Crystal Lake Central edges Warren for Harland title
It is always fun to be challenged on a 3-mile course, but Saturday's weather conditions were probably a little bit too much for even the most ardent boys cross country runners in the Pat Harland Invitational.
Warren pushed Crystal Lake Central to the finish on the hilly 3-mile Fox River State Park course. But the Blue Devils had to settle for second place to the Tigers by a final score of 52-66 in the meet hosted by Antioch.
Grayslake Central put together a great surge late in the race to finish a close third with 73 points.
The unseasonably cold weather took center stage as the race was run under 40-degree temperatures with a persistent rain falling throughout the meet.
Despite the punishing conditions, Warren junior Dustin Macuiba continued to shine on this gloomy day as Macuiba ran to first place in 15:57.
Lake Forest's Mark Myers (16:03) edged Grayslake Central sophomore Jack Aho by one second to capture runner-up honors.
"It was a really close race and with about 300 meters left I decided to go for it because my legs were feeling pretty tired," said Macuiba, who was in a sweat despite the chilly conditions. "I think we've got a really good chance to go downstate as a team and I think we can do it as long as we keep working."
The Blue Devils' push Saturday also included Will Kelerhals in seventh, Jaime Delgado in 14th, Nathan Campbell in 21st, and Brady Roegner in 25th.
"We're competitive, so hopefully we can just keep getting better and get healthy, that's the big thing," said Warren coach Bill Dawson. "He (Macuiba) keeps running with confidence and last week (at Oak Park) helped his confidence and he feels good."
Grayslake Central really gave Warren a run for its money going for second place. But the Rams wound up settling for third place with good support from senior Max Brunk in ninth, junior Danny Vincent in 16th, and junior Jack Battaglia in 20th.
"They ran a decent race, it wasn't our best team race of the year, and our front-runners were not as good as usual today," said Grayslake Central coach Jimmy Centella, whose team placed 17th in Class 2A last year. "We had some bright spots in Danny Vincent and Jack Battaglia, but we needed to bring our A game today and our other guys didn't step it up."
Antioch senior Dan Ressler put together a great race on his home course to lead the Sequoits' squad in 10th place while senior teammate Zach Besson placed 24th under the treacherous running conditions.
"He (Ressler) is running tough, he put a great summer in, and he's been having a great year so it doesn't surprise me at all that he was a top 10 guy here today," said Antioch coach Chris Bailey. "Zach (Besson) is another guy who has been coming along all year and he beat Danny (Ressler) the other week at the Warren meet so those are our top two guys and they're very dedicated."
Grayslake North's trio of Dylan Ponomar (26th) Liam O'Connel (33rd), and Brannon Morris (37th) were able to navigate the 3-mile course pretty effectively Saturday despite the less than ideal running conditions.
Lakes' also got a steady push from senior Daniel Miller in 32nd and junior teammate Jacob Hubbard in 35th.
Elgin senior Logan Jostes was really outstanding for the Maroons in 13th place with excellent support from junior teammate Brandon Copeland in 17th.
Grayslake Central freshman Eli Minsky added a 27th-place run for the Rams to outdistance senior teammate Suneed Ahmed in 31st.
Grayslake Central sophomore Noah Boelens placed 36th while Antioch senior Bogdan Anghel rounded out the top 40 finishers.