Praeuner Leads Kit Runners To Sectional

The addition of Chicago Mather to the field added a different dynamic for the Illinois High School Association Class 3A Niles West Regional cross country race last Saturday.

That change cost Evanston junior Andrew Praeuner an individual championship --- but it didn’t keep the Wildkits from advancing a full team to the sectional competition for the second year in a row.

Praeuner’s runner-up finish to Mather’s Naod Abreha by the closest of margins --- one tenth of a second --- sparked the Kits to fifth place in the team standings and kept their season alive for another week. They’ll run again Saturday at the Elk Grove Sectional at Busse Woods, and the girls race will include two advancing ETHS freshmen, Mairead Blunk and Olympia Folger, as well.

The top six regional teams --- and top five individual finishers who aren’t members of those teams --- automatically advance from the regional to the sectional in the IHSA’s postseason scenario, and the Wildkits were pretty certain they’d be able to finish in the top half of the field.

Coach Ronald Tiongson’s squad finished comfortably ahead of sixth place finisher Glenbrook North with 125 points to 167 for the Spartans. Also advancing full teams were Maine South (55), New Trier (59), Mather (62) and Glenbrook South (117).

“We came in expecting to make it to the sectional. But Mather’s a very, very strong team and that made it tougher,” said Tiongson. “We had to be consistent, and we had to run our best. We had to be consistent and make sure we showed up.”

Praeuner, who was coming off a school record performance with a time of 14 minutes, 32 seconds on the same 3-mile course where the Central Suburban League championships were held, wasn’t able to hold off a final surge by Abreha in the last 300 yards. Abreha was clocked in 14:37.4 to Praeuner’s 14:37.5, and third place finisher Collin Frye was also under 15 minutes at 14:44.9.

It marked the third time this season that Praeuner has been under 15 minutes in a major invitational --- and 15 minutes is the standard by which the contenders (for state honors) are separated from the pretenders.

“All props to that Mather kid, because he responded very well after Andrew felt so good for the first two miles,” Tiongson said. “Andrew actually wanted to conserve his energy, but he just felt so good that he went for it (a possible championship).

“At the sectional, Andrew’s going to contend and go out with the leaders. That’s the goal, even though finishing in the top 10 there will be very tough, but he’s looking forward to it.”

At the regional, ETHS also counted a 21^st from Alex Praeuner (15:30.1), a 25^th from Leonidas Patton (15:37.6), and a 37^th from Evan Kleiman (16:06.7). Freshman William Dorr, just promoted to the varsity, edged out teammate Dalston Wooller for the No. 5 spot for the Kits, placing 40^th in 16:07.3 while Wooller was 41^st in 16:08.3.

In the girls race, Blunk and Folger passed the first postseason test of their careers with identical times of 19:12.6, good for 23^rd and 24^th place, respectively. New Trier’s Miriam Eynon claimed the individual title in 16:51.5.

ETHS took 7^th in the team standings with 188 points. Teams advancing to the sectional were New Trier (30), Maine South (31), Loyola Academy (98), Glenbrook North (122), Niles West (143) and Elk Grove (152).