Prospect depth keys run to title honors
Hail, hail, the gang's all back ... well, almost.
Prospect was missing its third and fourth runners - sophomore Kelan Strobel and junior Vincent Tangore - but the Knights had enough firepower to win the Libertyville Invite title with 72 points Saturday, edging Lake Forest (75 points) at Adler Park.
Loyola took third with 119 points, followed by Fremd (127 points) and Cary-Grove (139 points).
Prospect featured five runners in the top 31, with senior Chris Hayek (15:29.36) taking second and junior Chris Spudic (15:56.50) securing eighth to lead the Knights' charge.
The Knights flashed their depth, as junior Albert Ciolek (16:09.92), sophomore Matt Ashton (16:20.17) and sophomore Greg Netols (16:29.42) filled the holes left by their injured teammates by taking 13th, 18th, and 31st places, respectively.
"To be missing some runners and still be able to eke it out, you have to hand it to the guys," said Knights coach Mike Stokes. "But our sixth runner is not that far away from our fifth. They're pushing each other."
"It's nice to have some weapons in your arsenal."
Hayek pushed Loyola's Nicolas Composto for the entire race.
The Prospect senior led at the 2-mile mark, but Composto pulled away in the final mile to secure the individual title in 15:23.37.
"I was a little tired going into the second mile," Hayek said.
"It was our first big invite and it's a little different going out so hard. He just went and I couldn't hold it."
But the Knights did hang on for the victory and are hoping that more will follow after the disappointment of not making it out of the Palatine sectional last year.
This year the Knights have a bit of a chip on their shoulder.
"We were expected to be up there last year," Spudic said.
"We want to run at a state level this year."
"We're progressing," Stokes said. "They are learning they have to mature and do some different things to make it downstate. Maybe we didn't do those things last year."
And with their injured teammates on the verge of joining them, the Knights seem ready to take it to the next level.
Despite a slow start, Fremd's Aaron Ferst (15:49.12) took it to another level with a fifth-place finish to lead the Vikings to fourth.
"Played most of the race playing catch-up," Ferst said. "I definitely felt I got out the final 2 miles and surged. I put the first mile behind us."
The Vikings' Spiros Angelakos (16:25.07) placed 25th.
Cary-Grove's top runner Phil Fairleigh could not finish the race because of an illness, but William Roth (16:12.03) and Kai Rikardsen (16:21.14) picked up the slack by taking 15th and 19th places as the Trojans were fifth.
"William and Kai work off each other, they are a good mix," said Cary-Grove coach Layne Holter. "I was pleased with how we packed it up today, I thought we ran a good race."
Matt Perez (seventh, 15:53.67) and Kyle Gonzales (12th, 16:07.44) led Hoffman Estates to seventh place with 170 points.
"After the first mile I couldn't turn my legs over," said Perez who was in fourth place at the time. "We've been training really hard, so I'm not that worried about it."
Freshman Jereme Atchinson (16:23.74) finished 23rd to lead Buffalo Grove (187 points) to eighth place.
"He did a great job because he was trapped back around 60th place at the mile," said BG coach Jamie Klotz. "He kept his head together and really raced well. It's a long season. We'll keep progressing."
Twin brothers Photis Karkalis (15:42.11) and Angelos Karkalis (16:04.79) finished fourth and 11th to pace Rolling Meadows (195 points) to ninth.
"I went out hard and stuck with it," said Photis Karkalis, who hung with the lead pack the entire race. "You have to give yourself a chance to win, you have to stay in the lead pack."
Junior Mitch Neubauer (16:15.38) secured 17th place to lead host Libertyville to 11th place.
"He's our fastest runner in school history," said Libertyville coach Mark Beussing of his junior star. "I think 16:15 is only going to be the beginning for Mitch. He is definitely part of the heart and soul of this team."