Boys cross country: Barrington's banding together, quickly
The Barrington boys cross country team knows exactly what it has in Nick Laning.
The Broncos senior is coming off a fine season in which he placed second in the Mid-Suburban League race, along with 32nd in the Class 3A state meet.
The further bad news for Barrington's foes? The early results this fall have also been promising for the Broncos' pack.
Barrington flashed a strong group effort in rolling to a 15-50 MSL West dual meet victory over Hoffman Estates on Thursday at Barrington Pond.
Barrington's Sevan Brodjian crossed the finish line in 17:13, pacing a group of Broncos who swept the top 12 spots.
Laning, the Broncos' usual front runner, brought up the pack, taking 12th in 17:19.
Hoffman Estates senior Connor Kiley (17:33) was the first Hawk to cross the line, in 13th place.
Barrington has started out smoothly this season winning a pair of dual meet victories to go with a second-place finish at the Lake County Invitational last week.
"This team is really working well together this season," said Laning, who took first individually at the Lake County meet. "We are absolutely keying off the bigger meets and focusing on those."
And the pack seems to be following his lead.
Sophomore Aaron Sarkar (17:13), Ryan Sorenson (17:14), senior Jeff Hasselbein (17:14), and sophomore Patrick Furlong (17:15) completed the Broncos' scoring by going 2-through-5.
"I'm really happy top to bottom with our focus," said Barrington coach Tom Root. "But we still have a lot of work to do yet."
Senior Aiden King has been a pleasant surprise early for the Broncos; he finished as their third runner at the Lake County meet. King finished in the pack at 11th on Thursday.
"Nick (Laning) is so fast, he's going to get his points," said King. "Our pack will be huge; it will make all the difference this season."
Barrington definitely is eyeing a high finish in the MSL and also a return to the state meet after missing the previous two years.
The Broncos will get a good chance to measure their progress starting on Sept. 16 when, they travel to the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. The following Tuesday they will face Palatine in a crucial MSL West dual, and will follow that up with the Palatine Invitational.
"It certainly will be a good measuring stick," said Root. "I think we'll be ready to hit it hard."
Hoffman Estates was missing its top runner senior, Shreekar Patel. But Kiley did a nice job pacing the Hawks' attack on Thursday. He hung tight to the Broncos' pack for the first 2 miles.
"Patel is usually up there, today I had to take the responsibility in leading," said Kiley. "It was a fun challenge."