Palatine cleans up at muddy regional

The cool temperatures and muddy conditions at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve on Saturday were exactly what the doctor ordered for the Palatine boys cross country squad.

With four runners finishing in the top 10, the Mid-Suburban champion Pirates cruised to a first place finish at the Class 3A Palatine regional.

Palatine finished with 36 points overall, well ahead of second-place finishers Barrington (90) and Cary-Grove (90). Buffalo Grove (98) and Fremd (99) rounded out the top five teams, all of which will compete in the sectional meet on Oct. 31.

Cary-Grove's Phillip Fairleigh (14:47) took first place overall, followed by Palatine seniors Alec Bollman (14:54) and Chano Bernardo (14:56). Sophomore Anthony Gregario (15:07) gave the Pirates a big boost with a solid sixth-place finish.

The rain that fell all day Thursday and Friday left the track muddy and slick, causing many runners to slip and fall while making some of the hard turns.

"It actually kind of favors us," Palatine coach Chris Quick said of the track conditions. "Our guys are used to running outside. We got a lot of mudders on this team, guys that aren't speed guys but are real strong and have done a lot of mileage. So theyre not intimidated by running in this. They actually kind of welcome it."

"Our plan was to go out a little bit more conservative than last week," Bollman said. "It's always hard to go out and give it your all in the mud like this, but we went out and did the best that we could."

Fremd senior Aaron Ferst (15:03) finished in fourth place for a second straight year, followed by Barrington's Eric Peterson (15:06). Buffalo Grove sophomores Jereme Atchison (15:12) and Taras Didenko (15:13) finished in seventh and eighth, respectively.

"We definitely have a much stronger team than that," Ferst said of Fremd's fifth-place finish. "We really wanted to get second or third, but were going on to next week, so thats the important thing."