Haji Qualifies for State

Lane Tech's Kulyafi Haji (left) accepts his invitation to run at the state meet after finishing as the 6th individual qualifier. Next to Haji is Ethan Rivera of Leyden - the final state qualifier.

Lane Tech junior Kulayfi Haji became the first Lane Tech boys runner to qualify for the state meet as an individual since the elimination of the automatic Public League berth earlier this decade. The Lane Tech boys team did not qualify for state, so their only hope was to squeeze in an individual or two. Haji ran a personal best 15:25 in the 3 mile course at the Niles West Class AAA boys sectional and barely qualified when he finished as the 6th individual qualifier. Only the top 7 individuals who are not on teams that qualify make it to the state meet. So, Haji's 6th place individual finish got him into the state meet by one place.

Making it downstate is tough. To do so, Haji had to beat his nemisis Ivan Coronel of Mather. In three years of running cross country Haji  has never beaten Coronel. Haji has finished second to Coronel twice in the last two city championships. But in the meet that counts the most, Haji was finally able to overcome Coronel. Coronel, after qualfiying last year, also ran a  good race but his time of 15:36 and place of 27th was just short.

Congratulations to Kulayfi Haji for qualifying for the state meet.

Kulayfi Haji (center #488) running at the 1.6 mile mark.

Much much more pictures, videos, and analysis coming up...including class AA coverage.