St. Charles N. wins regional
Kevin Harrington has been imploring his St. Charles North boys cross country team to run together all season.
The North Stars took that to another level Saturday morning at the Class 3A St. Charles East regional at LeRoy Oakes.
How close were they? So close that 30 minutes after the race ended Zach Heuer still wasn’t sure if he or teammate Declan Duggan won the race.
“Did I win?” Heuer asked a couple reporters. “I have no idea.”
It turns out Declan came in at 15:26.1 to Heuer’s 15:26.3.
“It doesn’t matter to me at all,” Heuer said of who won. Heuer took the title the previous week on the same course at the Upstate Eight Conference River meet.
“We have been really close the last couple races. It was a big confidence booster. Right up to two miles we had four guys right in a row.”
Those other two were Spencer Gray in sixth and Grant Markowicz in seventh as the North Stars cruised to the regional title with 29 points. Wheaton North was second with 45 and Geneva third at 57.
The victory sends the North Stars to next week’s Wheaton North sectional with momentum as Harrington’s squad looks to add another state trip to their year-in, year-out strong program.
“The message won’t change for us,” Harrington said. “We’re going to run together and we’re going to run strong. The chips will fall where they fall.
“Sectionals although we are looking good we are not going to take anything for granted. Our top kids need to be in the top of the race and our four and five are close behind. That’s a great recipe for success.”
Geneva’s road through the sectional looks more challenging with the likes of the aforementioned St. Charles North, Naperville North, Wheaton Warrenville South, West Aurora and others also vying for one of the top-five spots that will punch their ticket to Peoria.
But Bob Thomson’s team saw a lot of positives Saturday starting with the best race of the year by Peter Archibald. Returning from a bruise near the bone on his ankle just three races ago, Archibald took fifth in 15:39.5.
“Peter, I don’t know if he’s 100 percent yet but he looked pretty good today,” Thomson said. “We just want to be fresh for next week. He’s been nursing (the ankle) and getting stem treatments. That’s a good sign he’s coming around.”
Michael Bianchina followed Archibald in eighth place while Dan Herrera just missed the Top 10 in 11th.
Sam Hoffman and Paul Steeno stayed close to the St. Charles North leaders most of the race and placed third and fourth to lead Wheaton North.
“We had a good pack at the mile,” Hoffman said. “Our plan was to run as a pack and go out together. We had four of five in the top 10 at the mile and then St. Charles North made a great move at the mile. Next week we need to respond to the moves instead of watching them go by.”
Hoffman has been running with a sinus infection much of this fall. He’s looking forward to being at full strength and seeing what his team can do on its home course next week at sectionals.
“Today was a good effort on a hard course,” Hoffman said. “We went out slow and then had a negative split to the rest of the miles. It would have been great to win and have three in the top five or top three. That’s why we have next week.”
Wheaton North’s Aidan Askin finished ninth and Sammy Spivey 12th.
“We want to try to win (sectionals),” Hoffman said. “We haven’t run full strength yet. Our PRs of our top five are really good. We just need to get that all together in one race. We’re looking forward to racing on our home course one last time.”
Bartlett (128 points) and Glenbard North (169) took fourth and fifth led by Joey Salatino (14th) and Tyler Dixon (21st), respectively.