Palatine earns 3rd-place trophy

Palatine came into the first Class 3A boys cross country state meet looking for a trophy. The Pirates knew they were good but wanted a top-three finish to prove just how talented they were.

Led by senior Mat Smoody's fourth-place individual finish, Palatine secured a trophy when it took third Saturday at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

"This is exactly what we wanted," Smoody said. "My race couldn't have gone any better. I heard that we got third and I just ran over to our tent and everyone went crazy."

The excitement spread to the coaching staff as well.

"We're ecstatic," coach Chris Quick said. "This is what you work the whole year, the whole summer for. We're just on cloud nine. We're loving it."

Smoody was joined on the all-state team by senior co-captain Kevin O'Brien, who took 18th. While the two seniors deserve a lot of credit for the Pirates fourth trophy in five years, Quick made sure to point out the impact that sophomore Chano Bernardo (36th) and seniors Alex Mourousias (67th) and Paul Kwak (71st) delivered.

"We've been on these guys to kick all year and they kicked in the last half mile and picked up spots," Quick said. "We only got third by 10 points, so certainly those guys really did their job."

Hersey finished eighth with 193 points led by senior Kevin Havel, who battled for the individual title taking third place.

"Trophy or not, I'm really proud of how they competed," Huskies coach Tim Phillips said. "Our fourth and fifth guys ran awesome today. That's the race that we needed. Hey, we did our best."

Hersey senior Billy Wisser was on pace for an all-state finish before he ran out of gas. Wisser staggered the final 20 feet before collapsing across the finish line in 41st place.

"I was running the race of my life until the end," he said. "I just couldn't push it anymore."

Phillips said that Wisser has always been one to give maximum effort, making the ending that much more disappointing.

"It's not the end of the world but you feel terrible for a kid because he's giving every once of his being," Phillips said. "He was in the top 12 with 600 meters to go and ran out of gas. I'm just amazed that he finished."

Junior Erik Stanton (26th) just missed the all-state team for the Huskies.

Barrington finished 13th, led by seniors Matt Barns (38th) and Dan Quarfoot (61st).

"(It was) tough," Barns said. "There's tons of good runners here. It was tougher than I expected it to be. The whole atmosphere was incredible. It was exactly the way I wanted to end my career."

For Quarfoot, it seemed like the race was over before it started.

"It was a blur," he said. "It went by really fast. But I guess time flies when you're having fun."

Conant junior Jeff Thode ran solo and earned all-state honors with a 15th place finish after he passed several boys down the stretch. Thode was happy with his race but admitted feeling of unease with his fellow Cougars.

"It was just a little weird running by myself," he said.

Prospect junior Chris Hayek finshed 32nd, Mundelein senior Alex Mena was 35th, Schaumburg senior Nathan Rutz placed 42nd, Huntley senior Todd Farbiak was 56th and Buffalo Grove senior Clay Locke finished 64th.

In 2A competition, Vernon Hills senior Moe Bahrani took second place and Grayslake North senior Nick Lane took fifth.