Stagg’s Barham raises bar in varsity debut
Wrestling standout taking things ‘one moment at a time’ as Chargers’ lead runner
Freshman Luke Barham entered Stagg as a red-hot commodity in wrestling.
Earlier in 2020, while competing for Orland Park’s Elevate Wrestling Academy at 126 pounds, Barhamwon the Rocket Blast, the Illinois KidsWrestling Federation Chicago Regional and South Chicago Sectional before the coronavirus pandemic shut down theIKWFstate meet.
He also was a pretty good runner for Palos South Middle School, finishing third in the Southwest Interscholastic ConferenceMeet in 2019.
Barham has a shot at enjoying similar success in wrestling at the high school level. His father, Bryan, was a wrestling coach at Shepard.
But Luke Barham is not sure when his next wrestling match will be.
The Illinois High School Association will decide whether to delay wrestling, which is considered a high-risk sport, at its next board meeting. The season is penciled in to start onNov. 16.
For now, he’s going to enjoy whatever success he can get from cross country.
“I’m so glad we have a cross country season because I don’t knowwhat’s going to happen with wrestling,” he said. “I’m taking it one moment at a time.”
Barham opened his high school running career in the preseason frosh-soph SouthWest Suburban Red Meet at the Lockport East course. He finished second in a time of 17 minutes, 57.2 seconds.
That time would have placed him 10th in the varsity meet.
He has been with the varsity most of the season and has developed into Stagg’s most consistent top runner, including a third-place finish in a recent quadrangular at Brother Rice.
Barham and his Stagg teammates will be back in action Friday in the SouthWest Suburban Red Meet at Lockport East.
Good Knights: Lincoln-Way
Central junior Caden Simone won’t mind coming back to Lockport East for the SouthWest Suburban RedMeet.
Simonebroke the course record on Oct. 3whenhe turned in a 14:57 at the Lockport Invitational. Teammate Jay Parker took second with a personal-best 15:15.
In the preseason conference meet, Parker and Simone finished first and second, respectively.
Perfection in the SSC: Eisenhower and Oak Forest finished
South Suburban Conference regular-season schedules with perfect records.
Eisenhower closed things up Tuesday with a 17-42 win over Richards as Jonathan Jacobowon with a 17:07 in the SSCRed, which holds its conference meet Saturday at Reavis.
Lemont, an SSC Blue team that competed against SSC Red teams during the regular season, will also compete in the conference meet but won’t be eligible for the championship.
Oak Forest stayed perfect in the SSC Blue with a 23-35 victory over Bremen. Bremen’s Zach Casper won the race in 16:32 and Oak Forest’s Ivan Corral took second in 16:40. The SSC Blue will not be holding a conference meet.
Coming up: Saturday’s schedule also will feature the East Suburban Catholic Conference Meet at Arlington International Racecourse.
Chicago Catholic League teams will head north to Loyola in Wilmette.
The Metro Suburban Conference Meet will be hosted by BishopMcNamara at Legacy Park inManteno.
The Southland Conference will not host a meet this season.
Did you know? The Twin Valley Conference already held its meet on Oct. 3 inClifton.
Beecher finished second and was led by Aidan Ward (sixth place, 17:44), Russell Ward (seventh, 17:48) and Cody Graniczny (ninth, 18:09).