Cross country: Hill tops home team win at St. Charles North Invitational
Undefeated Michigan State-bound St. Charles North senior Sam Hill showed Saturday morning at the St. Charles North Invitational that he is still one of the top cross country runners in the state.
Hill easily ran away from the rest of the field with a winning time of 14:44.7 on the 3-mile LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve course.
The short-handed North Stars could not take home the team title, though, as Hinsdale Central captured first place by a 70-88 margin. St. Charles North placed second.
“I was with the pack from the start, but then I pulled away at the bottom of the hill and I was gone,” said Hill, who won by 22 seconds. “I'm going to have some high-mileage weeks coming up, and after that I'm looking to win state and set a state record.”
Wheaton Warrenville South was a close third with 94 points, followed by Cary-Grove (173 points) in fifth and Geneva (188) in sixth.
Addison Trail's Nathan Gundersen took second place followed by Hinsdale Central's Henry Miller in third and St. Charles North's Logan Hitchings in fourth. St. Charles North's Christian Enger edged Hinsdale Central's Johnny Krueger for sixth place.
“Our top three guys are seniors, they're great kids, and they're hard workers,” said Hinsdale Central coach Jim Westphal, whose team got a ninth from Mark Dillenburg. “St. Charles North is a great program. Our goal is to try to run with them, and they are going to be very dangerous in the postseason.”
The North Stars had two of their top five runners out of the lineup, but they are expected to be at full strength soon.
“Sam (Hill) ran great. Running sub-15 minutes here is always good, and he made it look easy,” said St. Charles North coach Kevin Harrington. “Success as each meet goes on is a team effort and it gets more important every week.”
WW South teammates Lucas Wolfram and Joey Mowrer placed 10-11, followed by West Aurora's Ethan Jenkins in 12th, Bartlett's Caleb Roberts in 13th, West Aurora's Jaxson Neukirch in 14th and Cary-Grove's Aaron Milewski in 15th.
Junior Logan Noel finished 16th for WW South to nip York's Joe McKillop in 17th and Hinsdale Central's Otis Naito in 18th. Bartlett's Adrian Rodela took 19th, followed by Addison Trail's Breydan Massett (20th) and Geneva's Jacob Calvario (21st).
“I'm really proud of our boys today. It's really fun to see them work together in the race just like they do in practices,” said Geneva coach Peter Raak. “We have one freshman (Calvario) and the rest are juniors on varsity.”
At the 52nd annual Patricia Harland Invitational hosted by Antioch, Kaneland rolled to the team title by a 19-61 margin over Warren. Senior teammates Gavin Smith (16:18.9) and Nolan Reutimann went 1-2 for the Knights. Warren's Marcus Schenk placed third.
Kaneland's pack of Joey Schuch, Nathan Kowalczyk, Aiden Palmer and Mason Stalcup took places 4-5-7-8 in the Knights' dominant performance. Libertyville was led by Colin O'Connell in ninth place.
Girls cross country
Host St. Charles North had the top girls cross country runner Saturday morning, but Glenbard West's depth carried the Hilltoppers to the championship of the 14-team St. Charles North Invite at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.
Junior Kara Glenn dominated the rest of the field with a winning time of 16:42.2 under some pretty sloppy course conditions due to large amounts of rain earlier in the week leading up to the 3-mile race.
Glenbard West toppled the North Stars 35-50 for the team crown. South Elgin took home third place with 105 points. Cary-Grove outdistanced Hampshire 131-167 for fifth place.
“Obviously, the course conditions were not super ideal with the mud, but it was a true cross country experience so I'm pretty proud of myself,” Glenn said. “I want to keep dropping time, and as a team we want to make sure our back end is doing as well as possible so we're in a good spot for the team score.”
St. Charles North's Gwen Hobson took second place, while freshman standout Molly Mocko led Glenbard West's pack in third place. Hampshire was led by junior Reese Long in fourth place.
“It was my best time, but I haven't done too many races this season because I had some foot problems,” said Mocko, who placed second in the state as an eighth grader. “Our main team goal honestly is probably just sticking together, and I would really love to finish very high at state as an individual.”
Glenbard West junior Shayne Dietzen placed sixth, followed by St. Charles North's Julia Rodney in sixth. Hilltoppers teammates Lauren Bennett and Maya Slowikowski placed 7-8, while Alexandra Santoyo led Cary-Grove in ninth. South Elgin teammates Caitlin Wennerstrom and Kayleia Lindsey placed 10th and 11th, respectively.
“Glenbard West is so strong so we knew that we needed to bring the back of our pack in to compete with them,” said St. Charles North coach Shari Hayes. “We've just got to get fully healthy. There is a lot going on with homecoming week, and we'll get stronger as the weeks go on.”
Glenbard West teammates Katie King and Alyssa Novak placed 12th and 13th. South Elgin's Luna Pozos placed 16th. St. Charles North's Alyssa Oblak placed 18th to outdistance Glenbard West's Addie Nordman in 19th, and Hampshire's Miya Moraga in 20th. After winning the Detweiller at Dark meet early this season, Jacobs sophomore sensation Lennox Szymonik has been sidelined with a hip injury, and her status for the remainder of this season is uncertain.
Libertyville rolled to first place at the Patricia Harland Invite hosted by Antioch at the Tim Osmond Sports Complex.
The Wildcats beat runner-up Warren by a 21-61 score while the host Sequoits placed fourth with 94 points. Libertyville's Elsie Colin won the race in 19:29.0 by 21 seconds over Antioch freshman Molly Glowacki.