Cross Country notes: Two Barbs WSC all-conference

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DeKalb finished eighth in the boys race and seventh in the girls race at Saturday’s Western Sun Conference meet, but the Barbs were able to have two runners earn all-conference honors, which were awarded to the top 14 finishers.

Nick Schrader finished third overall, while Danielle Dlabal took 12th in the girls race.

“Nick ran a very strong race,” DeKalb coach Mike Wolf said. “He looked good and felt good. I’m happy for him to have a race like that at this point in the season.

“(Dlabal) was never really threatened about being outside the top 14. It was a real strong race for her.”

Schrader was a state qualifier last season, and Wolf said he should be able to make it back.

“Obviously we want to get him to the state meet and see what happens there,” Wolf said. “If he runs and average race I think he will be able to get to state.”

Other area runners who earned all-conference honors were Tyson Kinsley (who finished 2nd) and Ryan Fraedrich of Sycamore, Matt Reusche and Trevor Holm of Kaneland for the boys. Kaneland’s Andie Strang got one of the spots on the girls side.

Kaneland boys coach Chad Clarey thinks Reusche is fully healthy after nursing a knee injury the last few weeks.

“He’s not complained of anything so I’ll assume that he’s feeling great,” Clarey said.

Conditions for the meet at Kishwaukee Community College weren’t exactly great, with the amount of rain in the area recently and low temperatures.

“The grass was very high, temperature was low 40s, you had about a 10-15 mile per hour wind blowing,” Sycamore coach Mike Lambdin said. “It was far from ideal.”

Clarey was surprised that the conditions were as good as they were.

“They were better than I thought they were going to be Thursday when we visited the course,” Clarey said. “Some of the courses we have had a little bit of mud along the way.”

With Saturday’s race being the final Western Sun meet, coaches have expressed mixed feelings about the conference breaking up, as the Western Sun is one of the best cross country conferences in the state.

“I really enjoy our conference. In varsity cross country it’s pretty competitive. There really isn’t a weakness in the conference.” Wolf said. “When it comes to cross country it’s a good conference.”

Clarey shared the same feeling.

“I like the teams that we face in the conference. I like the fact that you really have to be a top notch team to win a conference title,” Clarey said. “I love the power of the meet.”

At the same time, smaller schools like DeKalb, Sycamore, and Kaneland are stuck competing with larger schools such as Geneva and Batavia. Geneva won both the boys and girls race on Saturday.

Lambdin pointed out the fact that when the Spartans won the boys cross country state championship in 2007, they couldn’t even win the Western Sun.

“I’m ready to go to a conference where year in and year out we have a chance to compete for a title,” Lambdin said.

“I’ll look forward to going to the (new) conference and knowing we’ll have a chance to compete for a conference title.”