Juras powers Lake Zurich to NSC honors
Lake Zurich left no doubt about who was the best boys cross country team in the North Suburban Conference ib Saturday afternoon at Lakewood Forest Preserve.
The seventh-ranked Bears were in a class of their own as they totally dominated the 14-team competiton on the 3-mile course with a winning score of a mere 24 points.
Lake Zurich accomplished that total by placing five runners in the top nine spots with junior Pat Juras somewhat of a surprise individual champion with a winning time of 15:22 under the 68-degree running conditions at racetime.
“I've never won a varsity race in my life before and it's just a very exciting season for our team overall, said Juras, who was all-conference as a freshman in 25th place. “I went out conservatively for the first two miles and I won the race in the third mile. I don't know what to feel. This is completely new to me.
The rest of the Bears' scoring pack was also impressive with Victor Delatorre in third, Ryan Moncrieff in fourth, Jon Smith in seventh and Alex Brend in ninth.
“I thought they ran great, we knew there were going to be some heavy hitters here and we mixed it up with them well, said Bears coach J.B. Hanson. “Everybody in the program knew he (Juras) had it in him, and he was our fifth guy to win a varsity race this year. We've just got some talented kids who work really hard and when you put those two things together some special things are going to happen.
The battle for second place was close, but Mundelein outdistanced Lake Division rival Warren 103-114 for runner-up honors.
Libertyville was a close fourth with 119 points to easily topple Lake Forest (178) in fifth. Grant (181) was sixth, Stevenson (191) seventh, Lakes (193) eighth, Round Lake (217) ninth and host Wauconda (229) took 10th.
The 1-2 punch of Robbie Munnings in 10th and Martin Mena in 13th led Mundelein's surge to second place, while teammates Gian Carlo Vassallo (22nd), and Adam Fell (27th) also made the top-30 all-conference team. Mundelein's Oscar Garcia (31st) justed missed the all-conference cut-off.
Warren gave Mundelein a good challenge behind sophomore Martin Martinez in 12th, Kevin Vollrath in 18th, Mike Harland in 21st and Matt Message in 30th.
“It wasn't one of our better days, but we ran hard, said Warren coach Bill Dawson. “We've got some injury and illness problems, and Martin (Martinez) looked good. But I'm waiting for him to have a breakout race though because he has the potential to be one of the best runners we've ever had at Warren.
Libertyville's team effort included five all-conference runners with Nick Korhumel in 19th, Dan Ryan in 20th, Mike Schmitz in 25th, Kevin Heller in 26th and Evan Bujak in 29th.
“We ran well with five making all-conference, and today was more about place than time, said Libertyville coach Mark Buesing. “The times were overall a little slow today and I don't know if it was the wind. But we finished where we thought we would.
Grant's duo of Ryan Mamerow in fifth and Trent Peters-Clarke in 11th carried the Bulldogs' squad to sixth place.
“The last couple of weeks we've been running well and we've really been improving, said Grant coach Jeff Durlach. “Having two runners in the top 11 really helps out and Trent went from running in the 17's to the 16's in the last two weeks.
Stevenson was seventh as senior Kevin Wood posted a second-place time of 15:36.
Lakes sophomore Ryan Prais continued to be impressive with a sixth-place run. Prais is poised to return to the Class 2A state meet where he placed 16th last fall.
Round Lake senior Juan Carrera led the Panthers in eighth place, and he is on track to make a return trip to the Class 3A state meet Nov. 6 in Peoria if all goes well over the next two weekends.
Wauconda senior Jake Stronz earned all-conference honors in 23rd, as did Lakes' teammates Joshua Camp in 24th and David Kosman in 28th. Stevenson's Alex Goldberg placed 32nd to edge Warren's Tyler Herman in 33rd on this beautiful fall day.