Palatine MOC Promises To Be A Scorcher

Boys-


The boys featured varsity race is expected to be a good as usual

Key Boys Teams: #4 Hinsdale Central, #5 Mundelein, #9 Arlington Heights (Hersey), #10 Mt. Prospect (Prospect), #12 Plainfield South, #15 Park Ridge (Maine South), #17 Elmhurst (York), #18 Chicago (St. Ignatius), #20 Palatine, #22 Carpentersville (Dundee-Crown), #24 Barrington, #25 Winnetka (New Trier); St. Louis University HS (MO), Louisville (St. Xavier)

Meet record: Jack Driggs (York) 14:33

A deep field will fight for top honors-

You are going to be hard pressed to find a deeper and more exciting field than the one assembled here. Keep in mind we did not include non ranked teams in the key teams box, but squads like Yorkville, Chicago Jones Prep, Plainfield North, and Aurora (Marmion Academy) could hold their own in any invite in the state. These are facts. Depth is what makes cross country meets so appealing. Hinsdale Central is a team that has been to the mountain top and back before. The Red Devils have won this meet several seasons ago and is poised to do so again if they follow a consistent theme: aggressive pack running. This happened earlier in the month at FTTF when they used a 31-second scoring split to finish a strong second to #1 Downers Grove North. The top runner was senior Sean O'Connell who placed 19th overall. Look for O'Connell and teammate junior Alec Hill to lead the way.

Mundelein will get its first test of the season and they will need to compete at the level that has brought success thus far. The Mustangs have six runners who has broke 16:00 thus far and the scoring split under 1:00 means staying together as long as possible is the way to go. Dillon Blake and Robert St. Clair are the go to guys.

MSL rivals Hersey, Prospect, Palatine, and Barrington will get their first "indirect" conference clash almost a month before the big battle. Hersey is healthy now and will see themselves with such tough and youthful talent go against their former coach now at Prospect. Sophomore Josh Methner is the Huskies top runner. Both teams could finish in the top three if their packs can run up top. Palatine and Barrington are back on the scene and will continue to get better as the season moves along.

York will again be short handed with Charlie Kern not in the lineup. The Dukes will need to go with depth if they plan on staying with the big boys. Staying with the big boys include out of towners like top ranked Kentucky team St. Xavier. They placed second here last year. St. Louis U is one of the best teams in Missouri and they are back for more.

The race for individual glory will be up for grabs unlike in past years. Expect to see a few new names emerge. At large runner senior Wyatt McIntyre of Athens will make his big meet debut this season. McIntrye placed second in the 1A state meet last year and is expected to one of the favorites again in November. He will see some action from St. Ignatius senior Michael Obrion who ran a great race in finishing second at FTTF 3A division with a time of 14:48. Tommy Brady (Maine South) and Nick Laning (Barrington) are senior powerbrokers looking to do some major damage at Deer Grove East. Add in power broker Alex Tam (Libertyville) and Michael Ronzone (Marmion Academy) for good measure.