Cross country: Grayslake Central defends its home course, edges Carmel Catholic
The second annual Vicky Piela Invitational went down to the wire Saturday morning as host Grayslake Central battled it out with Carmel Catholic for the girls cross country team title.
In the end it was the host Rams who nipped the Corsairs 51-52 for the championship on the 3-mile Central Park course under temperatures in the upper 50s. Grayslake North took third place with 69 points followed by fifth-place Mundelein with 83 points.
Two-time state qualifier Madison Petersen of Grayslake North was the individual champion in 18:32.16 to outdistance second-place Carmel freshman Juliet Bing (18:56.07).
Grayslake North's Lucy Roscoe pulled away from Grayslake Central's Violet Rowe to take third place, while the Rams got a fifth-place finish from Ava Pietruszynski.
“Brynn Domier (19th) had a great finish to pass a Carmel girl to flip the points and get us the win,” said Grayslake Central coach Jimmy Centella. “We have some small injuries on our varsity so we're hoping to get them back in the next few weeks and Violet (Rowe) looked strong.”
Grayslake North's Julia Flannery edged Grayslake Central's Ellie Chevrier for sixth place.
“Our No. 1 girl (Bing) was sick and took second, and we had five runners in the top 15,” said Carmel coach Jim Halford. “We went 11-13-14-15, so the pack was good and there was only 20 seconds between them.”
Seniors Brooklyn D'Ambrosio (ninth), and Chloe Engelbrecht (10th) were Mundelein's top two runners.
“We ran really well today and they did a really good job sticking together,” said new Mundelein coach Leah Kloss, whose team was without No. 1 runner Precious Oyebanji. “Our Nos. 1 and 2 are out injured now, but our Nos. 3 and 4 PR'd by like 10 seconds so they did really well.”
Boys cross country
Morris won the team title with 42 points followed by St. Ignatius (60 points) in second, and the host Rams (75 points) in third.
Morris' Cuyler Swanson won in 14:44.55 followed closely by Cary-Grove senior Jameson Tenopir (14:46.62) in second place.
The Trojans (131 points) took fifth place, followed by Grayslake North (179 points) in seventh, and Carmel (187 points) in eighth.
Grayslake Central was led by senior Adan Cordova (15:21.99) in fourth, Justin Mottola in 10th and Ryan Schroer in 11th.
“I really liked how we ran, we have some juniors that are learning how to step up and be varsity runners,” said Grayslake Central coach Jimmy Centella. “So it was good to see them make improvements, and Cordova is a great No. 1 runner for us.”
Lakes did not have a full team competing, but junior Cooper Summy placed sixth in 15:59.64.
“It was an OK time for me today, but I had a little bit of a hip injury two weeks ago so I'm not 100% right now,” Summy said. “We're having a little bit of a rebuilding year, and our second and third runners didn't run in the varsity race today.”
First-year Lakes coach Christine Zucker is waiting for the team to get healthy. “We just had a lot of sick people, but Cooper looked really good,” Zucker said. “We lost six seniors to graduation so it will definitely be a rebuilding year for us.”
Cary-Grove got an eighth-place finish from sophomore Aaron Milewski and a 21st-place run from junior Lucas Kephart.
“Jameson had a nice race in second place, but we're still kind of putting together our best group,” said Cary-Grove coach Mark Anderson. “Aaron Milewski has improved by about a minute since last year, and Luke (Kephart) looked really good after being sick last week.”
Junior Evan Hursthouse led Carmel in 18th place. Oliver Davies was Grayslake North's top runner in 24th place. Grayslake Central got a 26th-place finish from junior Nolan Lara.
“Our boys team was missing our No. 2 and No. 3 runners today because of the ACT today,” said Carmel coach Jim Halford. “Evan (Hursthouse) had a little bit of an off day today, but we have a good top three.”