Hampshire's Plichta focused on regional

Hampshire junior girls cross country runner Holly Plichta saw her running career catapult even further forward this past spring.

Plichta, in her first year in track, finished 10th in the 3,200 at the Class A girls state track meet. That came on the heels of qualifying for the Class 1A state cross country meet the previous fall.

"I was happy with it," said Plichta, of her track performance. "I was running against girls that had beaten me in the cross country season. I felt stronger."

Her success in Charleston got her to think about the future.

"I was excited for cross country to start," said Plichta.

Now Plichta and her Hampshire teammates are looking for more success on the cross country circuit. Plichta and Hampshire are part of Saturday's Class 2A Aurora Central Catholic regional. Hampshire qualified as a team for sectionals in 2007.

Plichta feels the work she put in this past summer has paid dividends.

"My time has dropped a lot from last year," said Plichta. "I've dropped almost 20 seconds from last year. I feel stronger and more competitive this year. I worked a lot in the summer and ran almost every day. I'm really into running this year."

Despite moving up a class, Plichta says the Whip-Purs are ready to tackle the competition.

"It will definitely make things tougher," said Plichta of moving up from Class 1A to Class 2A this year. "We're training really hard and coach (Patti Nihells) is givening us some tough practices. We'll be ready for it. Our team is getting really stronger. Everybody is getting PRs (personal records)."

Burlington Central, paced by the trio of Markelle Turk, Maggie Gannon and Katie Puccio will also be part of the ACC lineup. Central qualified for the state meet as a team a year ago.

In other girls regional action, St. Edward and Westminster Christian are part of the Class 1A Seneca regional at the Seneca FFA Farm Lab.

In Class 3A, a virtual repeat of the Fox Valley Conference place will occur at the Woodstock regional at Emricson Park. Eight of the 12 FVC schools will compete (minus the Grayslakes, Johnsburg and Crystal Lake Central). Woodstock won the FVC title last week.

One team to keep an eye on is Huntley. Coach Dana Burner's squad features 3 freshmen (Amy Kahl, Sara Scarbro and Emily Kahl) and a sophomore (Haley Loprieno) in the top 5. Senior Tori Beaty is also part of that group. Loprieno qualified for the state meet as a freshman.

"The key to success has been a group of girls that work well together and will push each other to the limit," said Burner. "They want to get better and they never hold back."

Beaty says the influx of underclassmen is welcome to the program.

"We were used to it with Haley coming in last year and how she handled it so well," said Beaty. "We have a lot of young talent. We depend on each other so much. I don't think we would do as well if we had different teammates."

Beaty says running on the same course 2 weeks in a row will also be a major benefit.

"We know the course and we can use what we know about it," said Beaty. "We're excited to see what we can do. We know we have the capability to do well. All we have to do is have everybody have a good race during the same race."

Also in that Woodstock field are Dundee-Crown's Kelsey Seiler and Crystal Lake South's Kristina Aubert-both state qualifiers in 2007. Aubert recently won her first FVC individual title.

Bartlett, the Larkin-Elgin co-op team, Streamwood and South Elgin will run at the St. Charles North regional at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.

Boys regionals: Round 2 of the Cary-Grove vs. Dundee-Crown heavyweight showdown will occur at the Class 3A Woodstock regional at Emricson Park. Like the girls regional here, 8 of the 12 FVC teams will compete, including Crystal Lake South, Huntley and Jacobs.

Cary-Grove won Round 1 against D-C last week at Emricson by winning the FVC title for a third year in a row. Both Cary-Grove and Dundee-Crown qualified for the state meet in 2007. Cary-Grove bested D-C by 22 points last week.

"I thought it was good to get the team back on track. Everybody is healthy again and we're having good races as a team," said Cary-Grove standout Phil Fairleigh, who won the FVC individual title a week ago.

Fairleigh missed a number of meets earlier in the year while getting his asthma under control.

"I tried to race at Libertyville, but I dropped out," said Fairleigh. "The doctor told me I had 65 percent of normal lung capacity when I was running. I got some medication. It was real bad for a couple of weeks. I've had it for awhile. It really wasn't an issue until this year."

Fairleigh knows his team will have to be on the look out for D-C and front-runner Anthony Manfrin (2nd at FVC) once again. Fairleigh finished 28 seconds ahead of Manfrin last week.

"D-C is a real tough team," said Fairleigh. "We'll be prepared for the regional as best we can. These are the meets that we've trained for."

Fairleigh was impressed with how his teammates pulled through at the conference meet.

"Everybody has been stepping up," said Fairleigh. "Bill Ross has come out of nowhere. He took third at the conference. He was great. Our team has been really impressive. All the guys were out there over the summer. They got out there and did their training and that has really made us stronger."

This will be the fourth time Fairleigh and Manfrin will square off this season. Manfrin finished ahead of Fairleigh at the Palatine Invitational (Manfrin was an impressive 3rd), while Fairleigh got the nod at the FVC meet. Fairleigh also finished ahead of Manfrin during an FVC dual meet (that did not count toward the final league standings), but that was a gentleman's agreement between the two after they had ran the entire race together.

"It's fun to have a rivalry with someone you know," said Manfrin. "Phil and I are friends off the course. On the course, we're looking to go after each other."

Manfrin knows the battle with Cary-Grove will once again be intense.

"It will come down to the wire," said Manfrin. "Cary-Grove has always been a good team. We have to run a smarter race. We wish we would have run a better race (last week). We have to focus on running our races and not worry about anything else."

Bartlett, Elgin, Larkin, South Elgin and Streamwood will run in the Class 3A St. Charles North regional at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.

Burlington Central and Hampshire will head to the Class 2A Aurora Central Catholic regional, while St. Edward, Westminster Christian and Elgin Academy will compete in the Class 1A Seneca regional.

With 3 classes in cross country, the top 5 teams in each regional and the top 5 runners not on qualifying teams will advance to the sectional round next Saturday.