Grant battles to take second
Host Grant was in for an uphill struggle when the Bulldogs met Marengo's state-ranked girls cross country team Saturday morning in the ninth annual J.T. Taylor Invitational.
Grant put up a good battle in the 3-mile race at Camp Henry Horner, but Marengo's depth was too much as the Indians captured the championship of the 13-team meet by a comfortable 57-85 margin over the runner-up Bulldogs.
Grayslake North came up with a big effort, as well, placing third with 97 points to outdistance fourth-place Zion-Benton (116).
Grayslake Central (134) placed sixth to topple Lakes (179) in seventh, Johnsburg (212) in eighth, Wauconda (221) in ninth and Round Lake (272 points) in 10th.
Marengo's Sarah Sprague won the race in 18:23 to hold off runner-up Lindsey Wilkins of Richmond-Burton by eight seconds.
Grant's duo of Kendra Kennedy (fourth) and Alexis Capps (fifth) helped carry Grant.
"They ran how we expected them to run today and I'm very pleased with how they've been running," said Grant coach Jeff Durlak. "Heather (Ruetsche) is still trying to round into form and Paige (Jacobs) was not too far behind her today, which was nice to see."
Lakes struggled a bit under the warm running conditions, but Rachael Dean finished third. Emma Howard placed 19th for the Eagles.
"My main goal this week was just to break 19 minutes because I've been running 19:10's this whole season," Dean said. "So I was glad to run an (18:38) today. I know this course well so I knew when to speed up and I knew I had to run about seven minutes in the last mile to be in the 18's."
Lakes coach Kellie Doyle is very optimistic about the remainder of the season for Dean.
"That was her best time this season by about 30 seconds and her race today was phenomenal," Doyle said. "This is her senior year and she has such a great chance to get to the state level in Class 2A."
Youth was served well Saturday with freshman Nell Langer leading Johnsburg in sixth place and freshman Kimberly Denikas leading Grayslake North in seventh.
Sarah Johnson placed 12th for Grayslake North with a good pack effort from teammates Amanda Leon (22nd) and Emmaly Schwartz (24th).
"The girls hung together quite well for the first couple of miles and for a freshman, Kim (Denikas), is doing really well," said Grayslake North coach Brandon Boyd. "Our second and third girls' times are starting to drop and they're working toward their goal of getting to sectionals again."
Grayslake Central senior Daisy Brey placed 10th (19:36). Sophomore Danielle Slivka placed 11th for Johnsburg.
Other top area runners included Ruetsche (20th), Wauconda's Samantha Michelau (21st) and Jacobs (25th), and Grayslake Central teammates Erika Garcia (27th) and Laura Sloan (28th).
"Daisy Brey had the best time ever today for our school since they have been running the 3-mile race for girls," said Grayslake Central coach Joel Peebles. "We're just trying to get the rest of our pack to keep moving up and closing the gap on our top runner."