advertisement

Huntley's Smith runs away from field at LeRoy Oakes

Eight runners broke 15 minutes Saturday morning at the Class 3A St. Charles East sectional at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.

Nobody broke it like Huntley junior Keagan Smith.

From the first half mile until the final steps, Smith blew the field away to win the sectional title in 14:34.

Wheaton Warrenville South's Kyle Cepeda edged Naperville North's Jon Klaiber for second in a photo finish, both with times of 14:51.8, and both well behind Smith.

"I just wanted to go out, see who would hang and sit behind and go," Smith said. "I realized I had so much more energy than I expected. I took a quick look behind and I saw the next guy a little ways behind so I thought I might as well just go with it."

Smith said he had not raced on this course since his freshman year.

"We came here a couple weeks back for practice, I knew the layout, I knew what to expect," Smith said. "I knew it was going to be a tough race. Once I started to go I felt I had a lot in the tank."

Seth Conroy was fourth and Mike Grocholski 14th to lead Huntley's total of 167 points, one better than Marmion for the fifth and final state qualifying spot.

"We did well with our first three, 20 points with three guys is really good and our four and five stepped it up today," Smith said.

Naperville North won the sectional, 77-92 over Naperville Central.

After Klaiber's third-place finish, four seniors led the Huskies: Kerry Gschwendtner in sixth, Andrew LaDeur 10th, Christian Moore 21st and Ryan Drendel 37th.

Naperville Central put all five of its runners in the top 26: Scott Hicks 11th, Geoffrey McCullough 12th, Tommy Chavez 19th, John Manos 24th and David Kennedy 26th.

Batavia and St. Charles East also qualified for state with a tight race for third, won by Batavia 139-142 over the Saints.

It was a significant accomplishment for both program. While St. Charles East earned its first trip to state since splitting with St. Charles North, Batavia qualified for just the second time in school history - and second straight year.

It's also the first time both Batavia boys and girls programs have qualified for state in the same season.

"Everyone on our top seven ran PRs today," Batavia coach Bronco Meeks said. "Right at the right time they are peaking. They did an awesome job. They have been working their tails off all year. I'm proud of them."

Those PRs began with senior Ryan Wieties, seventh in 14:59. Two more seniors, Patrick Redmond and David Morrison, placed 15th and 17th, with juniors Shea Bastian in 28th and Zachary Choffin in 72nd rounding out the top five.

"For a team that has never won a conference title, for us to get the guys and the girls to go down, this is huge for the program," Meeks said. "Hopefully we can keep it going."

St. Charles East coach Chris Bosworth has worked just as hard to build the Saints program. He was rewarded Saturday, and he celebrated when his fifth runner - junior Mike Gerkin - came into the chute ahead of the runners on the teams the Saints were competing with.

"We knew a couple teams we needed to keep an eye out for and we had five in before their fifth," Bosworth said.

"This is history making for East. It feels good to get the monkey off our back."

In addition to Gerkin, junior Mark Sciurba (eighth, 14:59), junior Jack Rzpecki (25th, 15:27), senior Mike Skora (30th, 15:32) and senior Will Muckian (33rd, 15:37) made up the Saints' top five.

"I thought we ran well to get position," Bosworth said. "We knew we needed to work on that last hill and we hung on for dear life."

Marmion came agonizingly close to state, finishing with 168 points and just one spot behind Huntley.

The Cadets did qualify two individuals, Brady Bobbitt who finished fifth in 14:57, and junior Andrew Burroughs, who earned the last spot in 18th in 15:18.

West Aurora junior Connor McCue and Geneva senior Mitchael Deamantopulos both qualified in ninth and 11th, respectively.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.