Boys cross country: Wheaton Warrenville South holds off St. Charles East
Wheaton Warrenville South and St. Charles East turned St. Charles North's 22-team invitational into their own little dual meet Saturday morning at Leroy Oakes.
The Tigers, one of the top boys cross country teams in the country, held off the Saints. The gap between the two and the rest of the field was staggering - WW South won with 28 points, St. Charles East was next at 35 and third-place Marmion finished at 127.
"We'd like to give them (St. Charles East) credit because they want it as badly as we do," WW South junior Billy Hauenstein said. "They are gunning for us, we are gunning for them and we work together."
The two teams also met in Peoria two weeks ago with Wheaton Warrenville winning by a more comfortable margin, 42-116.
"As a team we ran a little better today, personally I ran about the same," said the third runner for St. Charles East, Bennett Melone. "They are one of the best teams in the country. We want to race them a lot. They are a great team. Good competition comes with great opportunity. We knew it would be good competition for us."
Eleven of the top 12 runners were from the two schools. Only Geneva's Ryan Kredell in fifth interrupted the parade of runners in black and orange flying into the chute, looking strong and fresh and not like they just covered three grueling miles on the hilly course.
Hauenstein won the race in 15:04 with teammate Scott Miason second in 15:07.
Then came a pair of Saints, Brian Lingard (15:09) and Aidan King (15:10).
After Kredell, Sean Maison took sixth for the Tigers followed by the Saints' Melone (15:18) and Micah Wilson (15:18) before Jacob Kluckhohn (15:26) and Jared Peaslee (15:28) completed the scoring for WW South.
"We work hard," Sean Maison said. "We're motivated. The whole team is motivated to help each other out and work together."
Wheaton Warrenville South's depth was on display with its sixth and seventh runners David Zeller and Ethan Seng finishing 11th and 12th, respectively.
"St. Charles East gave us a run for our money, they pushed that second mile," Scott Miason said. "They made us hurt for a little bit. We knew they were going to come for us and they want to beat us. It was fun."
Melone said the Saints pack went out fast Saturday running a 4:49 first mile. He was pleased with how they held up to the end.
"I was happy with that especially with how fast we went out on this course," Melone said. "It was a strong finish for how fast we went out."
With the packs of Tigers and Saints dominating, it was Kredell from Geneva who surged after the first mile to take the lead from about a mile and a half to the start of the third mile.
"I went out a little behind them and coming down the hill after the first mile I tried to break up their pack a little and got out ahead and wanted to see how long I could stay ahead," Kredell said. "They made a move at the start of the third mile. I'll try to hold it next time. I love this course."
Kredell finished in 15:13 and said he enjoyed the chance to compete against two such good teams.
"They are very, very, very quick," Kredell said. "I just wanted to be up there with them. They are two amazing teams. I just wanted to have a good time and stick with them and see what I can do."
Other area finishes in the top 10 included Waubonsie Valley in fifth, Naperville Central seventh, Cary-Grove eighth, Glenbard North ninth and St. Charles North 10th. The top runner among those teams was Maxum Caesar from Cary-Grove in 14th.