Aurora Christian's Chada runs like a vet
PEORIA - All eyes in Saturday's boys Class 1A cross country championship race were on Fithian Oakwood's Jon Davis, and for good reason. He lapped at least a few competitors in the field in his repeat run to a state title at Detweiller Park.
But behind him and runner-up Eric Ponder of Tuscola, who was 42 seconds in arrears, was the fresh face in the competition, Aurora Christian's Tanner Chada. He raced to a third-place finish in 15:01.92 seconds, and then said he left something on the course on a windblown, cold day.
"I was expecting a little bit faster, but the weather and some problems, it happens, but I'm happy with third," Chada said.
He may be a sophomore, it's obvious he runs like a veteran. That was clear in the spring, when he won the 3,200-meter run in the Class A track finals at Eastern Illinois and made a 14th-place showing in the 1,600. Less than five minutes after Saturday's race, the cool-headed Chada was matter-of-factly dissecting the strategy and mindset he had.
"I would definitely come into it a lot more confident in myself than I did today," Chada said. "I wanted to come in a lot more confident, especially in the first mile."
He may not have been confident, but he was brash. Chada went for the front and grabbed the lead at the first corner, but Davis and Ponder had something to say about it.
"They came right back around me and put 20 meters between themselves and me in a few seconds," Chada said. "It caught me off guard a little bit."
Chada finished 32 seconds better than he had in taking seventh in the First to the Finish meet at Detweiller at the beginning of the season.
In Class 3A, Batavia and St. Charles East finished 22nd and 23rd, respectively. Ryan Wieties led Batavia, while Mark Sciurba paced East.
Individually, Brady Bobbitt of Marmion took 20th, in 14:49.
Class 2A saw Prairie Ridge finished 12th, keyed by Filip Pajak's 24th-place finish. In team points, that came out to 15 because of a gaggle of individual runners ahead. But Prairie Ridge's next-best runner, Mike Ostrow, was 42nd in the team standing, and 59th overall. The numbers went up from there.