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The 38th Annual Wauconda Invitational has an enormous amount of historical facts in its running if you were to take a closer peak. For instance, former IHSA male distance greats such as Mark Deady (Lincolnshire Stevenson), Pat Joyce (Lincolnshire Stevenson), Tim Keller (West Chicago), and Sam Romanoski (Lake Zurich) have all won harrier titles.
The team winners have been just as interesting over the years with one team in particular: Crystal Lake Central. The Tiger have won a total of 11 team titles including the 1995 crown that led to the eventual state championship. It will be interesting to see how far this team and individual winner go this season.
Lane Tech boys wins first invitational crown
This year featured several high powered teams such as 3A #7 Wheaton-Warrenville South, #13 Chicago Lane Tech, and 2A #3 Crystal Lake Central.
On a reasonably balmy and calm morning at the reconstructed Lakewood Forest Preserve in suburban but isolated Mundelein, Lane Tech won their first Wauconda Invitational title edging out the favored Wheaton-Warrenville South 47-53. Crystal Lake Central earned the third place trophy scoring 116 points just ahead of Hoffman Estates Conant’s 130. Gurnee Warren closed out the top five with 139 pts.
The race started out in the usual fashion with a thundering herd charging out hard for the opening quarter-mile or so in order to gain desired position. Pre-race favorite Jesse Reiser of McHenry (pictured below) did not waste any time as he grabbed the pole position and out of sight of most of the spectators.
As the race passed the initial half-mile the team battle began to shape with Wheaton South, Lane, and Crystal Lake Central up in the front pack.
There was massive confusion among the many team managers and amateur timers as to where the official mile markers were on the course. The original layout was moved from the east side of the preserve the west side two seasons ago because of construction. The park district continued to make changes at Lakewood causing meet officials to make another adjustment this year. Perhaps, that’s why the runners and nearly everyone else didn’t know exactly where the landmarks were.
Nolan McKenna (Wheaton-Warrenville South) and Zach Dale (Hoffman Estates Conant) didn’t seem fazed by the lack of accurate markers as they took flight after Reiser. The alleged first mile was somewhere in the 4:46 range.
Wheaton South looked strong up top with Luke Schroer and Kyle Cepeda not too far behind McKenna. Crystal Lake Central also had their top man Ryan Pitner in the mix.
Lane Tech chose to deploy the pack running approach as all five of their runners Jon Vara, Pavlo Hutsalyuk, David Schmieg, Christian Badillo, and Oswaldo Lorenzana were glued together for the first mile.
As the race entered the second half it was clear that Reiser was in complete control despite McKenna’s valiant effort to stay close. “I wanted to separate myself from Nolan,” Reiser would later say. That’s exactly what he did in the final half-mile and cruised home to victory in 14:46 on the approximately 2.99 mile course. McKenna raced home ahead of the magical 15-minute mark in 14:54. Dale, who had been running on an island for the majority of his race, took third in 15:05. Two more Wheaton South runners Schroer and Cepeda charged home in fourth and fifth (15:19 and 15:20) respectively.
Would Wheaton South’s three runners in the top five hold up?
It appeared so until the skies opened up for Lane’s scoring pack that blazed to the finish line in 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, and 12th positions. Schmieg led his mates to victory and helped push the Tigers to second place. The irony of the whole situation is that cross country is placement and not so much time. If it were Wheaton South would have won based on their cumulative time of 1:17:35 compared to Lane’s 1:17:55. It was fitting that everyone had to rely on hand scoring instead of times because the timing system malfunctioned and could not print out timed results.
Gelinas surprises girls’ field
Before the race the name Meaghan Gelanas (Sr., Lake Zurich) didn’t ring a bell among many in the crowd. But 18:24 later and first major cross country victory it was revealed that she had a significant profile. Gelanas placed 35th in the 2011 3A state meet running 17:42. In addition she is an outstanding soccer player earning all-area honors last spring.
The race featured the likes of previous state champions Victoria Clinton (Maple Park Kaneland) and Sami Staples (Crystal Lake Central) as well as Lauren Opatrny (McHenry), and Talia Duzey (Cary-Grove).
Staples got out well and in the lead pack. It was her first race of the season since coming off of a stress fracture that had her in a boot for the majority of the summer. The vision of a comeback victory for Staples did not last long as she was nearly taken out of commission. A freak accident occurred somewhere between the first and second mile when an opponent pushed against her in the woods causing her to twist her ankle. “I hurt [my ankle] in the woods and decided to continue running to help my team,” she said afterwards icing the tender foot. Staples would finish 63rd in the race.
Clinton appeared to be in the race as well but later the results revealed that she wasn’t among her team’s finishes. The Knights only had five finishers.
Cary-Grove won the team title over Lake Zurich 88-92 thanks a pair of top five finishes from Duzey and Morgan Schulz who placed fourth and sixth place.