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Sports

Plainfield Runners Settle for Individual Honors at Southwest Prairie Meet

Minooka boys and girls dash to conference cross country titles.

OSWEGO –Minooka swept the Southwest Prairie Conference boys and girls cross country championships Saturday morning at Oswego High School.

The boys racked up their fifth straight league title dating back to when the eight-team league was formed. The girls ended a three-year hiatus after winning the title in 2007.

Individually, Minooka's Joe McAsey and Oswego East's Ariel Michalek each won SPC championships.

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Minooka's girls placed four runners in the top eight and finished with 39 points. Oswego East was second with 57 points.

"That was a great run for them," Minooka coach Kevin Gummerson said. "It's been a few years. In 2007, we won it. We're happy to bring that trophy back to Minooka."

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"We've been working really hard and I know this was one of our main goals," Minooka sophomore Laura Simon said. "We're really happy and excited."

Simon was the first Indian to finish in the girls race, taking third in 18:35. Junior Kiley Saunders was sixth in 18:38, senior Kaitlin Hoy was right behind, finishing seventh in 18:47 and classmate Allie Rossi was next in 18:51.

"They've done a tremendous job all year," Gummerson said. "Up front, those four did a tremendous job and our freshman, Haley McNamara, came in fifth for us."

Earning all-SPC medals, which went to the top 14 finishers, were Plainfield Central's Emily Vihnanek (fourth place in 18:38), Planfield South's Kayla Rice (ninth in 18:55), Plainfield North's Desiree Salb (11th in 18:58), Plainfield Central's Grace Lawrence (12th in 18:58) and Plainfield East's Cindy Vasquez (19:11).

The Minooka boys were just as efficient as their female counterparts, placing six runners in the top 10. McAsey, a senior, won the individual championship in 14:53.

"We came in here and did what we wanted to do," McAsey said. "We wanted to stay in a pack for the first mile, then we wanted to sweep the meet."

The Indians came close as junior Kyle Smith was second (15:15), senior Danny Bahret placed third (15:20), junior Dan Popek took sixth (15:24) and junior Chris Patterson came in ninth (15:24).

"I'm really happy with my time," McAsey said. "(Andrew) Sandoval, (Alex) Deeter and Caleb Beck ran great races today."

"Emotions were high and this conference is not an easy thing to win," Gummerson said. "They put a lot of work in to get to this point. I was really proud and happy for them to get to this point in the season."

Minooka scored 22 points. Plainfield South was second with 56 points.

"There are some great teams here and we knew it was going to be a battle from the get-go," Gummerson said. "We know a lot of these teams run their best at this time of the season. We had to be ready for anything and our kids responded. It's great to see them running this well at this point in the season as we get ready for the championship part of the season."

Winning all-SPC awards for the boys were Plainfield North's Andrew Sandoval (fifth in 15:23), Plainfield South's Alex Deeter (seventh in 15:27), Kevin Hardin (11th in 15:40) and Rich Ruske (13th in 15:42) and Plainfield East's Niko Petrusich (14th in 15:47).

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