3A Boys preseason preview: Sandburg gets the #1 bill

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: Paul Vandersteen / Jaime Janota, Mike Rossi, Mike Kennedy, Jared Righter

Last Year's Finish: 3A ShaZam XC Championships- 11th place

Key Returners: Noah Schalliol (Sr.), Charlie Rook (Sr.), Nick Rohlwing (Sr.), Ryan Palmer (Jr.), Nicolas Castrillon (Jr.), Zach Close (So.), Andres Lopez (Jr.)

-An inexperienced group by coach Vandersteen's account but the Wildcats will be in the mix as the season moves along.

Coach Vandersteen's Outlook: We are relatively inexperienced, but the guys are working together well this summer. Like many other teams, we probably won't 'find ourselves' until October. Our focus is to simply enjoy each other's company and have fun trying to get better. The places and times will take care of themselves.

Head Coach: Ed Ernst

Last Year's Finish: 2A ShaZam XC Championships- 8th place

Unexpected Losses: Jack Rhyner (Jr.), Sam Hansen (Sr.)

-Success multiplied into 3A, the Wolfpack have some unfinished business after their end to last season. Coming into ShaZam as one of the top-ranked teams all year long, the wolfpack had an 8th place finish in the 2A classification. They return their top two runners from that team in Zach Kiley and Nick Kiley, expect the twins to try and run close to the 15:00 barrier. After that will be a good pack around the 16:00 barrier of Brian Moore, David Glaysher, and Henry Gilbert. The losses of Rhyner and Hansen will affect the squad depth but have some guys that can potentially step up.

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: Andrew Adelmann

Last Year's Finish: 3A ShaZam XC Championships- 10th place

Key Returners: Alan Menninger (Sr.), Ethan Sterling (Sr.), Matthew DeSantis (Jr.), Dev Dassani (Jr.), Esteban Medina (Jr.), Daniel Leonard (Jr.), Jayden Reyes (Jr.)

-This could be the swan song for Coach Adelmann as he has taken a teaching position at Downers Grove North High School. He will coach another solid group mixed with youth. "We are a young team this year with the bulk of our 'core runners' being sophomores and juniors," he said. "We only have two guys coming back that were fixtures of varsity races last fall. Coupled with the fact that we were limited to the City of Chicago last year and our frosh-soph team was never pushed, our first few meets are going to be used as learning experiences to get guys some more competitive race opportunities."  

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: Kevin Gummerson / Leslie Hencinski, Jessica Hopkins, Nick Lundin

Last Year's Finish: 17th at 3A ShaZam XC Championships

Key Returners: Daniel Schalk (Sr.), Zachary Balzer (Jr.), Emerson Fayman (Sr.), Alex Forster (Sr.), Gavin Carlson (So.), Hayden Host (So.)

Coach Gummerson's Outlook: "I am excited about the potential of this group. We are returning four (Schalk, Balzer, Fayman, Forster) out of last year's top seven, and all four of those guys have big meet experience. On top of that, we had a F/S group that has athletes that can make an impact on our top seven. While the 2020 season did not feature any true invitationals, that dual meet format gave them some great lessons in racing."

"I know there is an excitement about returning to some of the standard invites from previous years. I am seeing these boys starting to gain confidence in their ability to run a quality 3 miles. This schedule is set up so that these kids are seeing the best there is in the state of Illinois. I know these guys are starting to believe they can compete on that level. Not only do they believe it, but they are doing the work necessary to put themselves in the best position to succeed."

Head Coach: Dan Seeberg

Last Year's Finish: 3A ShaZam XC Championships- 14th place

Key Returners: Spencer Werner (Sr.), Aidan Simon (Sr.), James Lombardo (Jr.), Harry Wood Prince (Sr.), Casey Gibbons (Sr.), Thomas Whelan (Sr.), Ben Howland (Jr.)

-Coming off of last xc season, not many knew what to expect was to come of this Loyola Academy squad. After a successful track season, this proves to be a very promising team. Led by Spencer Werner, the Ramblers star runner will look to finish top five at the state meet. Following him will be Aidan Simon who had a great meet at ShaZam last season and will compete for a top 25 finish this season.

James Lombardo had a breakout track season with a sub 10:00 mark in the 3200m, he should be looking to break 16:00 this season. Harry Wood Prince is now a senior, a great freshman who has had injuries and other issues that hurt his high school career. Can he live up to the potential he showed as a freshman? Casey Gibbons was part of Loyola's 4x800m this year, coming in with a PR of 16:17 he should be within his squad's top five.

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: Chris Kuntz / Craig Lawrence

Last Year's Finish: 3A LaGrange Lyons Sectional- 5th place

Coach Kuntz's Outlook: "Michael Atkins and Michael Macabobby are two of our captains who both ran on our 2nd Place State team in 2019. Atkins ran 15:10 last year in XC, 4:23, and 9:22 on the track. Alex Colina is another senior who will be in our mix for the top 7."

"We have a great group of Juniors led by Nathan Virginelli, Luke Yonker, Caleb Hatzinger, Colin Nelson and Nathan Banowetz. We had a large group of seniors last year so now we're looking for the junior group to make the step up. We have had a great summer of running. The guys are really working hard. We are looking forward to a "normal" season of Cross Country and the challenges of the DuKane Conference. It"ll be fun."

Head Coach: Kevin Rafferty

Last Year's Finish: 3A Chicago Whitney Young Sectional- 6th place

-WIthout a clear-cut front runner, the Warriors look to be a very strong pack running team this season. Angel Solis is coming off a great track season in the 1600m running 4:29.52, he could be the team's best runner again. Following him are Jacob Tukker, Aidan Oster, and Ethan Marshall who all should be within 10 seconds of Solis. The key for this squad will be getting their 5th runner inside of 15 seconds from Solis.

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: Tom Root / Matt Medansky, Rudy Castaneda, Al Sekulic, Stuart Todd-Middleditch

Last Year's Finish: 3A ShaZam XC Championships- 5th place

Key Returners: Joey Furlong (Sr.), Ryan Fryer (Sr.), Zack Daniel (Sr.), Joey Drage (Sr.), AJ Van Vuren (Jr.), Max Lewis (So.), Majdal Boulos (Sr.)

Coach Root's Outlook: After losing a pretty massive and talented class to graduation, we feel a bit thin up top with only three seniors with postseason experience, however, we still have a deep team with a lot of younger talent filling in "shoes" behind them. We'll have a great front pack of 3, then what happens beyond that is still to be seen and developed.

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: George Patrylak / Dustin Davis, Maggie Dust

Last Year's Finish: 16th at 3A ShaZam XC Championships

New Additions: We have a group of Sophomores and Juniors that look to break up a solid group of seniors. 

Coach Patrylak's Outlook: "This is hard to determine. Obviously, we are returning all but one runner from our Shazam team, but we also have our number one (Ryan Watts) coming back from a stress fracture, our number 2, 3, and Hoeferlin (should be top seven) all ran Track State and I made them take two weeks off before starting summer training."

"We (like most of the state) are well behind in our mileage and workouts. I think we will hang under the radar for most of the year. I do not plan on racing kids as much as years past as I feel last year's schedule was lighter, too. I hope that we will be Regional Champions and qualify for State. With the top four, we have returning, we should be able to do that. I would love to see at least a top 15 finish at State, but that will be determined with our progression. We are nowhere near that ranking, yet."

7. Oswego

Head Coach: Daniel Whipple

Last Year's Finish: 3A Chicago Whitney Young Sectional- 8th place

Key Returners: Balin Doud (Sr.), Ethan Forsell (Sr.), Benjamin Huey (Sr.), Benjamin Forsell (Sr.), Colby Lee , Braden Cardamone (Sr.), Brady Nelson (Jr.)

-This will be one of the best teams the Panthers have had in a while as they return six of their seven runners from a very strong team from last season. Coming off a tremendous track season, the Panthers come into the season with a lot of potential and look to be a potential team to take home a state title.

Led by what seems to be Ethan Forsell, the senior had a breakout track season running 9:27.67 in the 3200m, he was the team's #2 runner last season but will look to be that front runner for them this season and run in the low 15:00's. Balin Doud was the team's #1 runner for most of last season and will look to try and be with his Forsell this season, he also had a great track season running 1:59.08 and 4:22.02. Let's see how that translates to the grass. Following them will be the duo of Colby Lee and Benjamin Huey who both ran in the 15:30's most of last season. The wildcard for this squad will be how well does Braden Cardamone runs for this squad. The senior ran 4:26.56 in the mile this track season. If he can get with Lee and Huey, it may be hard to beat the Panthers come November.

6. Hinsdale Central

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: Jim Westphal / Jim Kupres, Noah Lawrence, John Snee

Last Year's Finish: 3A ShaZam XC Championships- 15th place

Coach Westphal's Outlook: "Everyone's healthy at this point. Guys are working hard and are committed to improving every day. The team goal is to be competitive within our conference and certainly throughout the area. We'd like to advance to the state meet and run our best in the latter stages of the season."

Head Coach: Michael Danner

Last Year's Finish: 3A ShaZam XC Championships- 6th place

Key Returners: Charlie Mclawhorn (Sr.), Finn Gallagher (Sr.), Matthew Lynch (Sr.), Nicholas Strayer (So.), Hayden Constas (Sr.), Jack Albright (Sr.), Jack Meyers (Jr.)

Coach Danner's Outlook: "I believe that it's a little early to judge where we are at, we will get a truer picture a month into the season. We hope to build off last year as we discover things on a daily basis this group is unaware of, or just lack experience of preparing for a more competitive season. We have some work ahead of us to develop a team ready to compete at big invites."

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: John Sipple / Jill Blondell, Eric Buhot, Alexa Harris, Robert Nierman, Josh Williams, Isaac Wagreich

Last Year's Finish: 3A ShaZam XC Championships- 8th place

Key Returners: Roy Llewellyn (Sr.), Kyle McNally (Sr.), Topher Ferris (Jr.), Karan Shetty (Sr.), Tristan Rios (Sr.), Leo Gartlan (Jr.), Ryan Eddington (So.) 

Coach Sipple's Outlook: "I am excited to see what this group will be able to accomplish this season/year moving forward. The guys did such a good job last year being adaptive to the ever-changing criteria. Which I think was a good thing in developing resilience and being flexible/creative in order to make the most of each day to try to improve. We will have a good mix of old and younger guys in our top group so that will be fun and we have a number of guys who will be learning to compete at the varsity level during a 'normal' season of meets. I am excited about the growth we will see with our group and we will see where it takes us as a whole!"

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: Matt Sloan / Jeff Bailey, Andrew Schmidt, Greg Harper, Kip Hendren, Drew Hansen, Brian Loring

Last Year's Finish: 4th at 3A ShaZam XC Championships

New Additions: Oscar Dueno-Alda (Jr) -- has run track during freshman and sophomore year, but this will be his first cross country season. Ran 9:55/4:42 last spring.

Coach Sloan's Outlook: "The Trevians are excited by the opportunity created by the return to a more "normal" XC season this fall. We return a group of experienced seniors (two with state meet experience) who are doing an excellent job of leading their teammates. The athletes made it their collective goal to achieve something no New Trier team has done since 1962 and finish on the podium. With that being said, our focus is on daily improvement, enjoying the process, and winning the moment in front of us."

2. Elmhurst (York)

Head Coach/Assistant Coaches: Charlie Kern / Jim Hedman, Matt Mimlitz, Reed Sundberg

Last Year's Finish: 3A ShaZam XC Championships- 3rd place

Key Returners: Ethan Summer (Sr.), Jackson Geiger (Sr.), Garrett Schwan (Sr.), Jeff Luka (Sr.), Eric Rutherford (Sr.), Colin Lewandowski (Sr.), Payton Bryk (Jr.)

New Additions: Max Zangan (Fr.), Iain Davies (So.) 

Coach Kern's Outlook: "We have the same goals every year - individual goals: work hard and focus on self-improvement. Team goals - a single digit split on 1-5, compete for the WSC Championship, and compete for a top-three place at the IHSA state championship."

Carson's Outlook: The Dukes return another great team. A surprise 3rd place finish at ShaZam last year, was a great way to end a very frustrating season for the Dukes after getting quarantined multiple times last season. They return 3 members of that team this season, led by the duo of Ethan Summers and Jackson Geiger who both had breakout races at the event. If they can get their next 3 a little closer to those two they will be able to compete for a state title this season.