Dundee-Crown takes team title at Elgin Open

The results had a familiar ring at the Elgin City Classic cross-country invitational at Lords Park Tuesday.

The Dundee-Crown boys and the Bartlett girls won their respective team titles for the third consecutive year. The Chargers edged St. Charles North while Bartlett bested Streamwood in the girls race.

Bartlett's Alyssa Schneider won the girls' individual title for the third year in a row, finishing the 3-mile course in 18:33.

Ryan Senci of St. Charles North won the individual honors among the boys with a time of 16:20.3.

"We were trying to get our team to just go out and stay together the first mile, push the second mile a bit more and just cruise it in," said Senci, who pulled away from the pack just as they hit the final straightaway. "I think we did a pretty good job of that."

It was a pack mentality for Dundee-Crown. The Chargers' best individual finish was Andrew Knapik, who finished third, but the Chargers had 5 of the top 15 runners.

"This is a traveling trophy, and the guys said, 'Let's take it back home with us,' " said D-C coach Tom Smith. "That was a little motivation there.

"The key was Andrew Knapik breaking out. We've been running together. That front five or seven, they've been running together a lot, but we talked about somebody needing to break out."

Smith's son, Ryan, lost a shoe at the start line, but completed the course.

Kyle Flores of Glenbard North in second, Mike Redmond of Batavia in fourth and Billy Clink of St. Charles North rounded out the top five in the boys' race.

Redmond led the Bulldogs to a third-place finish.

In the girls' race, Schneider pulled away early to finish nearly a minute ahead of St. Charles North's duo of Erica Bauerbach and Sydney Stuenkel.

"After the first mile was when I really didn't hear anybody anymore," Schneider said.

Jordan Tuin of South Elgin and Jordana LeSavage of Streamwood completed the top five.

Bartlett entered a large contingent in the varsity race.

"We didn't really know our top seven yet, it's too early for that," said Hawks' coach Beth Emody.

"We wanted to see them compete against each other."

The Dundee-Crown girls, led by Claira Himmel's eighth-place finish, took third place overall.