The New Trier Boys Cross Country team finished third place in the IHSA qualifying meet on Saturday, October 27th at Niles West, coming off a successful regular season performance.
Despite a competitive New Trier lineup, only seven of the twelve boys on the state roster were allowed to run. Representing the Trevians this year were seniors Ethan Kaplan, Ben Rosenkranz, Jake Greenberg, and Bennett Levis, along with juniors Connor Trapp, Chase Silverman, and sophomore Austin Santacruz.
Of the twenty teams that competed on Saturday, only five progressed to the state meet. Along with New Trier, Maine South, Lane Tech, Glenbard West, and St. Ignatious will run at Peoria on November 3rd.
Senior Ethan Kaplan led the Trevians with a seventh place finish in the three mile race. Clocking in at 15:29.79, Kaplan finished the race in dramatic fashion, after losing his right shoe in mile two of the race.
“I’ve lost a shoe in a track race before. That was the first time for it happening in a cross country race,” Kaplan told CSL Insider.” “I just sort of gave myself a shrug and was like, ‘OK, I lost a shoe, it doesn’t stop anything. It definitely makes it a lot more difficult because you’ve got traction with your one foot and then your other foot is either dealing with the gravel or going through mud and all that other stuff. There was mud in a stretch right here and then you had the two patches of gravel you have to go over. Once you got on the Astroturf for the finish, that was heaven.”
Last year the Trevians headed down to state and captured eleventh place, under the leadership of state champion Leland Later, who is currently a freshman at UC Berkeley. But even without Later, head coach David Wisner thinks that this year’s group could do even better.
“We don’t have any front runners like last year, but what we do have is a bunch of guys who are all within twenty seconds of each other. So if we can get to the state meet and everyone runs well and within twenty seconds of each other, we could certainly crack the top ten this year,” said Wisner “I think that would be an exceptional accomplishment for this group, especially considering we had so many seniors graduate last year.

Sectionals marked the end of a strong regular season for the Boys cross country team.
“We have had a great regular season this year”, said Wisner.” It’s hard to name any specific highlights because the team has done so well all year long. In particular I was very proud of how they performed at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational. That was a tough meet and we took first place. I also thought we did a great job at regionals last Saturday. We lost to a good team in Maine South, but we are looking forward to outrunning them in Sectionals and at State.”
The number and quality of juniors and sophomores on varsity this year will ensure that New Trier will continue to build on their ability to win big races in the future. But the strongest element of this team is not the races, but the runners themselves. “This group of guys really has great chemistry and camaraderie. It’s been a fun group to work with, with a lot different personalities, but we seem to mesh very well and support each other, and to me that is something special,” said Wisner.