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Barrington wins Lake County meet

It was only the first cross country meet of the season for many teams, but there was some really intense running going on Wednesday at the Lake County Invitational.

The battle for first place on the 3.05-mile Lakewood Forest Preserve course went down to the wire, and it was elite Barrington senior Erik Peterson (15:54.23) who edged Grayslake Central senior Luke Zygmunt (15:54.91) for the individual title.

The team competition was not nearly as close, with the Broncos toppling the Rams 55-82 in the huge 16-squad field.

Stevenson (119 points) placed fourth to easily outdistanced North Suburban Conference rival Mundelein (191 points) in seventh.

Vernon Hills (250) placed ninth, followed by Grant (281) in 10th and Lakes (314) in 11th.

After placing 45th in the state in Class 2A last fall, Zygmunt was very competitive with Peterson (sixth in Class 3A) Wednesday. Grayslake Central's Will Brewster (16:02) was also very impressive in third place under the extremely hot running conditions.

“I planned on going out close with Peterson and it kind of worked,” said Zygmunt, who is coming off a great track season last spring. “I was happy with second place and I definitely wanted to break 16 minutes. Considering the conditions were not perfect, I'm happy.”

Besides Peterson, Barrington's pack also featured Ryan Burgoon in ninth, Nolan Wojtowicz in 11th, Mike Rappleye in 15th and Kerry Frank in 19th.

“We were going to try to keep the pack together as long as possible and Grayslake Central looked really strong,” said Barrington coach Ty Gorman. “We were able to get five in the top 19 and there are a lot of good teams here.”

After its top duo, the Rams were paced by Kevin Boyle in 14th, Kevin Orozco in 30th, and Brent Rische in 33rd.

“They (Zygmunt and Brewster) looked great, they both put in really good summers, and the training has been going well this year,” said Grayslake Central coach Jim Centella. “I knew if they stayed healthy we would have a really strong top two and this was a really big confidence booster for Kevin Boyle.”

Besides the heat and humidity, the tall grass also provided even more of a challenge and obstacle for the runners.

But that did not slow down Stevenson senior Alex Goldberg very much as he placed fourth in 16:14. Brendan Wood was the Patriots' No. 2 runner in 17th place.

“We have a couple of guys who are kind of coming into their own and a couple of guys who are getting into competitive shape,” said Stevenson coach Scott Somers. “As the season goes on I think the team will come together and Goldberg looked fantastic today.”

Two-time Class 2A state qualifier Ryan Prais of Lakes ran to eighth place in 16:34 while Vernon Hills was led by Kyle Whitney in 18th place.

Mundelein had a very solid trio of runners behind Nitesh Kumar (23rd), Adam Fell (24th), and Liam Mellon (25th).

Matt Kendzior was Grayslake North's top runner in 27th followed by Grant's Peter Audrain in 28th, Stevenson's Diego Chavez in 29th, and Stevenson's Thomas Russell in 31st.

  Will Brewster of Grayslake Central heads for a third-place individual finish in the boys cross country meet at Lakewood Forest Preserve. Bob Chwedyk/bchwedyk@dailyherald.com