Verzbicas' debut for Sandburg a smash hit

Sandburg's Lukas Verzbicas rounds a corner with no one in sight.
(Patrick Gleason/For the Sun-Times News Group)

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Lukas Verzbicas is back, and he's running against history and the clock as much as any of his rivals.

The sophomore transfer celebrated his Sandburg debut on Saturday by smashing his own course record at the Lions Pride Invitational hosted by Lyons in Western Springs. He raced out to a commanding early lead and covered the 4,800-meter course in 14 minutes, 19.76 seconds.

That was more than 16 seconds faster than Verzbicas' time last year when he was running for Lincoln-Way Central. And it was almost 56 seconds better than the time of runner-up Sam Telfer of Lyons (15:15.62), a returning all-stater.

But it wasn't necessarily up to Verzbicas' expectations.

"I wanted to try to run faster, but I'm not really tapering or resting for this race," he said. "This was a good workout today."

Maine South coach Greg Nordahl, whose team edged host Lyons 45-50 for the title, had a simple instruction for his runners regarding Verzbicas: "Let him go, just let him go. ... He's world class and this is a [high school] meet. ... He's on another plane."

Verzbicas is on a dual training regimen with one eye on high school cross-country and the other on the International Triathlon Union's Short Course Duathlon World Championship later this month in Concord, N.C. Whether Verzbicas has another high school race before the Sept. 26 duathlon remains to be seen. "It depends on how I feel," he said of running the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational on the state meet course on Sept. 19.

Whether or not he competes at Detweiller Park in two weeks, Verzbicas hopes to make an impact there on Nov. 7 at the Class 3A state meet after missing the state series last year because of a back injury. Also hoping to peak in Peoria is Maine South, which was paced by the 3-5-6 finish of Dave Eckhart, Michael Moore and Sean Senf on Saturday.

"Our goal at the beginning of the summer after a pretty good track season was to place in the top 10 at the state meet," Nordahl said. "I think this was our first benchmark to see if we'd be able to reach that goal."

In the girls race, Sandburg had a 3-4-6 finish from Kimberly Christensen, Alexis Goldsmith and Elise Prieto to edge host Lyons 56-63 for the title.

"The girls ran well," Sandburg coach Christina Soldan said. "We've been trying to decide who our top seven are."

Lyons senior Kelsey Kilrea, who switched from volleyball to cross-country only last season, won the individual title in 17:37.87, just ahead of Marist's Ashley Sellers (17:39.85).

Pushing the pace at the beginning of the race was key, according to Kilrea. "We started out faster today and it worked out well, so I'm not complaining," she said.