Pirates complete drive for five
When it comes to boys cross country, the Mid-Suburban League is the best in the state.
The sheer number of talented teams and individuals makes it quite a feat to win a title in any given year. To be crowned champion in consecutive years takes something special.
Led by five all-conference runners, Palatine scored 62 points and won its fifth straight MSL title.
"It's such an honor just to win one," said Pirates coach Chris Quick. "We'd only won one in school history (1971) before this streak started. I don't want to forget what an honor it is to win this conference."
Palatine placed all seven runners in the top 30 and saw senior Mat Smoody (14:23) make a hard push for the individual title before finishing second.
Kevin O'Brien (14:30) finished fourth and "ran like a champ and like a senior captain should," according to Quick, while sophomore Chano Bernardo (14:39) placed seventh.
Sophomore Alec Bollman (24th) and senior Alex Mourousias (25th) took the final two spots of the all-conference team and were quickly followed by seniors Paul Kwak (29th) and Eddie Lopez (30th).
"It's kind of eerie around practice because we know we have something special this year," Smoody said. "We have Chano, we have another sophomore, and we have some really good seniors. Hopefully at state we'll do some pretty big damage."
Smoody led for the first half of the 2.95-mile course at Deer Grove East -- but he was overtaken by senior Kevin Havel from Hersey.
Havel (14:10) won his second straight MSL individual title as the Huskies tallied 84 points in a second-place effort. Junior Erik Stanton (14:25) finished third and senior Billy Wisser (14:42) took ninth.
"Billy is a great competitor," Havel said. "He was under the weather. He had a mild case of mono, a five-day case. He was able to get back into it. And Erik Stanton ran really well today. He's just a guy that tears it up at the end of the season."
Schaumburg (98) took third behind senior Nathan Rutz's fifth place. Sophomore Pat Lesiewicz (11th) and seniors Erich Seimetz (14th) and Brian Burkhardt (17th) made all-conference.
"Burkhardt is the guy that came through today," said Saxons coach Jim Macnider. "He's the one that's been up and down (all year), but he ran really well today. We had four ahead of anybody."
Conant junior Jeff Thode finished sixth as the Cougars placed fourth with 101 points. However, Thode was a little remiss on how he started his race.
"I really messed up when I went out with Smoody for too long," he said. "It started to affect me about 1.75 miles, and people beat me at the end."
Conant seniors Tyler Fuchs (12th), Andrew Mueller (19th) and Tyler Hinckley (21st) earned all-conference honors.
Barrington (139) finished fifth, as seniors Matt Barns (eighth) and Dan Quarfoot (10th) made all-conference. Senior Mike Pfeifer (37th) and juniors Micah Koenig (39th) and Jeff Robinson (45th) completed the scoring.
Sixth place belonged to Hoffman Estates, which received all-conference finishes from seniors Ross Goers (13th) and Emilio Saraga (16th), with junior Matt Perez (28th) just falling short.
Prospect took seventh with 162 points and got all-conference performances from sophomore Chris Hayek (20th) and senior Michael Styzek (22nd).
Buffalo Grove scored 207 points as it finished eighth. Senior Clay Locke (23rd) made the all-conference team, while sophomore Mike Galla (26th) just missed.
Junior Kevin Clark (15th) made the all-conference team for ninth-place Rolling Meadows (209).
Fremd took 10th behind an all-conference effort of senior Nick Hurley (18th).
Junior Eric Rodriguez (27th) just missed making the all-conference team as Wheeling finished in 11th with 255 points.
Elk Grove (366) took 12th behind senior captain Tim Mucha (56th).