Varsity, JV Win City Titles; Smaroff, Medina Take Individual Crowns

The Eagles began their 2021 post-season on Sunday at the Chicago Public League Championships held in Washington Park.  The weekend marked the twelfth consecutive year that Jones has taken home at least one title across the four championship races contested each year.  Adding the program's thirty-first and thirty-second titles throughout that time period were the boys varsity and junior varsity teams, while the boys freshmen team also earned a podium spot with their runner-up finish.  The 'Eaglets' have now taken home ten Freshmen City Championships, one second place finish and one third place finish since 2010.  

Continuing their streak, the Eagles took home the varsity title for the fourth year in a row to earn their sixth CPL Championship in program history.  Sam Berlinghof continued his stellar sophomore year campaign with a runner-up finish, which also placed him number two on the all-time sophomore list at Jones and number eight overall.  Senior Alan Menninger finished close behind with a crucial third place finish.  Also finishing with All-City honors, junior Daniel Leonard and senior Alexander Papadopoulos both turned in big career best performances to break the sixteen minute barrier in ninth and eleventh place respectively, while sophomore Alexander Leonard and junior Sam Mortensen also stepped up to the varsity level to record 'PR' races to nab the last two 'All-City' spots.  Junior Matt DeSantis rounded out the top-seven to put away the race with a ten point victory over runner-up Lane Tech.  

In the JV division, Jones enjoyed a more lopsided victory as they recorded a perfect score in the race, sweeping the top six spots to earn their ninth JV title in twelve years.  Junior Esteban Medina took home the individual city crown while junior Jayden Reyes finished in the runner-up position.  Running in only their second and first races of the season respectively, senior Ethan Sterling and junior Dev Dassani came through with massive performances to finish in third and fourth while junior Shammai Winitzer capped off the perfect score in fifth place with senior Joseph Scalise crossing the line in sixth for good measure.

 
After not even cracking the top-eighty in the freshmen division three years ago, seniors Ben Schwan and Andrew Soman both finished in the top-fifteen to earn All-City honors in their final cross country race in a Jones singlet.  

In the freshmen division, Zach Smaroff kicked off the day with a commanding win to become the third Jones freshmen in a row to take home the honor and be the Eagles' second individual champ of the weekend.  He too was followed by a teammate in the runner-up position as Jacob Ward finished in the second spot and classmate Stone Cull also crossed the line with All-City honors in tenth.  The 'baby Eagles' also received a big boost from newcomers John Anderson and Robert Berks who finished in scoring spots to secure the second place team plaque for Jones.  Nolan Mussatt and Jacob Hernandez capped off the top-seven in the race.  

A depleted sophomore squad also ran tough races with sophomore James Kochanski running a personal best time to be the lone All-City finisher for the Eagles in twelfth place, while newcomers Cameron Toerne, Yuma Yoshioka and Kyler Kitson recorded 'PR' times.  

The varsity team will continue their post-season schedule this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. in the IHSA Regional Championships hosted by Lyons Township in La Grange, Ill.