The OPRF outdoor track missed its Aug. 9 reopening target, leaving the Huskies cross-country program's Night of Miles community event in question with the annual gathering scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 13, at the same facility.

Track Surfaces Company, the Elburn-based contractor that originally installed the track in January 2024, shut it down July 27 for warranty resurfacing after chunks of the surface broke loose near the pole vault area. The Wednesday Journal reported Aug. 4 that the track would reopen Aug. 9 after two weeks of work. But a Wednesday Journal social media post on Sunday, Aug. 9, still described the track as shut down, confirming the deadline passed without reopening.

No revised reopening date has been announced.

The timing puts the Night of Miles in limbo. The annual event, hosted by the OPRF boys and girls cross-country teams in collaboration with Fleet Feet, is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Thursday at the OPRF Track & Field Stadium, according to the cross-country teams' Facebook page. Registration runs from 4 to 5 p.m. Events include a 100-meter dash for kindergarten through second grade, a 400-meter dash for grades 3-5, a one-mile run for grades 6-8, a community walk and a community mile. A rain date of Friday, Aug. 14, is listed. District 200 has not publicly addressed whether the event will proceed, move to an alternate location or be postponed.

The track is less than three years old. Assistant boys cross-country coach Stephen Traphagen explained the failure in a Facebook post reported by the Wednesday Journal on Aug. 4: the contractor poured the surface during unseasonably warm weather in late October and November 2023, but a cold snap caused it to cure improperly, bonding to itself rather than the concrete beneath.

"It was nothing egregious," chief spokesperson Karin Sullivan told the Wednesday Journal on Aug. 4, adding that the track was never unsafe and calling the work "nothing unusual."

Assistant superintendent for business services Anthony Arbogast characterized the project as standard resurfacing and upkeep in the same Aug. 4 report. The work is being performed at no cost to the district because the track remains under warranty.

The missed deadline adds to a summer of facilities headaches at OPRF. As we reported Aug. 6, the school's new pool and gym opening was pushed to October after contractor Gilbane cited weather and labor shortages.

The Night of Miles on Thursday, Aug. 13, is the next hard deadline for the track.