Lane advances to state tourney

Updated: October 30, 2011 4:26PM

In the delay before the results became official for Saturday’s Class 3A Niles West cross country sectional in Skokie, all sorts of thoughts went through the heads of Lane’s boys.

“We were so scared,” junior Marcelo Burbano said. “We heard we were tied [for the final state qualifying spot] or maybe we didn’t make it. We were all sitting together, clutching ourselves, like, ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen?’ ’’

What happened was bizarre, but it all worked out in the end for Lane, which became the first Public League boys team to qualify for the big-school state meet since city schools lost their automatic bid in 2002. The Indians scored 173 points and advanced along with defending state champ York (73), New Trier (110), Loyola (153) and Niles West (162). The first results posted had Lane tied with Maine South, which would have sent both teams to state under IHSA rules.

But then meet officials reexamined the case of Niles West’s Neal Omar, who stumbled and fell at the finish line. His torso was across the line, but his feet — and the timing chip in his shoe — wasn’t. Initially, Omar was listed in 23rd place. But photos of the finish showed two runners, including one from Maine South, passed Omar before he managed to get his whole body across the line.

Meet officials called IHSA Assistant Executive Director Ron McGraw, who ruled that Omar should be moved up to 21st. That gave Lane sole possession of fifth place and knocked out Maine South.

Lane was paced by the trio of Burbano (18th), David Timlin (20th) and Lucas Beltran (29th). Burbano returned after missing last week’s regional with a fracture in his right foot.

“Marcelo was hurt, that threw everyone off,” Timlin said. “Because every race you’re running, [you think], ‘There’s Marcelo, I’ve got to get going.’”

New Trier’s Leland Later won the individual title in 14 minutes, 34.30 seconds, about 10 seconds ahead of Oak Park-River Forest’s Malachy Schrobilgen (14:44.44). “I was a little nervous before the race,” Later said. “A lot of butterflies, more so than any other race ever.”

Scott Milling and Nathan Mroz finished sixth and seventh, respectively, to pace York, which had a 33-second split for its top five runners.

New Trier junior Courtney Ackerman won her second sectional title in three seasons in 17:02.86, leading a dominating performance by the Trevians, who beat runner-up Glenbard West 33-83. York (96), Lake Park (108) and Maine South (140) also advanced. Jessica Ackerman, Courtney’s twin sister, was third and freshman Mimi Smith took sixth for New Trier.

Like Lane’s Burbano, Courtney Ackerman didn’t run last week and benefited from the break. “It gave my shins time to heal a little bit,” she said.

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