Boys cross country: Historic win for Mundelein
You have to go back to the year of the bicentennial, but the long wait for another regional championship ended for the Mundelein boys cross country team Saturday morning at Libertyville's Adler Memorial Park.
The Mustangs went down to the wire with Highland Park for the title of the 10-team Class 3A meet and pulled off a 58-62 victory over the Giants.
The host Wildcats (81 points) had a strong third-place showing behind individual champion Alex Tam (15:28.13) on the hilly, 3-mile course. Fourth-place Stevenson (111 points) also advanced to the Waukegan sectional next Saturday.
Mundelein's first regional crown since 1976 was led by the trio of sophomore Robert St. Clair in fourth, senior Ben Krauss in seventh and sophomore Dario Carillo in ninth. Sophomores Michael Parduhn (17th) and Dillon Blake (21st) rounded out the Mustangs' top five scorers.
“It took 40 years too long, and hopefully this is the first of many,” said Mundelein coach Kurt Rutz, whose team has only one senior. “We've got the right kids here to start a tradition, and (St. Clair) was our first guy to get a regional medal (top five) since 2008.”
Mundelein's young squad still has a tough road ahead of itself next weekend, as the Mustangs seek to qualify for the state meet as a team for the first time in school history. If usual No. 3-runner Alan Salgado (26th Saturday) returns to full strength for sectionals, that could give the Mustangs a better chance of reaching that elusive goal.
“We need a 20-second spread next week to make state, and I have no doubt we can do it,” Rutz said. “We had a very good race today, and next week we need to stay a little closer between 1-5 to make the top five teams.”
Not only was Tam impressive in beating his previous best time at Adler Park by 18 seconds, but senior teammate Stephen Richardson (15:48) also had a great day with a third-place finish. Tam had to go down to the wire to hold off runner-up Marcos Garcia of Waukegan by less than two seconds.
The Wildcats' top-three trio also featured a 12th-place finish by senior Joe Gasick.
“I wanted to get out fast and I was leading after 2.25 miles,” said Tam, who placed sixth in the North Suburban Conference meet last weekend. “I wanted to win and hopefully break 15:30, and I think we are contenders for maybe even qualifying for state this year.”
It will be a tall order for Libertyville to get out of the always rugged sectional meet. But Tam could make a serious push for an individual at-large berth to Peoria's Detweiller Park if the Wildcats' team doesn't make it.
“They ran what they had to, and they actually ran faster than what I expected,” said Libertyville coach Stuart Mendelsohn. “The boys know that 4-7 need to close the gap with the top three if we want to get downstate as a team.”
Stevenson was without No. 2 runner Caleb Oh due to an SAT commitment. But the Patriots got a strong sixth-place finish from junior Nikita Smyrnov. The Pats also received a 19th from Jacob Sparreo and a 25th from Brett Lucas.
“Today's goal was just to move on, and we will hope for the best next week,” said Stevenson coach Scott Sommers. “Nikita ran a good race. He ran better than last week, and he's getting ready for next week.”
Warren had two individual at-large qualifiers advance with Julian Ruiz in 16th and Nathan Oommen in 31st. The Blue Devils ran without senior and top runner Andrew Miller (14th in NSC), who had the flu.