North Stars hope to keep climbing

While most teams hope to meet their goals and expectations, one team found itself far surpassing their hopes by season's end last year.

St. Charles North surpassed all expectations in 2005 with a third-place state finish, and then followed it up a year ago with an even more impressive second place finish. The North Stars head into the 2007 season with five runners from their 2006 top seven.

The North Stars are led by Scott Speare and Chris DeSilva, and will likely get help from junior Maxwell Clink. Clink was the North Stars' fifth runner a year ago, but came into his own during the track season, finishing eighth in the 800 at the state track meet during the spring.

Geneva also surpassed many expectations a year ago, and head into the 2007 season returning six of its top seven from last year's team that finished 18th in the state.

Greg Adelman (jr.), Drew Isbell (sr.), Evan Ehrhardt (sr.), Andrew Nelson (jr.), Kevin Sparks (so.), and Drew Hickey (jr.) all ran at Peoria a year ago. They should form a solid pack that could help the Vikings improve on last year's finish.

Adelman heads into this season as the Vikings' top runner, but Nelson qualified for the state meet in the 1,600 during the track season and is already showing his potential.

"He's (Nelson) looking excellent in practice and had just an excellent track season," Geneva coach Bob Thomson said. "In fact, he won our intrasquad meet, so he's really looking to pick up where he left off from track."

Freshman Kevin McDowell is the likely runner to complete the top seven, but he might not see varsity action until later in the season. Senior Garrett Hall will also share time in the top seven.

With only four sectionals instead of six this year due to the change from two classes to three, Thomson realizes that his team might have to even be better than a year ago to advance.

"As good as we were last year, we have to be better this year," Thomson said. "Neuqua Valley is returning all seven of its seven and Naperville North is returning all of its seven, so we'll have our work cut out for us.

"I let the team establish the team goals, and they really feel that we can compete for a conference title and go back to state and finish higher than we did last year. These kids know who we have coming back and they are very well-read on their sport, so they are very focused in accomplishing their goals this year."

Marmion's Josh Stein ran with distance standout David Grange for two years and now the senior gets his turn to be the Cadets' top runner. Stein has improved each year in both cross country and track and will be looking to improve on his 53rd place finish at state last year.

Stein was consistent in the 3,200 during the track season and should lead a young Cadets team. Juniors Mike Weiler and T.J. Hefferman along with sophomores Zack Young and Matt Wenzel will give the Cadets a competitive team in the Suburban Catholic Conference.

Aurora Central Catholic could quite possibly surpass goals this year. The Chargers return four runners from their 2006 team that finished eighth in the state and will have a good mix of senior leadership and young talent.

Junior Max Gilbert was 73rd at Peoria in 16:22 a year ago, but coach Troy Kerber feels he's turned it up a notch since the end of his track season.

"He's (Gilbert) gone up another level since track," Kerber said. "He established himself as our No. 1 runner and really worked hard during the summer to get to that point."

Gilbert will be joined again by senior James Sobucki, junior Garrett McCarthy and sophomore Dan Kottkamp, along with state sprinter Steven Bohr and fellow senior Marcus Jackson.

However, it might be several sophomores who make the largest addition to the team this year. John Cisneros was an alternate on the state team a year ago, and has now asserted himself as the team's No. 4 runner. Sophomore John Jochum is new to the team this year, but trained with Cisneros during the summer, and he is currently running as the No. 3 runner. Brian Rudolph and freshman Jimmy Spencer should also contribute.

Kerber is cautious about setting the goals too high for his young team, wanting to better understand how the new classes will affect the teams, but he's hoping that the story written for this team has a happy ending.

"We have set the goals high and we're hoping to be pretty competitive in every meet this year," Kerber said. "We have a chance to do really well, but it really all varies from year to year. Each team develops its own personality. These kids are young and talented, so I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised this year."

Aurora Christian is young, but it is also experienced. The Eagles got a taste of success after finishing third at the Aurora Central regional a year ago.

Senior Aaron Dettman finished 67th at the state meet in 16:18 and won the regional in 15:50, and fellow senior Dan Risdall has improved each year.

Other Eagles who should run in the top seven this year include seniors Francisco Bergamo and Matt Bird; juniors Dylan Melody, Treavor Millard and Jeff Neiman; and sophomores Nate McNamara, Spencer Johnson, Brian Waalen and Alex Woodworth.

St. Charles East placed fourth in the regional a year ago, and returns five starters from last year's team. Coach Allan Edgecombe is a disciple of York's Joe Newton and saw his team show a lot of improvement since their first week of 2006.

Seniors John Deutsch, Pat Matthews and Dave Arends will lead the team, joined by sophomores Jorden Heggen and Mike Faith.

Batavia's Robbie Blotter also showed a lot of promise in 2006 as a sophomore, finishing 25th at the Wheaton North regional in 16:23.

West Aurora junior Phil Lindgren finished one place ahead of Blotter at the regional, and should lead a Blackhawks team looking to build off of a solid track season last spring.

Kaneland moves into Class 2A and Chad Clarey will be looking for many of his young runners to establish themselves this season.