Warriors' Phillips 2nd at regional
Kaneland boys cross country coach Chad Clarey hopes his Knights are saving their best race for later in the season. But for Saturday, however, he easily accepted a solid showing at the Class 2A Aurora Central Catholic regional at Oakhurst Forest Preserve.
Although his Knights placed second with a 57 next to Sycamore's 40, Clarey and Kaneland accomplished exactly what it set out to do on the 3-mile course - advance to the Belvidere sectional next week.
"We made it into next week, and that was the most important thing," Clarey said. "We raced pretty good today, but I think we can do better. That's pretty exciting to say if our pack split was what I think it was today."
Crystal Lake Central came in third with a 60, followed by Wheaton Academy's 91 and ACC's 151. The top five teams advanced to the sectional.
St. Francis just missed out on qualifying as a team with its sixth-place finish of 155 points. Hampshire scored a 188 in front of Burlington Central (210) and IMSA (217).
Wheaton Academy was led by Mark Phillips' second-place showing with a time of 15:02. He was head-to-head with Sycamore's Tyson Kinsley until the very end, when Kinsley edged him out for first place by just one second. Mike DeRenzo was sixth, Kent Smith 10th, Shai Weinstein 31st and Jeremy Mitchell 42nd.
"Three in the top 10 is great for what we came to do today," Wheaton Academy coach Chris Felinski said. "Our goal today was to get out. It pretty much went how I expected it to go. We are very consistent with our times."
Max Gilbert, James Spencer, Dan Kottkamp, John Cisneros and Manuel Sauceda were ACC's leaders.
"We knew coming in this was going to be a battle," ACC coach Troy Kerber said. "This certainly is not your average regional, but I was really proud of the way the boys ran. It was a total team effort."
With five Crystal Lake Central girls placing in the top eight, it was clear even before the girls race was over the Tigers won the regional in Aurora with a total of 30 points.
"They are competitors, and that shows," Crystal Lake Central coach Shannon Schroeder said. "This is how we've been all season long."
The Tigers may have placed fourth through eighth on the 3-mile course, but Burlington Central's Maggie Gannon won her first big meet of the season, clocking in at 17:54.
Gannon's time helped the Rockets place second overall with a 73, followed by Wheaton Academy (89), Sycamore (107) and Kaneland (112).
Although their teams did not advance, the following individuals did - Hampshire's Holly Plichta, Courtney Trunk and Alyssa Robinson from St. Francis, Kelly Kieffer from Rosary and IMSA's Melissa O'Brien.
St. Francis finished sixth with a 134 in front of ACC (193), Rosary (215), IMSA (236) and Hampshire (247).
"The girls gave it everything they had," ACC coach Troy Kerber said. "That's a good young girls team who got experience today."
Wheaton Academy's top girls were Sarah Daly, Hannah Huff, Alli Witt, Becca Long and Kristen Wittmuss.
"Our girls have been working hard all season long, so I feel this is a showing of what they've been doing all season long," Wheaton Academy coach Martha Van Zee said. "I'm super proud of them. They are doing great. We aren't surprised we did well. The girls came in focused."