Defending 3A champion Hinsdale Central, led by a pair of all-state runners, will feel the heat from West Suburban Silver rivals Oak Park-River Forest and York.
Elmwood Park
The Tigers are coming off a 25th-place finish in Class 2A last year and coach Patrick Sheridan sees continued success for this year’s crop of runners.
Returning from last year are seniors Dante Bruno, Keit Dine, Nick Wojcik and Cameron Rybak, and sophomore Justin Nieves.
“Every one of our returning guys ran a personal best downstate last year, and that doesn’t usually happen,” Sheridan said. “These guys work hard and everything came together on that one day.”
Bruno and Dine ran the Tigers’ two best times in Peoria last year.
Senior Tyler Starnes is a track runner competing in cross country for his first time, and Sheridan expects good things from him and other newcomers like junior Jeremy Rybak, sophomore Devon Schumann and freshman Carlos Sanchez.
“Tyler is legally blind and deaf and he works like no other person I’ve ever seen in my life,” Sheridan said. “He gets better every time he runs and I think he’ll be our number three guy.”
Hinsdale Central
When a team is two-time defending Class 3A state champion, it has targets on its back and high expectations on the mind.
Not that coach Jim Westphal will allow his team to be overly concerned with downstate placement in 2015.
“The expectation is to run well and not worry so much about other teams,” Westphal said. “We won’t focus on a number, but just go in and prepare and hope we end up in that top mix of teams.”
This year’s Red Devils will be led at the outset by junior Blake Evertsen and senior Chris Brenk, who respectively finished 12th and 25th downstate last year.
“They’re both hard-working, talented kids and they had strong summers of training,” Westphal said. “But we won’t really know until the first few weeks of the season how close together they’ll be.”
Also returning from last year’s top seven is junior Ethan Planson. Central will also rely on seniors Nathan Hill and Andrew Irvine and a pair of varsity newcomers in sophomore Neil O’Connel and junior Jacob Belgrad.
Oak Park-River Forest
It’s always good to have a team comprised of upperclassmen.
“We have a lot of experienced seniors and a lot of juniors that will be pushing them this year,” Huskies coach Chris Baldwin said. “We’re pretty balanced on the junior-senior level.”
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Leading the way will be junior Irwin Loud, who placed 11th downstate in Class 3A last year with a time of 14 minutes, 39 seconds.
“Irwin surprised a lot of people in the fall last year and he’s just impressive,” Baldwin said. “He’s a warrior and there will be a lot of attention focused on him. He’ll grind it out and set the pace.”
Senior Kimathi Johnson has impressed and he’ll return with senior veterans Jack Monaghan, Henry Harper and Marty Pimentel. Others aiming to join the mix will be juniors Matthew Politis and Eric Mulshine, senior Nick Martire and sophomore Matthew Veitzen.
York
York’s heralded program placed sixth in Class 3A last year and one of the Dukes set a downstate record.
“Charlie Kern finished eighth downstate in the fastest time ever recorded by a freshman,” York assistant coach Matt Mimlitz said.
Kern will look to improve on his downstate time of 14:36 as York chases its 28th team state title under legendary head coach Joe Newton. The Dukes graduated only one senior from last year’s team, and this year’s crop of veteran seniors includes Max Denning, Jon May, Devin Davies, and Tom Devereux. Junior Liam Hill also returns for the Dukes.
At last year’s state finals, those five runners were separated by just 33 seconds.
Senior Robert Tomaska, junior Creighton Wolff, and sophomores Jackson Bode and Sean MacGregor are all running in York’s top 10.
“I’ll be honest, any one of those top 10 guys could run in the state meet at the end of the season,” Mimlitz said.
Gary Larsen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press