Mena stays the course
There were a lot of twists and turns to the 32nd Annual Wauconda Invitational for area boys cross country runners Saturday morning at Lakewood Forest Preserve.
Unfortunately for six runners, there was a wrong turn on the 3.1-mile course that would lead to a real shake up in the final standings as all six of the key runners were disqualified.
In the end, Barrington captured the championship of the huge 35-team field with 91 points as the Broncos toppled McHenry (133 points) in second, and Cary-Grove (160 points) in third.
No. 1 runner Curtis Weisenberger of McHenry was one of the disqualified runners or the Warriors would probably have won the title, according to Barrington coach Ty Gorman.
Cary-Grove's Phil Fairleigh was also disqualfied, but reports say that the six DQ'd runners may have been directed the wrong way by a course official after the mile mark. Crystal Lake South had two runners DQ'd.
"(Dan) Quarfoot took a wrong turn which cost him about 100 meters," Gorman said. "Matt (Barns) ran a great race today and this is the best I've seen him run all year."
Mundelein's Alex Mena stayed on course to win the race in 15:54 as Mena held off Vernon Hills' Moe Bahrani (16:01) in second, and Barns (16:04) in third.
"I didn't know I had it in me," Mena said. "I was in third place until 400 meters left in the race and I just took off and didn't look back."
Barrington's top trio of Barns, Quarfoot (11th), and Mike Pfeifer (16th) carried the Broncos to the crown while McHenry's trio of Jeff Sabatka (10th), Bryan Foland (13th), and Andrew McNulty (15th) guided the Warriors to second place.
"He (Weisenberger) certainly needs to know the course that is the bottom line, but that whole group just reacted to what that person told them to do without thinking," said McHenry coach Jim Wheeler. "I thought they ran well and after getting out a little slow they managed to work their way up."
Lake Forest wound up placing fourth with 174 points followed by Crystal Lake Central (232 points) in seventh. Mundelein (301 points) placed ninth while Stevenson (328 points) nipped Warren (329 points) for 10th place.
"It was a lesson well learned and you have to learn the course, but this has happened in the past here," said Cary-Grove coach Layne Holter. "Our No. 2 guy didn't run today because he is sick, but I think the team looked solid today so we can take some positives out of here."
Lake Forest was led by Andrew Dewar in fourth place followed by Huntley's Todd Farbiak in fifth, Mundelein's Matt Hoffmeyer in seventh, and Warren's Karsen Green in eighth under the warm running conditions.
Carson Sterchi led CLC in ninth place while Cary-Grove teammates Donald Lang (17th) and Jeff Boivin (19th) led the Trojan's surge. CLC's Ben Flavin rounded out the top 20 runners.
"He (Bahrani) had a good race, he's been getting faster, and he's nice and competitive," said Vernon Hills coach Michael Roberts. "We had three (varsity) guys who ran in the freshman-sophomore race but overall we have a young team and we finished about where I expected them to finish with this lineup."
The top 25 was rounded out by Lakes' Ethan Hahn (21st), Grayslake Central's Jared Zygmunt (22nd), Barrington's Micah Koenig (24th), and CLS's Joe Bruzzini (25th). Stevenson was led by Barrett Wood in 26th.