Palatine’s Boy’s Cross Country Win Sectional

With every point counting in a tight sectional race at Busse Woods, it was Palatine’s sixth runner that came through for the Pirates by making a solid move with just meters to the finish line that would secure their sectional championship.

“(Mount) Prospect had us,” said Palatine’s head coach Chris Quick.  “But (Christian) Zambrano started blowing people out the final 200 meters and got us a lot of points; that was pretty inspiring.”

“He caught a lot of people at the end of the race,” Quick said of the junior. “We were down (points) to Prospect most of the race and had to comeback.”

Zambrano finished in 36th place with a time of (15:59.71) and helped with a few extra points giving the Pirates (91) a slight edge over Mid Suburban East Prospect (104) for the sectional championship.

The IHSA 3A state meet will be held at Detweiller Park in Peoria on Saturday Nov. 5.

Barrington’s Erik Peterson (14:55.22) secured the race’s top spot but it was the Pirates that had two runners place in the top ten helping set the tone for the team’s finish. Senior Peter Tomkiewicz (15:16.72) took sixth place just ahead of teammate Anthony Gregorio’s (15:23.48) ninth place finish.

“My start was a little slow,” Tomkiewicz said of his initial push.  “After I looked around going up the hill and noticed that the whole pack was there, I decided to take a risk and start to take a lead.”

 “I think it was a risk worth taking to try and string out the race,” Tomkiewicz said. “It only cost me one place at the end instead of a whole bunch of kickers.”

The sectional crown marks the fifth in Quick’s seven year stint as the Pirate head coach. A string of four straight ended last year with a second place finish.

Despite the win, Quick said the team still has yet to run their best race and sees minor things the team can work on to improve last year’s fourth place at Detweiller Park.

“We had some soft races in there and clearly we have something to improve for next week,” Quick said.

“We are still looking for our best race and hope everything comes together next weekend,” Tomkiewicz said.  “The team is just going to go out there and try to take (the state title) next week.”

Of the more than 300 racers in Saturday’s sectional, all Palatine runners crossed in the top 50, with senior Marcus Garcia finishing in 18th place (15:35.97) and senior Tim Johnson 22nd (15:40.47) rounding out the scoring for the Pirates.