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Boys cross-country: Julien leads Niles West to state
Updated: October 31, 2011 8:56PM
Niles West boys cross country coach Mike Grossman came to the school the same year as this year’s senior class.
There’s no question Grossman holds a special connection to Marc-Daniel Julien, Neal Omar, Masafumi Hoshi, Blake Helton and David Iverson.
Which is why the coach was overjoyed when the Wolves qualified for the state meet for the first time in program history Saturday at its own sectional.
Niles West finished fourth with 162 points to extend its season one more week. The Wolves ended their year at the sectional after finishing ninth.
“I knew they had potential to achieve great things,” Grossman said. “Qualifying was never too far off for them.”
Julien led the charge by taking ninth place in 15:21. Omar (21st, 15:38) and Hoshi (24th, 15:45) weren’t far behind, while Helton (54th, 16:12) and Iverson (56th, 16:15) rounded out the scoring.
In fact, five of the team’s top seven ran their best times of the season. Julien and Omar were the only two who didn’t.
“Each one of them had their own strategy to race well,” Grossman said. “We peaked pretty well for the sectional.”
To no fault of his own, Omar was involved in some confusion at the end of the race. Severely dehydrated, the senior dropped to the ground at the finish, but he was able to stretch his torso across the line to take 21st and beat out Maine South’s Dave Eckhart.
Grossman said Omar is all better and will run this weekend at Detweiller Park.
“He’s doing well,” the coach said. “He just didn’t eat or drink enough before the race. He still did more than most runners can do when healthy.”
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