Lake Zurich charges to regional crown
The Lake Zurich boys cross country team continued its dominance Saturday afternoon at the Libertyville Class 3A regional.
After winning the North Suburban Conference title last weekend, the Bears rolled to the eight-team regional championship on the 3-mile Adler Park course with 29 points as they had all seven of their runners finish in the top 13 places.
The host Wildcats went down to the wire with McHenry for second place, but a sixth-man tie-breaker gave Libertyville runner-up honors despite the 86-86 team totals in the final standings.
Fourth-place Warren (95 points) and fifth-place Mundelein (157) points also earned a trip to the powerful Schaumburg sectional next Saturday at Busse Woods while sixth-place Grant (164 points) just missed out on earning a berth.
Lake Zurich senior Andrew Morrison rolled to the individual crown Saturday with a winning time of 15:40 while Round Lake junior Juan Carrera (15:54) took second place to earn the first of five individual at-large berths to the sectional meet.
"I think I could have done better, and I think I saved a little bit too much at the end of the race," said Carrera. "There are going to be a lot of tough runners at sectionals and I'm going to have to have one of my best races of the season to have a chance to make state."
While Mid-Suburban League powers Palatine and Prospect will be tough to beat, Lake Zurich should definitely have a great chance to earn a trip to the state meet in Peoria next weekend as the Bears placed 13th in the state in 2008.
Depth was a huge contributor to Lake Zurich's success Saturday with sophomore Jon Smith placing fourth followed by teammates Ryan Moncrieff (sixth), Paul Geimer (seventh), Alex Brend (11th), Victor Delatorre (12th), and Jordan Pavlovich (13th).
"It was a good team race, we had a good pack, and Andrew (Morrison) ran well again," said Lake Zurich coach J.B. Hanson. "It's just a matter of putting together the right race next week and we're going to give it our best shot. We have to get out fast and win the last mile."
Senior Mitch Neubauer's fifth-place finish led Libertyville's surge for second place in the meet with solid support from teammates Dan Ryan in 17th, Nick Korhumel in 19th, Kevin Pfeil in 22nd, Erik Bergstrom in 23rd, Ryan Burke in 24th, and Chris Marr in 27th.
"They looked good and all of our boys went out strong," said Libertyville assistant coach Matt Condron. "The course was tough today with all of the mud, and Neubauer has been running strong as our No. 1 runner all year."
Freshman Martin Martinez led Warren's push in 10th place followed by teammates Matt Message (18th), Xavier Suarez (20th), Matt Frank (21st), and Dan Neal (26th).
"The whole thing is to get out (of regionals) which we did," said Warren coach Bill Dawson, whose team had seven runners in the top 30. "We were missing two kids today and I think we can run a little better, but I'm happy with the pack we have."
Junior Martin Mena placed ninth to lead Mundelein's pack while Grant junior Ryan Mamerow (eighth) earned the third at-large berth to sectionals.
"This is four years in a row for us making the sectional meet and only the fifth time in school history," said Mundelein coach John Osmanski. "It was a good team meet and Mena bounced back very strong from conference to take ninth today so it was a great day for us."
Carmel was not as fortunate as the Corsairs had to settle for seventh place with 170 points. Sophomore KJ Matuszak did advance to the sectional meet for Carmel in 15th place despite being tripped and taking a hard fall during the race.
"I'm happy for him (Matuszak), he deserves to go to the sectional, but the rest of the guys did not run well today," said Carmel coach Jim Halford. "KJ was second in our conference and he's been running really well. It wouldn't surprise me if he would have finished in the top five today."