Jacobs’ Estell has big day at county meet

For Jacobs senior Tyler Estell, a year has made a big difference.

Mired in 50th place at last season’s McHenry County Meet, Estell displayed vast improvement Saturday with a solid fifth-place effort.

“After last year, I wanted to finished higher,” said Estell. “I put in a lot of mileage over the summer in the heat and it paid off. I want to keep improving as the season goes on.”

Jacobs coach Kevin Christian was impressed with Estell’s effort at McHenry Township Park.

“Tyler logged a lot of miles this summer and he is an improved runner,” said the Jacobs coach. “He really ran well today.”

Ryan Ross followed Estell with a seventh-place finish. Other Golden Eagles in the Top 25, were Matt Johnson (13th), Pat Nerja (17th), Matt Goldby (18th), Jon Godinez (19th) and Josh Yelton (24th).

Crystal Lake South was paced by Duncan Henderson, who was 12th, followed by Will Davis (31st), David Lenzini (34th), Joe Coughlin (39th), Matt Lundine (40th) and Nick Kopp (44th).

“Duncan ran OK, but overall we ran poorly,” said South coach Rich Eschmann. “The kids worked hard in practice, but they need to learn to compete in meets. In practice, you can let up if you get tired. If you let up in a meet guys will run right by you. We expect more out of our kids.”

Huntley’s Sam Marcuccelli, who finished eighth, was the only Red Raider to finish in the Top 10. Trevor Obecny placed 27th while Kyle Ward was 28th followed by Ricardo Lopez (33rd), Bryton Thompson (37th) and Nick Meyer (59th).

Cary-Grove’s Dustin Throw was the lone Trojan in the Top 50 with a 46th place finish.

Crystal Lake Central’s Alex Baker claimed top honors with a 3 mile time of 15:49.8 while Prairie Ridge’s Joe Cowlin was second with a clocking of 15:57.0.