North Stars running right back to Peoria

The Naperville North boys cross country team placed three runners in the top 10 in the Class 3A sectional at Schaumburg's Busse Woods Saturday.

As a result, the Huskies placed first out of 20 teams with a score of 70 and will be one of five teams heading to the state meet next Saturday at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

"We are really happy with the result," Naperville North coach David Racey said. "We knew it was going to be very tough. We just wanted to run well -- we can't control what the other teams do -- and have a positive experience. We are really looking forward to next week's state meet."

York, which had two runners place first and second, came in second with 85 points. Tom Achtien won the 3-mile race with a time of 15:03 with teammate Steve Sulkin behind him at 15:09.

"When you are striving for first, second place is not what you want," York coach Joe Newton said. "But (Naperville North) really deserved to win. They were very good today."

St. Charles North placed third with a score of 112, followed by Waubonsie Valley (125) and Wheaton North (128).

The following 7 individuals qualified for state: Marmion's Josh Stein (fifth place), Hinsdale South's Brian Denk (eighth), Conant's Jeff Thode (13th), Streamwood's Neil Klein (14th), Naperville Central's Steve Couch (15th), Schaumburg's Nate Rutz (18th) and Lee Vlcek from Hinsdale South (21st).

"It was a really good race, I was happy with my performance," Stein said. "This whole week I was focused…I felt good going into the race."

Naperville North's top runners were Kyle Gibson (fourth place), John Newman (sixth) and Tyler Jerman (10th).

Chris DeSilva placed third for the North Stars, followed by 11th-place Scott Speare and 12th-place Mike Strasser.

"It was a tough first mile," DeSilva said. "But once the field opened up, I ran well."

The North Stars placed second last year at the state meet and third in 2005, so first-year coach Steve Imig is thrilled the team is going back.

"I'm so happy for these kids," Imig said. "It's a great representation of how important every single person on the team is. Every single person contributed and I can't say enough about them."

Mark Schumacher's seventh-place finish led Waubonsie Valley, along with Emmett Lorenz' 16th-place showing.

"I think (fourth place overall) is pretty good," Waubonsie Valley coach Dave Severance said. "I was thinking we could have been maybe third but maybe seventh, so fourth looks good. We get to run another week."

Wheaton North was paced by Chase Kadlec (ninth place) and Graham Farnsworth (25th).

As a team, Geneva fell short of qualifying with its sixth-place finish (154 points) along with Naperville Central (232), Conant (250), Schaumburg (254), Hoffman Estates (267), Lyons (269), Lake Park (295), Hinsdale South 9296), Downers Grove South (361) and Benet (362) rounding out the top 15.

Glenbard East landed in 16th place (380), followed by Batavia (391), Hinsdale Central (399), Maine South (502) and Fenton (524).