Elgin's Mancha hoping for a trip downstate

Elgin junior boys cross country runner Ricardo Mancha used to be concerned about his time during meets.

"My best achievement was a 15:30 that I had at Palatine earlier this year," said Mancha. "I had a hip problem ever since Palatine and I was doing flat 16s. I was more up there and then I slowed down and stayed there."

But since last week's individual regional championship win at St. Charles North, Mancha has done some rethinking.

"Now that I have a chance to go Downstate, I guess I should be more concerned about my place," said Mancha. "The last few years it's been more about time for me."

Mancha, who ran at Streamwood his freshman year, is a part of one of 14 area teams (both boys and girls) that will compete at the sectional level today. An additional 17 area individual runners (boys and girls) will also compete individually at the sectional level.

Mancha and Elgin will be part of the Class 3A St. Charles East sectional at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.

At the sectional level, the top 5 teams and the top 7 individuals not on qualifying teams will advance to next weekend's state finals in Peoria. If the eighth through 10th-place individual runners at each sectional are not on qualifying teams, they, too, will advance to the state meet.

"I'm really happy. We haven't made it to sectionals as a team in awhile (2005)," said Mancha, whose sister, Mercedes, runs for the Streamwood girls team and also qualified for the sectional. "It's going to be tough. There are a lot of good teams there."

Elgin benefited at the regional level from pack-running by senior Daniel Schmerber, sophomore Matt Eck, junior Jose Durate and senior Jake Morris (9-second gap between the four runners).

Also part of the field at St. Charles East are Bartlett, Cary-Grove, Dundee-Crown and Crystal Lake South. Cary-Grove bettered rival D-C for the second week in a row at the Woodstock regional (by 27 points to win the regional). Phil Fairleigh won the regional individual title for Cary-Grove, while D-C is led by sophomore Anthony Manfrin. Both Cary-Grove and Dundee-Crown qualified for state last year.

Senior Thomas Niewiara was Bartlett's top runner at the regional level, while senior Josh Uvodich leads the way for Crystal Lake South.

"I'm running with better competition," said Uvodich. "I'm handling the competition better. I used to get intimidated and think people were better than me. I decided to not let it bother me anymore. I decided to run my own race."

The Larkin trio of Francisco Gonzalez, Dan Runzel and Peter Lennard and the Streamwood duo of Roger Klein and Fernando Collazo, along with Huntley's Alex Beruscha and Jacobs' Kyle Kopinski will also run at St. Charles East.

The Class 2A Belvidere sectional will feature the Hampshire duo of Tanner Holman and Justin Bieber and Burlington Central freshman Clint Kliem.

St. Edward sophomore Andrew Knapik is the lone area individual running at the Class 1A Aurora Christian sectional at Oakhurst Forest Preserve.

Westminster Christian, led by senior Zach Holmer, is also part of the Aurora Christian field.

Holmer has a mental trick he plans to use for Saturday's race.

"When I race this year and I know the other team has a good freshman on it, I tell myself I'm a senior, I can't get beat by a freshman," said Holmer. "I'm going to have the mindset that everybody is a freshman so that I can beat everybody."

Girls: Dundee-Crown senior Kelsey Seiler recalled a saying veteran coach Tom Smith said to the team.

"Coach kept saying you are always able to do what you think you can't," said Seiler.

Seiler, who helped D-C win a regional title last weekend, said the team's regional championship success last week boiled down to everybody clicking at the same time.

"Our team pulled together and finally did what we are capable of doing," said Seiler, a state-qualifier as a junior last year (her first year of cross country). "We all had good races throughout the season, but we didn't have a good race as a team. We finally had a good race as a team."

D-C, which won its first regional since 2003, will try to take things a step farther at the Class 3A St. Charles East sectional at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve Saturday.

Bartlett (led by sophomore Alyssa Schneider), Streamwood (led by Mercedes Mancha), Cary-Grove (led by senior Molly MacInnes), Huntley (led by sophomore Haley Loprieno and a top five that features 3 freshmen and two sophomores) and Crystal Lake South (led by 2-time state qualifier Kristina Aubert) are also in the field at St. Charles East. Loprieno qualified for the state meet as a freshman. Aubert shot up from 72nd in the state as a freshman in Class AA to eighth in Class 3A last year.

The Larkin-Elgin co-op will also be well-represented at St. Charles East. Senior Britney Whitehead, junior Kelly Patchett and junior Christine Heiser all qualified as individuals along with the South Elgin duo of sophomore Katie Goplerud and freshman Jordan Tuin.

"I think I've improved because Mr. Lauridsen (Larkin-Elgin coach Steve) is a really good coach," said Whitehead. "He gives us really hard workouts and pushes us every day. Last year I improved a lot. This year I've improved even more and it's mostly because of him."

Burlington Central will look for a return trip Downstate in Class 2A when it competes in the Belvidere sectional. Central's Maggie Gannon won the regional title last week.

Gannon said a talk from Central coach Vince Neil pushed her over the top last week to victory.

"Mr. Neil before the regional said he had never had a regional champion before and said he really thought I could be up there with the top mix," said Gannon. "I was a little more pumped up than I ever have been before a race."

Gannon likes the way things are rounding together for the Rockets.

"We are running really solid," said Gannon. "I think we can drop a little more time and catch a few more bodies. If we do that, we'll be in really good shape."

Hampshire junior Holly Plictha, a state qualifier as a sophomore in Class 1A, will also run at Belvidere.

Westminster Christian's girls team also qualified for the sectional and will compete at the Class 1A Aurora Christian sectional. Junior Tanya Rogers finished seventh at the regional last week for the Warriors.