Expectations high for Maine South

Greg Nordahl made it clear before the season started what he thought of his Maine South boys cross country club.

The coach considered this his best team ever, going as far as to predict these Hawks as a top-five team.

Maine South showed off for the state Saturday at the Richard Spring Invitational at Detweiller Park, site of the state meet in Peoria.

The Hawks finished fifth with 236 points in the 64-team field and beat teams such as Schaumburg and Barrington, both of which came into the meet ranked in the top five by ESPN’s Dyestat. Maine South also bettered Lake Zurich, Wheaton North and Loyola, three more teams ranked ahead of the Hawks.

“I expected us to be like this, and I’ve felt this way all along,” Nordahl said. “I thought we would be this kind of team.”

Palatine, the top-ranked team, won the team title with 113 points. Oak Park-River Forest’s Malachy Schrobilgen won in 14:21. Four of the top-five teams were in the field.

Maine South ran in a tight pack Saturday, headlined by Zach Eckhart’s 26th-place finish in 15:05. The last Hawk score took 71st and was only 28 seconds behind Eckhart.

“That’s unbelievable,” Nordahl said. “That’s pretty sweet. Last year we had a frontrunner in Dave Eckhart, but we didn’t have a great pack. We are a better team.”

In his first major meet of the season, Jon Vaccaro followed Eckhart in 30th (15:09). Robert Taylor was third on the team in 50th (15:23). Kevin Dolan (61st, 15:28) and Jack Carpenter (72nd, 15:33) rounded out the scoring.

“Kevin stepped up biggest for us,” the coach said. “He told me all week that he was going to break 15:30. I told him I wanted to see it to believe it. He came out and ran 15:28, which was huge for us.”

Despite feeling ill, Eckhart still managed to set the pace for the Hawks, who are looking to get back to the state meet for the first time since 2009 when they finished a program-best 10th.

“I was impressed with him,” Nordahl said. “He had a head cold and was not feeling up to par. But he’s our No. 1 runner, and it was nice to see that out of Zach.”

Once Michal Filipczak, who missed offseason training with a bone chip in his foot, gets back into shape, the Hawks have another runner capable of scoring.

“He should be ready by the end of the season,” Nordahl said of Filipczak, who was runner-up in the state meet in the 800 meters.

Maine South gets another tough test this weekend at Palatine’s invitational, where the Hawks will see New Trier for the first time this season.

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