Inside Boys Cross Country: Woodstock's Luke Beattie Athlete of the Week

Athlete of the Week

Luke Beattie

Woodstock, jr.

Beattie finished seventh in the Class 2A race at the Peoria Central First to the Finish Invitational on Saturday at Detweiller Park.

Beattie ran the course that will host the state meet in November in 15:02.0.

Beattie started the season with a third-place finish at the McHenry County Meet and then placed second at the Crystal Lake South Invitational.

Northwest Herald

Power Rankings

1. McHenry: Jesse Reiser won Class 3A race at Peoria Central’s First to the Finish Invitational; the Warriors took 13th as a team.

2. Prairie Ridge: The Wolves had a week off and will run at Woodstock’s Ryan Byrne Festival on Saturday.

3. Crystal Lake South: The Gators have only one senior and almost won the Wauconda Invitational, finishing six points behind Gurnee Warren. They get another shot at the Blue Devils this week at the Warren Invitational.

4. Huntley: The Red Raiders took second at the Lake Park Invitational.

5. Jacobs: Top runner Matt Goldby got sick during the First to the Finish Invitational, and the Golden Eagles took 25th as a team.

Noteworthy

BNC flavor: Johnsburg’s boys almost won the Class 1A boys race team title at the First to the Finish Invitational on Saturday at Detweiller Park with 157 points. The Skyhawks were edged out by Rockford Christian by one point.

Winnebago was third with 167, giving the Big Northern Conference a sweep of the top spots. Skyhawks coach Chris Setzler said those teams will become well-acquainted later in the season.

“We’ll run against them five weeks in a row,” Setzler said. The three will all be at the Amboy Invitational on Columbus Day, then at the BNC Meet, then regional, sectional and state together.

Matt Stelmasek took ninth to lead the Skyhawks at 15:41. Noah MIller was 15th in 16:01.4.

“That is a really tough sectional we’re in,” Setzler said. “They are super-excited to have a chance to run for a [state] trophy.”

Byrne this week: The Woodstock-Ryan Byrne Festival is named in honor of the former Northwest Herald sports writer, who covered running and died in 1999 after a bout with cancer.

Former Woodstock coach Marty Sobczak and former Marian Central coach Tom Van Daele decided it was a nice way to honor Byrne, who had such a positive impact on the sport.

The meet has flighted races, with boys and girls varsity and junior varsity running together. Flight 7 will start (all No. 7 runners), then Flight 6 and so on. Thus, all runners scores count the same as they are scored only against their like runners.

The top two finishers in each flight, boys and girls, varsity and junior varsity, receive “Run with Ryan” T-shirts from the Byrne family and Northwest Herald.

This week’s top meets

Woodstock-Ryan Byrne Festival

9 a.m. Saturday, Emricson Park

Three of the area’s top four boys teams – McHenry, Prairie Ridge and Huntley – will compete, although the scoring format with flighted races is different than normal. Harvard, Marian Central and the host Blue Streaks also will compete.

Kaneland Invitational

9 a.m. Saturday, Kaneland H.S. in Maple Park

Crystal Lake Central, Dundee-Crown, Hampshire, jacobs, Johnsburg and Marengo are the local teams competing.

– Joe Stevenson

joestevenson@shawmedia.com