By Michael Newman

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Was there any doubt that Jack Aho (Grayslake Central HS) would be named again for this award? There was no mystery in the 2A Boys State Meet race when he ran away from the field to run 14:12 to win the race by 15 seconds ahead of his brother Matt. Perhaps one of the best moments of the year was after Matt finishing the two hugging after the finish. Their 1-2 finish propelled Grayslake Central to a 2^nd place finish in that state race.

Aho went undefeated against 2A runners during the season. His only defeat was at the Palatine Invitational when he finished 3^rd in the race only 2 seconds behind York’s Charlie Kern and Lake Zurich’s Brian Griffith. He ran under 15 minutes for 3 miles 5 times including his state race. Aho also did some big things during the post season qualifying for both national races. We will get into that in detail in the write-up for the Boys Athlete of the Year.

For the second year in a row, we congratulate Jack Aho of Grayslake Central High School in Grayslake, Illinois as the DyeStat Illinois 2016 2A Boys Cross Country of the Year.