked really hard. During the pandemic, every one of them put in their offseasonwork. Every time I turned on that Strava app, theywere out there at 8:15 or 8:30.
“They were so dedicated. I never had that with a team. Usually, I had one or two and the rest is, ‘Oh, coach, this happened.’ Or, ‘Oh, I havework at noon.’ Or, ‘I can’t run at 7 in the morning.’ I couldn’t be more happy with this group.”
Eisenhower senior Jonathan Jacobo led the pack with a time of 16 minutes, 57 seconds on the 3.1-mile course. He was followed by Elder Trujillo at 17:00 and Josiah Sianez at 17:01, edging out Lemont’sNick Kania’s 17:01.9.
“We trained hard for this season because of the coronavirus,” Jacobo said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen. We didn’t know if we were going to have a season.
“But we worked during the summer, and Iwas really happy to find out we were going to run because this ismy favorite sport.”
Schools in the South Suburban Conference were limited to dual meets this season against other SSC teams.
“The Saturday meets were more competitive,” Sianez said. “I feel like we should still do well in the regional because we are getting faster and more confident.”
Eisenhower will have a battle Tuesday against Richards and participate in the South Suburban RedMeet on Oct. 17 before diving into the postseason.
“This is one of the best seasons I’ve ever had,” Sianez said. “We were set for state last year, but at the sectional, we were on a really bad course. It was muddy and the conditions were horrible. So we want to do well in the regional again.”
Lemont’s Niko Vallianatos took fourth Tuesday and T.J. Polen finished fifth.
TheIndians came into the meet with five wins, including a 27-29 victory over Richards, a 2019 state qualifier. Lemont competes in the SSC Blue, and that division will not have a conference meet.
In Tuesday’s girls race, Lemont notched a 20-41 victory to stay unbeaten at 6-0.
Freshman Casey Kittridge won in 20:45 for the Indians, while KaileyWasyliwwas third, Destiny Vargas fourth and Emma Amberg fifth.
Kittridge, a two-time state qualifier for Old Quarry Middle School, finished 49th in the 2019 Illinois Elementary School Association Class 3A meet. She’s looking forward to her first high school regional experience.
Isabella Alatorre led Eisenhower with a second-place finish in 21:03.
Lemont is scheduled to participate in the Class 2A Morris Regional and hopes to secure a spot at the Peoria Notre Dame
Sectional.
Even though this year’s state meet has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the sectional will be held at Detweiller Park in Peoria, the usual site of the state meet.
“That would be awesome,” said Tim Plotke, who coaches both the boys and girls teams for Lemont.
“For us to finish this crazy season on the state meet course, even though it’s not the state meet, would be great.”