Cross-country notebook

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The team concept is sometimes hard to absorb in cross-country, where differing talent and conditioning levels often tend to produce frontrunners, stragglers and everything in between.

But that's not the case this season for Neuqua Valley's boys.

"This team is different from any team I've ever had," Wildcats coach Paul Vandersteen said. "Even when we run intervals in practice, they run together."

The 'Cats also stuck together last Saturday in the Peoria Woodruff Invitational on the state-meet course at Detweiller Park. "At the 2-mile mark, all six guys (after No. 1 runner Aaron Beattie) were within arm's length of each other."

That closely spaced pack helped the Wildcats bring home their second invitational title of the season in a meet that featured four of the top eight teams in last year's Class 3A state meet.

"It's a good progress check for us," Vandersteen said, though "we don't put a lot of weight on it. People quickly forget (early-season results) when it comes to the first week in November."

Beattie set the tone for the Wildcats, running 14:43 to finish first overall and beat runner-up Michael Scolarici of O'Fallon by two seconds. Senior Carlton Folster was next through the chute for Neuqua, running eighth in 15:08.

"He's been working very hard," Vandersteen said of Folster, who played soccer as a freshman and didn't come out for cross-country till he was a sophomore. "It's great to see him have a breakout race like that."

Equally encouraging was the scene that played out before the race between Neuqua's No. 1 runner and his teammates.

"Beattie wasn't feeling too good before the race," Vandersteen said. "They reminded him. 'We've got your back.'"

Indeed they did, as David Wing (14th, 15:13), Luke Verbus (16th, 15:21) and Billy Klimczak (17th, 15:22) completed Neuqua's scoring. Josh Antonson (26th, 15:34) and Jordan Lagomarcino (27th, 15:35) weren't much farther back.

With titles under their belts at Hinsdale South/Hinsdale Central and Woodruff, the Wildcats will turn their attention to training for the time being.

"We'll up our mileage a little bit and work a little harder during practice to get ready for the state series," Vandersteen said.

Neuqua's next invite will be the Plainfield South meet on Sept. 26, but Vandersteen, an environmental science teacher, and several of his top runners will miss it for a class trip. The Wildcats then will run in the Lockport Invitational on Oct. 3 in their final tuneup for the Oct. 17 Upstate Eight meet.

Local heroes: Neuqua's boys weren't the only Chicago-area team to bring home championship hardware from Woodruff. Westmont (Class 1A) also won a boys title, while Hinsdale Central (3A) and Montini (2A) finished first in the girls races. Non-local winners were Burlington, Iowa's boys in 2A and Freeburg's girls in 1A.

Detweiller Park will be the site of another major invitational this Saturday, with Peoria Notre Dame serving as the host school.

Bad luck streak: It hasn't been a fun start to the season for Northside Prep's Charlie Mesimore, one of the Public League's top returning runners.

The senior, who was fourth in last year's city meet, was slowed by a stress fracture in his foot last month. He was held to a slower pace for the Rebel Invitational at Kenosha, Wis., two weekends ago, but still was the No. 4 finisher for the team champ Mustangs.

On Saturday, Mesimore woke up with a fever and was held out of the Gordon Tech Invitational for precautionary reasons. Northside finished fourth behind St. Ignatius, Loyola and Prospect.

Have a story tip, question or comment? E-mail Mike Clark at mclark@suntimes.com