Top 5 Sports Stories of 2024 in the Suburban Life area

It was a calendar year of outstanding achievements for many athletic programs and individuals in the Suburban Life coverage area. Teams recording historic seasons. Record-setting accomplishments. Individual glory on the greatest of stages.

Here are the Top 5 sports stories of 2024 in the Suburban Life coverage area.

Nazareth football three-peats

Stopping a two-point conversion in the final minute, Nazareth’s football team defeated Joliet Catholic 29-27 in November in a rematch of the 2023 Class 5A state championship game.

Nazareth won its third consecutive state championship and the program’s sixth overall title.

Senior quarterback Logan Malachuk, who threw for 336 yards and four touchdown passes in the state championship game, set IHSA records for passing yards, total offense and pass completions and a Nazareth school record for touchdown passes.

“It’s absolutely crazy,” Malachuk said. “I mean, to think that we would get here, me coming as a freshman, I had no idea, no clue. I didn’t even think this was a possibility of winning three state championships, especially in a row. That just goes to show the resilience and grit that our senior class showed, the seniors before and the juniors right now.”

Montini football back on top

Montini football was a fixture at state the last decade, making seven consecutive appearances from 2009-2015 with five championships and two runner-up finishes.

The Broncos, though, struggled through an unheard of back-to-back 3-6 seasons in 2021 and 2022. Montini returned to prominence in 2023 by reaching the Class 3A semifinals – and returned all the way to the top in 2024.

Montini beat defending champion Byron in an instant classic second-round game that came down to a two-point conversion in the final seconds. The Broncos then routed Monticello 49-8 in the Class 3A final for the program’s seventh state championship and first since 2015.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Montini senior linebacker Jaxon Lane said. “It’s something I think we all came to Montini for. ... We wanted to be the team that brought it back and we believed in ourselves as a team.”

Downers Grove North boys cross country team runs to repeat state title

Senior Grant Schroder saw another memorable Class 3A state meet coming for the Downers Grove North boys cross country team in November.

”On the bus, I was just visualizing the whole time,” Schroder said. “All of these guys were trying to talk to me. I was sitting there like, ‘No, I’m just locking in, thinking about this race.’ ”

The Trojans, ranked No. 1 since preseason, didn’t just capture their second straight state title and third overall. They won by 71 points as all seven runners ran personal 3.0-mile bests at Peoria’s Detweiller Park. The second-place Schroder (14:11.8) and hard-charging fourth-place junior Phillip Cupial (14:12.7) posted the two fastest times in program history and were joined by junior Will Surratt (12th) as top-25 All-Staters.

”It was just everything I dreamed of since I was a little freshman,” Schroder said. “We were all just prepared to come out and do what we do.”

In Class 2A, Benet senior Finn Richards won the boys title.

The girls Class 3A team race was a photo finish with champion Barrington at 130 points, York and individual runner-up Karlin Janowski second at 131 and Downers Grove North third at 132.

York’s historic athletic seasons

It was quite a calendar year for York High School athletic programs.

In June its baseball team made its second consecutive state appearance for the first time in program history and finished fourth in Class 4A for the second straight season.

The next month the star of that team, hard-throwing right-handed pitcher Ryan Sloan, was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the second round of the Major League Baseball Draft.

The girls cross country team, led by standout freshman Karlin Janowski, took second place for the program’s fourth straight state trophy.

In tennis, Lizzie Isyanov completed the most successful career in York history by finishing second at the Class 2A state tournament.

And then the football team went out and made history later in November.

After reaching the Class 8A semifinals in both 2022 and 2023, York took it one step further, reaching the state championship game for the first time in the more than 100-year history of the program. The Dukes lost to Loyola in the Class 8A final.

Don Gelsomino, a first-year head coach and previously defensive coordinator, reminded before he left the podium that York’s seniors entered high school with the program on a 10-year playoff drought and they left playing in the state title game.

“So proud of these kids,” Gelsomino said. “What they did, what the guys before them did, a lot of people are going to remember that. Hopefully we’re not done.”

Glenbard West makes history on the mat

Glenbard West individuals made history in both boys and girls wrestling in 2024.

On the boys side, Collin Carrigan, one of five Suburban Life-area wrestling state champions (Montini and IC Catholic Prep each had two) became Glenbard West’s first state wrestling champion in 58 years.

The next week, Glenbard West’s Alycia Perez provided a watershed moment in the burgeoning girls program at Glenbard West, which began two seasons ago with only 10 participants. Perez won the 100-pound state championship by a 1-0 decision to complete a 35-0 season.

“I never at any point ever doubted that I wasn’t supposed to do this,” she said. “I always knew that I was supposed to be here.”