Trojans earn FVC boys title
You lose your top two runners -- Brad Keating and Ryan Weber -- from last year's Fox Valley Conference championship team.
Right before Saturday's conference championships No. 2 runner Mike McNamara went down with an Achilles injury.
No problem. Cary-Grove has overcome adversity all season.
The Trojans, with 5 runners in the top 22, repeated as conference champions with a score of 74. Dundee-Crown placed second with a score of 80 and McHenry tallied 81 points. The meet, hosted by Huntley, was held at Deicke Park.
"We have a lot of depth and thought we could repeat as conference champions," said Cary-Grove coach Layne Holter. "We have battled adversity and have handled it well. This is a very hard-working committed group. We stepped up as a team and this team believes in themselves."
The top Trojan runner was Kai Rikardsen, who was ninth. The Cary-Grove junior has battled a stress fracture in his foot all season. Donald Lang took 11th, followed by Phillip Fairleigh (14th), Jeff Boilin (18th) and Dan Bartz (22nd).
Prairie Ridge's Billy TenBusch, who ran with a sore Achilles and a sore calf, edged Huntley's Todd Farbiak at the finish line to capture the individual championship. TenBusch, who finished with a 3-mile time of 15:20.00, trailed Farbiak (15:20.10) the entire way until he leaned forward to win the title.
"I am very sore, but it feels good to win the conference championship," said TenBusch. "I wasn't even sure I won when I crossed the finish. With about 300 meters left, I ran as hard and as fast I could. With (Jaobs') Evan (Jager) gone, there was no clear cut favorite. I thought I had a chance. This is great for my confidence going into the regionals next week."
Farbiak was obviously upset with the outcome.
"My goal was to win the conference championship on my home course," said Farbiak. "I poured all the energy I had into this race. I never heard or saw (TenBusch) coming. It really stinks to finish second."
D-C, led by a third place effort from Connor Kustief and a sixth-place finish from Anthony Manfrin, finished 6 points behind Cary-Grove in second.
Jacobs placed fifth with a score of 126. The Golden Eagles' top 5 runners were Kyle Kopinski (17th), Tim Constant (21st), Danny Carey (26th), Nick Mangiameli (30th) and Francisco Lagner (32nd).
FVC girls: It is a rut Kristina Aubert would like to get out of.
For the second straight year, the Crystal Lake South sophomore finished second at the Fox Valley Conference girls cross country meet.
Aubert's 3 mile time of 17:54.00 wasn't good enough to outduel Woodstock freshman phenom Kayla Beattie, who claimed the conference championship with a time of 17:49.00.
"It is very disappointing to finish second," said Aubert. "I have battled with (Beattie) since middle school. She has great speed and got ahead of me. I couldn't catch her."
Beattie's individual title helped propel Woodstock to the team title with a score 64. Nikki Greenhill placed third with Elise Beattie fourth, Lisa Kucharski 24th and Andrea Ramirez 32nd for the Blue Streaks.
"Kayla and Kristina have had great battles since middle school," said Woodstock coach Marty Sobczak. "Kayla has been aiming to beat Kristina for many years. Kayla has gotten better every meet. It is great to win the conference because this one of the best conferences in northern Illinois and one of the better conferences in the state."
Dundee-Crown, with Kelsey Seiler finishing sixth, was second with a score of 80. Also finishing in the Top 25 for the Chargers were Monique Robinson (15th), Claira Himmel (16th), Morgan Wiechmann (18th) and Katie Gross (25th).
Prairie Ridge was 3 points behind D-C and finished third with a score of 83. Alex Ovington was the top Wolves runner with a 10th place finish.
Cary-Grove, led by a seventh-place finish from Madeline Aufmann, was fourth with a score of 88. Molly MacInnes was right behind Aufmann with an eighth-place finish.
Huntley got a fifth-place effort from freshman Haley Loprieno as the Red Raiders finished seventh with a score of 207.
Big Northern boys: Burlington Central took second at the Big Northern Conference meet with 71 points. State power Winnebago won the title with 33 points. Ryan Phebus finished fifth for BC in a time of 15:48.96.
Big Northern girls: Burlington Central finished second in the Big Northern Conference girls meet at Winebago with 52 points. Winnebago won the title with 44. BC's Markelle Turk was fourth in a time of 18:23.72 and Katie Puccio was sixth in 18:39.32.
SCC girls: St. Edward's Ashley Lucas finished second in 19:44 at the Suburban Catholic Conference meet in Aurora. St. Edward was fourth as a team as Lucas finished all-conference for the fourth straight year. Karoline Kelly was 17th for the Wave and Nadia Suarez (23rd) earned the SCC's Great Pumpkin award for most improved runner.
SCC boys: Jim Ziesk earned second team all-conference for St. Edward with a 12th place finish at the Suburban Catholic Conference meet in Aurora. Ziesk's time of 17:26 paced the Green Wave to a sixth-place finish.
Upstate Eight girls: Bartlett's Natalie Salinas was fifth in 17:46 at the UEC girls meet at Lake Park. Neuqua Valley won the meet with 52 points. Lake Park was second and St. Charles East third. The Saints' Lizzy Hynes was the individual winner in a time of 17:05.
Upstate Eight boys: Streamwood's Neal Klein turned in a strong 14:51 effort to place fifth at Saturday's Upstate Eight meet at Lake Park.
Neuqua Valley's Chris Derrick was the individual winner in 13:57 and the Wildcats won the team tile with 26 points. Waubonsie Valley was second and St. Charles North third.