Hinsdale South
The Hornets placed ninth in Class 2A last year, led by returning seniors Charlie Nodus and Roman Drabchuk. Nodus placed eighth downstate in 14 minutes, 53 seconds and Drabchuk finished nine seconds behind in 22nd place.
The two classmates will push each other in the best possible way in 2015.
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“They’re best friends and have a friendly rivalry with each other,” Hinsdale South coach Jim Dickerson said. “At this point I’m not sure which of them will be number one and which will be our number two runner.”
Returning junior Chris Joseph and sophomore transfer student Brett Haffner (St. Ignatius) should compete for the third and fourth spots, with senior Brian Jordan, returning senior Tristan Ramirez and sophomore Trevor Schauer giving chase in the third group of runners.
“I know Roman and Charlie will be way up there, so the closer we can get our second and third group to them, the better we’ll be,” Dickerson said.
Class 3A Downers Grove South figures to be the class of this year’s West Suburban Gold, but Dickerson sees his boys battling the Mustangs in the conference meet.
Leyden
Leyden’s cross country team intends to fight the good fight again in 2015.
“We’re serious about improving our consistency and we’re focused on getting better every day,” coach Brad Henning said. “We want to qualify two or three runners to the sectionals and finish 3-3 or better in conference.”
Downers Grove South, Hinsdale South and Morton figure to vie for the top spot in the WSC Gold and Henning believes his Eagles match up well with Willowbrook and Addison Trail.
Senior Alan Prado is a returning Class 3A sectional qualifier and the Eagles’ top returning runner.
Junior Nathan Diazleal has shown steady improvement, and senior Anthony Avalos is a hard worker who should push his teammates this season. Junior Ivan Perez improved over the summer and junior Alexis Salgado is a converted soccer player who Henning believes will impact this year’s team.
“Every year we’re trying to steadily improve and this year’s team is slightly inexperienced,” Henning said. “But I see potential and we have eight or nine freshmen and sophomores that have showed real commitment to the sport.”
Lyons
The Lions graduated four seniors from last year’s third-place Class 3A team but return their top two downstate finishers in senior Connor Madell and junior Vince Zona.
Madell placed 15th with a time of 14:42 last season and Zona’s time of 14:58 placed him 35th. The Lions also return senior Matt Begeman from last year’s state trophy winners.
Sophomore Kevin Kilrea and junior Alex Pall also saw varsity action last year and Lyons will also rely on contributions from seniors Tim McCarthy and Andrew Best, and juniors Graham Kutchek, Roland VanTassell, Tyler Morales, John Hagan, Dan Palmer and Alex Lynch.
The Lions will have their hands full again in arguably the state’s toughest conference for cross country, the WSC Silver, against two-time defending state champion Hinsdale Central, perennial state power and sixth-place finisher York and Downers Grove North, which placed second in Class 3A in 2013.
Gary Larsen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.