Hawks win first regional since '93
A lot of orange and blue came in early in the Class 3A girls cross country regional at Lake Park on Saturday.
Hoffman Estates placed five runners in the top 15 to win the regional with 48 points and advance to next Saturday's Schaumburg sectional at Busse Woods.
"We just wanted to come and run a nice patient team race," said Hoffman coach Kirk Macnider, whose team won its first regional since 1993. "That's been our race plan all year -- mission accomplished. We still had a very hard week of training."
Hannah Worman (18:20) led the Hawks in fifth.
"We stayed together as pack through the mile and then closed the second and third mile," Worman said. "Our team did it today. We did a good job. Next week we'll be fresh."
Sarah Ahn (18:30) was seventh with Sonia Khan, Gaby Duena and Andrea Contreras showing Hoffman's depth.
"They ran a great team race and that's what got the job done today," Macnider said. "That's what its going to take the next two weeks, too."
Lake Park junior Lindsey Flannagan found her pace early. She led the pack in 17:35 to win the regional and lead her team to second place with 64 points.
Schaumburg (88), Maine South (106) and Conant (108) also qualified as teams.
"That was a great team race," said Schaumburg coach Jon Macnider. "We knew when we came in here that we should finish in the top five. We knew that if we ran well, we could be third."
Britten Petrey (18:29) of Schaumburg got sixth after a hard push at the end.
"It went really good," Petrey said. "We had a lot of fun doing it, too. That's my main goal throughout the race, to save up for the end. It paid off. My team is like a family."
Emily Gallup (18:45) was 10th with freshman Colette Falsey finishing 12th.
"We came together as a team from top to bottom and ran a good team race," added Macnider. "We're back at sectionals -- where we belong."
Elk Grove individual qualifier Gina Erbacci (17:54) overtook Conant's Kalli Dalton (18:03) for second place.
"It went a lot better than I expected," said Erbacci, who will be joined by teammate Lauren Infusino at sectionals. "I'm really excited. I'm not really sure what happened out there.
"I didn't really feel good the third mile. But I guess it worked out so I'm just really happy about it."
Maine West's Lizzie Meier ran an 18:52 to finish 15th and advance to the sectional.
At Rolling Meadows: The pack is back.
Last week Palatine's girls cross country team saw its pack disappear at the Mid-Suburban League meet as a disappointed team finished in third place.
But Palatine was on the move at Saturday's Rolling Meadows Class 3A regional, as the Pirates rediscovered their pack cruising to its 16th regional title with 58 points.
The Pirates had five runners finish in the top 16, with senior Colleen Standridge (18:16) leading the charge with a third-place finish.
"We focused on running hard," said Palatine coach Steve Currins, whose team had a 33-second split between its first and fifth runners. "I've been saying all along this is one of the best teams I've been around, we just needed to believe a little bit better in what we're doing."
Hersey had 3 runners finish in the top 9 in securing second place with 80 points, followed by Prospect (117 points), Dundee-Crown (127), and Barrington (140) with all five teams advancing to next week's Palatine sectional at Deer Grove East.
Propsect sophomore Annette White, who was co-champion of the MSL meet, won the regional title outright with a time of 18:05. White was in fourth at the mile marker, but took control of the race in second mile, finishing five seconds ahead of Barrington runner-up Rebecca Tracy (18:10).
"I found a spot to go and I used it to my advantage," said White of her second-mile surge. "I just went for it."
Standridge was supported by a solid pack for Palatine, as junior Tory Wright (18:43), freshman Becca Sund (18:46), and sophomore Ruth Allen (18:47) took 12th, 13th, and 14th place.
Freshman Sarah McIntosh (18:49) finished the Pirates scoring, securing 16th place.
"We turned the negatives into positives," said Standridge of the Pirates' turnaround. "We just realized we're better than that."
Hersey was also better after finishing in fifth place at the MSL meet. This week junior Megan Gojney (18:20), junior Georgia Wiard (18:30) and freshman Salena Clohisy (18:33) finished sixth, eighth and ninth to propel the Huskies to second place.
"It's exciting," said Gojney of her team's performance. "We stayed closer at the beginning which helped at the end."
White propelled Prospect to third place, as the Knights had a key performance from senior Claire Hollis (19:05), who took 23rd place after coming back from an injury.
Barrington, who finished second in state last season, was hanging on the edge, but Tracy's second-place finish nudged the Fillies to fifth and the final qualifying spot.
"We've been talking about taking risk, so lets go out and keep going out and see what happens," said Tracy of her strategy. "It ended up working."
Rolling Meadows' Amanda Whowell (18:17) took fourth place, followed by Wheeling's Amber Stack (18:19), with both qualifying individually for the Palatine sectional.
"I'm really excited," said Whowell, who was passed at the finish line by Standridge. "I can't be upset because I ran my hardest, I'm pretty happy with it."
"I don't think I was as focused as I was last week," said Stack, who shared the MSL title with Prospect's White.
Other individual qualifiers include Buffalo Grove's Cari Geyer (seventh place), St. Viator's freshman Keegan Griebel (11th), Wheeling's senior Jenny Giron (15th).
"I've really improved throughout the season," said Griebel, who finished in sixth place at the East Suburban Catholic Conference meet. "My teammates have been pushing me and telling me to go out strong."
-- Michael Eaken