Burlington Central boys take 3rd at BNC meet

Burlington Central’s boys cross country team had four runners in the Top 20 Saturday to finish in third place at the Big Northern Conference meet in Rock Falls.

The Rockets scored 88 points, finishing behind Winnebago (78) and conference champion Richmond-Burton (57).

Clay Musial (11th, 16:16), Josh Schwarting (12th, 16:24) and Dan Morgan (15th, 16:29) were all-conference runners for BC, while Kyle Neubauer (16th, 16:35) just missed a Top 15 finish. Thomas Osko (33rd, 17:07) also scored for the Rockets.

“Coming in we thought we should be top three,” said BC coach Vince Neil. “The boys ran as well as possible. We’re missing our fifth man and Thomas Osko, who had some concussions from soccer, decided to run for us today and he ran huge.”

In the girls meet, the Rockets finished sixth with 164 points. Marengo won the meet with 16 points and Winnebago was second with 73. However on Saturday, results were not finalized and BC could move up to fifth, Neil said. He expects official results Monday.

Mykayla Evans paced the Rockets with a 30th place finish in 20:23. Courtney Neubauer (33rd, 20:26), Katie Bush (38th, 20:39) and Kayla Wolf (45th, 20:57) also contributed. Neil said Wolf could move up to 22nd or 23rd when the official results are tallied.

“Being fifth or sixth os doable for us,” Neil said. “That’s our goal. It’s just as fats as we can go on both sides, but fifth or sixth, that’s good for us.”