Lesiewicz takes 2nd; Pirates net regional title
It was battle between North Suburban Conference champion Gerardo Perez of Lake Zurich and Mid-Suburban League champion Pat Lesiewicz of Schaumburg at Saturday's Hoffman Estates Class 3A boys cross country regional.
Lesiewicz had control of the race for more than two miles, but Perez used a strong surge with 1,200 meters remaining to gain control and pulled away to secure the regional title in 15:20.
Chano Bernardo (15:41) and Alec Bollman (15:53) took third and fifth place to lead Palatine to its eighth regional title with 57 points at a muddy Busse Woods.
Perez shadowed Lesiewicz for the first two miles before making a strong move in the downhill back loop and then using a strong finish to break the tape.
"We went out really hard," said Perez, who coated in mud. "After 800 meters I kind of eased in and felt more comfortable and I stayed right on him. I made the decision not to wait until the end to make my move and I pushed myself the last mile."
Lesiewicz pushed the pace the opening two miles but couldn't match Perez's winning surge.
"I was a little overconfident, I thought I could run away from everyone," added Lesiewicz, who finished in 15:27. "But I should have laid back a little more. He passed me and I couldn't counter."
Lake Zurich (72 points) edged Conant (73) for second and Schaumburg (106) was fourth. Barrington (122) secured the final team spot for next Saturday's Schaumburg sectional by clipping Fremd (124) for fifth place.
Palatine had five runners in the top 20 as senior Tom Laskowske (16:13, 10th) aided Bernardo and Bollman.
"We ran with good poise, but we didn't run our best race," said Palatine coach Chris Quick, who would like to see his pack tighten a bit. "We responded in the last mile."
Andrew Morrison (16:02) and Francisco Soto (16:10) finished eighth and ninth to aid Perez in leading Lake Zurich to second.
"We're getting there," said Perez. "We still need our fourth and fifth, but they'll come around."
Conant used a strong pack with four runners in the top 15. Tyler Fuchs (15:56, sixth) led the charge with Ben Anderson (16:21, 13th), David Trinco (16:24, 14th), and Muhammad Tayyab (16:25, 15th).
Schaumburg had 3 runners in the top 23 with Phil Allman (16:16, 11th) and Jay McNamara (16:32, 23rd). Barrington used a strong pack with 3 runners in the top 22 - Micah Koenig (16:26, 16th), Kyle Dockery (16:27, 18th) and Chris Cogswell (16:29, 22nd) - to hold off Fremd.
Fremd's Aaron Ferst (15:44) led the individual qualifiers with a fourth-place finish and teammate Spiros Angelakos (16:27) made the cut in 17th.
Hoffman Estates advanced Matthew Perez (15:58, seventh), Kyle Gonzales (16:21, 12th) and Marlon Hamilton (16:36, 26th).
- Michael Eaken
Rolling Meadows regional: Make no mistake about this: they're definitely happy with their performance. But by no means are they satisfied.
With senior Chris Hayek leading from the gun to the chute, the Prospect Knights (23 points) put on a dominating performance at Salk Park on Saturday morning with five runners in the top 8 to win the Class 3A Rolling Meadows regional.
"It's going to be like this at the state meet, so I thought I might as well take it out hard," said Hayek, who took 16th at the Rolling Meadows regional last season.
Hayek burned through the 3-mile course in 15:47 with a host of teammates close behind. Juniors Albert Ciolek (15:53) and Chris Spudic (15:54) took third and fourth, respectively, for the Knights, while Vince Tagare (7th, 16:07) and sophomore Matt Ashton (8th, 16:07) completed Prospect's scoring.
"We're a pack team," Hayek said. "You run better when you're with the people that you're training with all year."
Hersey finished second (69) behind the fifth-place effort of junior Matt Cwiok (15:55). Sophomore Ryan O'Donnell finished ninth in 16:09, junior Garrett Vick took 15th (16:22), Brian Havel was 17th (16:31), and Steve Tubergen finished 23rd (16:35) as the Huskies were without their top runner, Erik Stanton. Stanton, who took sixth at the conference meet, was on crutches Saturday after an MRI on Thursday revealed he had a stress fracture in his right shin.
"I was trying to convince myself that it wasn't anything," said Stanton, who finished third at the Rolling Meadows regional last season. "It's hard to watch because I put so much time and effort into this."
Rolling Meadows made history as it finished in third place (70) to advance to sectionals for the first time in 38 years. Junior Photis Karkalis took second in 15:51 to pace the host Mustangs.
Senior Kevin Clark, who advanced last season as Meadows took ninth at its regional, finished in 12th place in 16:15. Meadows junior Angelos Karkalis was 13th (16:20) and teammate Mike Bobowski finished a second behind in 14th place.
A week after taking second and third at the Central Suburban North meet, Martin Chavez (16:12) and Kevin Schaefer (16:14) finished 10th and 11th, respectively, for Maine West (90). Kevin Norman crossed in 19th place (16:33) and junior Ogar Somo was 20th (16:34) for the fourth-place Warriors.
After taking eighth at this regional last season, Wheeling just missed advancing with a sixth-place effort (132). Senior Eric Rodriguez took fifth in 15:58 and was the top individual qualifier. Teammates David Martin (16th, 16:29) and Rob Meier (32nd, 16:54) also moved into sectionals.
St. Viator took seventh (190) but had two individual qualifiers with sophomore Nick Fiore (26th, 16:44) and senior Nick Fratto (37th, 17:21) advancing.
Freshman Alex Mertes finished 43rd (17:32) to lead eighth-place Elk Grove (238).
- Matt Beardmore
Oak Park regional: Ethan Rivera (16:22, fifth) and Herald Alvarez (16:26, sixth) led Leyden to second place at Schiller Woods and a spot in the Niles West sectional.
Lake Forest regional: Buffalo Grove earned the fifth and final team qualifying spot with a total of 129 points. The Bison's top performance came from freshman Jereme Atchison, who finished in 16:13 and placed 10th overall. New Trier (43), Lake Forest (56), Deerfield (82) and Highland Park (96) took the top four teams spots.