X marks the spot as St. Xavier rolls to Boys team win; Under the weather Dunlap dominates Girls team race

Photo: St. Xavier celebrates after their win in the Boys Varsity race (Mike Newman Photo)

By Michael Newman

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Palatine – Maine South’s Tommy Brady was just looking for some shade and liquid after his win Saturday in the Boys Varsity race at the Palatine Invitational Meet of Champions. The same was true for every runner that crossed the sun-baked finish line at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve. By the time the Girls Varsity race started near 10:00 AM, temperatures were in the mid-80’s. It wasn’t the survival of the fittest. It was the survival of the smartest. Brady showed that in his win.

The race seemed tactical as no one really wanted to take the lead as the group passed the first mile in 4:48. St. Xavier’s Patrick Schaefer was the first to push the pace in the next mile with Brady, Alex Tam of Libertyville, Wyatt McIntyre of Athens, and Jack MacNabola of Francis Parker. You can see that Brady wanted to take the lead as he made little surges in the front. He stayed in the pack waiting for the right moment.

Brady waited for the final 100-meters to take the lead ahead of Tam. Brady’s time of 14:44 was three seconds ahead of Tam. McIntyre was next pushing his way across the line in 14:52.

“Last week, I decided to go with a mile to go,” Brady said afterwards. “This week, I waited until the final hill (100-meters to go) because of the heat and not wanting to expend too much energy before that.”

There were problems in the scoring of this race as runners from Mundelein and Plainfield South were missed crossing the line. It did not change St. Xavier on top of the team standings. The Kentucky school, ranked in the top ten nationally, displayed their packing strength as their top five was only separated by 23 seconds on their way to win the team title with 97 points. Schaefer led his team finishing 10th followed by Zach Larkin (14th), Eric Portaro (26th), Thomas Knepshield (27th), and Cooper Marchal (30th).

Mundelein, led by the 21st place finish from Robert St. Clair, displayed a tighter pack placing five runners within 15 seconds of each other in scoring 159 points to finish second. Hinsdale Central (170 points), Plainfield South (190 points), and York (210 points) rounded out the top five teams.

This was the first time that Dunlap had competed in this invitational. “This was all new to us,” Dunlap Coach Chris Friedman said after the race. “It has been a busy week with the team involved in homecoming and some of our runners sick. We still fought through all of it.”

Dunlap did fight through the weather along with the other distractions placing two runners in the first ten on their way to a dominating win in the Girls race. The top ranked team in Class 2A prevailed with 77 points. Campbell Petersen stayed towards the front of the pack leading the Eagles with a fourth-place finish. Franny Verville followed in 8th with Abby Johnson (15th), Kate Piper (22nd), and Macy Priess (29th) rounding out their top five.

Barrington, behind top five finishes from Jocelyn Long and Molly FitzPatrick, scored 160 points to finish second. Lyons Township (160 points), Vernon Hills (161 points), and Palatine (176 points) were the next three teams in.

It was also a matter of patience for Melissa Manetsch of Libertyville in winning the Girls race. Brett Chody of Lake Forest pushed the pace just after the mile as the pack started to string out. Manetsch stayed close to Chody during the second mile making her move just a little over a kilometer to go. Manetsch won her fourth invitational race of the year crossing the line of the 3-mile course in 17:32.6. Barrington’s Jocelyn Long caught Chody just before the line finishing less than a second ahead of the Lake Forest senior (17:38.6–17:39.4). Two freshmen followed as Campbell Petersen edged Molly FitzPatrick for fourth (17:43.1-17:43.6).