By Michael Newman

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Kenosha, Wis --- The conditions did not dictate the races at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional Championships. Despite snow earlier in the week in southeast Wisconsin, the ground was hard and great for footing especially in the trails of the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course.

It was the runners.

Mark Hadley (Youngstown, OH) led a pack of thirty runners through the first mile in a pedestrian 4:57. There was bumping going on. Patrick Perrier (O’Fallon, IL) said after the race he was spiked a couple of times. A ripped sock showed evidence of that. During the second mile, Obsa Ali (Richfield, MN) decided to pick up the pace as the course reversed itself and headed back downhill. The pace was slow as they passed in 9:48. Perrier was up front close to Ali. So was Addison DeHaven (Brookings, SD), Grant Fisher (Grand Blanc, MI), and Jesse Reiser (McHenry, IL).

With a little over 1,000 meters to go, there is a part of the course called pick-up hill. It is a downhill portion of the course where if someone wants to make a decisive move, this is where it happens. After the pack went by two miles, there were little surges but no one had a clear lead. Leave that to Fisher. The junior from Michigan, who has international racing experience, made that decisive move to put him clearly ahead of the pack.

Fisher ran negative splits running the last mile in approximately 4:40 to capture the Boys Championship race in 15:02.

“The first two miles were really slow. No one really wanted to take it. Everyone was cautious watching everyone biding their time,” Fisher said. “I made a move about 1200 out just to see where everyone was. I fell back. With 800 to go, I made a surge and kept going. Everything worked out. I was happy.”

DeHaven finished second seven seconds back. Three weeks ago, he won the NXN Heartland Regional Championship. He will be running next Saturday at Portland. The South Dakota state champion has not raced a lot this season. He jogged across the finish line showing that he has more left in the tank.

“I was just trying to stay in the front. I knew I had 50-60 guys right on my tail,” DeHaven said. “It was a good race. It was just getting through it. I wanted to win. At some point, I wanted to pull back that competitiveness knowing that I have to race next week.”

Illinois had the lowest team score amongst the 12 states entered in Kenosha. The Land of Lincoln placed five runners in the first twenty to win the team competition. They were led by Jesse Reiser and Patrick Perrier who qualified for the national finals in San Diego in two weeks.

Reiser has had an amazing end of season placing his name on the map as one of the top juniors in the country. He showed that on Saturday finishing third. “I got spiked in the knee. There was a group of fifty of the top runners in the Midwest. I was just trying to stick with Patrick. He is a great runner,” Reiser said. “I just went with the flow. In the last 800, there was a group of seven. I just went with them. In the last 200, I just kicked it in.”

Perrier was in the pack of seven and just floated in finishing sixth. The Illinois state champion had to drop out of the NXN Regional race in Terre Haute due to a recurring ankle problem. Today it did not seem to bother him as he punched his ticket to San Diego. “Before the race I talked to my coach. The name of the game was getting out and getting some room to run,” Perrier said. “The name of the game was to qualify. I knew the spot on the course that I was going to go. Grant made his move. It was at the point whether I wanted to take the risk and try to win or play it safe and try to qualify. When we came out of the woods, I was 5-6-7. I knew I had qualified at that point and coasted in.”

Toby Hardwick (Newark, OH) and Jackson Bertoli (Terre Haute, IN) finished in between Reiser and Perrier to capture the fourth and fifth qualify spots. Thomas Pollard (Ames, IA), Noah Kauppila (Chesterfield, MO) and David Dalton (Greenwood, IN) finished in the three spots also making the trip to San Diego. The last qualifying spot had to go to video review. Ryan Robinson (West Bloomfield, MI) just edged Zack Smith (Downers Grove, IL) for the final spot.

Illinois had two other runners that finished in the top twenty. Nick Hess (Rantoul, IL) finished thirteenth. Jack Carpenter (Park Ridge, IL) finished twentieth.

Kelcy Welch (Carmel, IN) showed the same type of patience as Fisher in the Girls Championship Race. NXN Midwest Regional Champion Taylor Werner (Ste. Genevieve, MO), Stephanie Jenks (Aurora, IN), Rebekah Topham (Griswold, IA), and Hannah Long (Eureka, MO) had separated themselves from the pack early in the race. Welch was comfortable in staying 10 meters behind the group as they re-entered the woods closing in to the two miles. Welch closed the gap as the group passed the two miles in 11:30.

It was the Indiana state champion that took control of the race as she surged down pick up hill to open up a gap between her and Jenks. Welch crossed the line in 17:33, five seconds ahead of Jenks.

“Coming in, I knew I had a chance to qualify and finish in the top ten. I felt pretty confident that I could do that. I wasn’t expecting the win,” she said. “I did not want to run up the hill at the beginning too hard and die at the end. I was in between the two packs. I decided it would be easier to get up with the front pack. Once I got up with them, it was kind of easier with the pack. One we got to 1k to go coming down the hill, I decided to go for it.”

Jenks did not run for her high school cross country team this fall deciding to compete for her swimming team at school. This was only her third cross country race of the season but you could not tell with her second place finish. Topham, Werner, and Long came in together to complete the top five. Lauren Brasure (Ada, MI) finished just behind the pack in sixth.

Illinois’ lone qualifier in this race was Mailin Struck (North Riverside, IL). The 2A state champion established position in the top ten early in the race. She maintained that to finish seventh. After the state meet three weeks ago at Detweiller Park, the German exchange student said that it was her dream to qualify for the Foot Locker Nationals so that she could go to San Diego, a place that she had never been to. Her dream came true on Saturday.

Kristen Olling (Wheeler MI) finished just behind Struck in eighth. The final two spots went to a pair of Indiana runners Rachel Nichwitz (Fishers, IN) and Alex Buck (Pendelton, IN). Michigan won the team competition in the Girls race placing five runners in the first sixteen.

There were two other runners from Illinois that placed in the top twenty. Madeline Perez (Glen Ellyn, IL) ended her prep cross country career finishing nineteenth. Lauren VanVlierbergen (Algonquin, IL) finished close behind in twentieth.