Three miles, even on the state's biggest stage? Piece of cake.

Nobody connected with Beecher's boys cross country program is brazen enough to say a Class 1A championship will come easily. However, the Bobcats have positioned themselves as one of the favorites at Saturday's state meet, which will feature six races at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

The main reason Beecher is so highly regarded is that its season-long body of work demands such status. The Bobcats won all but one of their meets this fall, and that lone setback in the year's second outing was largely due to the absence of their No. 3 runner.

Beecher was runner-up to Westmont that day, but it gained revenge on the second-ranked Sentinels -- plus a win over top-ranked Sterling-Newman -- at the Amboy Invitational on Columbus Day. A 60-point victory over the latter school followed soon after, and suddenly everyone within the Bobcats program realized the potential the still-youthful roster contained.

"I wasn't expecting this," said junior Griffin Nykaza, who was a close second to his freshman brother Grant at last Saturday's Decatur St. Teresa Sectional. "We've had some quality teams, but this one's by far the deepest.

"Our depth is really good -- our sixth man could possibly be fourth (on our team) at state, they're that close (in times). If one of our guys has a bad race, there's somebody else that can pick it up for us."

Bad races don't usually happen at Beecher, however. Even newcomers with no prior cross country experience, such as junior Jordan Joaquin and freshman Mike Polzin, get caught up in the sense of achievement that permeates the program.

"It's motivated me quite a bit," Polzin said of the Bobcats' history in the sport, which includes nine previous state meet appearances and five top-10 finishes. "I know we're definitely one of the schools that's trained the hardest, maybe even (more than) the triple-A schools."

He's not kidding. Among the challenges set forth for Polzin and his teammates during the season were practices consisting of long-distance repeats. The worst of those was a group of seven-mile runs in the same day, each separated by only one minute of rest.

"At first, I really didn't want to do it," Polzin admitted. "After every workout, I'd just be so tired. It was pretty tough, but you feel like you have to get it done."

After dealing with such grueling workouts, meet-day intimidation pretty much becomes nonexistent. Nevertheless, Beecher athletes are hesitant to get too caught up in any title talk.

"We want to win state as a team, but in 2006, Beecher was ranked first at the beginning of the year and got 12th at state," Griffin Nykaza said. "None of us has gotten hurt or gotten sick this year."

If the Bobcats avoid the unexpected on Saturday and manage to bring back a state trophy, the odds are good for a repeat in 2010, since only one of their top seven runners will graduate next spring. But again, Beecher coaches discourage that kind of futuristic thinking.

"My dad (Henry) hears us say, 'Next year, we're going to have a great team,'" Grant Nykaza said. "He's like, 'First you have to win the first one. The only way to do two in a row is you've got to win the first.'

"But we've only had one bad race, and we're glad we got that out of the way early. We're mostly pumped up for every race. Even if we could (each) just PR by one second, we could bring home a state title."

PREP CROSS COUNTRY | STATE MEET PREVIEW