There was some high-stakes drama in the boys cross-country competition at the recent West Suburban Silver Conference Meet at Katherine Legge Park in Hinsdale.
York won the conference title by one point over Downers Grove North (48-49) and finished two points ahead of third-place Hinsdale Central (48-50).
The Dukes had runners cross in third, sixth, 10th, 11th and 18th place, while Downers North had runners finish second, fifth, 12th, 13th and 17th. Hinsdale had runners finish first, seventh, ninth, 14th and 19th.
York also beat Downers Grove North at the varsity level last season. Kern called this year’s Downers North team powerful and one of the premier teams of the past five years.
York junior Patrick Hill was third in the conference race with a time of 15:11.20 on the three-mile layout. Junior George Knott was sixth in 15:17.30, while senior Harrison Manternach was 10th at 15:33.60. Jackson Bohlin finished 11th in 15:35.70, while junior Michael Gurgone was 18th in 15:47.10.
Breaking down the race, Downers North held a 7-9 points edge for the first two runners, but York made the difference in the third and fourth runners (Manternach and Bohlin), holding a 21-25 advantage. Downers made up a point with the fifth runner (17-18 in place finish).
In fact, Hinsdale held a 17-19 (York and Downers North) edge when adding up the first three scoring runners, but both Hinsdale and Downers fell off when adding the fifth and sixth runners with York’s fifth and sixth counting 29 points to Downers’ 30 points and Hinsdale’s 33 — again demonstrating the critical importance of depth and pack running.
York’s runners averaged 15:28.03 and its spread from first to fifth runner was 35 seconds. Going into the meet Kern noted Duke runners needed to be within 30 seconds of Hill in order for the Dukes to win the crown, an almost spot-on prediction.
Senior Andres Dochoff was 24th in 15:59.30 and sophomore Jacob McKillop was 27th in 16:04.8 for the Dukes, who placed all their runners in the top 30 and six of seven in the top 25.
Earlier, York took second at the Peoria Central invitational. New Trier edged York by four points. Hill won the Peoria Central individual title in 14:42.
“It was the first time we have had our full varsity lineup compete together,” said Kern, who noted his team was ranked inside the top five in Class 3A recently and is looking to continue to move up.
Kern said the Dukes continue to add power and thanks and credits that to assistant coach Nicholas Karavolos. “This combined with the mileage we have been accumulating this year and we have seen so much improvement,” he said.
York also won the WSC Silver sophomore team title. The Dukes finished with 46 points. Hinsdale Central was second with 69 points.
Sophomore Joey McKillop was fifth in 16:16.40, while sophomore Ethan Alanis was sixth at 16:36.70. Freshman James Krupa was 10th in 16:55.70, while sophomore Thomas Rosso was 11th in 16:58.90. Sophomore Nathan Chan was 14th in 17:15.70.
York’s sophomores averaged 16:48 for three miles and its first-to-fifth split was 59 seconds.
Kern noted freshman James Krupa was moved up to the sophomore level to compete with York’s top sophomore runners in the WSC Silver meet.
“We have been proud of the improvement of all our guys, but a few stand out this year,” Kern said.
Specifically, junior Harrison Cahill, Kern explained, has been on a trajectory of improvement over the course of the year. Kern noted last year Cahill ran a personal best of 17:30 for three miles and this year dropped that time to 16:26 heading into the conference meet.
Kern added senior Michael Naples has been one of York’s hardest workers and has reaped the benefit. As a freshman, Naples logged 24:32 for three miles and got that down to 17:46 heading into the conference meet.
In the JV WSC Silver meet, York took third with 83 points. Cahill was fourth individually with a time of 16:25.30. Senior Ignas Zemaitatis was 15th in 16:41.10. Junior James Lower was 16th with a time of 16:41.20, while junior Emmett Carroll was 23rd in 16:51.10. Naples was 31st with a time of 17:13.60, 32 seconds better than his previous low and more than seven minutes lower than his freshman time.
