Carmel’s KJ Matuszak makes history at State meet

Updated: November 8, 2011 8:18PM

Ordinarily, KJ Matuszak tries to wait back and move up later in a given race. But the Carmel Catholic senior adjusted to the circumstances — and was rewarded with an all-state medal.

Matuszak grabbed the No. 23 card in Saturday’s IHSA Class 2A boys cross country state meet. He completed the course at Peoria’s Detweiller Park in 15:11 to grab the first all-state medal in program history.

“KJ is more of an endurance runner,” said Corsairs coach Jim Halford. “But it’s a fast course and it’s easy to go out fast in the first 800 (meters).”

When the lead pack hit the 800 mark, Matuszak was in 15th place — in a blazing 2:15 clip.

“That (2:15) is more like a mile pace than a three-mile pace,” Halford noted.

Matuszak managed to hold a top-25 spot throughout the race.

“He ran with great heart,” Halford said. “Going into the home stretch, he caught a couple of guys and one kid passed him. He gave it all he had.”

His ultimate goal was to break 15:00. Matuszak did just that at Detweiller Park in September, but the pace of most runners was slower on Saturday.

“It was a windy day,” Halford said. “It seemed like almost everyone was 10 seconds slower than usual.”

As an example, Class 2A state champion Michael Clevenger of Decatur MacArthur registered a time of 14:26 in the state test after finishing in 14:18 at Detweiller in September.

Matuszak didn’t quite meet up to his high standards.

“I know KJ wanted to finish higher,” the coach said. “But it was a great way to end his career in cross country.”

Down on the farm

Carl Sandburg, Hawthorn North and Hawthorn South had some solid showings at the recent IESA state cross country meet in downstate Normal.

Sandburg’s boys finished 13th in Class AA. Will Hamilton led the way (36th). Others in the top five were Nick Ramirez (60th), Joe Santoro (111th), Alec Riportella (119th) and Sergio Morales (153rd).

Sandburg’s girls placed 22nd. Kelly Grove came in 50th to lead the team. She was followed in by Sarah Hamilton (101st), Lizzie Meister (128th), Claire Bullington (218th) and Sarah Ouiment (237th).

Hawthorn North’s boys wound up 21st. Bryan Castellanos was the team’s top runner (38th). Rounding out the top five were Trevor Moyers (65th), Caleb Ju (171st), Nicky Mohrdieck (181st) and Tanner Fulton (185th).

Hawthorn South sent four individuals to Maxwell Park course.

On the girls side, Shannon Skeoch, who was a conference champion, placed 53rd overall. Teammate Lexi Reich came in 159th.

On the boys side, Shane Williamson just missed earning a medal (top 25) with his 27th-place finish. Teammate Jack Potrykus was 76th.

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