It was a mighty crispy early fall weekend at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve, site of the Palatine Meet of Champions. The 30+ girls and boys teams appeared to enjoy the marvelous weather and vibe that cross country had to offer. 

The Prospect girls yearlings continued to dominate the underclassmen ranks, taking the top four slots in the frosh-soph race. The Knights scored 17 points behind the winning exploits of freshman Adelaide Galla, who covered the 2.5-mile distance in 14:57. They now appear ready to step up and compete in the varsity ranks.

The varsity girls saw #1 Barrington strut their stuff without their top runner, junior Mia Sirois, who reaggravated her foot injury. The Fillies' scoring pack went to the front of the pack and never allowed its foes to mount a stake in winning the race. Junior Angelica Hil led the way with a fifth-place finish in 17:40. Behind her were four scorers who polished off a 54-second split that netted 81 points. #2 Hersey proved their value, taking second with 103 tallies.

It was a tight race with some of the elite runners in the state and around the Midwest and seaboard region dueling for three miles. The first mile saw a slew of runners coming through under 5:40, including York sophomore Karlin Janowski. By the second mile, Janowski had the momentum and began pushing away from her pursuers, Mabel George (Sr., Louisville Assumption) and Emaline Foster (So., Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge). 

Janowski totted home with the easy 11-second victory over George in 16:58. Foster was third in 17:12. Marlie Czarniewski (Jr., Plainfield North) paced herself in front of Hil, clocking 17:26.

On the boys' side of the game, it was an opportunity to see #2 Plainfield North, #4 Plainfield South, and perhaps #6 Lake Zurich would fare against one another. However, it was the Illinois picnic spoiler from St. Louis, Missouri, U High coming in and taking the victory by five points over North 141-146. The Billikens remained undefeated by deploying a strong pack-running strategy that produced a 49-second scoring split. Junior Jackson Miller led the way with a fifth-place finish in 14:56.

The Tigers tried to keep things close throughout the race, chewing away at an early sizable deficit while sitting in second place. They were able to close hard in the final mile, dropping over 40 points, but just coming up short.

Plainfield South, on the other hand, started in the back, in 13th place at the first mile. The Cougars began their assault in the middle mile, moving into third place and remaining there, closing out their tallies of 161 points. 

The individual winner was not decided until the closing stages of the race. Early on, it was a nice pack coasting through the first mile in approximately 4:46. By the second mile, things began to stretch out and bog down. Lake Zurich sophomore Karanveer Patil had a slight edge over Neuqua Valley junior Jesse Gudauskas at the second mile, around 9:59-10:00. It appeared as though the pace presser Patil would be able to hold off Gudauskas inside of the final half mile. But no, Gudauskas turned on the jets and motored home for the win in 14:46. Patil took second with a time of 14:48. Palatine senior Alexander Krieg battled through a tough outing at the Richard Spring Invite to take third in 14:49.