North Stars recover from fall to finish 5th at Palatine invite

The Palatine Invitational has seen its share of memorable meets, but oddly enough the host Pirates have not been a part of that history.

But on a sunny fall morning at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve Palatine made a bit of history in a loaded field that included 6 of the top 11 teams in state according to the Illinois cross country coach's poll.

And in doing so the Pirates disposed of one of the yearly nemesis in York, a team that has won 26 state titles and 9 Palatine Invitational titles.

Palatine had 5 runners in the top 31 edging defending state champion York 77-79 to win the team title. The Pirates had never won their own invitational and broke the Dukes string of four consecutive titles.

"It's the Palatine Invitational, we wanted to win, we had never won it," said emphatic Palatine coach Chris Quick whose team had finished 2nd the previous four years. "The exciting thing is the past two weeks we've put ourselves in contention with the top teams in the state."

"It's a long season and a lot of things can happen, but at this part of the season we're right in the mix."

Hersey took third with 118 points, followed by Sandburg (141 points) who edged St. Charles North (144 points) for fourth place.

St. Charles North recovered from an early spill by junior Chris DeSilva to take fifth place.

DeSilva (14:45) despite falling in the first 100 meters rebounded to take 15th place. Meanwhile senior Scott Speare (14:29) picked it up for his fallen teammate by securing seventh place.

Senior Michael Strasser (14:58) aided the North Stars securing 25th place.

"I knew I had to get after it more than normal," said Speare of his performance. "I probably could have run a little bit better having Chris (DeSilva) up there with me, but my coaches supported me through the entire race."

While Palatine was battling York for the team title, Hersey's Kevin Havel was in his own fight with the Duke's Tom Achtien for the individual title.

Havel took over the lead after two miles but could not hold off the hard charging Achtien who started making his winning move with 300 meters remaining and finally overtook the Hersey senior with 10 meters remaining to secure the individual title in 14:02.

"I just had a little more left," said Achtien who finished 8th at state last season. "I was thinking I was toast, but somehow, someway I just pulled something out. That's how every runner is, you find another gear."

Sterling Invite:ŒGeneva took the team title out of 12 squads. The Vikings finished with 29 points, beating out Sycamore's 86 and Auburn's 93.

The Vikings had five top-10 runner, including Evan Ehrhardt, who finished third at 15:32. Greg Adelman and Kevin Sparks finished right behind in fourth and fifth.

Kaneland placed seventh and was led by Matt Reusche's 17th place time of 16:14.

Boys soccer

Kaneland 5, Plainfield South 0: The Knights (5-6-2) finished fifth at the St. Charles East Invite with their shutout win over the Cougars. Justin Garlinsky had a hat trick and David Ruiz tallied a pair of goals.

IMSA 4, Indian Creek 3: Asa Brockman finished with 2 goals and 2 assists. Thoran Udewatta added a pair of goals and one assist.

Girls swimming

Fenwick Invite:ŒSt. Charles North took second place with 406 points, beating out Mother McCauley's 382. Fenwick took the team title with 563.

Angie Chokran won the 200 freestyle in 1:57.40 and the 500 freestyle in 5:11.63 for the North Stars. She also swam on the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay teams that finished second.

Jessica England placed second in the 200 IM and 100 butterfly events.

Girls cross country

Sterling Invite:ŒThe first four runners to cross the finish line were from Geneva. Kelly Whitley (winning time of 17:54), Kat Yelle, Tress Ehrhardt and Myra Yelle propelled the Vikings to a 17-point finish, 73 points ahead of second place Dixon.

Kaneland placed fourth out of 12 teams. Andi Strang finished sixth in 19:31 and Lisa Roberson placed 13th.

Rosary was led by Courtney Convey, who came in 18th.

College football

Aurora 47, MacMurray 0: Ryne Reder (Marmion) ran for four touchdowns as the Spartans won their conference opener.

Reder scored three times in the first quarter on runs of 2, 69 and 4 yards. For the game, he compiled 153 yards on 23 carries.

Brad Harner (Kaneland) and Jeff Fellers also scored rushing touchdowns and Mike DeVries recovered a MacMurray fumble in the end zone for a defensive touchdown.

On defense, Chris Jackowiak had 8 total tackles, 1½ sacks, and recovered a fumble. Reed Sullivan intercepted a pass and made 5 tackles.

On the ground, the Spartans outgained MacMurray 333-107. They converted eight of their 13 third downs while MacMurray was successful on just one of their 13 third downs.