By Mike Clark
The short list of Public League state cross-country team champions got a little longer on Nov. 9.
Led by All-Staters Tra’Monti Williams and Declan Slavin, Payton won the Class 2A boys title on a perfect day for racing at Peoria’s Detweiller Park. The Grizzlies outdistanced downstate Morton 113-191 for the title with neighborhood rival Latin (195) finishing third.
That made Payton the Public League’s third team champ in the sport, following Lane in the 1963 single-class meet and Jones in 2A in 2012.
It’s the latest highlight for the Grizzlies under co-coaches Dan Dziubski and Adam Palumbo, former runners at state powerhouse York who took over at Payton during the pandemic. Last year, the Grizzlies won the school’s first state trophy in a boys sport, finishing third in 2A.
“Adam and I, we dabbled in coaching at other schools,” Dziubski said. “(Winning state is) something that’s been on our minds since we got out of college. We wanted to coach and (help kids) get the same experience we had.”
Payton had personal bests from six of its seven runners at state: Williams (fifth, 14:36.90), Slavin (19th, 14:51.20), Steven Jiang (29th, 15:03.20), Vaughn Collier (41st, 15:15.60), Preston Ellis (46th, 15:16.40) and Ryan Murphy (144th, 16:05.00). Gabriel Cooper (109th, 15:52.30) didn’t get a PR but wasn’t 100% health-wise, according to Dziubski.
The Grizzlies, who also won their first Public League title last month, have been aiming for state all season long.
“We’ve got a four-week taper that we do,” Dziubski said. “They’re always ready to run on the day.”
The night before state, there was a team meeting. Dziubski came out of it knowing his runners were ready.
“They were confident,” he said. “It got a little emotional. We let the coaches talk. They speak from the heart to the team.”
The message? “Run for each other,” Dziubski said.
Payton will be moving up to Class 3A next season. Collier, Ellis, Cooper and Murphy are graduating, but there’s a promising core of returners in juniors Williams and Slavin along with sophomore Jiang.
Dziubski isn’t shying away from the competition, noting the Grizzlies would have placed fourth this year in the 3A race, which was the fastest in IHSA history.
“I think we can still maintain it,” he said. “All three of (Williams, Slavin and Jiang) broke the previous school record. Even cooler, none of those guys mentioned that.
“It was all about the team.”
Two more Public League athletes earned All-State honors. Lake View’s Jiberil Lesman ran a PR of 14:52.90 to finish 22nd in the 2A boys race and Northside’s Lulu Ton-That, a Brown gymnastics commit, ran a season-best 17:34.67 to finish 17th in the 2A girls race.
The only Public League team other than Payton to qualify for state was Lane’s boys, who were 27th in 3A with 660 points.
Tristan Wong (134th, 15:27.00) led the Champions, followed by Quinn Anderson (139th, 15:29.70, PR), Alex Fitzpatrick (170th, 15:41.70, PR), Max Mortensen (191st, 15:50.70, PR), Peter Georgopoulos (217th, 16:07.10), Miles Trost (226th, 16:15.50, PR) and Samuel Assefa (232nd, 16:44.20).
Other Public League finishers were: Lane’s Ainsley Carter (174th, 18:48.30) in 3A girls; Kennedy’s Luis Coss (111th, 15:53.00, PR) in 2A boys; and Payton’s Isabel McCarthy (86th, 18:56.29, PR), Payton’s Ella Gerdes (112th, 19:17.00, PR), Kennedy’s Viviana Tryfonopoulos (118th, 19:20.71, PR) and Payton’s Emily Cheng (150th, 19:40.41, PR) in 2A girls.
