Cross country: Lake Park, Conant girls, Buffalo Grove boys shine at Elk Grove meet

The cross country season just started, but already runners are thinking about their conference meets just six weeks away.

"It goes (by) real fast," said Lake Park junior runner Ruth Dellaria.

Saturday morning's annual Elk Grove Invite, where seven boys and seven girls cross country units competed on the Grenadiers' Lions Park Field course, also went by real fast. The Lancers took home the girls title in the 3-mile event. Conant's girls posted a clean sweep of the top 5 spots and seven in the top 10 to cruise in the 2-mile open contest.

Meanwhile, Buffalo Grove's boys captured both team titles in the 2- and 3-mile events.

Led by Dellaria's win on the first event of the morning on the 3-mile course in 18:05, the Lancers (51 points) placed five girls among the top 15 to earn a 10-point win over runner-up Hoffman Estates (61). Conant took third with 62 points.

Dellaria credited her pre-race prep the night before for giving her an added boost to her usual afternoon race routine.

"I like to get everything ready, like set my bags and stuff, and I always eat a bagel before (as well)," Dellaria said.

In the girls 2-mile open, sophomore Hayley Park (14:16) paced Conant's dominant performance. She was joined by teammates Olivia Wasniowski (14:31), Charlotte Kattner (14:32), Alaina Czarnik (14:42) and Kenley Green (14:51) in the top five as their 15-point total outdistanced Buffalo Grove (62 points) and Lake Park (70 points) in the team standings.

She praised her teammates for their efforts.

"I really like running with my teammates because it makes it easier to stay up knowing that (they're) behind me and they're cheering me on," Park said.

In taking the first of their two titles on the boys side in the 3-mile race, Buffalo Grove got five of its competitors to place in the top 10, led by senior Riley Wold in the silver spot in 15:19, just a second behind Conant senior Charlie Calderone.

Fellow Bison senior Nate Lipaldi took home the bronze with a time of 15:42 as Buffalo Grove (32 points) finished ahead of Conant (51) and Lake Park (56).

Wold was very pleased with the team's overall performance at the event.

"Our depth's definitely much better than last year. I think that it's one of our strengths as a team," Wold said.

That strong trait carried Buffalo Grove to the 2-mile open team title as it matched Lake Park with three runners in the top nine spots paved by freshman Matthew Cole's 11:49 effort. That earned him fifth place and allowed the Bison (46 points) to hold off the Lancers (47) and third-place Conant (75).

The visitors from Roselle matched Buffalo Grove with three of their own in the top nine, led by freshman Joshua Wittig's 11:28 time that kept him six seconds ahead of his sophomore teammate Josh Tuckett.

"I just kind of run how I really want to run (the race)," Wittig said. "I was pacing myself with the other guys. It helps a lot."