Cross country: DeKalb’s Riley Newport takes seventh at state tournament

PEORIA – DeKalb senior Riley Newport put forth his best effort, but wished it could have yielded better results.

The Barbs senior finished seventh in the Class 3A race at the IHSA Cross Country State Meet on Saturday at Detweiller Park in 15:05.11. While Newport repeated as an All-State runner (top 25 finish), his sophomore teammate Jacob Barraza just missed in 27th place in 15:31.07.

Kaneland sophomore Evan Nosek took seventh in the Class 2A boys race in 15:38.31. Sycamore’s Naif Al Harby just missed state berth, taking 27th in 16:14, with Ethan Solifsburg 45th in 16:32.

“I would have liked to finish a little bit higher,” said Newport, who will sign his National Letter of Intent Wednesday to run at Duke next year. “I put myself in position early to be successful, but unfortunately the third mile knocked my legs out of me. I was disappointed with how I finished.”

The runners had to deal with a wet and muddy course at Detweiller which made things difficult. The Class 3A boys race was the sixth of the day, which made it even messier for those runners.

“You know everybody’s good,” said Newport, who finished third last year. “The conditions were very challenging, it’s kind of hard to find your footing at times, but it’s the same for everybody, so you just kind have to forget about that and go.

“I put myself in the position early that I wanted to be in and kind of that last mile just didn’t go in my favor. That’s how it goes sometimes. Nothing I can do about it. It was still a great season and a good race.”

Nosek was all smiles after his run and top-10 finish.

“It was great competition,” Nosek said. “Very great competition and a fun course. I had a blast with the mud and everything. I was expecting higher winds, which I was happy about that.

“It was kind of hard, the first lap I tried to avoid it. The second lap, I was already muddy, ran through it, had a blast running through it. Just tried to cut off distance.”

Nosek seemed to harness the excitement of the state race well.

“There was definitely a lot of adrenaline,” he said. “I had a blast with a lot of guys I had seen before. I tried to latch onto them. It was fun being up there with the competition and everything.”