Cross country: Prospect girls run away with sectional; Palatine claims boys crown

It was another dominant performance by the Prospect girls cross country team when the Knights took to the 3-mile Busse Woods course for the Class 3A Hoffman Estates sectional Saturday morning.

The Knights rolled to their fifth sectional championship in a row 40-141 over runner-up Loyola while Barrington (155 points), Palatine (176), Hersey (181), and seventh-place Jacobs (213) all earned team berths to the state meet next Saturday in Peoria.

UCLA-bound Lake Zurich senior Brooke Johnston won the race in 16:46.59 to outdistance runner-up Juliet Frum of Glenbrook North by seven seconds while Veronica Znajda led Prospect's pack in third place.

"It's a really talented group that believes in each other," said Prospect coach Peter Wintermute, whose team took second to York last year. "It's all about being healthy, feeling good, staying confident, and giving it all for each other."

Barrington was led by Scout Storms in fourth followed by Prospect's Hailey Erickson (fifth), Hersey's Anna Harden (sixth), Prospect's Meg Peterson (seventh), Palatine's Abigail Jordan (eighth), Prospect's Lily Ginsberg (ninth), and Warren at-large qualifier Mia Pasha (11th). Grant's Brianna Osmon (14th) also reached state as did Glenbrook South's Maggie Jortberg (25th), Mundelein's Praise Oyebanji (27th), and Glenbrook South's Kaitlyn Burns (29th).

Jacobs' pack was led by Bailey Schwartz in 15th, and Natalia Maciorowski in 16th.

"I went out and I guess was just in the zone from the start so I just decided to go with it," said Johnston, who led the entire race. "I'm just going to be prepared to go out even faster (at state), and I'm pretty confident."

In the boys meet, Palatine powered its way past Lake Zurich 60-100 for the Class 3A Hoffman Estates sectional crown despite a winning time of 14:39.70 by Lake Zurich's Dylan Myers.

Fourth-place Prospect (133 points), Hersey (139), Barrington (140) and Conant (162) all advanced to historic Detweiller Park for the state meet next Saturday.

The Pirates got a fourth from senior Mason Krieg, and a fifth from freshman Alexander Krieg for their first sectional title since winning the state championship in 2011.

"I'm super-happy, these meets are hard to win," said Palatine coach Joe Parks. "We had some guys step up big. Our fifth runner (Carter Hayes) was way back early and he kind of just kept chipping away."

Buffalo Grove's Mario Torres (14:49) was the first at-large qualifer in second place while Barrington was led by Joe Bregenzer in third place. Hersey's pack was led by Liam Naughton in seventh followed by Prospect teammates Luka Kuzmanovic (eighth), and Andrew Katsogianos (ninth). Lake Zurich's Braden Eckman rounded out the top 10.

"I started moving at the last mile and in the last half mile I tried to pull away as much as I could," said Myers. "I want to try to be top five (at state), I think that is a good goal and I just have to be mentally tougher than everyone else."

Fremd's Rory Gaan reached state in 11th place while Conant's troops were paced by Vijay Krishnamoorthi in 13th. Jacobs (164 points) just missed state, but Alec Melendez reached state in 14th place.

"Palatine was awesome today, you've got to give them credit," said Lake Zurich coach J.B. Hanson. "Dylan (Myers) looked really good in the last mile. He was able to pull away from a lot of runners."

Other qualifiers were Mundelein's Javier Mata (15th), Fremd's Theodore Cunningham (19th), Stevenson's Dylan Zimmerman (22nd), and Warren's Cole Kaether (34th).