The Palatine Boys Cross Country Team traveled downstate to Peoria for the annual Richard Spring Invitational on Saturday, September 15, a meet with over sixty teams in attendance. This meet is known to have many top state-level teams competing to win. Out of nearly 450 runners in three-mile race, Palatine finished five runners in the top one hundred spots, landing an eleventh-place ranking.

“We’re using what we have now to perform now,” senior Joe Ahlgrim said, in response to the team’s overall performance.

This was the team’s first major race and invitational in the 2018 season. In finishing order, the boys varsity team ran junior Richie Jacobo, senior Joe Ahlgrim, junior Ian Cameron, junior Andrew Duran, senior Luke Sauerland, sophomore Andrew Johns, and senior Malcolm Filichia. With two runners under 16:00, and three more under 16:10, this race marked personal bests for five out of the seven runners.

“We had a lot of guys destroy their previous [personal bests],” senior Luke Sauerland said. “We feel like we have momentum going into our following meets.”

The boys team shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. This Saturday, Palatine will host the annual Palatine Invite at Deer Grove East, facing off against some of the highest ranked teams in Illinois. Next Tuesday, the Pirate face off in a tri-meet against some of the school’s greatest rivals: the Barrington Broncos and the Fremd Vikings. Palatine has not lost a dual meet to Barrington in over 20 years and has not lost to Fremd in nearly 30, and plans to keep both streaks going strong this season.

“We always find a way to come out on top [of Barrington]” Coach Chris Quick said. “We will find a way this season.”