Grayslake Central girls, Barrington boys shine at Lake County cross country invite
There's more to cross country than churning legs and beach ball-sized hearts.
Take Grayslake Central's Will Welty's voice, for example.
He used it to inspire his team and Grayslake Central's girls team Wednesday afternoon before the Art Campbell Lake County cross country invite at SportsPark in Waukegan.
The Rams' female squad captured the team title - with a scant 39 points - behind junior Sara Armstrong's championship, 3-mile time of 19:30 and freshman teammate Ava Henne's runner-up time of 19:31.
Welty and the Rams male crew then zipped to a second-place feat (48 points) behind junior Trey Sato's first-place 16:22 across 3 miles.
"I started making speeches last year," said Welty, who finished eighth overall and third among teammates in 16:53. "I got hurt late in the season, and around conference meet time, I realized our team was a special one. I used a notes app to write each speech.
"I wrote today's speech last night, before I went to bed. Spent five minutes on it. I told all of them, 'Focus on seizing your moment and capitalizing on what you can control.' We're not all Trey Sato."
Sato - 12th at the Class 2A state cross country meet last fall - stayed in control and calm at the start, before going to work in the second mile.
At the beginning of the third mile, he gained separation from his primary foes when he smoothly negotiated one of several switchbacks along the unique track.
"There's a stretch with fescue and plains, with no shade whatsoever," Sato said. "Switchbacks ... there were three or four of them. It's uneven, that's for sure. Tough course. You know what they say - the tougher the course, the tougher the person has to be."
Boys champion Barrington (32 points) displayed its grit with a sturdy 2-5-6-9-10 finish, paced by sophomore Joe Bregenzer's runner-up clocking of 16:29.
"You're not going to meet a guy who's more enthusiastic about cross country than Joe is," said Broncos coach Tom Root, a 2004 Barrington graduate. "He loves it, lives it, breathes it. And he's comfortable addressing the team, something you don't get often from a sophomore."
Sara Armstrong's win total in girls cross country before Wednesday: zero. But the humble Ram - also a club soccer center-midfielder for FC Lake County - wanted to talk more about GC's super rookie, Henne, than she did about her breakthrough performance.
"She's so good," Sara Armstrong said. "Ava is always pushing everyone in practice. I'm proud of her and our team, a 2A team that got to compete against some amazing 3A schools and runners today."
GC's Jordan Sutter, another freshman, took seventh in 20:06, ahead of mates Bella Domier (11th, 20:27) and Katie Armstrong (18th, 20:53).
Scorers for Barrington's boys behind Bregenzer were Manasyu Chaudhari (5th, 16:48), Ethan Scott (6th, 16:50), Max Lewis (9th, 16:54) and Avery Erickson (10th, 16:57).
Mundelein received a third-place showing from Javier Mata (16:37). Other top 10 results: Stevenson's Dylan Zimmerman (4th, 16:42) and GC's John Vagnoni (7th, 16:51).
Deerfield (153), Vernon Hills (161) and Lakes (174) finished 3-4-5 in the boys race, while Lakes (51), Libertyville (100), Lake Forest (130) and Vernon Hills went 2-3-4-5 in the girls segment.
Lakes teammates Madison Twarling and Paige-Elicia Caruth toured the layout in 19:40 (3rd) and 19:51 (4th), respectively, followed by Grant's Brianna Osmon (5th, 19:55), Vernon Hills' Anna Todd (6th, 20:02), Lakes' Becca Runyan (8th, 20:14), Lake Forest's Lucy Schlachtenhaufen (9th, 20:17) and Mundelein's Izzy Bing (10th, 20:20).