As Danny Kilrea ‘19 lined up alongside 199 other high school athletes from across the nation on a soggy golf course in Portland, Oregon, the starting horn blew and after his first step, he found himself on the ground, fallen and muddy. After being helped up by teammate Alex Pall ’17, Kilrea hastily made up for lost time and was LT’s first finisher of seven, leading the team to place ninth in the Nike Cross National race.

“Portland is a pretty rainy place,” Kilrea said. “After that first bad step, I got right back up and had to focus. In the end, I think that alertness helped me.”

The race took place on Saturday, Dec. 5, beginning precisely at 11:35 a.m. on the Glendoveer Golf Course, a few miles away from Nike International headquarters, where a lot of the four day trip was spent by the athletes from across the U.S.

“We were all a little shaken to see our number one runner knocked down at the start,” Connor Madell ‘16 said. “But after he got up and was ahead of us, we focused on the course. It was pretty flat, but had a few challenging hills.”

The annual championship race is a single 5k. 22 teams consisting of seven runners each compete against one another, having their individual places averaged with the top five runners from their own team to find their score, Madell said.

The 22 teams qualify to compete at nationals by placing first or second in whichever of the nine regionals they fall under, Madell said. For the Midwest regional on Sunday, Nov. 15 at the LaVern Gibson Championship XC course in Terre Haute, Indiana, the team got third, behind Carl Sandburg High School and Neuqua Valley High School.

“After coming in second at the state meet on Saturday, Nov. 7, losing to Neuqua put us in a tough mental block after regional qualifiers,” Madell said.

Since only 18 teams are locked into nationals after the regionals are concluded, four wild card teams are chosen at random, Madell said. Without knowing if they had a spot or not, the team continued to train.

From Nov. 15 to Nov. 28, 13 long days, the team trained and trusted blindly.

“We had to keep training and believe that we were going to go, because if we doubted the possibility of us going and didn’t train as hard, we might not have performed as well as we did,” Kilrea said. “Finding out we made it was an incredible moment.”

The round-trip flight, hotel and all other expenses were paid for in full by Nike. In addition to the accommodations, each team of seven received over $650 worth of equipment, including uniforms, singlets, running shorts, spikes, regular running shoes, jackets, sweatpants, socks, and arm sleeves.

“The only thing we couldn’t accept for free were the backpacks, due to IHSA rules,” Madell said. “But that wasn’t bad at all.”

At the Nike International headquarters, many Olympians were present to meet young athletes and answer questions. Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, the former an Englishman and the latter an American, both spent time at the spacious complex. Farah is arguably the best distance runner in the world, and Rupp is an amazing 5k runner and is an idol to many at NXN, Madell said.
The 5k race itself was completed in a total time of 1:21:01 by the team of seven.

“It went out really fast,” Madell said. “We saw Sandburg going out fast right in front of us, just like they did at state, but seeing them drop off a little kept us going.”

Kilrea and Vince Zona ‘17 were LT’s first and second runners, very close to one another, Madell and Matt Begeman ‘16 took the third and fourth spot, and Dan Palmer ’16 took the fifth spot. Pall and Tim McCarthy ‘16 took the sixth and seventh slots, respectively.

“We’ve always struggled with our fifth man. The fifth man is very important, because he’s the last one who’s score is included in the average, and when they cross the line, there are way more people than the first few, so speed matters more,” Madell said. “Palmer really stepped up in Oregon, big time. He was the MVP without a doubt.”

Carl Sandburg placed fourth at NXN after taking home the IHSA trophy early in November.

“I think that nationals were a great experience. We weren’t expected to get there but when we did we really proved ourselves by placing ninth,” Kilrea said. “I think that this performance really shows everyone what a strong program we have, and that we’re in the running for state next year and a return to finals.”

From opening ceremonies to leaving Portland on Sunday, Dec. 6, LT history was made and a lot was learned, Madell said.

“The biggest goal we have as a program is for nationals to become an expectation. Last year, a state trophy was an expectation. Now, we want next year and the following to improve upon this foundation. That’s where we stand,” Madell said. “I’m excited to watch this team grow from college.”

Coach Michael Danner declined to comment.