Patriots, Mustangs survive regional
After a rare false start to begin the Class 3A Lake Zurich boys cross country regional Saturday morning, there was no turning back for Cary-Grove.
The Trojans put together an outstanding team effort to win the 10-team regional with 46 points. Lake Forest (66) was second and Deerfield (79) third on the 3.1-mile Lakewood Forest Preserve course.
The battle for the final two berths in the Palatine sectional next Saturday went down to the wire, but it was Stevenson and Mundelein finishing in a 123-123 deadlock to both earn a trip to Deer Grove East Forest Preserve. Highland Park (126) will be staying home.
Sophomore standout Phil Fairleigh of Cary-Grove was the individual champion with a winning time of 15:41. He beat Deerfield's Scott Friedlander by six seconds.
"I just tried to stay with the leaders for the first two miles and then I tried to pull away in the last mile and it worked out really well," said Fairleigh. "Kai (Rikardsen) was our No. 2 guy today and he's really been stepping up and doing well."
Besides Fairleigh and Rikardsen, Cary-Grove's push to the title was aided by the pack of Adam Resseguia in 11th, Mike McNamara in 12th and Dan Bartz in 15th.
"We're very happy and we liked our chances coming in, but we wanted to stay focused on this race and not take anything for granted," Cary-Grove coach Layne Holter said. "We had a lot of people step up again today, and Adam (Resseguia) finished 11th as our No. 3 runner."
Stevenson technically edged out Mundelein for fourth placed based on its sixth runner finishing 49th to the Mustangs' sixth runner placing 66th.
The Patriots' 1-2 punch of Johan Laker in sixth and Barrett Wood in ninth proved to be a real difference-maker for Stevenson coach Don Proft's squad. Oliver Rose was the Patriots' third runner in 32nd place.
"Tyler Bartlow started the race and wasn't able to finish due to illness, but our top two guys finished where they needed to finish today," Proft said. "Evihn Vaszily really stepped up today as our No. 4 guy and that was a big key for us."
Mundelein's second straight trip to the sectional meet was led by senior Alex Mena, who made a strong late surge to place third in 16:01.
Freshman Martin Mena added an impressive 10th-place run for the Mustangs with great support from Matt Hoffmeyer in 19th place.
"With the different classes this season I think the regionals are a lot tougher and we're fortunate to come out on top so we're really happy," said Mundelein coach John Osmanski. "(Alex) Mena did a great job finishing in third place and it was a tremendous job by our freshman Martin (Mena) in 10th place today."
Highland Park wound up getting three of the five at-large individuals to advance to the sectional meet, but that did not prevent Jacobs freshman Nick Mangiameli from earning a trip to Palatine with a 21st-place run.
Lake Zurich sophomore Andrew Morrison also earned a sectional berth with a 25th-place finish.
Jeff Boivin added a 20th-place finish for Cary-Grove while teammate Kevin Lang placed 27th.
Marengo regional: In Class 2A at Walcamp, Vernon Hills' Moe Bahrani won in 15 minutes, 14.7 seconds, defeating runner-up Nick Lane of Grayslake North by nearly 13 seconds.
Vernon Hills' Max Candocia (16:02) was fourth, Lakes' Ethan Hahn (16:16) seventh and Lakes' Brian Fuller (16:40.4) 10th.
Crystal Lake Central won the meet with 32 points, while Grayslake North (81), Lakes (91), Johnsburg (138) and Vernon Hills (141) also advanced to next Saturday's Belvidere sectional (10:45 a.m.).
Antioch (145) was sixth.
Advancing as individuals were Wauconda's Marc Anders (ninth) and Mike Anselmo (15th) and Antioch's Mike Cook (11th) and Ryan Mehaffey (16th).
Besides race runner-up Lane, Grayslake North received strong runs from Brendan Cerk (13th), Nick Nowak (14th), Jimmy Johnson (25th) and Scott Moller (27th).
Besides Hahn and Fuller, Lakes' top-five included Billy McGrath (17th), Kyle White (23rd) and Joe Doran (34th).
Vernon Hills secured its sectional berth thanks to runs by Bahrani, Candocia, Nick Garpow (28th), Binet Lee (51st) and Robert Watson (56th).