Cross country: Lake Zurich boys, girls continue NSC dominance

The dominance of the Lake Zurich boys cross country program continued Saturday morning at Warren's O'Plaine Campus as the Bears ran to their sixth straight North Suburban Conference championship in impressive style on the 3-mile course.

With the top three finishers in the meet, Lake Zurich took home the title with 29 points while Libertyville had a strong second-place showing with 37 points. Mundelein outdistanced the host Blue Devils 81-101 for third place while Stevenson (160 points) placed fifth.

The race to the finish was exciting as senior Cameron Libby (14:51.34) edged sophomore teammate Karanveer Patil by .60 seconds for first place. Junior Luke Marshall placed third for the Bears.

"They (Libby and Patil) have been battling all year, they're great competitors, and both of them are outstanding," said Lake Zurich coach J.B. Hanson, whose team has won 17 of the last 20 NSC crowns. "Luke Marshall was not far behind them. Those top three are a huge advantage because they're going to get us low points."

Libby said his team has high hopes after only finishing 16 points out of third place last year at state.

"This season our goal is to bring home Lake Zurich's first state title," said Libby. "We would like to go out there and have a good showing as a team and try to take home that title, that's what we're looking for."

Libertyville's Taylor Rihm placed fourth followed by Mundelein's Elijah Mendoza in fifth. The Wildcats' trio of Filip Vojvodic, Thomas Chudy, and Trace Whildin took places 6-8. Mundelein's Aidan Sweet and Lake Zurich's Sushant Kesavan rounded out the top 10.

"They went out and competed, they did what they were supposed to do, and we're getting ready for regionals next week," said Libertyville coach Stuart Mendelsohn. "Lake Zurich has some really good runners, and Taylor stayed with the top runners until the end."

Warren's Andru Koehl placed 11th followed by Libertyville's Jack Steffe (12th), Lake Zurich's Carson Porter (13th), and Stevenson's Caleb Holloway (14th). Warren's Brody Wiley (15th) just missed all-conference.

At the Northern Lake County Conference meet, host Grant captured the team title by a 37-60 margin over Grayslake Central. Wauconda edged Round Lake 78-84 for third place. Grayslake Central's Adan Cordova (15:23.99) outran Grant's Maxx Hass by 15 seconds for first place.

At the East Suburban Catholic Conference meet, Benet Academy rolled to the team title with 37 points. Carmel Catholic placed fourth with 80 points. Benet's Robert Johnson took third place while Carmel's Joey Lodowsky placed fourth.

GIRLS

The Lake Zurich girls cross country team completed the three-peat Saturday morning at the North Suburban Conference meet at Warren's O'Plaine Campus.

The Bears took home the team title with 28 points followed by the host Blue Devils (66 points) in second, and Stevenson (98 points) in third. Mundelein nipped Lake Forest 114-115 for fourth place while Libertyville (125 points) placed sixth.

Warren junior Kaylee Wilson continued to shine with a personal record time of 17:42.38 on the 3-mile course.

"My game plan was to try to keep my miles as even as possible because the second mile always gets hard and I think I did a good job of that today," said Wilson. "I'm very happy with the results, everyone on our team did great, and I'm proud of everyone."

Lake Zurich's Celia Blaylock (17:51.98) placed second followed by teammates Chloe Wettstein in third, Patricia Johnson in fifth, and Abigail Kocher in sixth.

"We rested two of our top five to get them ready for the state series," said Lake Zurich coach Jeremy Kauffman. "We did a big workout Thursday because we have pretty big state goals, and we're going to try to go for the podium."

Senior Precious Oyebanji led Mundelein in seventh place while Sienna Romero (eighth) was Stevenson's top runner.

The rest of the all-conference team included Warren's Sydney Wilson (ninth), Libertyville's Julia Garrison (10th), Mundelein's Brooklyn D'Ambrosio (11th), Lake Zurich's Hannah Gillhaus (12th), Libertyville's Sophia Krummick (13th), and Stevenson's Camila Pak (14th)

"We had a great day out there. I think the girls overperformed, and they did a little better than we expected," said Warren coach Louie Klein. "Kaylee had a PR today. Her goal was to win the race, and she looked relaxed the whole time."

At the East Suburban Catholic Conference meet, St. Viator captured first place by a 47-53 margin over Benet Academy while Carmel Catholic (105 points) placed fifth.

Benet's Keira Jenke was the individual champion while St. Viator teammates Emily Walberg and Jada Baer placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Carmel's Juliet Bing edged Benet's Ashlyn Willis for sixth place.

At the Northern Lake County Conference meet, Lakes edged Grayslake Central 42-47 for the crown. Grayslake North outdistanced Wauconda 61-82 for third place.

Grayslake North's Madison Petersen rolled to first place at Grant's Bulldog Athletic Complex in 18:57.33 while Lakes' Maddie Schrader was the runner-up in 19:18.07.