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Junior Thomas Fielder typified the higher expectations of the Hinsdale Central boys cross country program Saturday.

Fielder and junior Pete Richard both earned all-conference honors for top-16 finishes at Saturday's West Suburban Conference Silver Division Meet, but Fielder was disappointed about taking 13th.

Fielder felt he lost his focus after he and other Red Devils collided with York runners coming off the starting line and the race had to restarted.

"(I wanted) top 10, at least. I just think what would have happened if I never were tripped or if I got a faster start," Fielder said. "It threw off all of my momentum. I didn't have a really good race. It was very windy out there, and I couldn't get in a pack. Instead, we were all spread out. At least my teammates did well and I'm happy for all of them."

The Red Devils (101 points) finished fourth and fourth in the final overall Silver standings after tying for fifth overall the past two seasons.

Fielder ran 15 minutes, 44.27 seconds for 2.98 miles, and Richard (16th, 15:55.89) held on for the last all-conference spot by 2.05 seconds. They were followed by seniors Jeremy Klein (21st, 16:09.25), Dave Callicutt (24th, 16:15.22), Sam Mortimer (27th, 16:30.53), Tim Filarski (30th, 16:50.55) and Nick Mortimer (33rd, 17:04.92).

The Red Devils missed their preseason goal of a top-three Silver finish. Now they'll try to qualify for the Lockport Sectional as a team with a top-five finish at the Hinsdale Central Regional at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, at Katherine Legge Memorial Park. Five regional foes were ranked in the top 25 in last week's Illinois Prep Top Times poll.

"(Saturday) just shows how competitive this conference is and how deep it is," second-year Hinsdale Central coach Jim Westphal said. "If we could move out of the regional that would be (great), and that's still a goal. That's why we run."

Fielder, who was fourth at last year's sophomore Silver Meet, hopes to take advantage of his third regional race.

"It's all mental for me. I know I can run so much faster, but it's all up here," Fielder said, pointing to his head. "I've got to get through that -- and I have to -- because I have regionals."

"I could tell from Thomas' body language (he was affected). But I think he still ran well in spite of being down and I shared that with him," Westphal said. "He's a little disappointed with his start, but it'll be a good experience for him because it's part of racing. What do you do when that happens? Do you go to Plan B or Plan C?"

One bright spot out of Fielder's frustration was that Richard was more able to keep contact and that enabled him to earn all-conference honors.

"I was pretty determined just to hang on, stay with Thomas as long as I could because he's really our fastest. That was a little cool for me to be near him in a race," Richard said.

"I was going to do the normal thing, stay with Jeremy as long as I can, but I just felt good so I got ahead. It felt great, once I got past the physical exhaustion. I didn't really expect to be this good freshman year. I was just kind of going through it, not really thinking about it, and now it's really changed."

* Fenwick (Oak Park) sophomore Tom Laser of Hinsdale was ninth (16:22.45 for 3.0 miles) and the Friars' No. 5 finisher at the Chicago Catholic League Meet Saturday to earn All-CCL honors. The Friars edged Loyola 33-38 for the title.

* Timothy Christian senior Ben Dykema of Oak Brook (16:31 for 3.0 miles) was fourth at the Private School League Meet to earn All-PSL honors with a top-10 finish. The Trojans were fifth (102 points).

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