Rocket girls off to a winning start
One of the area's strongest cross country starts out of the gates this season belongs to the Burlington Central girls.
The Rockets won the Westmont invitational and took 6 of the 7 flights at Oregon and then followed that up by winning the Class 2A division of the Kaneland invitational (finishing fourth overall amidst numerous Class 3A schools) recently.
Central's girls were seventh in the most recent Illinois Prep Top Times (www.illinoispreptoptimes.com) Class 2A rankings.
"I'm real pleased where we are," said Central coach Tom Miller. "We still have some things to get ready, but I'm happy with the start."
Sophomore Maggie Gannon and freshman Markelle Turk have crossed the finish line first on several occasions for Central. Turk was seventh overall at Kaneland.
"What helped us is that we put in a lot of miles over the summer," said Gannon. "We work really hard. The work we put in during the summer helps so much. At the end of the summer, I was able to run my personal record from last year"
Central has thrived thanks to depth. Besides Gannon and Turk, runners like senior Emily Zipoy, juniors Lili Castillo and Vanessa Perez and freshmen Katie Puccio and Keondra Smith have also been key contributors.
"We can go seven deep here pretty easily," said Miller.
"We've got like 10 girls that can be on the varsity team and a number of girls who can win individual meets," said Gannon. "It's not always one person leading the way. We're always out there pushing each other."
Gannon has especially been awed by the performance of freshmen Turk, Puccio and Smith.
"Markelle Turk has already won two meets for us," said Gannon. "She's awesome. Without them, we wouldn't be nearly as good as we are."
The Kaneland meet, which annually features some of the top area teams, provided a major jolt for the Rockets.
"We finished like 12th or maybe 10th last year and this year we got fourth with all of those triple-A schools there," said Gannon. "It was a big accomplishment. That's more of the type of meet we will see at a regional or a sectional. It was good for us to see a meet like that."
Gannon has finished first in four of the Rockets' races already this year.
'I've been able to stay consistent," said Gannon. "Last year, I wasn't able to hit my mile times. Now I can stay on a pace and continue that pace throughout the race. I owe a lot of thanks to my teammates for pushing me."
But the Rockets aren't about to rest on the results of just a few early-season meets.
"We need to stay on top of our workouts and hit our times and stick together as a pack," said Gannon. "If we can keep the pack up we will be very successful. We're looking forward to the rest of the season."
Burlington Central boys: Central took second in the Class 2A division at Kaneland. The Rockets have been led this season by the likes of Ryan Phebus, Kevin Meyer, Nick Laggett, Ryan Kohls and John Flannery.
"The boys don't have as much depth as the girls, but I've been pleased with them as well," said Miller. "They really picked it up at Kaneland. Both teams have started strong this year."
Bartlett boys: The Hawks have been hampered by injuries to 3 of their top 7 runners. Senior Travis Ziemke has been slowed by a muscle pull, while junior Thomas Niewiara has a shin injury and sophomore Joe Cotton has a toe injury.
"We've had our share of injuries," said Bartlett coach Jeff Bral. "We haven't run a full lineup. We're slowly starting to get kids healthy and we're starting to do better than we started. The kids are gradually improving every week."
Seniors Joe Zambetti and Bobbie Rachford, along with sophomore Adam Brhel and freshman Josafat Gonzalez have led the way for the Hawks.
"Those four have run really, really well as of late," said Bral. "We've got some good runners."
Saturday in Bartlett: Bartlett will once again host the sixth annual Flyin' Hawk Invitational at Sunrise Park in Bartlett on Saturday. Races start at 9 a.m. The girls varsity race is third on the docket, while the boys varsity race is fourth. Bartlett is in a field that also includes Crystal Lake South, Glenbard North (boys), Huntley, Jacobs, Lincoln-Way Central, Marian Central, Oswego East, St. Charles North, Schaumburg, South Elgin, Streamwood, West Chicago and Woodstock.
Streamwood girls: Streamwood's Mercedes Mancha ran her best race of the year at the recent Rockford event. She was 12th overall with a time of 19:10.
Sabres coach Ryan Korn also praised the effort of junior Sammie McGowan in Rockford. Freshman Jesse Prinner and senior Kendra Whipple also had good outings.
"A lot of the girls had their best races of the year in Rockford," said Korn.
Korn said freshman Ashley Rosch was slated to be moved up to the varsity team this week. Rosch's frosh-soph times translated into a top 4 position on the Streamwood varsity.
St. Edward girls: St. Edward coach Bill Lucas raved about the improvement of Karoline Kelly.
"She's our biggest story of the year so far," said Lucas. "She's dropped 3 minutes off her time from last year."
Kelly displayed that improvement at the Four City invitational in Rockford recently. Kelly ran the open race (130 girls) and dropped 3 minutes from her time from that race last year.
"Her times have really plummeted," said Lucas.
Lucas' daughter, Ashley, has also been faring well in the early going. Ashley Lucas' high school running career has been slowed somewhat due to injury.
"Ashley is healthy and her times are down," said Bill Lucas. "We're real optimistic. But she's still got a ways to go."
Lucas was involved in a bit of a mishap during a recent Suburban Catholic Conference triangular against Marian Central and Rosary in Aurora.
"The course wasn't marked well and she went in the wrong direction," said Bill Lucas. "She was leading at the time by about 200 or 300 meters. Well, six girls followed her after that. She ended up finishing the race second after running a quarter-mile longer. They disqualified the first six runners, but the seventh runner ended up being ruled the winner. But she also went the wrong way."
The winner ended up being St. Edward's Kelly.
"It was a weird ruling," said Lucas. "The important thing was that a number of our runners have been improving by leaps and bounds."
St. Edward boys: The St. Edward boys have a youthful group that continues to make progress.
"The young guys are growing and getting better," said Lucas. "They've got a real positive attitude and a real good work ethic."
Lucas said freshman Andrew Knapik was scheduled to be elevated to varsity competition this week.
"He's run frosh-soph races for us primarily and has medaled in every race he has run in," said Lucas.
Cary-Grove girls: The Trojans will test their wares at the prestigious Palatine invitational Saturday -- annually one of the top boys and girls meets in the state.
"The caliber of teams there will be great," said Cary-Grove coach Mark Anderson. "That's also the course where our sectional will be held at. We'll be able to learn some things running there. That meet is always a good indicator of how we match up on a state level competing against the big dogs there."
Madeline Aufmann, Molly MacInnes and Hillary Young have led the way in the early going for the Trojans.
"Those three have been a real solid core for us," said Anderson. "They've allowed us to have some team success like winning the Wauconda invitational."
Aufmann was seventh at Wauconda, while Young was 12th and MacInnes was 13th for the Trojans.
Anderson said he plans on running a pair of sophomores and a freshman in the lineup at Palatine.
"It's a little different this season for us," said Anderson. "It's required some patience. We want to develop these younger kids. They have responded and are really coming around. We're hoping to get our strongest seven runners here together and keep making strides forward."
Hampshire update: The Hampshire boys team has received a nice boost from sophomore Justin Bieber.
"Justin has run into our number two spot and helps solidify the boys team," said Hampshire coach Patti Nihells.
Besides Bieber, junior Matt Drendel, seniors Ryan Smialek and Kyle Bricka, along with sophomore Tanner Holman are also off to good starts. Hampshire will be tested next week at the Matt Walter invitational at Genoa and the Lisle invitational.
On the girls side, Hampshire's entire team is made up of sophomores.
"We have been stressing pack running. The top five are able to stay pretty close," said Nihells. "Our top runner, Holly Plichta, loves to be let loose and stay with the front runners -- we let her go. The remaining four work well together and are working toward packing it up front."
Westminster Christian update: Tanya Rogers, Beth Kautz, Zach Holmer, Eric Berntson and Luke Dallmann made up the Warriors' contingent at Kaneland recently. Holmer had the top boys time for Westminster, while Rogers was tops for the girls. At the recent PSL relays, Bernston and Holmer ran as a team for 6 miles as did the combination of Dallmann and Kautz.
Rankings: A number of area teams and individuals are ranked by Illinois Prep Top Times. Besides Burlington Central's girls, the Cary-Grove girls were ranked 17th in Class 3A and fourth in the tough Palatine sectional (Prairie Ridge was ranked ninth in the sectional). Crystal Lake South's Kristina Aubert was ranked 23rd among Class 3A runners.
On the boys side, Burlington Central was ranked 24th in Class 2A, while Cary-Grove's Phil Fairleigh was ranked 12th among runners in Class 3A.
Postseason assignments: There has been a lot of controversy regarding the new postseason format and assignments for cross country this season.
On the local front, all U-46 schools have been distributed to what is being tabbed the toughest sectional (Schaumburg) in the state. Elgin, Larkin, South Elgin and Streamwood are at the Lake Park regional, while Bartlett as at the St. Charles East regional. That sectional on the boys side features 14 of the state's 20 top 3A teams, while the girls side features nine of the state's top teams (according to Illinois Prep Top Times).
All local Fox Valley Conference schools are part of the Palatine sectional on both the boys and girls side. Huntley heads to the Rockford Guilford regional, while Prairie Ridge and Crystal Lake South are at Woodstock. Jacobs and Cary-Grove are at Lake Zurich, while Dundee-Crown is at Rolling Meadows.
Burlington Central and St. Edward will compete in the Class 2A Freeport regional, while Elgin Academy, Westminster Christian and Hampshire are at the Class 1A Winnebago regional.