Stars dominate own invite

St. Charles North boys cross country coach Steve Imig has never considered himself a focus-on-times type of coach.

At the North Stars' invite Saturday at Leroy Oakes in St. Charles, Imig, however, was happy with both the times and overall place his team finished.

The North Stars placed all 7 runners in the top 18 with no one clocking in any later than 16:09, which led them to a first-place finish with a score of 30.

"Maybe I'm not your typical coach, I really don't look a lot at times," Imig said. "I think the times are certainly a good indicator, but I'm more pleased with our group dynamics (which) were good, we are continuing to narrow down our spreads…that's more of what I look for."

Hersey sophomore Kevin Havel won the meet with a time of 14:49, as the next runner, St. Charles North's Scott Speare, came in 18 seconds later.

"(Havel) really wanted to go out hard in that first mile, and I thought he looked really easy coming in," Hersey coach Tim Phillips said. "He looked great."

Havel led Hersey to a second-place finish, followed by Batavia (68), Belvidere North (91) and Streamwood (170) rounding out the top 5.

Elk Grove placed sixth (178) in front of Elgin (180), Rockford Auburn (232), Addison Trail (260) and South Elgin (271).

Right behind Speare was Chris DeSilva (third place, 15:11) for St. Charles North, followed by Mike Strasser and Steven Miller (sixth and seventh, respectively), Todd Vankerhoff, Rhett Morici and Brad Wheeler.

"I'm really pleased with them," Imig said. "They run with tremendous heart and they continually look for ways to get better."

Batavia, which placed 5 in the top 19, was guided by Robbie Blotter and Jared Klein, who took the 10th and 11th spots. Drew Schmit came in 13th, Brad Wloszczynski placed 15th and Stephen Jurgens went 19th.

"More important (than finishing third) was that they all PR'd and we had 4 guys who (timed in) 16 (minutes) or better," Batavia coach Mike DiDomenico said. "That's the thing that was impressive. We achieved some very important goals today, we knew what we had to do at the half, at the 1(-mile mark) and 2(-mile mark) and we did that. We surpassed our expectations."

Girls race:ŒThe St. Charles North girls cross country did something impressive Saturday -- they placed all 7 runners in the top 11 with a time under 19:42.

That helped the North Stars win their own invite at Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles.

"I'm happy with how they competed and where they placed, but I'm much more excited about their times and the improvements they've made," St. Charles North coach Shari Hayes said. "We've been hovering in that second-place mode the last few invites, and today, it was like, 'Are we going to get second or are we going to step up?' and we stepped up today."

Sophomore standout Stephanie Strasser won the meet with a time of 17:59. The next runner, Addison Trail's Mayra Sanchez, clocked in 18 seconds later.

"I was really hoping to break 18 (minutes)," said Strasser, who tallied the same time last year. "I'm just really happy."

St. Charles North won the meet with a score of 26, followed by Prospect (74), Elk Grove (84), Cary-Grove (144), Rockford Auburn (151), Belvidere North (156), South Elgin (168), Streamwood (196) and Addison Trail (218).

In addition to Strasser, the North Stars were guided by Jaime Pfeiffer (fourth place, 19:01), Claire O'Brien (fifth, 19:06), Erica Bauerbach (seventh, 19:29), Ashley Capone (ninth, 19:39), Emily Freiny (10th, 19:40) and Nicole McSweeney (11th, 19:42).

"We are really happy because we made our goal," Strasser said. "We are really looking forward to improving for all the big meets coming up."

"The new goal is to have all seven of them to have under 19:25," Hayes said. "We've never had 7 girls under 19:30, so that was a great team improvement…you couldn't tell I was missing two varsity girls. That's the beauty of this team."

The pack of Sarah Winnas, Savannah Snead and Mary Styzek in the 12th through 14th spots led Prospect to its second-place finish. This was pretty good, considering the main runners on varsity were running at a different meet in Peoria.

Gina Erbacci (third place, 18:34) led Elk Grove to its third-place finish, followed by Lauren Infusino (sixth place), Amanda Mertes (16th place) and Sabrina Salem (19th place).

"We were looking to compete against (St. Charles North), so we were happy to have 4 in the top 20," Elk Grove coach Caryn Blanke said. "Lauren had a great race. She's been struggling with fatigue and an ongoing tough year for her, but I think today, she was happy with herself and Amanda Mertes ran very well."

Megan Liebforth's 22nd-place finish guided Cary-Grove, along with the pack of Andie Ozarowski, Jenna Miner, Kelly Koch and Anni Garcia, who captured the 29th through 32nd spots.

South Elgin's top runner was Danielle Davilla (25th, 20:55) and Streamwood was paced by Mercedes Mancha (eighth, 19:36).

-- Christine Bolin