Morrison, Lake Zurich claim NSC victory
The Lake Zurich boys cross country team was on a mission Saturday afternoon as it headed out for the North Suburban Conference meet at Warren.
And the Bears accomplished their goals in both the team and individual races on the 3-mile course as senior Andrew Morrison won the race in 15:10 and the Bears rolled to their third NSC crown in four years by a 39-79 margin over runner-up Lake Forest.
Runner-up Henry Mynatt of Lake Forest held first place for the better part of the race, but Morrison was not to be denied as he put on a big surge late to take home top honors in the individual competition.
"I passed (Mynatt) with a little more than a quarter mile left and when I passed him I didn't look back," said Morrison, who placed second in the NSC last fall. "If we can be tops in conference we're in good shape and if we get everybody back 100 percent we'll be a big threat in sectionals."
Lake Zurich's Francisco Soto was out of the lineup again Saturday due to injury while teammate Paul Geimer was not running at full strength.
But the Bears had more than enough depth to roll to the crown as the entire seven-man squad including Morrision, Ryan Oncrieff (sixth), Jon Smith (seventh), Geimer (12th), Victor Delatorre (13th), Alex Brend (18th), and Jordan Pavlovich (24th) made the (top 30) all-conference team.
"It was a complete team effort today, every guy did his part, and Andrew (Morrison) beat a tough runner today," said Lake Zurich coach J.B. Hanson, whose team captured back-to-back conference titles. "All seven made all-conference, they ran well, and they stuck to the race plan."
Stevenson used a strong team effort to take home third place with 84 points followed by Libertyville (107) in fourth, the host Blue Devils (116) in fifth, and Lakes (132) in sixth.
The Patriots' dynamic duo of junior Kevin Wood in fourth and senior Nathan Kolman in fifth helped carry the squad to third place with solid support from all-conference teammates Adam Pauley (20th) and Konnor Kruse (22nd).
"Every one of them ran their best times of the season and we're getting set for hopefully a good string of meets now," said Stevenson coach Scott Somers. "They (Wood and Kolman) have been a duo all season for every workout and they're both really the team leaders as far as words and actions for the younger guys."
Led by Mitchel Neubauer (ninth) and Nicholas Korhumel (11th), Libertyville also had a strong showing Saturday with Daniel Ryan (28th), Erik Bergstrom (29th), and Ryan Burke (30th) also earning all-conference honors for the Wildcats.
"We had a great spread from one through five and Neubauer was running with a 100-degree fever today," said Libertyville coach Mark Buesing, whose team will host a Class 3A regional meet next weekend. "Our No. 2 guy today (Korhumel) is a freshman which is great news for the future. We went from ninth to 35th place with our one through seven runners and we ran well in the last mile of the race."
Warren's road to fifth place was led by Martin Martinez in 16th, Xavier Suarez in 19th, Dan Kleine in 23rd, and Matt Message in 27th. Kevin Vollrath just missed the all-conference cut-off with a 31st-place run for the Blue Devils.
Round Lake placed 11th as a team, but junior Juan Carrera (15:27) continued to shine for the Panthers with a third-place finish. Freshman Ryan Prais was probably the biggest surprise of the day with an eighth-place run for the Eagles while junior Ryan Mamerow led Grant in 10th place.
Blake Franson added a 15th-place finish for Lakes while teammate Danny McGrath also earned a place on the all-conference team with a 26th-place run. Stevenson's Tom Russell placed 33rd followed by Libertyville teammates Kevin Pfeil (34th), and Mike Schmitz (35th). Martin Mena led Mundelein in 37th while Andrew Thompson was Vernon Hills' leader in 42nd.