Taylor Invite turns out all right for CL South
It may not be a regular occurrence, but there have been plenty of instances of runners going the wrong way in boys cross country meets over the years.
That was the case Saturday morning at the 16th Annual James "J.T." Taylor Invite, as two of the front-runners went off course for awhile on the 3-mile Camp Henry Horner course.
When all was said and done it didn't really make a difference in the final team standings as Crystal Lake South still won the championship of the 16-team meet hosted by Grant with 56 points.
Grayslake Central was a very close second with 69 points while Vernon Hills (81 points) was not too far behind the Rams in third.
The close battle for the individual title looked like it was going to come down to Vernon Hills sophomore standout Shane Williamson and Crystal Lake South freshman Jack Becker.
But when Becker and Grayslake sophomore Jack Aho veered off the correct course briefly after the 2-mile mark, that opened the door for Williamson to ultimately take first place in 16:09 followed closely by senior teammate Tyler Smith (16:11) in second.
Becker still came back to place third in 16:16 with Aho (16:19) not too far behind him in fourth.
"Jack is a freshman and the kid from Grayslake Central is new to cross country so the fact that they took a wrong turn is because of inexperience," said Crystal Lake South coach Rich Eschman, whose team had five runners in the top 18. "Jack is upset because he felt he should have won the race today. We're still waiting for all five guys to run well on the same day."
The Gators saw some good pack-running up front by Justin Miller in eighth, Jon Prus in 10th, Tommy Melone in 17th, and Doug Cain in 18th.
Grayslake Central's near-winning combination was supported by Max Brunk (ninth), John Girmscheid (14th), Danny Vincent (20th), Suneed Ahmed (22nd), and Jack Battaglia (23rd).
"I think it was our best team race of the year even with Jack making a wrong turn," said Grayslake Central coach Jimmy Centella. "The pack ran great and Max Brunk is really coming into his own. He is becoming an elite runner like we want our senior leaders to do."
The third-ranked Cougars got an 11th-place finish from Rob Williams under the warm running conditions with teammates Alex Geier (32nd), and Caleb Ju (37th) rounding our Vernon Hills' scoring.
"They started to take a wrong turn with about 800 meters to go and we kind of took advantage of that," said Williamson, who placed 27th in Class 2A as a freshman. "I think we can do just as well if not better than last year (third in state) and all of our times are dropping so we're definitely on our way."
The Cougars did lose two of their top five from last year's elite team to graduation. But they are ready to make their big push down the stretch.
Vernon Hills coach Mark Whitney was not too surprised about the way Saturday's race unfolded.
"I've seen guys take a wrong turn before on this course so that can happen," said Whitney. "It's the middle of the season so we're doing some of our toughest training right now. They (top-three runners) knew what they needed to do going into the race and they were able to do it."
The host Bulldogs placed sixth in the meet behind their senior duo of Frank Cardy in seventh, and Jeffrey Brundidge in 12th.
"Frank ran tough and he was hanging with that top group of runners for most of the race," said Grant coach Jeff Durlak. "Our No. 2 guy (Brundidge) ran a lot better than he did last week and they are our two senior leaders."
Round Lake's squad was led by Carlos Rosas in 28th while Dylan Ponomar was Grayslake North's top runner in 31st.
Lakes' pack was led by Jake Hubbard in 35th while Carmel teammates Patrick Pastika and Michael Cusack placed 26th and 30th respectively. Freshman Eli Minsky placed 29th for the Rams with Grant's Rigo Meija placing 39th