D-C an impressive 10th at 3A state meet

PEORIA -- In almost every preseason preview, the consensus was clear on Dundee-Crown. The Chargers were talented but extremely young. Most agreed that the Chargers' time to shine was at least a year away.

However, one important person disagreed. That person happened to be Dundee-Crown coach Tom Smith, who had a message for his kids.

"We knew we were young. We knew people were going to start saying things like 'what about next year'," Smith said. "At midseason I said 'I don't want to talk about next year. Let's get this season over and let's see what we can accomplish this year'. That became our mantra."

Apparently, the Chargers took the message to heart. After surprising many by making the Palatine sectional, Dundee-Crown refused to stop running and qualified for the Class 3A state meet at Detweiller Park here.

While the Chargers could have been satisfied to just make an appearance downstate, Dundee-Crown instead ran a very good race on Saturday and finished 10th.

"We're very excited. We beat some very good teams behind us." Smith said, before adding another nugget of good news. "I think we had a good run, a solid run for our first time here. That's the best part is that I don't think we had a great run. I think we're capable of running better."

For a team with eight underclassmen in its top-12, the race was an experience of a lifetime.

"Today was insane," said freshman Anthony Manfrin (51st). "All these people here, all these good runners, it was great."

Manfrin finished in 15:15 and was followed two seconds later by senior Connor Kustief (54th). Junior Paul Smith (87th), Jon Keable (111th), and Nathan Prom (122nd) completed the scoring, with sophomores Mike Wiechmann (16:09) and Jon Magnant (16:15) running as well.

"Next year is going to be a good year," Manfrin said. "We lose two of our top 12 runners (to graduation) so most people are coming back. This is great experience being here. (Almost) all of us are freshman and sophomores, so this is everyone's first time being here."

Cary-Grove finished 14th with sophomore Phil Fairleigh leading the way.

"I came through the mile pretty good but then I just started to fade," Fairleigh said after finishing 78th. "I don't know what happened. I just had an awful race."

While Fairleigh was critical of himself, he was much easier on his teammates.

"I heard that Jeff Boivin (15:53) ran a great race, which is a great way for him to finish his career," he said. "I think we ran pretty well as a team and as a team we had a fantastic season."

St. Charles North took sixth behind all-state performances from seniors Chris DeSilva (ninth) and Mike Strasser (16th). The North Stars' third runner, senior Scott Speare, was right behind them in 39th.

"There are so many good runners it's crazy," DeSilva (14:34) said. "(Sixth place) wasn't quite what we wanted but I'm very happy with my race. We did what we could."

Senior Neil Klein of Streamwood also ran by himself and finished 45th.

Huntley's Todd Farbiak finished 56th.