It was less than a split second of his young lifetime, but St. Charles North’s Noah Eng can’t let it go.
That’s understandable.
Eng, a senior who leads this year’s cross country team, returned last week to the scene of his biggest athletic disappointment for a DuKane Conference quadrangular at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.
LeRoy Oakes serves as the home course for both the North Stars and crosstown rival St. Charles East.
Last November, the Saints used the site to host a sectional meet where Eng came up one place and less than one second short of qualifying for state.
“A few tenths of a second,” Eng said. “It was really tough. I was devastated.”
The top five teams and top seven individuals from nonqualifying teams advanced to Peoria the following week. Eng and Neuqua Valley’s Aidan Stone battled to the finish line for what proved to be the final spot.
Both were clocked at 16:12 in the official results for the 18-team field, but Stone had a slight advantage.
Adding to the disappointment?
The previous week, Eng ran the same course in more challenging muddy conditions during the nine-team regional the North Stars hosted and he actually finished in 15:35.
“The whole idea that I was that close,” Eng said. “I was leading him the entire time and just at that one little second. I think about that every single workout.”
Such setbacks can provide motivation — fuel the fire.
Eng, who only started running cross country as a freshman, wasn’t even thinking about state as a possibility until after the regional.
“I was ranked to go downstate,” Eng said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. I wouldn’t change how it went because I feel like I’ve been more influenced and motivated since.”
He’s also done more training.
“I think it’s important to keep progressing and keep building mileage, especially this being my fourth year,” Eng said. “I’m trying to see that doesn’t happen again and have the best season I can.”
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the Illinois High School Association does not plan on staging a state meet but has expanded on its original plan and will have regional and sectional competitions.
If Eng makes it to the sectional, as he should, he at least will be able to look at the results and know if he would have qualified for state like he had hoped to do last year.
Defending state champion St. Charles East rested its top two runners in the DuKane Conference quadrangular. Eng led from the start but was caught by the Saints’ usual No. 3 runner in the final quarter-mile and finished second in 15:31, his personal best at LeRoy Oakes.
St. Charles North coach Kevin Harrington likes Eng’s progress.
“Zack Loomis, who caught him, has that state experience,” Harrington said. “That’s something Noah has to race himself into. I want to see him hammer the entire race. We can get better there.
“Noah didn’t have anyone with him the first two miles, which is tough. but he can keep getting better.”
Eng, meanwhile, is never satisfied.
“Even if I get a 20-second PR,” Eng said of a personal record. “I’m happy with it, but there’s always something you think you could have done better.
“This one? I probably could have hung on for a little bit longer to see how much closer I could have been to (Loomis).”
Harrington said Eng is right where he needs to be for the season’s stretch run.
“He’s a kid that wants to be great,” Harrington said. “He’s been grinding and he’s a little tired and that’s OK. He should be.
“We’re through the hardest part of training. We have to get it in gear for October. It’s time to get that spring back.”
And time to erase bad memories.
