At Detweiller Park for state cross country, 'the atmosphere is crazy'
Like a desert springing to life after a rain, Detweiller Park delivers more than it looks.
A revered 3-mile cross country course laid out in the park north of Peoria, since 1970 the site of the Illinois High School Association state finals, it's a mainly flat surface that requires no traversing of streams, offers no tricky topography.
Aside from catching elbows and cleats in a couple tight spots, the main hazard is potentially muddy grass when rain meets 1,250 pounding pairs of shoes from three classes each of male and female runners. The forecast for Saturday's finals looks fine.
"The Detweiller course is pretty straightforward," said Neuqua Valley senior Chris Keeley, a veteran there as a returning member of the Wildcats' state-bound top-seven and a competitor at Peoria Notre Dame's Richard Spring Classic.
"Detweiller is definitely one of the flattest and fastest courses that we get to race on throughout season," he said.
Sounds kind of boring. Except it's not.
"I wouldn't call it boring at all," said Benet senior Mae Tully, in her third season downstate with the Redwings as a team in addition to qualifying as an individual her sophomore year.
The meet is considered among the most exciting, even manic, state finals of all, in addition to great competition. Naperville Central's Thomas Shilgalis and York's Ethan Kern come in as Class 3A boys sectional winners; Downers Grove South's Brenna Cohoon and Glenbard West's two-time defending Class 3A champion Katelynne Hart won girls sectionals. Naperville North seeks a 3A girls three-peat.
"The atmosphere is crazy with all the fans. Literally, you have thousands of people. When you think about it, there's going to be six races going on and you've got about 200 people in each race, and you'll have all their family, their teammates there, all their supporters," Keeley said.
"Especially in that main section of the course you have people running back and forth, each direction, as the front pack runs by because they're so excited to see how the race plays out," he said.
That includes each team or individual's coaches. In the frantic mobscene they join the white noise even to runners conditioned to their voice.
"You really can't make out people who are cheering you on," Tully said. "Sometimes you don't even hear what your coaches say, unless they find a little spot."
A wide line of Adrenalin-fueled runners starts charging diagonally about 600 meters through the center of the course to a sharp left hand turn, a tree- and brush-lined passage Keeley said narrows to about 10 feet. Here, people get stepped on.
"People fall on the turn all the time because it's just so crowded," Tully said, "and if you're on the inside of the turn it slows down because there's so many people. So our coach (Scott Brooks) recommends to be on the outer end of the turn."
After a loop ranging a little more than a mile the runners go "ducking through some trees at the end of the lap into a separate field for about a half mile," the IHSA describes.
The Neuqua contingent calls this "The Triangle." It presents its own unique challenge. Keeley called it "a notorious spot."
"There's really not any fans back there," he said. "That's where you really want to stay mentally tough because no one's there cheering for you. You really want to find someone to 'pack up' with back there."
"I totally agree with that," Tully said.
The "Triangle" spills out to where it began, runners taking a hard right into the large loop for a final lap and a half.
The strategy seems to be: Don't get lost during the unavoidable fast start, find a rhythm, focus and maintain inside the tree-lined "Triangle," then start tracking people down over the last mile-plus. If necessary, find some friends.
"It's an experience that every team should strive to get," Tully said. "It's way more fun going down as a team versus as an individual."
The votes are in
Fenton and Westmont, finally, are members of new conferences effective 2019-20.
On Oct. 24 Fenton's school board approved the Bison's move into the Upstate Eight Conference.
Also that night, the Metro Suburban Conference voted unanimously to accept Westmont.
"The anticipation was there in all our minds, but there was no indication that it wasn't going to be approved," said Fenton athletic director Todd Becker. "It's not really a sense of relief but it's official, is the best way to put it."
Fenton has been a member of the Metro Suburban since the conference's inception as a four-team league in 2006. The Bison, who will slide into outgoing UEC member West Aurora's position in the 10-school group, welcomed the move to provide more opportunities for such programs as badminton, swimming, bowling and gymnastics.
"In the Metro Suburban Conference we just didn't have the numbers to form a conference (for those sports), if you will," Becker said.
Westmont, which will initially join the MSC Red Division, reaches its new destination by a rockier road.
In 2017 the school received notice it was not invited to join eight fellow Interstate Eight Conference members starting a new conference effective 2019. This school year the Sentinels remained in the IEC for all sports but football, which played as an independent. That couldn't go on forever.
Contentious deliberations on several conferences, including at first the Sangamon Valley and Northeastern Athletic, ended with Community Unit School District 201's 5-2 vote last January to join the MSC. The Sentinels will take over Fenton's spot.
"There are a lot of quality schools in that conference," said Westmont principal Jack Baldermann. "They're also a little closer in proximity to our school so the travel will be less for our student-athletes."
And for those who support them.
"With all the travel we've done in recent years it's been really hard to have any sort of presence at our games from our fans," said Westmont athletic director Dan McCulloch. "That will be a huge positive."
doberhelman@dailyherald.com
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