By Michael Newman

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This could be a Saturday of redemption for Judy Pendergast (Naperville North HS) and Jon Davis (Oakwood HS) as they head to San Diego for the Foot Locker National Championships. There will be an Illinois contingent of 4 Illinois athletes that will be running in this meet. Matt Pereira (Lake Zurich HS) and Maryjeanne Gilbert (Notre Dame HS, Peoria) will join Davis and Pendergast on the starting line.

This will be the second of the back to back national races for both Davis and Pendergast. Six runners including Davis ran last weekend in the Boys Championship Race in Portland. Pendergast will have four other runners from the Girls NXN Championship Race.

Both runners had high expectations in last week’s race in Portland. Pendergast led up until two miles before being passed by eventual winner Katie Rainsberger. Pendergast, who finished eighth at NXN, expects to run better this Saturday. Naperville North Dan Iverson expects the same.

“When I got back to my hotel room after the race, Judy and I texted each other back and forth,” Iverson said after the NXN race last Saturday. “She was going back and forth with me analyzing her race. She has come on like gang busters on the national scene this fall and that was her first national race. I think she knows what she did wrong. I know she is looking forward to going out and racing again in San Diego.”

Davis felt the same way after he finished 22^nd at NXN. He was down immediately after the race. After he had a few hours to analyze what had happened, Davis had the mind set of getting back on the horse for one more race for this cross country season.

“It was the kind of race that I like where it took a kick to win it. I just was not in position,” Davis said while he waited for the NXN Closing Ceremonies in the Tiger Woods Center. “I know pushing the pace has worked out the best for me in the past. I may have to use try some different strategy so that I am with the leaders at the end.”

One thing that Davis will take advantage of is his familiarity of the Balboa Park course. He did run in this race a year ago only to finish 37^th. That was a trend for him last year as he did not run great in big races that season finishing fourth at the Richard Spring Invitational and then sixth at the Palatine Invitational. He redeemed himself this season by running 14:10 to win the Richard Spring Race and then coming back to win at Palatine. We could see the same kind of trend in this race. Part of his success was that he was running with a chip on his shoulder in those two races. After his humbling race in Portland, we could see the same Jon Davis that we saw at Detweiller Park at the beginning of November.

The Girls Championship Race (11:15 AM CST) could see both Pendergast and Gilbert in the top ten. Gilbert has experience on this course. She ran great at last year’s race finishing 12^th. Gilbert had high expectations at state this season but did not get the time she wanted (under 16 minutes) in winning her second straight 2A state championship. She rebounded two weeks ago with a strong race which resulted in a third place finish in Kenosha. Even though the Girls field is strong, I expect to see Gilbert among the ten best.

The same can be said about Judy Pendergast. She learned some things in the NXN race last week. If she can hang off of the lead pace in this race until the final mile, it would not surprise me to see her fifth or better. The field will be tough in this race as Junior Weini Kelati (Leesburg VA), Taylor Werner (Ste. Genevieve MO), Nevada Mareno (Leesville NC), and Annie Hill (Glacier MT) will be among the runners up front with Pendergast.

The Boys Championship race ( 12:00 PM CST) is loaded as well with Andrew Hunter (Loudon Valley VA) as the one runner that people will be chasing. Even though Philip Rocha (Arcadia CA) lost to Garek Bielaczyc (Salt Lake City UT) at last week’s West Regional, the California senior could be the one runner to chase down Hunter. Davis should be among the top five in this race along with NXN second place finisher Ben Veatch (Carmel IN), Paul Roberts (Lyons CO), Andrew Jordan (Pataskala OH), and Joshua Clark (Highland NJ). Also watch for Noah Affolder (Carthage NY) up front in this race. The former Mascoutah IL runner has hit his stride running now in New York winning the Manhattan Invitational as well as the Northeast Regional two weeks ago. It would not surprise me to see him in the top five.

Matt Pereira could also be a surprise in this race. His race strategy is usually to stay in the back of the front pack and then make his move in the last half of the race. His experience in last year’s NXN Championship race in which he finished 30^th will pay off in this race. I would not be surprised to see Matt finish in the top fifteen.