Scouting DuPage County boys cross country
Top teams: Neuqua Valley, Hinsdale Central, York, Downers Grove North, Wheaton North, Wheaton Warrenville South, Glenbard West, Naperville Central, Hinsdale South, Wheaton Academy.
Top athletes: Addison Trail: Danny Bueno, soph., Demetrio Cervantes, jr., Julio Cervantes, jr., Nick Czorniak, soph.; Benet: Kelly Crombie, sr., Jeff Girardot, jr., Matt Kowalczyk, sr., Zack Kowalczyk, sr., Michael Walsh, jr.; Downers Grove North: Alec Danner, jr., Tristan Jahn, jr., Robert Prescott, sr., Bruce Tamlin, soph.; Downers Grove South: Jack Lelonde, sr., Max O'Meara, sr.;, Stephan Pipilas, soph., Alan Zhou, sr.; Fenton: Antonio Aguilera, sr., Sam Hernandez, sr., Felipe Ruiz, sr., Christian Sanchez, soph., Jose Vazquez-Perez, jr.; Glenbard East: Justin Corrigan, jr., Alex Delgado, sr., Alex MacDonald, fr., Patrick Mikel, sr., Josh Schaefer, sr.; Glenbard North: Noah Baran, jr., Ryan Czaja, soph., Mike Deegan, soph., Nathan Engler, sr., Kevin Push, sr., Thomas Savegnago, sr.; Glenbard South: Andrew Fearn, jr., Christian Hilliard, jr., Jon O'Rourke, sr., Andrew Sundberg, sr., Joey Wood, jr.; Glenbard West: Colin Griffin, jr., Nick Lombardo, sr., Eric Neumann, sr., Simon Peterson, sr., Kalen Yaeger, soph.; Hinsdale Central: Jacob Belgrad, jr., Chris Blank, sr., Blake Evertsen, jr., Nathan Hill, sr., Ethan Planson, jr.; Hinsdale South: Roman Drabchuk, sr., Chris Joseph, jr., Charlie Nodus, sr., Tristan Ramirez, sr.; IC Catholic Prep: Casey Christie, soph., Tony Gaudio, jr., Eric James, soph., Eliot Sexton, sr., Patrick Shannon, soph.; Lake Park: Eric Bayer, soph., Alexander Caines, jr., Jason Jada, jr., Colin Kirkham, soph., Zachary Schwarz, sr.; Lisle: Joey Chan, fr., Zach DeCraene, jr., Cole Faulstich, jr., Nick Jantich, jr., Dylan Malavia, jr., Pat Thornton, fr.; Metea Valley: Ralph Papa, soph., Ben Piotrowski, jr., Pranav Pitchala, soph., Derek Roberts, soph., Charlie Schafer, soph.; Naperville Central: Tommy Chavez, jr., Tyler Hampton, sr., Declan Jensen, sr., John Manos, sr., Josh Toby, sr.; Naperville North: Aiden Blecke, jr., Tracey Gschwendtner, jr., Alex Harrison, sr., Thomas Haugeberg, jr., Emerson King, jr., Mark Quinn, sr.; Neuqua Valley: Dominic Dina, sr., Caleb Ferguson, sr., Connor Horn, sr., Aidan Livingston, sr., Jake McEneaney, jr.; St. Francis: Nick Brouch, jr., Alexander Hernandez, soph., Mike Herrman, jr., David Keifer, jr., Jacob Kolker, sr.; Timothy Christian: Matt Fox, jr., Michael Larkin, sr., Andy Mittlestaedt, jr., William Terpstra, soph., Tommy Troxel, jr.; Waubonsie Valley: Riley Blackmore, sr., Trevor Bon, sr., Justin Caton, sr., Justin Colvin, sr., Christian Freitag, jr., Matt Klaus, jr.; West Chicago: Zenen Cardenas, soph., Bob Draughon, sr., Dan McComb, jr., Rahul Prabhu, sr.; Wheaton Academy: Jonah Jones, jr., Jeffrey Ridge, soph., Jimmy Ridge, jr., Jacob Robleski, sr., Mitchell Smith, sr.; Wheaton North: Danny Bailey, sr., Matthew Beckerman, sr., Alex Frank, sr., Jordan Hennings, sr., Justin Ostrem, soph.; Wheaton Warrenville South: John Franke, jr., Michael Hanson, jr., Dylan Kropp, jr., Matthew Moore, jr., Kyle Thompson, jr.; Willowbrook: David Chernov, sr., Henry Dahl, sr., Casey King, sr., Marco Martinez, sr., Chris Turek, sr.; York: Devin Davies, sr., Max Denning, sr., Liam Hill, jr., Charlie Kern, soph., Jon May, sr.
Scouting report: Since boys cross country expanded to three classes in the fall of 2007, Neuqua Valley has participated as a team at every state meet. The Wildcats are once again poised for a big season one year after missing out on a state trophy to third-place Lyons Twp by a single point. Paul Vandersteen is the sole coach in the history of the program at Neuqua Valley. "Our depth is maybe the best we've had since I first started coaching here 18 years ago," Vandersteen said of his latest edition. "It's a matter of who is going to rise to that top 12, and I don't know that yet." But Horn is the one proven commodity for Neuqua Valley; the senior enters his final cross country season after all-state performances as a junior in both cross country and track and field. "The whole team is on board for the goals we have set," Horn said. "We all respect each other. They're some spots (in the lineup) that everybody has to work on."
The Wildcats begin the season ranked behind only Sandburg - the reigning state runner-up - in the dyestatil.com preseason poll. "Sandburg may be one of the top five teams in the country," Vandersteen said. One of the central keys for the Wildcats this season will be McEneaney. The junior has been addled at the last two state meets with either illness or injury. "He has had some bad luck the last two years," Vandersteen said of McEneaney. "He is definitely looking like one of our top five guys. It's going to be important that he finishes out the season healthy."
Four of the top five programs at the state meet, headlined by two-time defending state champion Hinsdale Central, came out of the same sectional. Neuqua Valley will have to battle elite programs such as Sandburg, Hinsdale Central and Lyons Twp. to extend their consecutive state-appearance streak to 10. "Based on times from track season and last fall, you can never discount powerful programs like Hinsdale Central, York and Lyons Twp.," Vandersteen said. "From what I have been hearing (Hinsdale Central) may be even better than they were last year. York and Lyons have shown they can sustain (excellence) over time."
Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley will compete in the DuPage Valley Conference for the first time this season. "I think we can compete for a conference championship," Vandersteen said.
Naperville Central and Naperville North will be seeking their fourth straight appearances at Detweiller Park in Peoria come the first weekend in November. But both programs are in transition due to Geoffrey McCullough moving out of state for the Redhawks and the Huskies suffering heavy graduation losses. Neither program can be discounted, however. "Dave Racey at Naperville North is one of the best coaches in the state, if not the nation," Vandersteen said. "Wheaton Warrenville South and Wheaton North are always good."
Naperville North graduated six its seven downstate performers last spring, but city and conference rival Naperville Central is ranked once again behind Chavez, Manos and Toby. Waubonsie Valley has the potential to surprise some schools this fall. The Warriors check into the season with the No. 20 designation in the dyestatil.com poll. "We are going to be beating people who don't have a lot of depth," Waubonsie Valley coach Kevin Rafferty said.
The West Suburban Silver also will be one of the marquee conferences to watch this fall. Hinsdale Central will go for its third straight state title behind returning all-staters Evertsen and Brenk. "As always, our conference will be ultracompetitive," Hinsdale Central coach Jim Westphal said.
In addition to Hinsdale Central and Lyons Twp., Glenbard West had a breakthrough campaign last year with its fifth-place finish at the state meet. York and Downers Grove North add yet more fuel to the fire. York will seek its unprecedented 29th state championship in program history as the Dukes look to rebound from back-to-back setbacks in Peoria. Kern leads six of the seven returnees for York.
Glenbard West, meanwhile, features three state veterans in Neumann, Peterson and Yaeger. Oak Park-River Forest is yet another highly ranked Silver team this fall. Downers Grove South and Benet are the favorites to extend their multiple league winning streaks in the West Suburban Gold and East Suburban Catholic Conference, respectively. But the degree of parity among the top schools has been a central point of discussion as the season commences in earnest this weekend. The two Hinsdale high schools will co-host the prestigious Hornet-Red Devil Invite to kick off the year on Saturday. "This may be the most wide-open team race that I can remember," Vandersteen said.
In Class 2A the team race is equally unpredictable after two-time reigning state champion Yorkville graduated twins Jake and Luke Hoffert, who swept the middle-tier division last November. Five local programs - Hinsdale South, Wheaton Academy, Fenton, Glenbard South and St. Francis - all return veterans from the Class 2A meet a year ago. Hinsdale South has the loftiest preseason ranking as Nodus bolsters the No. 3 Hornets as a top-10 returnee. Wheaton Academy was two spots behind Hinsdale South last year in 11th place. Jones is the Warriors' best bet for a distinctive state finish.
Metro Suburban Conference rivals Fenton and Glenbard South will vie for return state bids as Hernandez is the top runner for the former; Sundberg and Hilliard are the leaders for the Raiders. St. Francis' Brouch is the No. 1 returnee for the Spartans.
Key dates: Sept. 5, Hornet-Red Devil Invitational; Sept. 5, Fenton Early Bird; Sept. 12, Peoria Woodruff Invitational; Sept. 19, Peoria Notre Dame Invitational; Sept. 25, Naperville Invitational; Sept. 26, Palatine Invitational; Oct. 3, Peoria Central Invitational; Oct. 3, Lockport Invitational; Oct. 10, West Aurora Stampede; Oct. 10, Lake Park Braus Invitational; Oct. 11, Nike North Side-South Side Challenge; Oct. 16-17, Conference meets.