Fremd, Meadows lead the way at Warren
Saturday morning's Warren Blue Devil Invitational was not your typical on your marks, get set, go meet for area girls cross country runners.
While the start of the varsity meet was pushed up from 10 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. to hopefully avert rain and potential lightning, the 3-mile race on the grounds of the O'Plaine campus was stopped just a few minutes into it due to thunder.
That stoppage resulted in a lengthy delay, as the race was not restarted for about an hour and a half and the runners had to warm up again before taking to the considerably sloppier course the second time around.
All those distractions and inconviences did not make much difference to Mid-Suburban League squads Fremd and Rolling Meadows once the starting gun sounded again.
The familiar foes went down to the wire with Fremd nipping the Mustangs 62-65 for the title of the 22-team meet.
Rolling Meadows had the individual champion as senior Christina Gastfield easily ran away from runner-up Marianne Collard of Crystal Lake South to win the race by 10 seconds in 17:38.
Kelly Breen led Fremd's surge to the narrow first-place crown with a third-place showing and she had great support from teammates Emi Sudo (11th), Victoria Moroney (13th), Katherine Filosa (17th), and Samantha Bartolai (18th).
"It's been a very tough week for us after taking third in Peoria last Saturday, and then we beat Hoffman Estates on Thursday so it's natural that they would be a little tired," said Fremd coach Mark Anderson. "She (Breen) is just a sophomore, she's a real competitor, and she was able to hold onto third."
Gastfield has emerged as one of the top Class 3A runners in the state and she was bolstered by teammates Rebecca Zych (12th), Colleen Vrshek (15th), and Claire Brady (16th) Saturday.
The rain delay was understandably not easy for any of the runners, but Gastfield was able to capture the title despite laying back to help nurture her teammates early in the race.
"It (the delay) was a little frustrating, but I think it worked out well because I didn't go out hard and I was supposed to go out slow for the first half of the race," said Gastfield. "It was a little slippery, especially for the first 800. I kind of stayed with our group to get everybody's confidence going."
To show just how strong the MSL is again this fall, Rolling Meadows was ranked 25th in the state, yet the Mustangs may only be the eighth-highest ranked team in their 12-team conference.
"It was a tough week for them with a workout on Wednesday and a meet Thursday against Wheeling," said Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Young. "We wanted Gastfield to stay with the pack for awhile and not go out with the leaders. We had five girls in the top 25 so it was overall a good day."
After third-place Glenbrook North (73 points), Cary-Grove toppled the host Blue Devils 125-186 for fourth place.
Sixth-place Mundelein (216) was led by sophomore standout Marisa Perreault's fourth-place finish while Megan Cummings was Cary-Grove's top runner in seventh.
Warren was once again led by sophomore Meg Tully in ninth place while senior teammate Gabby Nystrom placed 24th on the adventurous course.
"Gabby (Nystrom) did well, but we're still working on her training program," said Warren coach Cheryl Anderson. "Meg (Tully) has just been steadily improving from week to week and she kept in contact with the front runners today."
Melissa Whowell added a 21st-place finish for Meadows while teammate Ashley Miller edged Fremd's Bridget Dincher by two seconds for 25th place.