Team effort lifts Naperville Central
Naperville Central relied on a true team effort Saturday to win the St. Charles North Invitational at Leroy Oakes in St. Charles.
The Redhawks didn't have anyone run in the lead pack and it took awhile before the first Naperville Central runner ran into the chute.
But once Geoffrey McCullough came in, taking ninth in 15:35, his teammates followed close behind.
That pack running proved the difference for Naperville Central (97 points) finishing ahead of Prairie Ridge (134), Batavia (151), Marmion (156) and Sandburg (171).
“The key was group running,” said senior Scott Hicks, 13th in 15:43.
“We've really been working on that this year. It's really hard to do it all by myself. I know Jeff (Mccullough) and Tommy (Chavez, 19th place, 15:47) and I were all trying to stick together. You break up but Tommy and I finished together and we had a huge group of four in the back. I think the key is to push your teammates.”
Previously this year the Redhawks finished ninth at First to the Finish in Peoria and 3rd at the Hornet-Red Devil.
“I think I raced well, I think the team did outstanding,” McCullough said. “Everyone pulling each other, running with each other. I think we did tremendous today and the scoreboard showed it.”
The Redhawks also had the 27th and 29th finishers, Josh Toby and David Kennedy.
“It was super cold and very muddy,” Toby said. “Times were slow but what matters is we ran with each other and we got it done. We were amazing at group running. We had two groups on each other tight.”
Ryan Wieties led third-place Batavia by running a 15:23 — 15 seconds back of winner Filip Pajak from Prairie Ridge.
“Ryan did a real nice job, did a fantastic job. That's his PR on this course,” Batavia coach Bronco Meeks said. “We talked about trying to get top five, he got in the top five right from the beginning. He did exactly what we wanted with the race plan.”
David Morrison took 15th and Shea Bastian 25th for Batavia who is still trying to get its next runners to close the gap.
“They were supposed to go out at a 5:20 pace the back of our group and close the gap but it didn't happen today,” Meeks said. “Shea stepped up and raced very well.
“They are making progress in workouts. They are doing a real nice job grouping up there. We just are trying to get it to transfer over to meets now. They just need to make sure they close up the gaps. Practice has been fine. We just have to get it transferred over to meets.”
Senior Brady Bobbitt led Marmion with a third-place finish in 15:14.
“I probably should have gone more conservative the first mile,” Bobbitt said. “I like to hang with people. It wasn't the greatest position for me. I just was hanging on the last 300 or so.”
Cadets freshman Michael Ronzone placed 10th in 15:37, junior Andrew Burroughs was 14th in 15:43 and sophomore Andrew Lifka 32nd in 16:08.
“Team-wise I think we are OK,” Bobbitt said. “A little behind what we want. We had some good races, some were OK. We need to work on more pack running.”
Junior Mark Sciurba led St. Charles East in fifth in 15:25. Overall the Saints took seventh.
Host St. Charles North coach Kevin Harrington showed up early Saturday to quite a surprise.
“It was snowing this morning when I got here,” Harrington said. “I told the coaches this is the first time I've set up this meet and not broken a sweat.”
Harrington found plenty of positives in the North Stars' 12th-place finish out of 23 teams, one spot ahead of Geneva.
“We've been running so poorly recently it was great to see us run with some energy and fun,” Harrington said. “Our top three came in really well. Finally had a kid come in under 16 (Max Markowicz, 15:52). That's great. We finally have that pack up there. I'm happy with the juniors who ran the varsity. We just need some mo-jo, some positive feelings, and believe we can do this. Hopefully this will get that spark going a little.”