Mundelein slogs past Warren to invite crown
Two North Suburban Conference boys cross country rivals hooked up in a showdown Saturday at the Warren Blue Devil Invitational.
The 3-mile race slated for 10:30 a.m. on the O'Plaine campus got underway at 11:55 a.m. due to thunder and heavy rain earlier in the morning that disrupted the girls varsity race.
When all was said and done, Mundelein managed to slip past the host Blue Devils 80-90 for the championship of the 22-team meet.
The run for the roses in the individual race went to Round Lake senior Juan Carrera for the second straight Saturday as Carrera (15:15) outdistanced runner-up Andy Mack of Fremd by six seconds for first place.
The Vikings had a solid third-place team performance with 139 points to hold off Crystal Lake South (149 points) in fourth place, and Rolling Meadows (165 points) in fifth place.
Mundelein's push for the crown was led by the senior trio of Robbie Munnings in seventh, Martin Mena in eighth, and Gian Carlo Vassallo in 13th with a boost from teammate Oscar Garcia in 22nd. Adam Fell was Mundelein's fifth scorer in 36th.
"It was a great team performance, and we were looking for three in the top 10 today," said Mundelein coach John Osmanski. "Our fourth and fifth runners really stepped it up, and those guys did a tremendous job."
The course conditions may have been treacherous due to the earlier rain, but it did not faze Warren sophomore Martin Martinez too much. He led the Blue Devils' pack in sixth place.
Like Mundelein, Warren's top trio was very impressive on the sloppy course behind Martinez, Kevin Vollrath in 14th, and Matt Message in 17th.
"It was so muddy it was hard to keep traction, but I did pretty well," said Martinez, who finished in 15:43. "I still have room for improvement, but it was extremely muddy everywhere, especially going around the corners with a mud and gravel mix."
Fremd's push for third place was led by Mack, Matt Smaga in 11th, and Jackson Winter in 15th.
"Those three guys have been doing a real nice job, but we're a very inexperienced varsity group," said Fremd coach Mike Bruce. "This is only Andy's second race of the year because of health issues we've been trying to be cautious with.
"I'm very pleased with our top three guys. They're in a very good position going into the next month."
Rolling Meadows' solid team performance was led by the duo of Eric Ure in 21st and Brendan Thielsen in 24th. Ryan Masey was CLS's top runner in ninth while Grayslake Central's Luke Zygmunt outran Grayslake North's Matt Kendzior by eight seconds for 19th place.
"Luke Zygmunt ran a really good race with a personal best and he looked good today," said Grayslake Central coach Jim Centella. "We ran some of our normal varsity runners in the frosh-soph meet so we weren't at full strength at the varsity level."
CLS teammates Brad Berg and Andrew Hubbard finished 26th and 27th respectively to edge Warren's Mike Harland in 28th.
Carrera has been impressive in the early stages of the season and he was greeted by a host of happy family members and friends following his victory Saturday. Carrera won the Wauconda Invitational last weekend at Lakewood Forest Preserve.
"That's the best race he's run since sectionals last year and we've been trying to get him to go out hard and push the pace," said Round Lake coach Kevin Brady, who helped guide Carrera downstate last year. "And that is what he did. He was basically ahead the whole race, and he probably had a good 20- to 25-yard lead after 2 miles."