Knights, Broncos survive big challenge

Eight teams toed the line at the Rolling Meadows Class 3A regional knowing the odds were stacked against them.

With Mid-Suburban League champion Palatine and MSL East champ Hersey virtual locks to place in the top five and advance to the Palatine sectional next week, only three qualifying spots remained.

Prospect and Barrington filled the final two spots and Dundee-Crown broke up the MSL monopoly with a surprising third-place finish.

"It's survival," Knight's coach Mike Stokes said. "We worked really hard this week. We took a gamble. We want to try to go all the way."

Prospect (118) had its top four runners finish within 13 seconds of each other. Junior Chris Hayek came in 16th and was followed by senior Mike Styzek (18th), sophomore Chris Spudic (21st) and freshman Kellan Strobel (26th).

Barrington (136) is another team that has its sights set on Peoria and, as a result, was appreciative to have another race But it was more concerned with its sub-par performance.

"We did whatever we could to move the team to sectionals," Broncos senior Matt Barns said after finishing seventh. "I'm glad we got to do that."

Barrington senior Dan Quarfoot (19th) gave a harsher assessment.

"From top to bottom, we didn't race like we should," Quarfoot said. "The fact of the matter is we got very lucky today."

Palatine (41) and Hersey (45) easily took the top two spots while combining to sweep the top six finishers.

Huskies' senior Kevin Havel (14:42) beat the field by 17 seconds after battling runner-up Mat Smoody of Palatine for the first 1.5 miles.

Hersey had three of the top four finishers with Havel, junior Erik Stanton (third) and senior Billy Wisser (fourth).

Palatine saw senior Kevin O'Brien (fifth) and sophomore Chano Bernardo (sixth) follow Smoody and had all seven runners place in the top-20. However, coach Chris Quick wasn't satisfied.

"We didn't run our best race today," Quick said. "Hersey is climbing up our back. We have to keep getting better or we're not going to get what we want."

For Buffalo Grove (147), Fremd (167), Wheeling (174) and Rolling Meadows (210), the race at North Salk Park marked the end of their seasons. However, each team will be represented next week.

Bison senior Clay Locke (eighth) had his best race of the year and will run as an individual qualifier at the Palatine sectional.

"I really wanted to make it to state as a team," Locke said. "I really want to make it as an individual but it would have been a great thing to do it with all seven guys at the line."

Senior Kevin Clark (11th) of Rolling Meadows, senior Nick Hurley (12th), sophomore Aaron Ferst (24th) of Fremd, and junior Eric Rodriguez (22nd) of Wheeling will join Locke. St. Viator (299) took 10th behind freshman Nick Fiore's 52nd place finish.

At Lake Park: After the first two laps on the mile course in Saturday's Class 3A Lake Park boys cross country regional, a pattern was developing.

Running about even were Streamwood's Neal Klein and Conant's Jeffrey Thode while Schaumburg's Nathan Rutz was a few strides back.

That's what it looked like when the runners entered the woods on the final lap.

Out of the woods, however, it was all Thode. The Cougars junior had pulled ahead and delivered a 14:56 run to win the regional title.

"I followed behind people and took it easy during the entire race," Thode said. "I just pushed it the last three-quarters of a mile."

But the race was just getting going. Not only did Schaumburg's Rutz jump ahead but so did teammate Pat Lesiewicz.

At the finish line, it was Rutz (15:13), Lesiewicz (15:14) and Klein (15:15) going 2-3-4. The final wave was enough for the Saxons to ride to the team title with 44 points.

"I felt pretty good," Rutz said. "I went with about a mile to go and tried to get the Streamwood guy. I got him with about 300 to go. All of our guys were kickin' it hard all the way into the chute."

Erich Seinmetz, Brian Burkhardt and Phil Allman all finished in the top 20 for the Saxons in under 16 minutes.

"We've been trying to get our fifth man to step it up and Phil Allman really did today," added Rutz. "It helped us out a bunch."

Schaumburg will host the sectional next Saturday at Busse Woods.

"It was a better race (than conference)," said Scahumburg coach Jim Macnider. "I thought we did great today. We ran a great race and I think we're peaking at the right time. Hopefully, we'll duplicate, run a little better next week and get to be at the state meet."

Ross Goers (15:23) took seventh for Hoffman Estates and teammates Matthew Perez, Emilio Saraga and Chris Suthphen went 9-10-11. The combined effort gave the Hawks 56 points to edge Conant (59) for second.

Host Lake Park (89) and Maine South (136) also qualified as teams.

Conant's Tyler Fuchs came in fifth with a 15:20.

"We did very well," said Cougars' coach John Powers. "I'm definitely excited. (Sectionals are) going to be tough. It's going to come down to a good day/bad day kind of thing. I'm going to do my best to be sure these guys are doing their best."

Sophomore Luke Nally ran a 15:40 to finish 12th and lead the Lancers. However, Lake Park coach Lance Murphy felt his team was off.

"We ran our worst race of the year and got fourth," Murphy said. "We're happy we got out. Next week we have to be out best because it's going to be a brutal sectional."

Maine West advanced two individuals in Martin Chavez (15:57) and Mauricio Sierra (16:09), who were both in the top 25.

-- Bill Swick

At Fenwick: Leyden scored 87 points to finish third and advance out of the Class 3A Fenwick Regional at Schiller Woods.

Ethan Rivera ran a 16:09 to lead the Eagles with his eighth-place finish.

Also in the top 25 for Leyden were Rafael Crisosto (16:52), Mizael Carrera, Harold Alvarez and Roy Rivera.

"The boys ran their best race so far this year," said Eagles coach Brad Henning. "I couldn't be more proud of the them. It's nice to see all of their hard work pay off."