Cross country: Crystal Lake South's Bruzzini, Jacobs' Albrecht tops at Bartlett
Crystal Lake South's Caitlin Bruzzini trailed lead runner Madison Marasco of Schaumburg for the first two miles in the Flyin' Hawk Cross Country Invitational girls race at Bartlett's Sunrise Park Saturday.
In the last mile, a challenge yelled out by a spectator gave Bruzzini the motivation to pass Marasco and win the race. The CL South senior's time of 17:26.4 was 54 seconds better than last year's time, when she finished third. Marasco took second, for the second year in a row, clocking in at 17:30.5
Sydney Davis from Conant came in third, completing the course in 18:13.7
"I just tried to stick with her for most of the race. I wasn't sure how the ending was going to go." said Bruzzini. "Someone yelled 'who wants it more' so I just really tried to dig in and get it."
Despite missing two top runners, Batavia won the team title with 50 points. Freshman Audrey Pellico led the Bulldogs with a fifth-place finish (18:36.5) followed by teammate Emma Stephens (7th, 19:08.4) Batavia placed four more runners in the top 20.
"We usually don't run our varsity at this meet but we wanted to get them back on the course because they haven't had much time racing together. We are still missing 2 of our top 7 (Marygrace Golden and Daphne Kolody) " said Batavia girls coach Chad Hillman "The pack really did a good job of racing together and that was exactly the purpose - get them to race together and use it to their advantage."
Marasco's finish coupled with classmate Lauren Kubinski taking fourth place (18:33.8) earned Schaumburg second place (83).
Paced by Vicky Watkins (19:08.8) ninth place finish, Huntley came in third (87).
St. Charles North, led by Madison Kaufmann (8th, 19:08.7) took fourth place (132).
Glenbard East came in fifth (183). Junior Lexi Weltin (24th, 19:51.3) was the Rams' top runner.
Crystal Lake South finished sixth (188).
Boys race: Zachary Albrecht of Jacobs also had to pass the lead runner to win the boys race. Albrecht, a sophomore, trailed West Chicago's Danny McComb at the one-mile mark. Albrecht passed him by the two-mile mark and then put distance between himself and the rest of the runners in the third mile.
Albrecht won the race with a time of 15:39.6, 15 seconds ahead of second place finisher Zak Hutchinson of Lincoln-Way Central. McComb took third with a time of 15:55.7.
"(*McComb) seemed to slow down a little bit and the Lincoln-Way guy and I were able to catch up to him" Albrecht said.
Hutchinson's second place finish along with Josh Perch in fourth (16:14.9) and Jared Kries in sixth (16:18.3) secured the first place trophy for Lincoln-Way Central. The Knights earned 36 points.
Batavia coach Bronco Meeks stressed the importance of running in a pack to his team before the race. His squad was paying attention. Four Bulldog runners in a row, led by seventh place Damian Rodriguez (16:20.0), crossed the finish line and secured second place (46). A Lincoln-Way Central harrier separated Batavia's fifth runner from the first four.
"We actually pushed two of our freshman and one of our sophomores up to varsity this week and just wanted them to work that pack mentality," said Meeks. "We were really impressed with how they attacked it. They got out real well. We wanted them to work the second mile and they did an excellent job of that. We just got to put together the third one now."
Albrecht's first-place finish along with Garrett Brenizer taking fifth (16:17.2) put Jacobs in fourth place (111).
Glenbard North earned third place honors. Ryan Czaja (14th, 16:33.4) was the Panthers' top runner.
South Elgin, paced by Jacob Harris' 16th place (16:36.5), came in fifth (139).