Class 3A Boys Pre Season Rankings: The Next Best Down To #11


Several of these runners missed out on all-state honors including Caleb Washington of Shepard in the Orange uniform (Colin Boyle photo)

15. O'Fallon (H.S.)

2015 Finish: 21st at 3A State

Coach: Jon Burnett

Key returners:

Chris Conrad (Sr.) 15:30

Joey Black (Sr.) 15:23

Kyle Dismukes (So.) 15:35

Will Van Alstine (So.) 15:35

Garrett Blenkush (Jr.) 16:22

Lucas Capistrant (Jr.) 17:31 5K

Matt Gilster (Jr.) 16:18

Ashton Hess (So.) 16:43

Aaron Reuter (Sr.) 17:22 5K

Hayden Ybarra (Jr.) 16:30

Zion Ward (Sr.) 16:20

Ray's Take: O'Fallon's squad has most of its varsity team from last year, and an improved 800 all-stater Chris Conrad heads the pack, along with senior leader Joey Black, who has the team's fastest PR entering the year. Although the 1-2 will be seniors, a young pack comprised of sophomores follow the two, including Kyle Dismukes, who struggled with stress fractures throughout his freshman year but is now healthy. This also includes Will Van Alstine, who was the teams best runner at Nike Cross Regionals as a freshman and hit 10:00 in the 3200 in the spring. Coach Burnett reports that Van Alstines times are some of the best ever for a freshman at O'Fallon. Zion Ward, Matt Gilster, and Garrett Blenkush are the top candidates to round out the scoring.

Coach Burnett: "We set the same goals every season.  We want to win conference. We want to go as far into the state series as possible. We want to finish the season with our best performances of the year."


14. Lincolnshire (Stevenson)

2015 Finish: 6th at 3A Schaumburg (H.S.) Sectional

Coach: Scott Sommers

Key returners:

Nikita Smyrnov (Jr.) 15:28

Brett Lucas (Jr.) 15:28

Jacob Sparreo (Jr.) 16:07

Paul Udoni (Sr.) 15:37

Caleb Oh (Sr.) 15:41

Mattaeus Klonowski (Sr.) 16:31

Joseph Axelson (Sr.) 16:46

Ray's Take: Just 10 points behind 5th place at Schaumburg were the Patriots of Stevenson in 2015. Stevenson was relatively inexperienced last year, and although the team did end up producing the 3200 state champ in Jared Borowsky, the varsity team was sophomore dominated and despite a good race, finished just short of McHenry for a qualifying spot. This could prove to be a motivating factor for the Patriots, who are led by a harrier committee of Nikita Smyrnov and Brett Lucas. The 1-5 split between those two and Caleb Oh, Paul Udoni, and Jacob Sparreo (a few last names that might be familiar) is just about 30 seconds so the Patriots are going to have to capitalize on this split to improve on their 3rd place in the Northern Suburban League (which they did without Borowsky), and possibly more importantly, improve on their sixth place at sectionals. Teams in the north are getting better and better and Stevenson is no exception.


13. Aurora (Marmion Academy)

2015 Finish: 14th at 3A State

Coach: Dan Klatt

Key returners:

Michael Ronzone (Jr.) 15:01

Charlie Zimmer (Sr.) 15:12

Andrew Lifka (Sr.) 15:27

Sean Galle (Jr.) 16:18

Jimmy Milder (Sr.) 15:58
Liam Kelly (Jr.) 16:26

Jack Brewster (So.) 17:02

Jake Harron (So.) 17:20

Dave Farrell (Sr.) 16:57

Nick Brennan (Sr.)

Anthony Giometti (Sr.) 17:32

Evan Turcich (Jr.) 17:27

Alex Carlson (Fr.)

Ray's Take: Marmion Academy made a heavy impact on its new spheres last year. The Cadets won the Chicago Catholic League in its first year of competition and qualified for state, finishing 14th. Losing just a couple of its best runners from 2015 means Marmion will be set to defend its title and go for a top 10 position at state. Michael Ronzone is the #1 option and will look to go under 15 in 2016. Varsity will be filled in by Charlie Zimmer, Andrew Lifka, Jimmy Milder and Sean Galle, all of whom have state race experience. The Aurora area sectional is improving but Marmion should still be in good position to make it to November racing.

Coach Dan Klatt on why the team runs: "Our goal is to maximize the potential of each individual runner and, consequently, the team. Our focus, as with many other programs, is to get the most out of each day. Specifically, our mission is to glorify God by doing the best we can each day in an effort to become the best version of ourselves. This is the foundation of our program, and the success of our team can always be traced back to the grace gifted to us by God. They run to honor Him."


12. Arlington Heights (Hersey)

2015 Finish: 7th at 3A Schaumburg (H.S.) Sectional

Coach: Jay Renaud

Key returners:

Jacob Krupa (Sr.) 15:18 in 2014

Sam Svienty (Sr.) 15:36

Andrew Hyndman (Sr.) 15:50

Ryan Theisen (Jr.) 15:58

Jack Fredian (Jr.) 15:35

Quinn Cunningham (Jr.) 16:00

Ryan Buch (So.) 16:35

Josh Methner (Fr.) 4:44 1600 in 8th grade

Ray's Take: Hersey probably enters 2016 improved from 2015, now that Jacob Krupa returns from an injury filled year and looks to be the leader for a maturing Husky squad. Hersey could have runners representing all four classes on their varsity team. Sam Svienty, Andrew Hyndman, Ryan Theisen, Quinn Cunningham and Jack Fredian represent the more experience runners on the Hersey squad that finished 4th in their quest to defend their MSL title in 2015. Ryan Buch is one of the top sophomores in the MSL, and Josh Methner was a star in IESA and could make an impact on the varsity level.

Coach Jay Renaud: "Goals pretty much haven't changed over the last few years. Win the MSL conference, qualify to state, finish in the top 10, stay healthy and have a lot of fun! We have some loftier state goals, but we have to get there first. We finished 7th at the Sectional last year missing state by 12 points with two of our top runners out and only 2 seniors competing. We had 2 sophs and 1 freshman in the race. This past track season we had 5-6 kids coming back this year that broke 10 minutes in the 3200. We won conference in 2013 and 2014 so we would like to take back that title."

11. Mt. Prospect (Prospect)

2015 Finish: 7th at 3A State

Coach: Mike Stokes

Key returners:

Sean Sanaghan (Sr.) 15:12

Jack O'Donnell (Sr.) 15:26

Jack Terry (Jr.) 15:38

Terry Thomas (Jr.) 15:52

Jack Hemplemen (Jr.) 16:11

Andrew Reimann (So.) 16:12

James Riordon (So.) 15:57

Casey Daleiden (Jr.) 17:00

Ray's Take: Prospect's success has been building the last two years after a down period and it looks to be coming to a head as many of the young stars of the program are now running at the varsity level. The Knights have a strong handful of runners in the 15:00 range, including Sean Sanaghan, Jack O'Donnell and Jack Terry who all ran for the 7th place team from Detweiller last November. Casey Daleiden, James Riodon, Jack Hemplemen and Andrew Reimann have not had much exposure on the varsity level and some of their cross country times are misleading- 7 runners return for Prospect having run 10:10 or better for 3200. Prospect finished just three points behind Buffalo Grove for the MSL title, and BG returns a lot as well so the race this year looks to be even more compelling.


3A Boys Race Highlights reel