Cross Country: Young Titan Squad Looks To Gain Experience At Sectionals

coach Kurt Hasenstein has seen what can happen when the Titans bring a group of young and inexperienced group of runners to the sectional meet. The results may not be good immediately, but the experience usually breeds future success.

The Titans qualified for the sectional meet after placing seventh as a team at the Class 3A Wilmette Regional last weekend. Sophomore David O’Gara led the way by placing 19th while senior Sam Stanek wasn’t far behind in 21st.

Overall, Glenbrook South had four sophomores and five underclassmen in their regional lineup of seven runners.

“It’s similar to a team we had back in the 1990s when we went to the sectional meet as juniors and I had an all-junior lineup and we took eighth,” Hasenstein said. “The next year that team ended up qualifying for the state meet.”

Youth has been the theme for this team ever since Hasenstein brought up a number of sophomores to the varsity level midway through the season. O’Gara has assumed the No. 1 spot and ran the second-fastest three-mile time in school history at Peoria. He completed the state championship course in 15 minutes, 35 seconds.

Right there with him was Stanek, who has also been helped by O’Gara’s promotion. Stanek and O’Gara both earned all-conference honors for the first time and running together has been a huge reason why. They continued that trend at the regional meet, clocking the same splits at the mile and two-mile marks.

“It’s been great. It’s a lot easier to run with a teammate pushing each other than it is battling with someone from another team,” Hasenstein said. “You can always push yourself, but it’s certainly helpful to have the teammate there. You don’t want to let them down.”

Hasenstein said O’Gara and Stanek have an outside shot at qualifying individually for the state meet, but it would likely take career-best efforts from both of them.

Although Stanek and fellow senior Brad Berg won’t be back next season, Hasenstein knows the experience gained at the sectional meet will pay dividends in the future.

Sophomores Casey Henrickson, Alex Jackman and Charlie Castelli along with junior Peter Westerfield filled out the rest of Glenbrook’s South regional lineup and, with the possible exception of Castelli, will be running at the sectional meet.

“We’re going to have five kids on the line who are coming back for next year, which, as a coach, is exciting,” Hasenstein said. “You want to do well this year, but we know it’s kind of gravy right now that we got to the sectional meet.”

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