By Michael Newman

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The Richard Spring Invitational told us two things last Saturday that we presumed from the start of the season. Wheaton-Warrenville South showed they are a national quality team. We also discovered that even that 2A top ranked Chatham-Glenwood did not have a great team race, they are still the team to beat in that classification.

We also briefly at some of the sectional assignments that were released last Friday night by the IHSA.

ILXCTF State and Sectional Rankings Page

3A Boys

We found out how good Wheaton-Warrenville South in their convincing win at the Richard Spring Invitational with a 13 second split on their top five (four of the runners under 15-minutes) and a top six split of only 28 seconds with six runners in the top 24. The scary thing is that five of their top seven are only juniors.

St. Charles East’s race at Lake Park was good. The race last Saturday at Peoria was better as the Saints demonstrated that with their second-place finish at Richard Spring. This team is good as they placed their top five runners in the top 54 led by top 10 finishes from Bob Liking and Bennett Melone. Their top five split was 51 seconds. The addition of Frosh/Soph race winner Micah Wilson cuts that split down to 40 seconds. We could see Wilson on the varsity level soon. Charles Murphy was the team’s fourth runner at Lake Park. He was the team’s sixth runner in Peoria. Getting Murphy back into the pack makes this team extremely tough.

Neuqua Valley showed their pack running in their third-place finish with only 32 seconds separating their top five led by Michael Madiol and Chris Keeley. Hersey finished fourth at Peoria behind Josh Methner’s individual win. The split on five for the Huskies was 74 seconds with 27 seconds separating the pack behind Methner. Ryan Buch and Max Svienty, their second and third runners, were farther back than expected. Watch for those two runners to be near the top 10 on Saturday at Palatine.

Sandburg had a dynamite first four split of 15 seconds off the 23^rd place finish from Ben Giblin to finish fifth at Peoria. Their top five split was 37 seconds. This team will thrive off good pack running in 2018. Watch for a tighter pack in their next race in Peoria next week. York was the biggest mover in the rankings finishing sixth in Peoria behind top 15 finishes from Ethan Kern and Daniel Klysh. York moves from #17 to #9. The Dukes had eight of their 14 runners in Peoria under 16-minutes. The addition of their Frosh/Soph team up to the Varsity level should make this team a top five squad. It's not a matter of if but when.

Three teams enter into the top 25 this week. Although Naperville North finished 12^th at the Richard Spring Invitational, their team jumps to #16 from unranked due in part to their Frosh/Soph team’s performance. Nicholas Trattner led the Huskies with a 19^th place finish as the team ran a 92 second split on their top five. Add in freshman Gabriel Ryan and sophomore Chase Burrell and that split drops from 92 seconds to 54 seconds.

O’Fallon, who finished eighth at Peoria moves back into the rankings at #20. DeKalb, off a good race in finishing second at Kaneland, moves into the top 25 for the first time at #24.

The IHSA Sectional assignments showed that the Waubonsie Valley Sectional could be the roughest with eight teams in the top 25. Five of those teams are ranked from #16 to #24 making it tough to predict who could get out of this sectional to state. The Niles West Sectional is also tough with six teams ranked, five of those in the top 12. Add in St. Ignatius and Jones Prep who were ranked last week and this sectional gets even rougher.

2A Boys

Chatham-Glenwood did not run a great race last week in Peoria finishing 14^th overall. Still, the Titans are head over heels better than the rest of the 2A teams as of this week’s rankings. Dathan and Drey Maton led this team with top 30 finishes with Dathan running 15:04. Three runners were under 16-minutes from their team with a split of 108 seconds. Cooper Peterson, who normally races up front with the two Maton brothers had an off race as the team’s fourth runner 61 seconds behind Drey Maton. The top five split is big and could hurt them at state. The prospects of their three runners in the top 10 in November could offset that.

The next four teams are interchangeable in the rankings and you will see Bloomington, Kaneland, Dixon, and Benet Academy changing spots throughout the next three weeks. Bloomington moves up to #2 after a good run at Decatur MacArthur. They race in Peoria in two weeks against Chatham-Glenwood. That race could be a dandy. Dixon, who won at FTTF the week before, finished behind Kaneland and ahead of Benet Academy in finishing fourth at Kaneland.

Two teams made HUGE jumps back into the top 10. Mahomet-Seymour finished only 35^th in the Varsity race at Peoria behind Mathias Powell’s third-place individual finish. Three freshmen, led by Jonah Singer, finished in the top 52 in the Frosh/Soph race and are the Bulldogs second through fourth runners. We could see coach Neal Garrison keep the younger runners down on the lower levels to gain racing experience in some of the invitationals. They will be moved up to the varsity team when the time is right.

Danville had been suffering from injuries and various other ailments early in this season. The Vikings ran their best race of the season (so far) finishing second behind Bloomington at Decatur MacArthur last Thursday. Their pack on two to five shrunk down to 43 seconds which makes a difference in this team’s quest into the top five come the state series.

There was not much major movements into or out of the top 25 this week. Centralia is the only new school into the top 25 at #23 after their win at the Olney Invitational.

Kaneland made a good move over the summer telling the IHSA that hey would host the sectional that Wheaton Academy had hosted in 2017. The same applies to Burlington Central who offered to host the regional that would feed into the Kaneland Sectional. It was a good move for the two schools as they got out of the dangerously powerful Woodstock North where good teams sometimes do not get the chance to make it to Peoria. Nine schools at Woodstock North are ranked in the top 25. Consider how tough that would be if those two schools were racing there?

Kaneland, Benet Academy, and Burlington Central are the only ranked teams at Kaneland. Decatur MacArthur’s sectional is also tough with eight ranked teams placed their led by top ranked Chatham-Glenwood. The Fenton Sectional is again the weakest with currently no ranked teams part of that sectional.

1A Boys

Monticello had a good race at Richard Spring finishing 24^th as a team. It moves the Sages closer to top ranked Clifton Central this week but not ahead. Clifton Central was idle last week. Garrett Dixon has emerged as the top 1A runner so far this season and proved that by running 14:58 to finish 11^th. Monticello ran a good two through five pack behind Dixon with only 22 seconds separating the group led by Luke Sokolowski.

Robinson moved up to #4 in the rankings even though they finished fourth behind 1A Benton at Olney last Saturday. Some of that had to due to the fact that top runner Negus Bogard was in Peoria running 15:06 to finish 20^th overall. Add him into their top four from Olney and that moves them into the top five. Robinson’s top four split at Olney was 71 seconds.

Stanford Olympia again displayed some great pack running in winning at Bureau Valley. Their split off Logan Wheeler was only 33 seconds. Urbana University dominated at Tuscola doubling the score on second-place Paxton-Buckley-Loda. The Illiniwek placed three runners in the top nine led by the third-place finish from Aryan Lalwani. U-High’s split on five runners was 92 seconds with a two to five runner split was 65 seconds.

Chicago University Boys’ team is ranked in 1A while the Girls team runs in the 2A classification. The Boys squad made the strides into the top 25 for the first time this year moving into #16 this week after their race at Peoria. Rock Island Alleman, who finished fifth at Bureau Valley, re-enters the rankings at #24. Clinton re-enters the rankings at #25 after their third-place finish at Tuscola.

The Sectional assignments revealed that Monticello was moved back to the Decatur St. Teresa Sectional after racing last year at Elmwood-Brimfield gibing more balance among the five sectional meets. Elmwood-Brimfield’s sectional is still the toughest and deepest with eight ranked teams in the top 25.