Key win for Prospect; Hoffman Estates repeats in West
Prospect junior Sean Sanaghan didn't have his best run at the Palatine Invitational last Saturday, but he sure made up for it on Thursday.
Sanaghan spurred a tight Prospect pack in leading the host Knights to an impressive 27-30 Mid-Suburban League East triangular victory over defending East champion Buffalo Grove on a cool and windy Thursday at Melas Park in Arlington Heights.
Prospect, ranked No. 13 in the Illinois Cross Country Coaches Poll, also defeated Wheeling 15-48 to take control of the MSL East Division. The Knights will look to lock its first division title since 2010 next Thursday at Melas Park when they host Rolling Meadows.
"It was a great team victory," said Prospect coach Mike Stokes. "BG is a really good team and it took everything in our arsenal."
Sanaghan finished 77th at the Palatine Invitational as the Knights' fifth runner. But he bounced back impressively Thursday, leading the team's effort with a third-place finish in 15:46.
Buffalo Grove senior Kevin Salvano (15:46) and senior Tom Cleary (15:46) finished 1-2, but the Knights took six of the next seven positions.
"I'm at a loss for words right now, this is a huge win for the Knights," said Sanaghan, who combined with senior Matt Cozine (15:49) to go 3-4. "It feels great. I just came ready to run and take care of business."
Senior Max Crowninshield (15:52) also did his job by taking fifth, and pushing the Bison third runner sophomore Mitchell Guittar (15:56) to sixth place.
Senior Karson LeComte (16:01), junior Jack O'Donnell (16:04), and senior Luke Filipic (16:10) closed the door on the victory by taking 7-8-9.
"It was definitely hard," said Cozine, who helped lead the Knights' effort in the final mile. "Mentally it just helps a lot - now we're in a zone."
Seventh-ranked Buffalo Grove seemed in position to grab the victory late in the race as Guittar pressed forward to connect with Salvano and Cleary. But Prospect answered with its own surge in the final 800 meters.
"We knew coming in this meet would decide the division," said Buffalo Grove coach Zach Crandall. "We knew they'd be gunning for us, and we were gunning for them. We're pretty evenly matched, but they had the better race today."
Salvano, who won the title at the First to the Finish Invitational in Peoria in early September, finished with a personal best of 14:22.2 on the state course. He combined with Cleary on Thursday to pace the Bison attack that handled Wheeling 15-50.
"We just didn't have it today," said Salvano. "The plan was to have our 4-5 runners be in front of Prospect's 4-5 runners - it didn't happen."
Wheeling junior Matt Hoffman (16:56) paced the Wildcats with a 14th-place finish.
Hoffman repeats in MSL West: Hoffman Estates may have surprised some people last year in winning the Mid-Suburban West title, but the Hawks were no surprise this year.
Tenth-ranked Hoffman Estates has been the team to beat since the start of the season, and the host Hawks cemented their second straight West title by winning a pair of victories at Barrington Pond on Thursday.
Junior Alex Makrounis (14:31), senior Shiv Patel (14:32) and senior Bryan Gamboa (14:33) took the top three spots to lead Hoffman to an 18-40 victory over Barrington, and a 15-47 victory over Schaumburg.
Junior Jack Worman (14:49) took fifth place and junior Ryan Greenwalt (14:52) was seventh for Hoffman.
Sophomore Nick Laning (14:40) took fourth to help Barrington defeat Schaumburg 18-41. Senior Scott Williams (14:50) added a sixth-place finish, with sophomore Connor Mahoney (15:04) and senior Ryan Ziolkowski (15:06) going 9-10 for the Broncos.
Senior Nick Olvera (15:06) paced Schaumburg with an 11th-place finish.