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player ready...Anthony Farmer is wise enough to know there are no guarantees during the postseason in boys cross country.
Burlington Central had the unenviable task of traveling to the Class 2A Kaneland Regional over the weekend.
“I think definitely Kaneland is the team to beat (at state),” Burlington Central coach Vince Neil said after the Knights eased to the title Saturday with four runners in the top five at Maple Park.
Farmer was the only runner in the field to buck Kaneland’s avalanche at the top. Then again, the senior standout is no stranger to competing at the highest level in the state.
Farmer followed an all-state sophomore season with the signature showing in program history. He delivered a third-place finish in 14 minutes, 53.35 seconds at Detweiller Park in Peoria.
But Kaneland’s Austin Adams was not about to be denied on his home course Saturday. Farmer had to settle for being the runner-up in 15:22.5 to Adams’ 15:15.7.
Farmer is undeterred, however, with the Belvidere Sectional approaching on Saturday.
“As much as I wanted to win, you have to think the end result,” Farmer said. “Even though you want to win all these meets, the thing that matters the most is state.
“As much as I wanted to go out and run with Austin Adams, at the end, I knew he was a stronger runner than me right now.”
Farmer also is incredibly resilient.
He returned from a broken jaw suffered in a freak accident at school last winter to run an indispensable leg last spring on Burlington Central’s state runner-up finish in the 3,200-meter relay.
“I know I gave it everything I had, and that’s all that matters,” Farmer said of facing Adams. “I took it almost like a workout. I can’t win them all. I had a negative split (Saturday).”
The Rockets finished fourth at Kaneland with 108 points to advance to Belvidere as a team. Burlington Central’s Gio Martinez and Robert Perry finished 11th and 13th at Kaneland, respectively.
Taking aim: The LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve will be the epicenter of potentially a titanic clash Saturday between the best 3A boys from the Elgin, Aurora and Naperville areas.
Host St. Charles East has been the consensus top-ranked team in the state since late September, with a host of impressive invitational victories and a razor-thin triumph over defending state champion Wheaton Warrenville South for the DuKane Conference title.
But Iowa-bound Huntley senior Ian Geisler has grand aspirations to better his runner-up finish in last year’s sectional.
Geisler, who won the Rockton Hononegah Regional, has been all-state the last two years.
“He’s poised to win a sectional championship,” Huntley coach Matt Kaplan said of Geisler. “I expect him to have a great finish for the final two weeks of his senior season.”
Headlining the contenders: Last week at LeRoy Oakes, the 3A St. Charles North Regional featured four of the top 18 girls at state from a year ago.
Reigning state runner-up Katrina Schlenker of Batavia won the regional, with St. Charles East junior Alice Abbott, South Elgin sophomore Naomi Ruff and St. Charles North sophomore Rachel Price taking second, third and fourth, respectively.
Abbott, Ruff and Price met a similar fate against Schlenker in last year’s state meet. Abbott took ninth, Ruff was 12th and Price ended up 18th.
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Bartlett sophomore Jenna Buchanan also bears watching in the sectional.
Kevin McGavin is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.