It’s all Nalley in dominating 2A Boys State championship win

Riverside-Brookfield wins first state championship in their storied history

By Michael Newman

Peoria, Ill – It was the secret hope of everyone that had seen Marion’s Dylan Nalley run 14:03 at the beginning of October on this course and then 14:06 last week in his sectional race that he would be going after the three-year old record of 13:49.86 that Josh Methner had set in 2019. That hope soured when the skies opened up over Detweiller Park on Friday and then Saturday when the Class 1A races were going on.

It was still a state meet race where he would be chasing after a state championship though it would not be as fast as he hoped. His parents seemed were a little more nervous than this junior who showed a smooth façade on his face. His father Daniel had experienced Detweiller Park twice in his high school career finishing 36 as a junior and 41 as a senior for Benton in 1998 and 1999 along with being an all-state runner in the 4x8 on the track. Now his son was experiencing the week before. He was sleeping. His dad was too nervous too. Parents do that.

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Nalley ignored the elements that offered the rest of the runners on this muddy turned swamp that portions of Detweiller Park had become. He passed the first mile in an incredible 4:36 considering what he was running on. He had already has built up a 14 second lead on Dale Johnson of Sterling and another two seconds ahead of Cooper Marrs of Riverside-Brookfield. The rest of the filed starting crossing the timing mat three seconds after that.

Nalley missed all of his sophomore season due to an injury. He would not miss this day as he ran the fastest time of all three Boys races on the course in 14:44. It seemed like he was exerting a lot of energy coming up the final two times around. It did not matter with the size of the lead that he had.

“My strategy did not change after seeing the weather. My thought process did,” the junior said. “My thought process was that my time was going to be slower with the mud and the high winds.”

After the storm front went through, the winds picked up gusting close to 30 miles per hour hitting the runners into the face slowing down the stride. It did not affect Nalley as glided across the finish line.

“After last season’s experiences, this summer it made me train harder. It focused me from rising form the bottom to the top,” added Nalley. “I came down to the line at the end thinking that I deserved this moment.”

The margin between the top runners in this race was mind staggering especially considering the muddy course. Dale Johnson was within 13 seconds of Nalley at two miles but that grew in the final lap of the course. Still, Johnson bettered his seventh-finish from a year ago to run 15:06 to finish second. There was another gap before the next runners came in. Julian Baker of Mt. Zion passed Evan Horgan of Belvidere North in the final 15 meters to capture third (15:25) just one second ahead of Horgan. Cooper Marrs of Riverside-Brookfield ran 15:27 to finish fourth just one second ahead of sixth-place Brenden Heitzig of Lincoln.

Riverside-Brookfield has a storied history with their Boys Cross Country team with their first state experience in 1968 and their best finish of second coming in the 1973 season behind York in the single class state meet. Their thirteenth time as a team to the state meet was a charm as they added a trophy they had wanted for oh so long. The help of two all-state runners boosted them to the state title with 131 points. Belvidere North scored 155 points to finish second ahead of Glenbard South scoring 157 points to finish third. The top three teams came from the Kaneland Sectional which was the toughest of the four Class 2A sectionals.

Marrs led RB with his fifth-place finish. Jack O’Brien also earned all-state honors as the team’s second runner finishing 16. William Kallas (38), Zach Gaynor (56), and Brady Norman (69) rounded out the team’s top five. The Bulldogs only had a 46 second split from O’Brien to Norman and a 79 second split overall.

Belvidere North had a 95 second split on their top five runners along with having 4 runners in the top 48. Horgan led the way with his top five finish. Orlando Hernandez missed all-state status by one place finishing 26th. Jesse Kramer (42nd), Will Ward (48th), and Antonio Ostalaza (95th) were also part of the Blue Thunder’s top five.

Glenbard South has relied on good pack running and that showed in this race. The Raiders only had a 44 second split on their top five runners which included two all-state runners. Ryan Chung led South finishing 23rd while teammate Jaden Frederick two seconds back in 25th. Tim Jochum finished 31 as the team’s fourth runner followed by Caleb Walter (58th) and Lucas Newman (76th).

Grayslake Central, who was rated #1 for most of the season, missed a trophy on Saturday by 12 points scoring 169 to finish fourth.  The Rams had two all-state runners with Trey Sato finishing 11th and freshman Adan Cordova placing 21st. Morton scored 208 points to finish fifth led by all-state races by Josh Weeks in 10th and Yonas Wuthrich in 22nd.