Tigers' Peck likes view from front

It can be strange and even a little lonely out front, but Aaron Peck was happy to be there on Saturday.

Peck finished the course at Northside Park in Wheaton in 16:07.3 to lead Wheaton Warrenville South to a first-place finish in a cross country meet that included Wheaton North and Benet.

The junior found himself with a good lead heading into the final lap, one season after mainly running with the Tigers' pack.

"It was a little weird," Peck said. "You don't want to mess up going around a corner. But I felt good."

"It's really the first time he's been out on his own like that," said Tigers coach Greta Havey. "He just had to be really confident in maintaining his pace."

The Tigers' 19 points easily outdid the second-place Falcons' 56, with Benet posting 58 points in finishing third. Afterward, Benet coach Kevin Renicker hoped his young team took away a specific lesson from the Tigers.

"For the boys I think it was an eye-opener about what pack work is," Renicker said. "Our pack work has been good, but then you see Wheaton South and it's a bit of a wakeup call."

The Tigers' Tyler Cipriano, Nick Casa, Quinn Farley, and Keenan Havey had an 11-second spread between them in finishing third through sixth, Matthew McAndrews finished eighth, and Ryan Frederickson placed 12th for Havey.

"They basically executed their race plan," Havey said. "We had to let Aaron execute that race for himself, and the rest of our guys had to use each other to race their best."

"We ran a really good race," Peck said. "Tyler (Cipriano) really stepped it up today, and he's been running really well the past two weeks. And I know Nick (Casa) is the engine. He's going to pull the other guys through."

Wheaton North's Sean Bomher placed second in 16:26.8, and while he was happy with his effort, he'd like one of those miles back.

"The first mile I was really happy, staying with Peck," Bomher said. "But in that second mile, I kind of fell asleep and he opened it up on me.

"I would have liked to run a little faster today, but I'm moving up and the team is improving."

"I don't think he's completely tapped into what he's got yet," Falcons coach Nate Roe said of Bomher. "He settled back a little too much in that second mile, and that's something he's been working on."

The Falcons also got a seventh-place finish from Logan Blair, while Kevin Bomher, Caleb Philbrick and Ross Lach finish 14th, 16th and 17th on Saturday.

"With such a young team, our goal at this part of the season is to find out what we've got," Roe said. "We didn't quite meet our goal of pack running today, but we went out very aggressively."

Benet's J.P. Sullivan, Marlon Torres, and Tyler Hicks finished ninth through 11th, as the Redwings ran without their top two runners, Jerry Olp and Paul Clifford.