Wheeling's a winner at Warren
There was quite a bit of uncertainty between the Warren and Wheeling boys cross country teams following the Warren Invitational Saturday morning.
Everybody knew the finish was too close to call between the Blue Devils and the Wildcats in the 20-team meet on the 2.95-mile course at Warren High School.
But when all was said and done, Wheeling had pulled off an exciting 56-59 victory over heartbroken Warren as the Wildcats continued so show great signs of improvement and growth in the early stages of the new season.
Crystal Lake South was not too far behind Wheeling and Warren with a third-place score of 76 points while Fremd (118 points) easily locked up fourth place.
Warren junior Dustin Macuiba came very close to breaking the course record of 14:57 as he checked in with a winning time of 14:58.69 to set the tone in this fast-paced race under warm conditions.
"It was my best time ever and it went out at about 4:55 at the mile marker," said Macuiba, who reached state as a sophomore. "I just kind of held on with the Crystal Lake South guy (Jack Becker), and I had a plan to pick up the pace from the last half-mile to the finish."
Wheeling had just enough depth and balance to topple the Blue Devils behind junior Justin Loquiercio in second, sophomore Matt Hoffman in ninth, and senior Edwin Hernandez in 10th.
The Wildcats also got a strong performance from junior Elliot Nabatov (17th), senior Cole Dammeier (18th), and senior Drew Schwartz (25th) in leading their second pack to the team victory.
"Obviously we're excited to win and it's always good when you accomplish your goals for the day," said Wheeling coach Tom Polak. "We have a lot of depth and our goal has been to keep our split under 25 seconds. We were a 32-second split between one and five today and that is the formula we need to have success."
Macuiba really shined again for Warren on Saturday. He got great support from teammates Will Kellerhals (seventh), Jakob Martinez (13th), and Jaime Delgado (15th). Nathan Campbell added a 23rd-place finish for Warren.
"He (Macuiba) has worked really hard, so I'm not surprised, and he's worked hard ever since last fall," said Warren coach Bill Dawson. "We have to close the gap a little, but the effort is there, and there is a long way to go."
Crystal Lake South's push for third place was led by its top-four group of Becker in third, Justin Miller in fifth, Tommy Melone in 14th, and Doug Cain in 20th. Jon Prus placed 34th for the Gators.
"We just think we're better than that, and we should have had five guys in the top 14 so that's the way it goes," said CLS coach Rich Eschman. "They (Becker and Miller) both ran hard, they've just got to keep it going."
Fremd had a strong front-runner in fourth-place finisher Danny Peterson leading its pack while Joe Smaga was the Vikings' second runner in 22nd place.
"Our sophomore (Peterson) ran really well and he's having a great season so far," said Fremd coach Darius Sanchez. "We're young and their learning the ropes and today they were learning how to run up front."
Behind a12th place run by Ulysses Hagerdorn, Mundelein placed sixth with 181 points. Cary-Grove (203) placed eighth followed by Round Lake (262) in ninth, Antioch (289) in 10th, and Fenton (294) in 11th.
"Hagerdorn ran well and he was right where I thought he would be so it was a good race," said Mundelein coach Kurt Rutz. "A bunch of our guys were a little timid at the beginning of the race so that is the one thing that I'm not too happy about today."
Cary-Grove's troops were led by John Cody in 21st place while Colin Piscitello was Rolling Meadows' top runner in 24th. Zach Besson was Antioch's No. 1-runner in 26th place followed by Cary-Grove's duo of Michael Saxon (27th), and Sang Seo (28th).
Fremd's Jack Buban (29th), and Antioch's Dan Ressler rounded out the top 30 finishers. Andrew Maskevich led Round Lake in 33rd while Patrick Pastika (35th) was Carmel's top finisher.
Bryce Richards added a 36th-place run for Mundelein to edge Grayslake North's Dylan Ponomar in 39th, and Wheeling's Joe Swiech in 40th. Fenton was led by teammates Leonel Rodriguez (43rd), and Axel Nava (45th).
"We've grown up a lot this year, Warren is a good team and we needed to step up and earn a little respect," added Polak. "We haven't been competing to this level in a long time and today was the next step being able to (win) a meet championship. It's been a good start to the year and our confidence has just been building."