Fourth place shows Warren's a work in progress
The Warren boys cross country team may have struggled against North Suburban Conference rival Lake Forest on Saturday at the Pat Harland Invitational, but there is still a long time left in the season for the Blue Devils.
The Scouts rolled to the championship of the 16-team meet at Fox River Park in southern Wisconsin with 37 points to topple Crystal Lake Central (72) in second and Richmond-Burton (104) in third in the Antioch-hosted invite.
Warren nipped Jacobs 111-113 for fourth place on the very hilly course followed by Crystal Lake South (160) in sixth, and Lakes (194) in seventh.
CLC's Ryan Alvarez was the individual champion in 15:54 while senior Karsen Green (16:13) led the Blue Devils' surge in fifth place.
"I was not happy with my time, but I've been training differently this year and right now I've only had one speed workout all season long," Green said. "We did pretty decent, but I think we are a lot better than we showed today."
After Green, senior Simon Spencer placed 10th for Warren with support from teammates Danny Kleine (27th), Xavier Suarez (34th), and Mike Ricciotti (35th).
"We were hoping to run more competitively and in general I think we should have done better," said Warren coach Bill Dawson, whose team hosts Lake Forest and Lake Zurich Monday in a battle for the Lake Division crown. "We knew Lake Forest was good, but we hoped we would have shown better against them."
Josh Uvodich was CLS's top runner in sixth place as Uvodich edged Lakes sophomore Blake Franson in seventh. Junior Kyle White was the Eagles' second runner in 39th.
"We ran here against Antioch on Wednesday and everybody ran faster today than we did on Wednesday," said Lakes coach Andrew Schroeder. "I was pleased with our performance, and we had a couple of guys who really stepped up today."
Jacobs' push for fifth place was led by sophomore Dan Carey in 13th and senior Kyle Kopinski in 17th. Nick Ellingson added a 26th-place finish for the Golden Eagles.
"It was a big improvement for the boys today and it's much better than where we've been at this year," said Jacobs coach Kevin Christian. "Kyle (Kopinski) is usually are No. 1 runner, but he had a little trouble today. I think (Carey) will keep this momentum for the rest of the year."
Sophomore Ryan Mamerow led Grant in 21st place after getting off to a slow start on the grueling course.
"He (Mamerow) got off to kind of a bad start and he had to work his way up from there," said Grant coach Jeff Durlak. "But he really ran a good second half of the race."
Matt Kendzior was Grayslake North's top runner in 22nd place.
"This is always a tough course because of the hills and they just ran a meet on Thursday so this one was particularly tough on them," said Grayslake North coach Brandon Boyd. "They did well considering the hills and the terrain and I'm glad they got some experience on it."