For Round Lake's Carrera, proof is in his first-place finish
Round Lake senior Juan Carrera had something to prove Saturday morning at the Wauconda boys cross country invitational.
After recently taking sixth place at the Lake County meet, Carrera bounced back strong in the 3-mile race - pulling away from Stevenson senior Kevin Wood in the final stretch run to win at Lakewood Forest Preserve in 15:56.
Wood was a close second in 16-flat, but Carrera looked like he was in midseason form despite the wet, muddy conditions on the rain-soaked course.
"I had a lot to prove after placing sixth at county, so I wanted to redeem myself here," said Carrera, who made his late surge with about 600 meters left. "This is great right now, but the focus is on winning regionals, sectionals and going back to state."
While a lot of teams at the 28-school meet were not at full strength because of ACT testing, Barrington plowed to the team title by a 104-128 margin over runner-up Wheaton Warrenville-South.
Senior Andrew Foley led the Broncos in ninth place, with great support from sophomore teammates Ryan Skelly in 14th and Ryan Burgoon in 18th.
"We were very happy, and we held out six guys today because they had run three meets in a one-week stretch," said Broncos coach Ty Gorman. "We brought some sophomores up who we knew would be potential top-seven runners and they did well today."
Warren was the next-highest area team with a seventh-place total of 200 points. Mundelein barely slipped past Stevenson 222-223 for ninth place, and Round Lake edged Grayslake Central 322-332 for 12th.
Matt Message (20th) and Kevin Vollrath were the Blue Devils' top duo.
"We had two of our varsity runners down in the frosh-soph race today, but this is a really competitive meet," said Warren coach Bill Dawson. "We've got some work ahead of us. Our conference looks really strong, but the good thing is we still have six weeks left until the conference meet."
After Wood, the Patriots' Alex Goldberg placed 23rd followed by teammate Konnor Kruse in 27th.
"He (Wood) has run really well, and he has the ability to run like he was running today every meet," said Stevenson coach Scott Somers. "Kevin (Wood) runs smart, and he's been doing it long enough to just kind of bide his time and get a good finish."
Grant senior Ryan Mamerow showed he is an elite runner with a fourth-place time of 16:04. Mundelein also has a great leader in senior Martin Mena, who placed sixth in 16:08. Senior newcomer Robbie Munnings placed eighth for the Mustangs in 16:21.
"Ryan (Mamerow) was up there all race long, and with him it's just working on finishing and he knows that," said Grant coach Jeff Durlak. "We don't have our full varsity lineup in there yet, but if our pack can close the gap on Mamerow we'll do alright by the end of the year."
Grayslake North was led by junior Matt Kendzior in 24th place, while rival Grayslake Central was paced by junior Luke Zygmunt in 29th.
Senior Karl Eiring added a 33rd-place finish to Barrington's winning effort, while teammate Brad Berg gave great support and depth in 38th. Warren's Nick Kreis (44th), Grayslake Central's Kyle Rehberg (45th) and Warren's Matt Frank (46th) all finished in a very close pack entering the chute.