Oregon Open
78 degrees, sunny and humid
31 programs
Despite the early start time of 9AM, it was an extremely warm morning. Although this meet is generally on the hotter side, this year was exceptionally tough and it showed in the times. The top 10 times of each varsity race were on average the slowest in over 5 years. This course is a 5k distance and is two loops that include some flat areas and a large but gradual hill.
The first race of the day was the Varsity Girls race. There were 119 total competitors and three ranked teams in Winnebago(2nd), Genoa Kingston(10th) and Port Byron Riverdale(15th). The race also included 6 NUIC programs. We had three competitors in Ell Law, Tessa Gempler, and Alivia Northrup. The front of the race had many Winnebago jerseys with 4 Indians in the top 10. 2025 XC All Stater Molly Webb of Winnebago took the individual win in 19:45. Ell Law in only her second career race finishes 2nd in 20:15. Tessa Gempler finished in 40th and Alivia Northrup finished in 99th in her first ever race. The next highest NUIC runner was Morrison Sophomore, Kenadee Carrigan. Team wise, Winnebago took the win with 41 points. Port Byron Riverdale was second with 96 points. 2A Sycamore finished 3rd with 102 points.
The Varsity boys race was next. There were 158 runners and 3 ranked teams in East Dubuque(2nd), Rockford Christian(15th) and Aurora Central Catholic(2A 3rd). We had 6 Varsity runners today in Vinny Gullone, Peter Wagner, Lucas Jackson, Ian Tancrell, Nick Cobine and Sevin Smith. Wesley Haas, Andrew Richardson and Liam Schauer sat out due to lingering injuries. Early on ACC had the lead with 5 guys in the lead pack. Caden Hageman of Hinkley took control through the first half of the race, setting the pace with a time of 10:30 through 2 miles. Vinny Gullone sat in the back of that pack and waited until the final 800 to make his move. Vinny was able to gap Caden and ACC’s John Reinbold and pull away with a tough win in a time of 16:12. Reinbold would finish second in 16:19 over Hagemen in 16:22. An interesting team battle insued between us and ACC. Our #1 runner was 1 spot over there 1. Our two was one spot over there 2. Our 3, 4 and 5 were exactly one spot behind there 3, 4 and 5. This lead to a rare one point win for the #3 ranked 2A team of ACC. 3rd place was 3A Schaumburg with 86 points. Vinny, Lucas and Ian set personal bests in the 5k distance. The next top NUIC runner was Zachary Vincent from Dakota in 24th place
The combined JV race was after and we had three competitors in Lucas Wurster, Sam Cobine and Achilles Morales. Lucas was our top finisher in 18th place with a time of 20:26.
