Victorious Palatine aims to stay No. 1
Palatine’s boys cross country team entered the season sitting on top of the dyestat.com polls.
But the Pirates received an early season wake-up call Sept. 3 at the Hinsdale Central Invite when No. 2 Neuqua Valley took first by a 17-point margin.
Neuqua Valley rose to the No. 1 state ranking, but the Wildcats misfired at the Peoria Woodruff Invite last weekend, finishing third and allowing Palatine to once again take over the top spot in Class 3A.
This time Palatine is hoping to have bit longer of a shelf life at No. 1, and it showed on Wednesday.
Palatine took the top five spots in cruising to a 15-48 Mid-Suburban League West victory over host Fremd at Deer Grove East.
“It could have been the best thing that happened,” said Palatine coach Chris Quick of the Pirates’ second-place finish at Hinsdale. “Our practices leading up to Hinsdale had been less focused and less cohesive, we weren’t working as a group. But we came back after Hinsdale to have one of our best weeks of practice ever.”
On Wednesday, seniors Tim Johnson (16:08), Peter Tomkiewicz (16:09), Tim Meincke (16:10), Anthony Gregorio (16:11), and Marcus Garcia (16:13) filed across the finish line, first through fifth.
“After finishing second at Hinsdale we came back to practice with a bit of fire,” said Johnson. “We just started training really hard and doing everything we can to get things right.”
Tomkiewicz has been a pleasant surprise for the Pirates. After spending last season on the junior varsity, the senior elevated his game this season. He finished second at Hinsdale and has helped push the Pirates’ surge this fall.
“Our team vibe is everything,” said Tomkiewicz, “and running with each other just pushes us that much more. It doesn’t matter about the rankings, it matters how we perform on that day.”
Palatine’s No. 1 ranking will be put to the test quickly as it travels to Peoria Notre Dame’s invite this weekend, followed by the Pirates’ own invite Sept. 24. Both weekends, the Pirates get a chance to see defending state champion and No. 2-ranked York.
Palatine will also face No. 5 Barrington in a dual meet next Thursday and No. 4 Schaumburg in a triangular meet Sept. 28.
“We’ll know a lot more after the next few weeks,” said Quick. “There’s no let-up.”
Darius Sanchez has taken over the Fremd program and has a young Viking team headed in the right direction.
Harry Winter (16:15) paced a Viking squad that was missing two of its top runners; Winter placed sixth. Danny Johnson (16:59) and Josh Peterson (17:38) finished 12th and 18th for Fremd.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” said Sanchez. “We have a lot of youthful momentum and there is a lot of growing to do on the varsity level.”