Cross country: After sizzling sectional, St. Charles East takes aim at state title
St. Charles East's Bob Liking offered up his best postgame impersonation of New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick following Saturday's Class 3A boys cross country sectional.
"We got the job done and we're moving on to next week," said Liking, who helped lead the Saints to their second consecutive sectional team title by a 29-74 margin over Oswego East.
Competing in treacherous conditions on the mucky LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve course, Liking earned individual honors with a time of 15:21.
"It was super tough," admitted Liking, a senior who earlier in the week committed to attend the University of Wisconsin. "There were so many points where it seemed like I wasn't moving at all but it was still fun.
"It hurt so badly. There were points where I didn't take the exact path I wanted to and I ended up getting in the mud."
Micah Wilson (15:39), Aidan King (15:42), Zack Loomis (15:50) and Luke Schildmeyer (15:56) joined Liking for a 1-4-5-8-11 finish.
"They've been running like that all year," Saints coach Chris Bosworth said of his team's 35-second split with its top 5. "It's nice for them to keep close and run together as much as they could.
"This is the weekend where you punch your ticket to the state meet - and that's what we did."
Next weekend, the Saints will take aim at their first boys cross country state title.
"We have a lot of good forward momentum," said Liking. "We just have to keep it rolling into next week and hopefully we'll accomplish our goals."
Jake Allen placed second (15:28) to Liking for third-place Naperville North (90).
"I was going for the win but Bob really pushed that middle mile and dropped me a little bit," said Allen. "He's a great runner and it was a tough race. I'm happy about it."
Huntley senior Ian Geisler took third (15:30).
"It was pretty bad - mud everywhere," said Geisler. "All this week is about was surviving and advancing to state."
Waubonsie Valley (163) and Naperville Central (168) earned the final two state team berths, while the list of advancing individuals included Neuqua Valley's Nicolas Dovalovsky (7th) and Aidan Stone (24th), West Aurora's Jackson Morrill (14th), Batavia's Damian Rodriguez (16th), St. Charles North's Ryan Arnold (17th) and Geneva's Ben Calusinski (18th).
Girls race: Three-time defending state champion Naperville North captured its ninth straight sectional title behind individual winner Maggie Gamboa (17:44).
"My strategy wasn't really to get the lead but to just run the best race I could," said Gamboa. "The last stretch right before the finish was probably the muddiest for me."
Molly Morton (8th), Lucy Westlake (10th), Sophie Golobitsh (12th) and Audrey Mendrys (13th) supported the Huskies' cause.
"I thought they looked good," said Huskies coach Dan Iverson. "The course is about as bad as it can get but that's OK. You can't control that."
The Huskies will try to capture their sixth state title in 8 years next Saturday at Detweiller Park.
"We'll go out there with the same mentality we had this week," said Iverson. "You can't play defense in this sport so it's not like you can game-plan for anybody."
Fueled by top-10 finishes from Katrina Schlenker (third), Jenna Schifferer (fifth) and Mia Gianfranceso (ninth), Batavia placed second as a team.
"I'm proud of my team," said Schlenker. "It was really muddy. There's no way to really deal with it - you just have to mentally prepare yourself for it and be tougher than everyone else."
Huntley, led by Bailey Wilk (22nd), and St. Charles East placed fourth and fifth, respectively, securing downstate berths.
"It was a give-it-your-all type of day," said Saints junior Alice Abbott, who finished fourth. "I wanted nothing more than to bring these girls down (to Peoria). They deserve it more than anything."
Other area individuals advancing included Waubonsie Valley's Ashley Heidenrich (second), Metea Valley's Sophia Sandy (fourth), South Elgin's Naomi Ruff (seventh), St. Charles North's Rachel Price (eighth), and Bartlett's Jenna Buchanan (15th) and Camille Buchanan (19th).
"The strategy played out how I wanted it to - even better than I expected," said Heidenrich. "I was able to make some really big moves in the middle of the race."