Peterson edges Juras; LZ advances downstate
From an individual standpoint, Saturday’s boys cross country sectional meet at Busse Woods Forest Preserve was almost an instant replay of the previous year.
The finish went down to the wire again, and it was Barrington senior Erik Peterson (14:55.22) holding off Lake Zurich senior Pat Juras (14:57.14) by a hair under the ideal near-50 degree running conditions.
But unlike last fall, when Lake Zurich won the team title, Palatine was the champion of the 21-team meet with 91 points as the Pirates held off a very strong effort from second-place Prospect (104 points).
Lake Zurich easily earned another trip to state next Saturday at Peoria’s Detweiller Park with a third-place score of 122 points where the Bears will be joined by fourth-place squad Barrington (129), and fifth-place Buffalo Grove (156).
“It’s like a repeat of last year for me, but I’m happy with the race,” said Juras, who placed 17th in the state last year. “Peterson and I were testing each other out to see who was going to spring first and he has a really powerful kick.”
The Bears really peaked at state last fall by almost toppling legendary squad York for the title. But this has still been an outstanding season for them heading into next weekend.
Besides Juras, Lake Zurich was led by Jon Smith in 15th, Alex Milner in 30th, Jon Ramirez in 34th, and Trevor Kuehr in 41st.
“I thought they ran as hard as they could, they stuck to the race plan, and we were able to move up comfortably through the course,” said Lake Zurich coach J.B. Hanson. “There were a lot of great teams here, and Peterson looked a little bit fresher at the end than he did last week.”
The quest for one of the individual at-large berths to the state meet was not an easy one for Lake County area runners as the final results showed. But Warren junior Martin Martinez actually did make it look pretty easy as he stormed across the finish line with an eighth-place time of 15:21 to earn the third of seven state spots.
“I was pretty happy about my race and it was nice to have a kick because that is something I haven’t had all year,” said Martinez, who is only the second boys runner in school history to reach state. “I’m pretty sure next week is going to start a lot faster and hopefully I can go down there and get some hardware.”
Warren coach Bill Dawson knows Martinez has his work cut out for him, but he is confident that his top runner can do well in the pressure-packed meet.
“You could see the focus on his face as he was running and it was nice to see the hard work paying off for him,” Dawson said. “They’re going to go out fast down there and he’s capable of running 14:45. He is so focused I think he will do well even though he’s never run down there.”
The final results were not kind to 11th-place Libertyville or junior Nick Korhumel Saturday. Korhumel did put together a great race with a 20th place finish, but that meant that he missed the state meet cut-off for an at-large berth by one place to Deerfield’s Alex Gold (19th).
“Today I wanted to break 15 minutes, and this should be a fast course,” said Korhumel, who ran a 15:37. “But in the beginning of the last mile I did struggle.”
Ÿ In Class 2A competition, Belvidere North won the Belvidere sectional by a 60-89 margin over Yorkville.
Grayslake Central earned a trip to the state meet next Saturday by nipping Burlington Central 208-209 for the fifth and final team berth to Detweiller Park.
The Rams were led by senior Will Brewster with a time of 15:38 followed by teammates Kevin Boyle (16:18), and freshman Tommy Zygmunt (16:34) on the 3-mile course. Luke Zygmunt did not run for Central due to injury, but Brewster has been a great front-runner this fall after missing all of last season due to injury. Brewster was a state medal winner in the 3,200-meter run as a freshman in track.
Carmel senior K.J. Matuszak earned an at-large berth to state as an individual in 12th place.