October 21, 2001
BY TINA AKOURIS STAFF REPORTER
Glenbard South senior Micah VanDen-end has two races down and two to go in his quest for a state cross-country title. VanDenend won the Glenbard South regional Saturday at Village Green in Glen Ellyn in 15:03. His regional title goes along with the Suburban Prairie Conference crown he won last weekend.
Glenbard South also won the team title with 29 points, ahead of Geneva, which had 62 points, and Wheaton-Warrenville South with 76.
The top five teams advance to the sectionals next Saturday and the top five individuals not on those teams also advance. West Chicago and Kaneland advanced as a team. Junior Anthony Beckneck of Glenbard West and his teammates, seniors Owen Connelly and James Brophy, qualified for sectionals as individuals, along with Batavia seniors Shane Orlow and Alex Nerad.
But no one could stop VanDenend, who stayed close to Geneva teammates Andrew McQuillan (second, 15:26) and Dan Huling (third, 15:30). The three ran together as they approached the mile mark, but VanDenend broke free and never trailed for the remainder of the 3-mile race.
"I'm pretty happy,'' VandDenend said. "I knew I had quite a gap going and my goal was to break 15 [minutes] today, and just sit through the first mile and hang on to those guys and then try to take off and see how well I could run. I put in a good surge and tried to break those [Geneva] guys up.''
"We just wanted to go out like we normally do and run a 4:50 or 4:55 [mile] and stay with the front guys,'' McQuillan said. "I wasn't surprised at all [at VanDenend's time] because last week he was saving himself. I know he's capable of running a 15 easily."
Glenbard South junior Meggie Grube won the girls race in 16:20 after beating out West Chicago sophomore Christy Adduci in a 200-meter sprint to the finish. Adduci finished in 16:21. Wheaton South won the team title with 44 points and West Chicago was second with 65. Glenbard South finished third with 68 points.
"I was just hanging on and at [the Suburban Prairie Conference] meet last week it was the exact same way,'' said Grube, who also won the conference meet last week. "I thought if I could do it then I could do it now."
PUBLIC LEAGUE: Morgan Park senior Gibran Jones and senior Jose Macias of Farragut ran neck and neck for 15 minutes, changing leads between each other six times, but Jones was able to pull away to win the boys race in the Public League City Championship at Horner Park.
"We race against each other a lot,'' Jones said. "I didn't think I could hold the lead against [Macias], so I just held on and then made the push at the end.''
Jones finished at 15:43.0. Macias was third at 16:07 behind senior Emiliano Perez of Kennedy who ran a 15:48.0.
"Our goal all season long has been to get Gibran in the top 25 [in the state]," Morgan Park coach Monica Dawson said. "This sport is just as much of a mental challenge as it is physical. It took a long time to get him mentally to that point where he knew he could win.''
Kennedy won the team title for both the boys and girls. In the boys, the Crusaders won with 59 points over Northside College Prep (65) and Mather (74).
For the girls, Macias' twin sister Laura won by a landslide finishing at 15:44.0. Kennedy's Elizabeth Carrillo came in second at 16:12.0, and Arien O'Connell of Lincoln Park took third at 16:33.0.
It was the first time a Kennedy girls team in any sport had won a city title.
Rafer Weigel