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The 3A division is deep, and it's kind of unfair to rank more than 25 teams. Sit back and enjoy what some of the quality teams in the classification have to say.
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Head Coach/assistant coaches: Dave Fermanich/Angel Macias, Tom d'Ambrosio
Last year's finish: Lake Park Sectional- 9th place
Key returners: Alex Czerwionka (Jr.), Collin Frye (Jr.), Lucas Runtz (Jr.), Gavin Cook (Jr.), Brendan Tremblay (Jr.), Gabriel Szfranko (Jr.), Anthony Murphy (Sr.)
Newcomers: Billy Kotty (So.), Nic Walendzewicz (So.), Nathan Looby (So.)
Outlook: Despite some notable graduations, loss of key leadership, and injury to top returner Alex Czerwionka, new coach Dave Fermanich is optimistic about his team's fortunes. "Despite an early setback with Alex's injury, the outlook is bright," he said.
"With a solid top four and a
growing pool of competitive fifth through seventh runners, this group has the depth and talent to
return to the IHSA State Meet, something that hasn't been accomplished in the past two seasons." This season is going to be a challenge for the Hawks, but if all goes well in terms of health, this could be a top 15 team.
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Jon Burnett/ Craig Munie, Anna Munie
Last year's finish: State Championship- 24th place
Key returners: Brayden Kloeppel (Sr), Jackson Gherardini (Sr), Jamison Gherardini (Jr), Miles Cintron (Jr)
Outlook: For the first time in years, the Panthers will be unranked and in a rebuilding situation. "We are returning several members from last season's team," said coach Jon Burnett. "The
guys have had a solid summer of training. We are hoping to improve on last season's
performance." Top returner Brayden Kloeppel, who placed 59th last year at state, is the bright spot. The Panthers will need to build a strong pack behind them to get back to Peoria in November.
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Mike Wolf, Mike Franchowiak (Asst.)
Last year's finish: Harlem Regional- 7th place
Newcomers: Timmy Durand (Fr.), Will Greer (Fr.)
Outlook: Coach Mike Wolf acknowledges that his team will need to be more reliant on a pack play versus relying on a standout performer. "We are going to have to rely on a strong group to be
successful," he stated. "We don't have the low stick that we have had for the past few years
due to graduation."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Jeff Purdom/ Kyle Draghi
Last year's finish: Minooka Regional- 9th place
Newcomers: Spencer Kazak, Sam Napoleon
Coach Purdom's outlook: "The Wildcats are a very young team this season, lots of room for continued growth. The team will go as the pack goes."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Chris Muth, Lauren Vriezen, Tori Gatlin, Kerry Stillmunkes
Last year's finish: State Championship- 26th place
Key returners: Owen Horeni (Sr), Ayden Nydegger (Jr), James Cherney (Jr), Carter Reichert (So), Nicholas Sanchez (So)
Outlook: The Foxes will face a rebuilding situation. "We lost a ton of seniors with lots of varsity experience, lamented coach Chris Muth. "We are replacing those seniors with young, upcoming talent that lacks experience."
Back is the veteran star Owen Horeni, who earned all-state honors last year. The stud middle-distance runner has the potential to break into the top 10 at state. Coach Muth will put his trust in the development of his charges, and hopefully by season's end, the Foxes will be in a position to exceed last year's placement.
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Joey Pacione, Alberto Villa
Last year's finish: Glenbard West Regional- 7th place
Key returners: Nick Sheklarevski (Sr), Nick Zegger (Sr), Chris Cozzo (Sr), Jael Jimenez-Perez (Sr). Juniors Brandon Arguello (Jr), Mark Biernacki (Jr), Christien Gallant (Jr), Tommy Jalowiec (Jr), Rishab Kulkarni (Jr), William Pavlik (Jr), Tim Dellaria (So), Lukas Svabas (So)
Outlook: The Lancers have shown improvement in the program, according to coach Joey Pacione. "The boys have been steadily improving over the last few years," he said. They have started with the all-important pack and now may have two front-runners in Nick Zegger and Nick Sheklarevski. The training has been great, and if the guys can continue to progress, placing higher in the DuKane conference or even advancing to sectionals would be a tremendous accomplishment.
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Rich Gatz, Tim Thompson
Last year's finish: Waubonsee Valley Regional- 10th place
Key returners: John Berducido (Sr), Grant Withaeger (Sr), Chris Johnson (So), Evan Breese (Sr), Tristan Dravo (Sr),
Dominic Taylor (Sr), Jack Chlebos (Sr), Alexander Johnstone (Sr), Raphael Ordeneza (So)
Newcomers: Azhaam Afeef, Sam Stone, Wesley Fair, Brock Chlebos, Adrian Osuna
Outlook: This could be the season that the Bengals have one of their best seasons in quite a while. Led by outgoing seniors: John
Berducido, Grant Withaeger, Tristan Dravo, Dominic Taylor, Evan Breese, Alex Johnstone, and
Jack Chlebos, they put in the work over the summer. The goal is to place in the top half of the SPC Championship and qualify for sectionals.
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Kyle Nugent and Kurt Frazier
Last year's finish: State Championship- 25th place
Newcomers: Nathan Ho, Judah Cabral, Eli Tedford, Eliott Locke, Luke Dupuy, Dean Plahetka
Outlook: The Hilltoppers will see a massive change from a team used to competing well among the giants of the WSC Silver and the state, to now dealing with a rebuilding project. "We graduated a big chunk of our varsity team from last year, but we have a really solid group of incoming juniors that are ready to make the jump, said coach Kyle Nugent. Leading the way for the squad will be Matt King. He ran 9:15 and 4:19 on the track during the spring. There is a good chance of him vying for all-state honors as well as pushing his emerging teammates to new heights.
Head Coach: Ryan Hollister/Rachel Hollister, Cindy Wagner
Last Year's Finish: Lake Park Sectional- 14th place
Key Returners: Hudson Cuplin (So), Logan Legge (So), Nigel Gay (Jr), Lucas Bailye (Jr), Tyler Krauss (Jr), Alexander Lewis (Jr), Marcus Davis (Sr).
Key Newcomers: Jaylen Person, Hayden Haegele, and Lucas Pagan
Outlook: Just one senior among the main core makes Whip-Purs one of the youngest varsity teams in the state. We'll have a young team this season, but this is a very enthusiastic group with a lot of depth. Hudson Cuplin earned all FVC last season and Loggan Legge is the top returner based on time (16:21). Jaylen Person is a notable contributor, who had a strong summer session.
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Bobby Matz, Matt Gonnella
Last year's finish: Normal Community Sectional- 13th place
Newcomers: Zach Orbon
Coach Matz's outlook: "Our front four guys should provide us with experience and consistency throughout the season. We have a group of guys who will be battling for the fifth through seventh spots on our roster, and hopefully that healthy competition will push all of the boys to maximize their potential and give our team the missing piece that we need to achieve our team goal of qualifying for state!!
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Brian O'Donnell, Matt Anyiwo
Last year's finish: Lockport Regional- 7th place
Key returners: Bennett Matthys (Jr), Henry Maier (So), Gregory Mitchell (Sr), Adrian Sahagun (So), Branko Ivancevic (So), Jackson Alsberry (Sr)
Newcomers: Roy Smith
Outlook: The entire scoring five have graduated making this season a complete rebuild. The new group worked hard this summer according to the coaching staff.
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Doug Cherry,
Last year's finish: Minooka Regional - 10th place
Newcomers:
Emmanuel Ramos
Outlook: "We have some guys training consistently this summer," coach Doug Cherry stated. "Depth could be an issue as the season gets rolling.
Nathaniel Gabriel has had some injury issues this summer. We are hoping to have him healthy and training by the start of the season." Hopefully, Gabriel can improve enough to assist his mates in meeting the established goals they have set over the summer.
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Brian Caldwell, Mike Kirk, Greg Maloney, Sean Senf
Last year's finish: Hinsdale Sectional- 9th place
Key returners:
Conrad Saner (Jr), John Clinton (Sr), William Miller (Sr), A.J. Handy (Sr), Chris Janota (Sr), Andrew Erdal (Sr), Harris Kelliher (Sr), Thomas O'Connor (Jr), Jonathan Robinson (Sr), Jakub Kranz (So), Charlie Delapaz (Jr), Aditya Kota (Jr), Ethan Traugott (Sr)
Newcomers:
Henry Baker (from soccer), Gabe Gumban
Outlook: "We've had a tremendous summer of training and, more importantly, coming together as a team," said coach Brian Caldwell, who is excited about the upcoming season. "The culture is really in an excellent place, and the 'Best Friends' theme that we'd cultivated a few years ago seems to be legitimately back."
The Mustangs are a good team and could have easily squeezed inside the preseason 25 rankings. "We are a better team and deeper than last year. If we can get a few breakthroughs, we should be able to compete with most teams in the state," said a confident Caldwell. He has a reason to be optimistic with his two top runners back, Conrad Saner and John Clinton (4:15 and 4:20 in the 1600m). Both were under 15:20 last year as well.
#3 returner Will Miller is ready to unleash an outstanding cross country season after a breakthrough track campaign where he showed prowess in everything from the 400m through the 3200m, according to Caldwell. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the fifth man and depth. Adds Caldwell: "It's going to be interesting to see who fills out the top seven, as we have a ton of depth of guys who could make the jump to being excellent varsity contributors. We had 15 returners run under 5:00 in the 1600, and a handful more just missed, and ALL of them have put in the work to get better this summer."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Kari Turcan/Gavin Dillehay
Last year's finish: Lake Park Sectional- 17th place
Key returners: Nathan Baker (Sr), Adrian Benedetto (Jr), Aldrin Boongaling (Sr), Josiah Lindsey (Sr)
Newcomers: Graham Altergott
Outlook: The rebuilding process for the Storm will continue for the foreseeable future. Coach Turcan lost seven of her top ten runners from the previous year. "We definitely need
members of this year's team to really step up to fill those big shoes," she indicated on a somber note. "After finishing 3rd in
last year's regional meet, our highest finish to date, we will likely struggle this year to
make it out of regional as a team."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Kevin Christian/Chris Keller, Michael Hanley, Tom Smith, Robert Underwood, Ruth Howarth
Last year's finish: Hoffman Estates Sectional- 18th place
Key returners: Gavin Glosson (So), Alex Taskov (So), Nathan Pierzchalski (Jr), Andrew Kroeger (Jr), Doyle Watson (So), Zac Anderson (So), Austin Stevenson (Sr), Mehdi Abdagic (Sr)
Newcomers: Tommy Wetzel (Fr), Joey Flaskamp (Fr), Camden Borkowski (Fr)
Outlook: Losing Max Sudrzynski and his leadership will be tough to replace, said coach Kevin Christian. The boys, in return, have worked hard over the summer, and hopefully, some of the key returners will benefit from this effort. However, the team has stepped up and is working as hard as ever. Gavin Glosson, Alex Taskov, and Nathan Pierzchalski step up in a huge way this season.
Coaches: Matt Kaplan/Jason Monson, Brandy Swanson, Jimmy Jestus
Last year's finish: Lake Park Sectional- 11th place
Key returners: Andrew Raistrick (Sr), Nathan Sauber (Sr), Brandon Thompson (Jr), Mark Omoniyi (So), Logan Barreto (Sr), Anthony Madison (So)
Newcomers: Joseph Sittler (Fr), Joseph Zawacki (Fr), Luca Meriacre (Fr)
Outlook: It has been seven seasons since the Red Raiders competed in the state championship. Despite graduating its star Tommy Nitz, six of eight runners are back and hungry. "This group will be led up front by Andrew Raistrick and Nathan Sauber," said coach Matt Kaplan. "Raistrick had a great spring track season (4:19/9:40) and we expect him to help lead the team to an improved finish come postseason."
Adds Kaplan: "With the new additions of freshmen Sittler, Zawacki, and Meriacre, our boys' team will look to have some new faces up front running for the team. This group needs to improve in its ability to crack into the top group of runners at the end-of-season meets. This group will look to improve each week, and we're looking forward to seeing just how good they can be at the end of the year."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Peter Raak/Ben Jeffrey, Tom Robertson
Last year's finish: Lake Park Sectional- 13th place
Key returners: Mack Biesk (Sr)
Newcomers: Ian DeGuzman, Griffin Poterek, Connor McInerney, Dylan Edling, Liam Dwyer,
Matt Bultmann, Gabe Oschenschlager, Kurt Borter
Coach Raak's comments: "This year will be one where we focus on maintaining our
traditions and growth and maturity with the younger athletes who will be called upon to
step up. We graduated 6 of our top 7 last year. We will rely on a few good seniors to lead
the way, but also on our sophomores to step into the big stage of varsity races more than
usual. We have a great group of sophomores, and will need several of them to really
breakthrough and compete at that level."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Jarrin Williams, Anthony Pena
Last year's finish: Minooka
Regional- 7th place
Newcomers: Chase Jared
Coach Williams' thoughts: "Based upon who should be returning, we could win the Western Big
Six Conference and qualify from Regionals to Sectionals, but a couple of key returnees are iffy."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Max Crowninshield/Picasso Russell, Kimari Lewis, Jaclyn Borrowman
Last year's finish: Lyons Township Regional- 8th Place
Key returners:
Aedric Addington (Sr), Matthew Richlen (Jr), Ignas Petrus (Jr), Cesar Garcia (Jr), Benjamin Smaroff (Jr), Nathan Garino (Jr), Charles Iain Blair (Jr), Diego Magellanes, Sinan Abuzayd (Jr)
Newcomers:
Thomas Becker
Coach Crowinshield's thoughts: "We have a very solid team with a lot of depth. We have 12 guys that could be on out top 7. We have made a really big jump this spring, and the work these guys have put in over the summer should have us on a new level this fall. We hope to be competing near the top of the CPL again and being a sectional qualifying team."
Head Coach: Miguel Parra Garcia/ Zach Crandall
Last year's finish: Hoffman Estates Sectional- 12th place
Key returners: Riley Wold (Sr), Nate Lipani (Sr), Will Capito (Sr), Grant Preusker (Sr), Alex Hernandez, Luke Hilgeman (So), Patrick Romanski (So)
Newcomers: Arcangel Trujillo
Coach Garcia's thoughts: "Last year we qualified to Sectionals as a team for the first time since the 2015 season and are looking to continue to build on that success. This senior-led group has been training hard all summer and is looking to improve from last year's 12th-place finish at sectionals. The boys are putting in a lot of quality miles and have been pushing each other all summer. Our ultimate goal is to qualify for the state meet as a team."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Kevin Veselik/John Duffy
Last year's finish: 2A State Championship- 17th Place
Key returners:
Bob Johnson (Sr), John Pogue (Sr), Will Schaeffer (Sr), Martin Collings (Sr), Jonas Frangella (Sr), Declan Diamond (Sr), Liam Hruby (So), Ben Marks (So)
Newcomers: Damian Schulz (Fr)
Coach Veselik's comments: "We've had a great summer of training with a committed group of guys looking to run fast this
fall. Seniors Bob Johnson and John Pogue are looking to build off of very successful track
seasons and have been putting in the miles this summer to do so. The dedication of our seniors
this summer will hopefully lead to some personal bests, but has also been key in setting an
example for the entire team. We have an outstanding group of seniors ready for their turn to lead
our team."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Tom Root/Matt Medansky, Al Sekulic
Last year's finish: State Championship- 9th place
Key returners: Will Schneider (Jr), Ryan Scott (Jr), Charlie Sukel (Sr), Matias Carvajal (Jr), Benny Sulikowski (Jr), Varun Dhanasekaran (Jr), Caden Carver (So)
Outlook: The Broncos come into the season unranked for the first time in years. They are projected to be in the middle of the pack of the MSL, as five of the top seven have graduated. Still, despite being inexperienced, coach Tom Root is optimistic about the team's season prospects. " On the whole, when it comes to high-level varsity racing, they have been a hungry underclassmen group these last couple of years, and I'm very excited to see what they can accomplish this fall."
Coaches: Nate Roe, Sean Frintner, David Christensen
2024 Finish: State Championship- 23rd place
Newcomers: Levi Turner (Jr), Judah Clark (Jr), Logan Augustine (Sr), Owen O'Mara (Sr), Reid Goerzen (So)
Outlook: The Falcons return four of their top seven, but graduated their powerful top three. So it will be a work in progress, according to coach Nate Roe. He was proud of the summer training that the guys put in, and that will eventually pay dividends.
Head Coach/assistant coaches:
Kevin Gummerson, Matt Clark, Ashley Tutt, Jes Hopkins, Leslie Hencinski
Last year's finish: Normal Community Sectional- 9th place.
Key Returners: Nico Cimino (12), Nate Schalk (12), Alex Null (12), Ryan Resar (10), Jase Cook (12), Vaughn Van Eck (11), Samuel Kies (10), Nathan Janulis (11), Cayson Traxler (11), Bryce Fuhrman (12), Joshua Reece (11)
Outlook: The Indians return a strong group led by Nico Cimino, who placed 36th in the state meet. Coach Kevin Gummerson is excited about his team's prospects this season. "We've got a strong group of returners this year, and what really stands out is their excitement about the potential of this team," he said with glee. "They've been putting in a great summer of training and came into the season hungry to compete. After missing a team trip to State the last two years, they're focused and determined to change that."
Head Coach/assistant coaches: Joe Sullivan /Jacob Woodruff
Last year's finish: Elk Grove Regional- 11th place
Newcomers: Naode Abreha, Natnal Tekle, Abdirahman Mahad
Outlook: After finishing 11th in the CPL Championship and at the Elk Grove Regional, coach Joe Sullivan's troops were able to build confidence through a strong track season. Top runner Yacoub Fedjer ran 9:33.95 in the 3200m. His experience and leadership should provide some surprises this fall.