Grayslake C. edgs Lakes in race for second
Some interesting rivalries continued to shape up for Lake County area boys cross country runners Saturday morning at the 12th Annual James "J.T." Taylor Invitational.
DuPage County entry Fenton actually ran to the championship of the 14-team meet on the 3-mile Camp Henry Horner course with 90 points.
But it was the fight for second place that turned out to be the real battle as Lakes pulled away from new rival Grayslake Central 113-119 to capture the runner-up trophy.
Grayslake North wound up barely edging Zion-Benton 147-149 for fourth place while Round Lake (161 points) placed sixth behind individual champion Juan Carrera.
After winning in rainy and muddy conditions the past two Saturday's at Wauconda and Warren, Carrera proved that he can win in ideal running conditions too as he made it a perfect 3-for-3 on weekend invites with a winning time of 15:29.
"He (Carrera) ran a strong race again today, I'm pretty happy with how he ran, and we're hoping he can keep it going," said Round Lake coach Kevin Brady. "We broke up the team again and we had a few varsity guys running fresh-soph. We had a pretty good showing with some of our varsity guys."
Grant senior Ryan Mamerow stayed within striking distance of Carrera until about the final half mile of the race, but Mamerow had to settle for second place in 15:38.
"I knew I had to push the pace early on which is what we both did and we ran a 4:58 first mile," Mamerow said. "We were neck and neck, then he pulled away a little at two miles and he just wore me down in the last 800 meters."
Grant coach Jeff Durlak was happy with Mamerow's early-season performance against Carrera.
"He (Mamerow) went out probably the fastest he's ever gone out and that may be what caught up with him in the last mile," said Durlak. "But it's good for him to get out that fast, and he was still able to run his best time ever."
Carmel was led by junior K.J. Matuszak in fourth place while sophomore standout Ryan Prais (16th in Class 2A) led Lakes' surge in sixth place.
The Eagles' third runner dropped out of the race due to injury, but they were still able to capture second place in the team standings behind a 17th-place finish by senior Blake Franson and a 22nd-place run by senior teammate Dave Kosman.
"We still took second place with our third runner not finishing the race so that is not too bad," said Lakes coach Andrew Schroeder. "I'm cautiously optimistic that when our health and conditioning improve we'll do much better."
Grayslake Central had a trio of its own that helped carry the Rams to third place Saturday as junior Luke Zygmunt (seventh), senior Kyle Rehberg (13th), and sophomore Kevin Boyle (16th) paved the way for coach Jim Centella's team.
"Luke (Zygmunt) ran a really strategically smart race, he moved up into a good position, and he finished really strong," said Centella. "The team ran really well overall and Rehberg medaled in 13th place. We just have to work on our 4-5-6-7 runners closing the gap."
Grayslake North's solid effort was led by the duo of junior Matt Kendzior in 10th and senior Tyler Vincent in 23rd.
"They (Kendzior and Vincent) are progressing very well which is a credit to my assistant coach Matt Wallace because he is able to run with them on training runs," said Grayslake North coach Brandon Boyd. "The second group of boys is doing really well at staying together and they're coming in as a group so it is helping them run faster and their times are dropping."
Wauconda also had a strong duo Saturday behind senior Jake Stronz in 11th and senior Robert Brunn in 14th.
Besides Matuszak, Carmel also had a solid 1-2 punch as sophomore Alex Warkenthien placed 18th for the Corsairs.
"K.J. ran really well and he was under 16 minutes on this course which is great," said Carmel coach Jim Halford. "Carrera went downstate last year and we believe K.J. will make it downstate this year. This is only our third race so he will only get better because you really need five or six races to get into the groove."
Fenton's title run ws led by Rob Howe in fifth while Victor Contreras-Gomez was Round Lake's No. 2 runner in 21st place. Lakes' Danny McGrath placed 27th followed by Round Lake's Sergio Martinez in 29th.