Naperville Central senior Arthur Graham didn’t hold back.
“My coach told me to stop smiling,” Graham said. “At the (halfway) point, I thought about that and just kept smiling. That was something that got me through it.”
Graham broke free over the final mile Saturday to capture the individual championship of the Class 3A Whitney Young Sectional at Lincoln Park in Chicago.
He finished the 3-mile race with a personal-best time of 14 minutes, 45.85 seconds. Graham also ended the unbeaten streak of Illinois recruit Nicolas Dovalovsky, a senior from Neuqua Valley.
Graham glided past Dovalovsky and Hinsdale Central’s Daniel Watcke in turning the race into a personal triumph.
“I could just tell by my breathing, I had more, and I could also see by their breathing they were getting a little bit tired,” Graham said. “I felt really good and I just pushed through.”
Dovalovsky reigned supreme until Saturday.
He was seeking to add the sectional title to impressive honors that included the Naperville Twilight Invitational, the DuPage Valley Conference Meet and the regional.
Graham finished 27 seconds behind Dovalovsky at the Twilight. He sliced that to just under eight seconds at the regional.
Dovalovsky created the standard, but Graham realized he wasn’t running just to match him. The greatest obstacle was negotiating a psychological hurdle in convincing himself he was capable of upending all expectations.
“I could feel it,” Graham said. “And I knew I had an A effort in me.”
The third-place finish in the sectional by Dovalovsky powered the Wildcats to second place with 82 points. Downers Grove North won with 77.
Neuqua was an incredibly consistent team this season with runner-up finishes at the Twilight, conference, regional and sectional meets.
Dovalovsky also was not alone. Senior Aidan Stone was 15th, junior Noah Schalliol took 19th and senior Austin Burke ended up 23rd.
Vasant Fong, a senior, rounded out Neuqua’s five top runners by finishing 34th.
Naperville North, which beat the Wildcats by five points in conference and one in the regional, took third place in the sectional with 101 points.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the sectional was staged in four staggered flights, with no more than two runners per school.
Graham and Dovalovsky ran in the fourth flight.
In the third flight, junior Gabe Ryan and senior Tommy Paltzer pushed through in the final 800 yards to create a one-two punch for Naperville North.
Ryan finished in 15:17.96 and finished sixth overall. Paltzer was eighth at 15:18.48.
“We knew the guy from Downers North was going to be there,” Ryan said of Kyle McNally. “We had a big goal of coming here and winning the sectional.
“We put a bunch of training into it, so we just put that into the race.”
Ryan jumped just ahead of Paltzer.
“My coach yelled when there was half a mile to go, and I saw the Downers kid ahead of me,” Paltzer said. “I told myself I needed to get this guy.”
Chase Burrell finished 12th and Nick Williams was 24th for the Huskies. Both are seniors.
Oswego East’s Alexander Das and Nick Henz, who qualified as at-large individuals, finished 13th and 14th, respectively.
Juniors Angel Solis finished 22nd and Jacob Tukker was 28th as Waubonsie Valley finished sixth.
The Peoria-based timing company ShaZam Racing is sponsoring an invitation-only state competition featuring many of the top high school and club runners this weekend in downstate Chillicothe.
Graham and Dovalovsky are planning to compete in the next stage of their rivalry.
“I always knew I had something like this in me,” Graham said. “I was waiting for my time.”
Patrick Z. McGavin is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
