Five State Meet Battles With National Implications This Weekend

Nov 04, 2016

Illinois Class 3A Boys Battle: #3 Neuqua Valley vs. #24 Downers Grove North, bubble teams Lyons Township, Lake Zurich

The top boys teams in Illinois (except #14 Mahomet-Seymour, who competes in Class 2A) will face off for the Class 3A state title on Saturday. Here's an excerpt from the Illinois state preview by Raymond Lewis:

Going wire-to-wire ranked at the top of rankings means a lot-it means being good on paper before the season, it means being good on the course during the season, it means never being defeated, and the dominant Wildcats from Neuqua Valley fit the bill as the heavy favorites entering the race in Peoria this Saturday. Their sectional performance at West Aurora was not their strongest by any measure-but a 1-2-3 finish from Jackson Jett, Matt Milostan and Josh Mollway still made a 25 point performance an easy victory. Finishing 16^th overall in trainers was Jake McEneaney, who has been their front runner all year long. His low stick can be an important safeguard against a possible pack implosion-which still seems unlikely based on their incredible consistency of greatness all season long. Neuqua's performance at state can determine how we will talk about this team relative to other great teams in Illinois history. They will certainly want to take care of business at Detweiller, but barring a disaster, we should be seeing Neuqua Valley on top of the team podium at about 4:00pm on Saturday afternoon.

The Trojans from Downers Grove North have proven throughout the year that they are Neuqua's biggest challenger. Although they were shut out by Neuqua Valley at the Naperville Twilight invitational, coach John Sipple has his runners prepared to run at state, and their convincing win at a deep Marist sectional is confirmation. Alec Danner and Jacob Ridderhoff are certain all-state contenders, but a solid race from Downers could mean even more of the pack shooting for the top 25. The pack's split has inflated a little bit as the season as progressed, but this is to be expected when races get faster (and the Marist Sectional was blazing). Downers has aspirations beyond the state meet but they are focusing on wrapping up the silver trophy this weekend and possibly surprising the state.

There were an abundance of questions about the Lake Zurich Bears entering the season, and not too many of them have been answered to this point. We know what to expect from Brian Griffith, Matt Pereira,Kyle Griffith and Patrick Burns. Brian and Pereira have been closer than not, especially towards the tail end of the season, and Kyle has never followed from too far behind, while Burns has stayed within about 20-30 seconds of this front pack. As expected, the problem for the Bears has been the fifth runner. Eric Metzger has been that man most of the season, although Jacob Bieniek was the fifth at the Waukegan sectional. Lake Zurich has won some big meets this year, most significantly the Palatine Invitational, where Metzger kept the pack split to 68.4 seconds. It was almost 80 second at Waukegan, and while the Bears still won handily, this will not do the job getting a trophy at state. Lake Zurich could be in a dogfight with Lyons Township for third place, a race that could actually be won for the Bears at the fourth runner matchup. That is, if their #5 doesn't accumulate too many points.

Highlights from 2015 Class 3A State Championship: