Feel the Payne: Duke outraces Warrior at Lowell Park

DIXON – Zach Payne nearly felt the pain of getting nosed out by a Cookie.

Instead, the Dixon sophomore used a furious sprint over the last 200 meters to take top honors in a cross-country race held Tuesday at Lowell Park.

Payne and Sterling’s Jacob Landis, nicknamed “Cookie” by his teammates, ran neck-and-neck for the first      2 1/2 miles, with Payne holding a small advantage. The Duke knew he was in for a tussle.

“I saw out of the corner of my eye it was a blue and yellow shirt instead of a purple and white shirt, so I knew it was Jacob Landis coming right behind me,” Payne said. “I started pushing it a little bit because I knew he had a really good kick and I was scared he was going to pass me.”

Both runners sprinted the last 200 meters, and were running stride for stride heading toward a tree which is about 40 meters from the finish line. Payne went left of the tree, Landis went right, and the Dixon runner finished in 16 minutes, 54 seconds, 1 second ahead of the Golden Warrior.

“Between dodging trees and stuff, it probably could have gone either way,” Landis said. “His little bit of a lead that he had was the difference.”

Payne noted that his time was about a minute slower than last year’s best at Lowell Park – but it’s early.

“I usually don’t run the time I did today,” Payne said, “but everybody has bad days.”

Team-wise, it wasn’t much of a contest. The Dukes took six of the top positions to finish with 19 points, well ahead of Sterling (48) and LaSalle-Peru (88).

Backing Payne were Ross Kavanagh (3rd, 17:15), Aaron Grady (4th, 17:49), Roy Hummel (5th, 18:02), Brock Mayberry (6th, 18:04) and Keanen Corning (7th, 18:12).

On the girls side, Sterling was the only team to post a team score. Leading the way for the Golden Warriors was Carissa Apperson, third with a time of 21:06.

Dixon had three of the top four finishers in Haley Thorpe (1st, 19:44), Megan Burger (2nd, 20:04) and Tiara Sondgeroth (21:15). The only other Duchess to finish was Kate Johnson (9th, 22:07).