Henderson paces CL South at boys cross country regional

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PALATINE – What Crystal Lake South junior Duncan Henderson didn’t know not only didn’t hurt him, it helped.

Henderson missed his mile splits at Saturday’s IHSA Class 3A Palatine Cross Country Regional Meet, so he didn’t realize how fast he was running.

“I might have died mentally if I’d known,” Henderson said. “I didn’t know how well I was doing until the end.”

Henderson just went with the flow and finished 13th in 15:47 over the 3-mile course at Deer Grove Forest Preserve to help the Gators on to next week’s Schaumburg Sectional.

Prairie Ridge (91) was fourth as a team and McHenry (119) was fifth. South (153) took the sixth of seven team spots to advance. Palatine (33), Lake Zurich (57) and Barrington (77) grabbed the top three spots.

In the girls race, Cary-Grove, Prairie Ridge, South and McHenry all qualified for the sectional. C-G took fourth with 84 points behind Palatine (38), Barrington (45) and Lake Zurich (60).

South boys coach Rich Eschman was thrilled by his team’s performance.

“We gave our guys [target] places yesterday and they all were above them,” Eschman said. Henderson was 14 spots better than his goal, while 17th-place finisher Ian Meador also beat his goal.

Prairie Ridge and McHenry both advanced as expected from the boys race, although Prairie Ridge senior Adam Procknow thought the Wolves had just an average race. Mitch Wilkins took fifth and Joe Cowlin was ninth for Prairie Ridge.

“We wanted to run well and get through,” he said. “And show all the teams we belong here. We want to redeem ourselves [at sectional].”

McHenry had an added degree of difficulty running without junior Calvin Quarterman, who lost a shoe in the Fox Valley Conference Invitational last week and ran most of the race with one bare foot. Freshman Jesse Reiser led the Warriors taking 14th place.

“It was one of my best races,” Reiser said. “I knocked about 15 seconds off my time here. We wanted a 20-second split with our top four runners and we did that.”

McHenry actually had its top four within 11 seconds of each other. C-G’s Dustin Throw and Daniel Sikora qualified as individuals.

C-G freshman Talia Duzey was 10th in the girls race in 18:38. The Trojans put their top four runners in the first 19 finishers.

“We have really had a great pack, and [we] stick together and push each other,” Duzey said.