Lakes deliver Taylor triumph
The 11th annual James "J.T." Taylor Invitational went down to the wire Saturday morning at Camp Henry Horner in Fox Lake as Lakes, and Richmond-Burton hooked up in a real battle for the first-place trophy in this boys cross country showdown.
The Rockets boasted the top two finishers on the heavily wooded 3-mile course hosted by Grant, but it was the Eagles' squad that pulled out a 75-79 victory. A strong pack of four runners helped carry Lakes to the championship of the 12-team meet.
Grayslake Central had a solid showing with a third-place score of 100 points, while crosstown rival Grayslake North placed fifth with 122 points. Wauconda was seventh with 170 points followed by the host Bulldogs (213) in 10th.
Round Lake did not field a full varsity squad due to its homecoming weekend, but junior Juan Carrera was strong for the Panthers again with a third-place time of 16:02.95. Richmond-Burton's Ian Sanchez (15:57) was the individual champion, with his R-B teammate Matt Lytle (16:00.40) second.
"In the last 400 meters (Lytle) got me, and the guy from Richmond-Burton (Sanchez) and me were going back and forth the entire race," Carrera said. "I wasn't feeling it all day, but I guess I just got nervous because of homecoming and it was a fast pace the whole time."
Lakes' winning effort was led by Danny McGrath (11th), Joshua Camp (12th), Kyle White (14th) and a less-than-full-strength Blake Franson in 15th. Grant Franson placed 28th as the Eagles' fifth scorer.
"This is the first meet that our top four have been that close and that is what we've been trying to do," said Lakes coach Andrew Schroeder. "Blake (Franson) is not 100 percent right now, but it's exciting to beat Richmond-Burton in such a close race so I'm really happy."
Grayslake Central's push for third place was paced by senior Ryan Seiffert in 10th, while junior teammate Kyle Rehberg added a 16th-place run for the Rams. The trio of Luke Zygmunt (23rd), Brett Seaholm (27th) and Tim Burks (29th) helped bolster Grayslake Central's scoring.
"They ran excellent today and we're still training for the end of the year so we're definitely taking steps in the right direction," said first-year Grayslake Central coach Jim Centella. "Our top-five spread was very good and our fifth runner (Burks) really stepped it up today so I'm pleased with where we are at this point of the season."
Grayslake North sophomore Matt Kendzior led the Knights with a sixth-place finish with junior teammate Tyler Vincent finishing strong in 13th place. Junior Mike Lahera was North's third runner in 24th place.
"We had two medalists in the boys race and the vast majority of our guys had their best times today," said Grayslake North coach Brandon Boyd. "Our group of guys that are in the middle of our pack are starting to move up. They're starting to show a lot of drive, and they're doing really well."
Junior Robert Brunn was Wauconda's top runner in 22nd place followed by teammates Jake Stronz in 26th, and Cameron Ceisil in 32nd.
Grant junior Ryan Mamerow managed to take fourth place in 16:16 despite nursing a sore hamstring into the chute.
"Mamerow looked good, but I think his hamstring bothered him in the last 400, even though it was his best time of the year so far," said Grant coach Jeff Durlak. "We had two kids who ran fresh-soph who would have been 2-3 on varsity today and we are without our No. 2 runner (Titus Lotz), who hopefully we will get back for conference and regionals."
Carrera is still on target to make a trip to the Class 2A state meet this November in Peoria if he continues to show improvement from week to week.
"I thought Juan looked pretty good for the first part of the race, but then he lost his focus and he got passed in the end," said Round Lake coach Kevin Brady. "We ran all of the fresh-soph guys down today so we had only two guys on varsity, but they ran pretty well."