Moe's on the go at NSC
The race for the North Suburban Conference boys cross country title was a close one Saturday morning at Lakewood Forest Preserve.
Lake Zurich made a strong push for the championship in the 13-team meet, but Lake Forest toppled the runner-up Bears by a 66-75 margin to capture the crown.
Lake Zurich did not have much room for error on the 3.1-mile course as host Stevenson was a close third with 87 points.
The Patriots toppled fourth-place Mundelein with 93 points while Warren easily locked up fifth place with 118 points on a cool and cloudy day for running.
The team competition may have been great Saturday, but it was somewhat overshadowed by the performance of Vernon Hills senior Moe Bahrani, who set a course record of 15:28.
Bahrani and Mundelein's Alex Mena were going head-to-head for the first half of the race, but Bahrani pulled away en route to his record-setting performance.
Bahrani's time beat the former course record of 15:32 set by Wheaton-Warrenville South's Jon Popejoy in 2005.
Mena (15:56) wound up placing second, 28 seconds behind Bahrani, while Warren's Karsen Green (15:58) placed third.
"Alex Mena and Karsen Green are both fantastic kickers and I kind of surged and pulled away completely at two miles," said Bahrani, who will compete in 2A competition in the state series. "This race is kind of just for bragging rights. State is the most important race."
Lake Zurich had five runners make the all-conference (top 30) team. Mickey Stott led the way in eighth. Andrew Morrison was 13th, Gerardo Perez 14th, Paul Geimer 16th, and Francisco Soto 24th.
"We ran great and they all set their p.r.'s for this course," said Lake Zurich coach J.B. Hanson. "Five of the kids didn't run on varsity last year and we had four sophomores and two juniors on varsity today."
Stevenson's strong team effort was led by all-conference runners Oliver Rose (fifth), Barrett Wood (sixth), Johan Laker (seventh), and Renat Zalov (27th).
"Having the 5-6-7 places was nice and having those guys running well up front is a big key for us doing well," said Stevenson coach Don Proft. "I thought the team looked really strong. They went out very aggressive, and it was definitely their best effort of the season."
Mundelein also had four runners make the all-conference -- Mena, Matt Hoffmeyer (10th), Martin Mena (11th), and David Duval (30th).
"Stevenson ran just a tremendous race today and I knew they would be tough and they took it to us," said Mundelein coach John Osmanski. "Moe (Bahrani) just ran a great race and second place in conference is still a good thing for Mena."
After Green, Warren was led by Spenser Simon in 18th, and Danny Kleine in 29th. Max Candocia turned in a 12th-place finish for Vernon Hills to help bolster the Cougars' scoring behind Bahrani.
"He (Bahrani) has turned from a fast runner into a very tough racer and I'm really impressed with that," said Vernon Hills coach Michael Roberts. "Max (Candocia) had another good race today and he's a naturally fast athlete so we just have to work on his staying power."
Ethan Hahn led Lakes in 20th place while John Cavicchia was Libertyville's top runner in 22nd place. Wauconda's Marc Anders placed 26th followed by Libertyville's Mitch Neubauer in 28th and Lake Zurich's Jordan Pavlovic in 31st.
"I was real happy with the way they ran and I was happy with the way they packed up," said Libertyville coach Mark Buesing. "Our 3-4-5-6 were all within about 15 seconds of each other and Cavicchia has gotten to where he is by working hard all year."
East Suburban Catholic: Cameron Rieger's second-place effort helped the Corsairs finish second.
Matt DeFiore was 13th, Frank Huschitt 17th, Kent Rieger 22nd and Karl Horcher 30th.