Trevians' Cahill executes the last-to-first manuever

The sprint from last to first at a track meet is a sight to behold, inspirational and rare.

New Trier senior George Cahill pulled it off March 11 at Batavia Distance Madness, a coed meet highlighting many of the state's top high school runners at distances from 800 to 3,200 meters.

Cahill was seeded fifth in the fast heat of the boys' 1,600, After two laps on Batavia's 200-meter track he trailed the pack in 12th place.

"I was on the inside of the alley so I didn't get out super well," he said. "The first two laps I was feeling good, but a lot of guys were ahead of me, so I tried not to panic."

He instead started picking runners off, moving up to seventh after 800 meters, and then into fifth after 1,200.

"I just made my way and then with two, three laps to go I just gained confidence. I was like, I can win this thing," Cahill said.

Cutting into the big lead held by Downers Grove South's Tim Neumann, Cahill crept into second place. Challenged by DeKalb's Riley Newport, Cahill was third by a head when he crossed the line at the gun lap, 200 meters left.

"Then I was like, I feel good, a lap to go. I know I have the closing speed, and when I got onto the backstretch I went to the arms, pretty much all-out for the last 150 (meters). Gave it everything I got to make sure I wasn't going to get out-kicked," Cahill said.

Fitter than he'd felt in past years this early in the season, Cahill did not let that happen. He won the event at 4 minutes, 17.55 seconds, a big dip under the 4:22.90 Cahill ran outdoors at the 2021 Class 3A boys finals in Charleston.

Cahill recalled the prior Saturday, when Trevians coach Matt Sloan urged him to victory in the 3,200 at the Illinois Meet of Champions in Chicago.

"I knew I could finish like that based on last week's race," Cahill said, "and so when I see my coach cheering me on, and I remember that feeling that I had where I just totally dropped the hammer and went all out, just unleashed a great kick, I just tapped into that again and really went to my arms and fought, just raced."

New Trier junior Gabriel Nosek had a similar experience in the 3,200.

Seeded 12th in the fast heat, that's where Nosek was with about 1,000 meters to go. He'd had enough of that.

"The whole time I was just thinking, Hey, I came out here, I came here to compete, I'm not going to come all the way out here not to compete," he said.

Like Cahill, Nosek dropped the hammer and surged into fifth place in his heat and sixth overall among the 37 boys who ran the 3,200, recording a personal-record 9:38.59.

"It puts me on track to run some killer outdoor times," Nosek said.

A pair of Glenbrook South runners, senior Molly Durow and junior Maggie Jortberg, accomplished what they wanted in their respective heats of the girls 1,600. Namely, dropping time.

Jortberg sliced more than a second off her indoor personal best, also on a 200-meter track, to finish in 5:38.32.

Durow pared some 15 seconds off her prior 1,600-meter time this season, recorded on her third day of indoor track after she came in from Titans basketball.

A stronger runner than her seed time indicated, in her section Durow had to do the work alone in front, and finished in 5 minutes, 41.22 seconds.

"It felt extremely difficult," she said.

"It felt like I was pacing myself a little wrong just because I was alone for so long and the other seed times were closer to my time, so I thought that I would still have some people to run with and try to pace myself off of. It just felt like I was going out a little too strong, but it ended up being fun."

Jortberg held the lead at the start of her race, then relinquished it. She remained pleased with her new personal record.

"Placement doesn't really matter as long as I'm trying my hardest," she said.

In the second of about 30 heats at Batavia between boys and girls, Glenbrook South senior Brian Hiltebrand, an all-state fifth in the 800 at the 2021 Class 3A boys finals, finished second to Bolingbrook's Ben Wasick, 1:56.21 to 1:57.94.

Hiltebrand then got to see his younger brother, Titans junior James Hiltebrand, follow only teammate Michael Jerva in their heat of the 800.

"It's awesome having him with me," Brian Hiltebrand said. "We've gotten a lot closer by running together a lot. He's really into it, and it's really fun to just hang out and talk about it at home."

Fired up in his "first special distance invite," Jerva joined James Hiltebrand in flexing for the spectators after the Titan duo each set personal records in a 1-2 finish in their heat of the 800.

"It's all upon you, and if you do good you can be super-proud," Jerva said.

"Honestly, it's one of the best feelings. I would describe it as doing an 8-mile hike to the top of a mountain, and you get to the top."