Beating the heat

Woodstock's Phil Meyer competes in Tuesday's McHenry County Cross Country meet at Emricson Park in Woodstock. Meyer finished first with a time of 16:20. (Travis Haughton – thaughton@nwherald.com)

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WOODSTOCK – Mother Nature seems to have it in for McHenry County Cross Country Meets held at Emricson Park.

For the second time in four years, the county meet was pre-empted by high heat and humidity, this time after the boys varsity race. Two runners wilted in the high 80-degree temperatures and 70-plus-percent humidity, and two ambulance calls were made.

Woodstock’s Phil Meyer won the boys varsity race in 16:20, 16 seconds ahead of Crystal Lake Central’s Chris Alvarez. But as the rest of the varsity runners were finishing, Harvard athletic director Scott Striegel, whose school was official meet host, and Woodstock AD Glen Wilson huddled with a member of the Woodstock Fire and Rescue Squad.

They decided that with two ambulances already called to the park, they could not risk having more calls.

“We have to cancel the rest of the meet for the safety of the kids,” Striegel said over microphone to the crowd near the finish line. “It’s not what we want to do, but it’s what we have to do.”

The girls varsity race was supposed to start about 4:45 p.m., but Striegel made the announcement at 5 p.m.

Something similar happened in 2007, also at Emricson, when several girls in the freshman-sophomore race collapsed. No varsity races were run that day and county coaches decided to run the varsity boys and girls first, when the weather is a bit hotter, hoping future meets would not have to be called off.

Wilson also told the coaches that safety had to be the No. 1 concern and thanked Woodstock Fire and Rescue for its work with the fallen runners.

Meyer finished 31st in the Class 2A State Meet last season and is primed for a big senior year.

“I wanted to take command here because this is our home course and I’ve ran it a thousand times,” Meyer said. “Our team goals are always to run a conservative first mile, push the second and the third mile is just guts and heart.”

Meyer widened his lead between the 1 1/2- and 1 3/4-mile marks on Alvarez and the rest of the front-runners.

“I feel a lot more confident in myself than I have in past seasons and that helps a lot,” Meyer said.

No team scores were kept, but Crystal Lake Central would have edged Prairie Ridge, 53-55, for the team title. Alvarez, Michael Bondi (sixth) and Chris Sirridge (ninth) finished in the top 10 for the Tigers. Prairie Ridge had Mitch Wilkins (third), Marc DiVerde (fourth) and Tommy MacMeekin (seventh) among the top runners.

Alvarez switched from soccer to cross country last season, following his brother Ryan to the sport. Ryan now is running cross country and track at NCAA Division I Oral Roberts, a path Chris could follow in two years.

“I really paid attention to the seniors last year, Paul Dunteman and my brother,” Chris Alvarez said. “It’s kind of weird not having them here. We were really diligent over the summer. We even ran when we were on vacation. It was our main goal to get as much mileage as we could.”