Bashqawi, York blaze past field
Senior comes from behind to win meet, lift Dukes to team title
Alex Bashqawi has been around York cross country long enough to know what kind of grader coaching legend Joe Newton is.
“Hard man to satisfy,” Bashqawi said after Saturday’s Palatine Invitational.
But Newton was a lot more than satisfied after the Dukes crossed off another item on their to-do list by beating St. Xavier (Ky.) 49-107 for the title behind a vintage display of pack running.
Bashqawi, a senior, chased down McHenry’s Jesse Reiser to win the three-mile race at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve in Palatine in 14 minutes, 43.1 seconds. Three more Dukes were in the top 15 and their fifth runner was 25th, just 47 seconds behind Bashqawi.
“We had four guys right together for 90 percent of the race,” said Newton, who won his 28th state title last season 50 years after his first. “We’ve been waiting for that all year.”
Nathan Mroz was third for the Dukes in 14:45.5, followed by Kyle Mattes (sixth, 14:58.5), Matthew Plowman (14th, 15:16.6) and sophomore Jon May (25th, 15:30.2).
It was the third time in eight days Class 3A top-ranked York has come up big, following a title in the Richard Spring Invitational on the state-meet course in Peoria the previous Saturday and Thursday dual wins over No. 5 Downers Grove North and No. 16 Lyons.
“I wasn’t sure if we could do it today because this team from Kentucky won it last year [at Palatine] and we had this tough meet Thursday,” Newton said. “I’m overjoyed. I lost about 10 years today from 84 [years old] to 74. I feel really good.”
So does Mroz, who missed his junior year of cross country with an injury.
“When you’re off a whole season, it really messes with your mind,” Mroz said. “When you feel something ache and you’re [thinking], ‘Oh no, not again,’ you don’t want to go through it. Everybody has been helping me. I’m happy to be back.”
Especially with the chance to add to York’s trophy collection.
“Going into the season, our goal is always to win state and it starts in the summer,” Mroz said. “You run every practice with that goal in mind.”
Also in the top five were Stevenson’s Sam Oh (fourth, 14:52.1) and Maine South’s Jack Carpenter (14:55.3).
Host Palatine won a closely contested girls team race 106-118 over Assumption (Ky.), also with a textbook example of pack running. The Pirates had a 12.2-second split for their top five runners, led by Kara Burton (15th, 18:15.8).
Daviess County (Ky.) senior Whitney O’Bryan (17:20.6) was the individual champ ahead of sophomores Kaitlyn Ko of Buffalo Grove (17:25.6) and Skyler Bollinger of Yorkville (17:31.0).
“I’m really happy with how things have been going, getting consistently good races,” Ko said.