Double fun for Pirates
A stress fracture in her foot prevented Palatine's Emma Maslanka from running during the offseason.
But it didn't prevent her from running against Barrington on Wednesday afternoon at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve.
"I'm still not caught up in practice," said Maslanka, who resumed running a month ago. "I've been running with the junior varsity team in workouts."
The junior turned in a gutsy performance. Her 19:52 run was just 5 seconds better than Barrington's Anne Marie Kerchberger and secured a 26-29 Mid-Suburban West girls cross country victory for the Pirates.
"The runner I was most proud of today was Emma," Palatine coach Steve Currins said. "We stuck her in their today just to see. If she didn't run well then we don't win."
Maslanka was happy with her performance, but knows she has room for improvement.
"I want to be in the top three by the end of the season," she said.
Maslanka was a top three runner last season when the Pirates finished eighth in the state, but she'll have a little more competition this season as the team has improved.
"We're a lot stronger mentally this year. We know what we want, and we're going to go get it," said Colleen Standridge, who dominated the field with a run of 18:04.
Ruth Allen entered the varsity ranks with a top three performance for the Pirates. The sophomore's run of 19:23 was good for a fifth place overall.
Palatine held serve with the victory against Barrington. The West powerhouses have split the last four meetings.
Barrington won last season's conference meet. Palatine won the sectional meet. And Barrington's second-place finish at state outdid Palatine's performance.
"It's one of those back and forth battles," Barrington coach Debbie Revolta said. "Hopefully it'll be a different story next time. It's going to be close every time."
The Broncos were paced by Rebecca Tracy and Samantha Learch.
"Anytime you have this kind of competition, your kids step up. I think our kids stepped up," Revolta said.
However much it may have hurt with an injured foot, Maslanka stepped up just a little bit more.
Artman Invite: St. Viator's Amanda Kompanowski ran 19:06 to win the 3-mile Artman Invitational at Salk Park by 27 seconds.
Teammate Taylor Skala took third (19:50) as the Lions (69) finished second to East Suburban Catholic Conference rival Benet (32). Maggie O'Malley was eighth for the Lions (20:14).
Boys cross country
Going into its second dual meet of the season, Palatine boys cross country coach Chris Quick wanted to see how deep his team was.
Less than seventeen minutes later, Quick had all the answers he would need.
Senior Mat Smoody started fast, taking an five-second lead in the first half mile, and was followed almost exclusively by Pirates in an 18-45 Mid-Suburban West victory over Barrington on Wednesday at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve.
"The plan was to just go out hard and set a tone for the first mile," Smoody said after taking first place in 15:17.
The Pirates used a strong start by their top pack to claim seven of the top eight finishers, including runner-up Kevin O'Brien (15:25).
Barrington senior Matt Barnes (15:41) took third place but had to watch five more Palatine runners finish before he was joined by a teammate, Dan Quarfoot (9th, 16:22).
"(Palatine) really took it to us today," Barnes said. "They went out harder than we were expecting and they took us by surprise. They dictated the race and it was tough for us to execute our plan when they were in control."
Pirate seniors Eddie Lopez (15:46), Alex Mourousias (16:06), Paul Kwak (16:08), sophomore Juan Perez (16:16) and junior Adam Bethke (16:21) rounded out the top eight.
"Our whole goal was to show our depth today and I think that's what we did," Quick said. "We take a lot of pride in having seven to 10 guys that are pretty good and a lot of those guys really showed up today."
Barrington coach Ty Gorman was very impressed with Palatine and felt its early pressure overwhelmed most of his runners.
"That's championship running," he said. "(Palatine is) going to go out and hammer you in the first mile, and nine out of the 10 teams they see are going to fold against something like that.
"Once it got away from us, I think a lot of guys mentally shut it down, which is pretty disappointing. You want them to compete all the way to the end, even if it's apparent what's going to happen after that."
-- Joe Esse
Boys golf
St. Viator's Danny Stringfellow had quite a noteworthy round on Wednesday. The sophomore shot a 31 to duck Old Orchard's par by 5 strokes and set a school record for the lowest nine-hole score.
And the Lions didn't do too badly in their 145-164 East Suburban Catholic Conference win over Nazareth. Brad Klune, Matt Crandall and Joe Carlson all shot 38s.