Boys-
The individual battle will be what we have been looking forward to almost all season long as two friends will go all out versus each other in a classic heavyweight bout. Drew Rogers of Herscher has been the most dominant runner in the entire state of Illinois this past year going undefeated so far, while he has raced foe Ryder James of Paxton-Buckley-Loda a total of two times already this season, signs point to James not going all out and instead of waiting for the perfect moment to strike. What better week than now? Both athletes have been top 10 runners in the state this entire season, with James seeming to chill these past few weeks. There won't be an outstanding time put up by either athlete as this hilly 5K course has been about a minute slower than what you would see these athletes perform at a speed made course like Detweiller Park.
The team battle will be one of the best in the 1A classification as 9 ranked boys field will enter the field of competition, but the team that enters above the rest is the home team, Elgin Harvest Christian Academy. The Lions have been overlooked by some of the classifications after running at their home course and hiding their top guys under the courses slow 5K times. This team definitely shouldn't be overlooked though as they might be the best team in the classification and will attempt to show it this weekend. Much like Chicago Latin, they have a very strong top 3 runners that will look to cancel each other out. The deciding factor will be the teams 4 and 5 runners which conveniently will be in the same heat with one another. Aurora Central Catholic and Northridge Prep are two other teams that can go toe to toe with Chicago Latin and Harvest Christian Academy but will need to clean up their 1-5 split to do so.