Boys cross country: Wheaton Warrenville South triumphs on new-look Leroy course
Getting his team ready for the annual St. Charles North meet turned out to be the easy part for North Stars coach Kevin Harrington.
The real chore became getting the course ready thanks to recent heavy rains.
Harrington, St. Charles North's boys coach, and North Stars girls coach Shari Hayes worked overtime at Leroy Oakes, making a major adjustment to eliminate the traditional part of the course where runners navigate the woods. Instead, the course featured two loops through the finish line.
"You've got to find an alternative," Harrington said. "The entire back end was flooded. Down by the creek you'd be ankle deep. We couldn't run 1,000 kids through there. We just had to figure it out. We didn't want to cancel, this is too important to cancel."
The North Stars didn't cancel, instead welcoming 20 teams Saturday to run their new-look course that made it easier for spectators and coaches to watch the race develop.
Wheaton Warrenville South ran away with the title with five of the top seven finishers for 19 points, easily outdistancing New Trier (91), Naperville Central (100), Waubonsie Valley (130), Batavia (169), St. Charles North (188) and the rest of the field.
Harrington was glad to see the work setting up the course pay off.
"We were out here three days in a row," Harrington explained. "First day was to get some ideas. Then we went on the computer and mapped it out. Second day we made a final decision and the final day we came out and measured it. It's a nice creative little process. Short of the time, it was a lot of fun. It's a nice problem to solve."
Even with the new set up and avoiding the really wet parts of Leroy Oakes, the course was quite slippery and challenging in many parts. It didn't seem to bother WW South.
Only 11 seconds separated the Tigers' one through five runners. Billy Hauenstein won in 15:16, Jared Peaslee took seventh in 15:27 and in between came David Zeller, Ethan Seng and Jacob Kluckhohn, respectively.
That's just the way Tigers coach Christopher Kuntz likes it.
"We're just trying to run together as a team," Kutz said. "Super muddy and really rut-y and holes. It's a tough course. First goal was to be safe, be careful. Just trying to pack up and that's how we do it. Our top five are really good and by keeping them together helps our six and seven kids latch on. We've had a lot of success doing that."
St. Charles North senior Ryan Arnold broke up the pack of Tigers by taking third in 15:21. Teammate Noah Eng followed in 15th.
"Ryan is biting at the bit to go sub-15 and he will soon but you are not going to do that on this course," Harrington said. "Not today and not in these conditions. He ran really well.
"Noah was right on his tail. We're still trying to get that three, four, five closer but I have good kids who are working hard."
Other top 10 finishes came from Naperville Central junior Arthur Graham (sixth, 15:27), Cary-Grove senior Maxum Caesar (eighth, 15:31), Batavia senior Adam Kennedy (ninth, 15:33) and Waubonsie Valley junior Zach Benziger (10th, 15:34).
"I like muddy courses," Kennedy said. "They are just fun to run in. It's like real cross country. A mile and a half to two miles is usually my weakest part so I was just trying to focus on that and not fall off too much."