Cross country: Glenbard West, Kaneland's Richtman claim titles
Paced by a quintet of sophomores, Glenbard West won the Larry Eddington Cross Country Invitational boys varsity race Saturday at Kaneland High School.
Stephen Moody, one of the five underclassmen, led the team by finishing sixth with a time of 15:32.6. The Hilltoppers placed 4 runners in the top 20 and scored 82 points.
When the team results were announced over the PA system, Glenbard West's victory was called an upset. Glenbard West coach Kyle Nugent disagreed with that assessment.
"The kids expected to win today. I don't think we looked at it as an upset," Nugent said. "We had one senior in the top seven and a junior, the rest were sophomores. Steve Moody ran great, he was our top guy. Will O'Brien (14th overall with a time of 16:02.9) was right there. He's another sophomore and has just been getting better every week. Today he popped a good one and surprised us."
Kaneland's Matthew Richtman and Cole Barkocy of Crystal Lake Central battled each other for first place. Richtman led at the one-mile mark but Barkocy passed him before the 2-mile spot. Richtman, a junior, recaptured the lead in the last mile to win the contest with a time of 15:17.0. Barkocy took second, clocking in at 15:24.5 and leading Crystal Lake Central (96) to second place in the team standings.
"It was a very challenging race because we were back and forth for a lot of it," Richtman said. "In the last mile, we have some surge points around the course that I was making sure I would hit so those helped me make the gap and then I tried everything I could to keep the gap."
Zachary Albrecht, a Jacobs sophomore, came in third (15:28.2). East Aurora (118) took third place behind senior Ricky Del Toro's fourth place finish (15:30.6). Stephen Poorten from Sycamore (15:32.6) rounded out the top five.
Sycamore (154) and Harvest Christian (174) finished fourth and fifth in the team standings.
Girls race: Led by Jenna Lutzow's first place finish, Belvidere North won the girls varsity race with 39 points. Lutzow, who took second place in last year's IHSA Class 2A state final, completed the 3-mile course with a time of 17:12.7. This is the third year in a row that the senior has won the race.
Crystal Lake Central scored 75 points for a second in the girls race.
Benet, missing top runner Jessica Jogovich, came in third place (125).
Mae Tully, who finished 18th (19:31.6) was the Lisle school's top runner. But Benet runners stayed close together, taking four of the top thirty positions. The difference in times between its top five runners was less than a minute.
"When you are missing your number one runner, you'd better have a good pack and that's what we were really trying to work on all week, running together," said Benet coach Scott Brooks. "We did a good job of that today as we've done in a very, very long time."
Kaneland (132) and Jacobs (183) rounded out the top five.
Freshman Rachel Richtman, Matthew's sister, led Kaneland completing the course with a time of 18:14.9 for a third-place finish, four-tenths of second ahead of fourth place winner Megan Safranski from Burlington Central.
"I wanted to keep the same pace the whole race and it was kind of hard. I ran faster than I normally do for my first mile so I decided to stay with some of the girls and maintain the same place." said the younger Richtman.
Rockford Boylan's Delaney Appino finished second (17:25.7), for the second year in a row. Belvidere North freshman Gianna Sagona took fifth place (18:16.8).
The annual invite, which for years was run at the Elburn Forest Preserve, was moved to Kaneland's Maple Park campus this year.
"We left the woods for safety and financial reasons. Safety in that when we were busing all of our families over there and on the off chance that we had a storm that popped up, we couldn't guarantee the safety of everybody," said Kaneland coach Chad Clarey. "Financially, it was a lot of money to transport all of our fans over back and forth, those were the two reasons why with the safety being the biggest reason."