Kyle DuVall Blog – Sept. 10th – Brown County Eagle Classic
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First off, I would like to say I hope everyone’s cross country seasons are going smoothly thus far. It has been a real exciting season and we are only 3 weeks in. It has been real nice to see guys from other schools that we just don’t get to see very often (I’m talking to you, Terre Haute South and Barr-Reeve) and others that you have to love dearly because we live right across the street from each other (What up Carmel?). I will give you a quick rundown of our past 3 races from my perspective, including a spectator’s point of view at State Preview.
On August 25, we went up to the beautiful Oakbrook Valley for the Western High School Invitational in Howard County. It is generally a pretty small invite, with about 10-12 teams, at a real fun course. It was a great time running against Mr. Neideck and Matt Grider. The team actually earned its first trophy in a few years, so I guess that was pretty cool.
Then on Tuesday, we went right into our county meet. I love having our county meet early in the season, just to give yourself a great indication of where yourself and the team is compared to everyone else in the area. There are few courses in the state that match the atmosphere when running up the tree line at Noblesville, and I am sure a lot of Hamilton County guys would agree with me. Huge shoutout to Craig Schildmeier and Calvin Kraft on great performances, I don’t think a lot of people had them in the top 5. Another shoutout to Carmel as well, for sweeping the JV races for the 91st year in a row.
The Saturday after, Brittany and Bethany Neeley and I got to see a very exciting race in Terre Haute. State Preview is a meet that we used to go to; although this year it was just best we left it out of the schedule. My morning featured waking up at 5:30 so we could get down there before the races/rain started to get our runs in. I would advise all to never do a long run on Laverne. I would literally rather race in compression shorts under my running shorts than do that again…. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It started pouring rain right when the gun went off for the varsity guys race. All I got from the meet was Jacob Thomson is still pretty freakin good, Bertoli was making it look easy, and Valpo has one hell of a team. We ended with a lunch with my ex-teammate, Sam Sobczak who has taken his talents to Rose Hulman, and also chatting it up at Monical’s with Kyle Walsh and the Bertoli Family.
This morning (9/8), was the Eagle Classic at Brown County. Everything about this meet is absolutely fantastic: the fast course, fast competition, and very well ran meet. The front part of the course was just covered in mud, which I am sure you all had to face whether you were up north or down south. Of course, Bertoli was still making it look easy. Also, huge shoutout to Connor Sorrells for falling flat on his face at the start, I really wish I could have seen that.
In my life away from running, I recently got a sweet gig at Greek’s Pizzeria in Noblesville. It is a pretty flexible job; I go in a couple days a week after practice and also a few hours on the weekends. I will take anything that will give me some extra cash. Also tomorrow I am going to the final round of BMW in Carmel. I am a huge golf fan. I am not very good, but hit me up sometime and maybe we can dual.
If you have any questions about training, racing, politics, or dating a state champion, please let me know!
