Spudic spurts to victory; Palatine teakes team title

Prospect senior Chris Spudic was in no mood to wait at Saturday's Mid-Suburban League boys cross country meet.

Spudic saw an opening early in the second mile, made separation from the lead pack and the Knights senior didn't look back until he crossed the finish line, having secured the MSL title in 15:20, 16 seconds in front of Palatine's Alec Bollman (15:36).

"I just decided no one was taking it," said Spudic of his decisive surge. "I made a move and it was my race to lose."

Palatine also seemed to be in a collective hurry. The Pirates came through the first mile with five of its runners in the top 12 and then hung tough against a hard charging Prospect squad to secure its seventh consecutive MSL title with 63 points on a clear but chilly morning at Busse Woods.

Prospect (67 points) came up 4 points shy of derailing the Pirate express with Barrington (101), Fremd (104), and Schaumburg (116) rounding out the top five.

"We wanted to get out hard and trust our strength," said Palatine coach Chris Quick of the Pirates' title run. "They (Prospect) were running us down really big at the end, but we ended up hanging on."

Spudic didn't have to worry about hanging on. The senior was grouped with Bollman, Schaumburg's Pat Lesiewicz, and Palatine's Chano Bernardo at the first mile but made his decisive move on an incline early in the second mile to leave the challengers racing for second place.

"Spudic was unreal," added Prospect coach Mike Stokes of his senior who became the third Knight to win an MSL title. "He made a great move and nobody really responded and went with him."

Lesiewicz, the defending MSL champion, had been a favorite entering the race, but had no answer for Spudic's surge.

"I saw him take off but I just couldn't respond," said Lesiewicz, who finished third at 15:40. "I thought maybe he went too early and I could catch him at the end, but he just kept going all the way through."

Spudic had no explanation for his decisive victory.

"I had no idea what was going on," added Spudic, "Originally I just wanted to sit with lead pack and take it from there. But I had an opening and decided to take it."

Despite Spudic's victory, the Knights could never recover from an early burst from a solid Pirates squad.

Palatine placed five runners in the top 24 in securing its eighth overall MSL title. Bernardo (15:49) aided Bollman by taking sixth place with sophomore Anthony Gregorio (16:03) coming up big with a 13th-place finish.

"We knew if we were able to get out ahead of Prospect that even if they did kick we'd be able to hold on," added Bollman of the Pirates' early surge strategy. "That's what we did."

AJ Laskowske (16:07) added an 18th-place and Ryan Wojdla (16:14) opened a few eyes with his 24th-place finish in propelling the Pirates.

"We wanted to hit it really hard," said Gregorio of the Pirates' strategy. "We worked with what we had and tried to finish."

"We take a lot of pride in that streak," said Quick of the Pirates' recent dominance. "We aim for this meet and the state meet every year. One down, one to go."

But a solid Prospect squad didn't give the Pirates much breathing room with Albert Ciolek (15:45) and Kellen Strobel (15:52) finishing fifth and seventh to complement Spudic's title.

"Me and Strobel worked together the whole race and I was able to finish with a big surge," added Ciolek. "We really wanted to beat Palatine, but 4 points is not a lot and I think we can make that up in the coming weeks."

Matt Ashton (16:21) took 25th for the Knights.

"They went out hard and we were trying to catch them the rest of the race," added Stokes. "We've had better days, but Palatine ran awesome."

Barrington also had a pretty impressive run in edging Fremd for third place.

Sophomore Erik Peterson (15:44) led the charge for the Broncos by holding steady and taking an impressive fourth place.

"I wanted to keep up with the lead pack the entire race," said Peterson, who said his confidence grew throughout the race. "I just kept building off the first mile."

Chris Cogswell (16:02) and Kyle Dockery (16:11) added 12th and 21st place for the Broncos.

Aaron Ferst (15:53) also came up big, finishing eighth to help Fremd to fourth place. The senior started off slow this season but has picked up steam recently leading to hopefully a big finish.

"I'm just getting into it every race now," said Ferst. "Each race I'm feeling stronger and stronger."

Ferst had help as Yutaro Okuda (16:05) and Spiros Angelakos (16:07) nabbed 15th and 16th place for the Vikings with Daniel Ricketts (16:09) taking 19th place.

"The workouts predicted we were a good team," said Fremd coach Mike Bruce. "I think we took a step forward."

Pat O'Connell (16:07) finished in 17th place, combining with Lesiewicz to lead Schaumburg to fifth place.

Ryan O'Donnell (16:01) and Matt Cwiok (16:11) finished 11th and 22nd leading host Hersey to sixth place.

"The strategy was to go out conservatively and push it at the mile and 2-mile," added O'Donnell. "It was all about who was the toughest mentally."

Jereme Atchison (16:03) and Taras Didenko (16:13) took 14th and 23rd place to pace Buffalo Grove to seventh place.

Alexander Miller (16:11) secured 20th place, pushing Conant to eighth place.

Twins Angelos (15:57) and Photis (15:59) Karkalis took ninth and 10th place, giving Rolling Meadows a 1-2 punch as the Mustangs finished ninth.

"I thought we both could have done a better job staying with the lead pack," said Angelos Karkalis of the twins' race. "It started spreading out and we fell back in the third mile. We have work to do."