Vernon Hills' Gallagher on pace for state trifecta
The 37th Annual Pat Harland Invitational proved to be a tough test for area girls cross country runners Saturday morning at Fox River State Park in Silver Lake, Wis.
The 3-mile race on the hilly 3-mile course was easily won by Marengo's Katie Adams in 18:47, but it was Benet Academy that rolled to the championship of the 17-team meet over the Indians by a 56-89 margin.
The battle for second place in the individual race was a close one the entire way as Grayslake Central freshman Korina Gomez and Vernon Hills senior Kelley Gallagher went down to the wire.
But it was Gomez (19:17) who held off Gallagher by one second to take runner-up honors. Grant freshman Lindsey Lewis placed fourth in 19:35.
Gallagher is trying to become the first athlete in Vernon Hills history to qualify for the state meet in three different sports after qualifying for state in the 200-yard freestyle relay as a sophomore in swimming and placing 10th in the state in the1,600meter run as a sophomore. Gallagher was all-state with a ninth at 1,600 meters last spring.
Gallagher's first cross country season last year as a junior was a successful one, but she just missed out on qualifying for a berth to the Class 2A state meet out of the Belvidere sectional.
"I stayed with her (Gomez) the whole time and she held me off," said Gallagher. "It's a really hilly course and it's really fun because it's a true cross country course and it's all in the woods."
Prairie Ridge took third place in the team competition with 111 points followed closely by Jacobs (118 points) in fourth, and Lakes (131) in fifth. Warren placed sixth with 143 points to topple Crystal Lake Central (181) in seventh, Vernon Hills (216) in eighth, and Grant (229) in ninth. Host Antioch placed 11th with 278 points.
The Eagles' push for fifth was led by junior Hannah Wittman in 10th, Kathryn Dean in 16th, Amanda Timmerman in 27th, Marisa Franson in 33rd, and freshman Heather Hurlbut in 45th.
"We didn't have our best outing today, but I'm still happy with how consistent we were with our gap between our first and fifth runners," said Lakes coach Keith West. "The girls are tired from a long week and we got beat by Marengo, but I don't think today is indicative of how we will compete at the sectional so I'm very optimistic we can qualify for state."
Sophomore Meg Tully was Warren's No. 1 runner in eighth place while Becca Hoklas was Prarie Ridge's top runner in ninth place. Neena Denne added an 11th-place run for the Wolves followed by Jacobs' Sam Baran in 15th. Gabby Nystrom was Warren's No. 2 runner in 24th place.
"We just approached this as more of a hill workout because we can't duplicate this on our flat course at O'Plaine," said Warren coach Cheryl Anderson. "The conference meet at Lakewood Forest Preserve is hilly and this is a good experience for the girls to get ready for that meet."
Gomez has been a real bright spot in the Grayslake Central lineup as she has given the Rams an outstanding front-runner for the squad to build around.
"We did run one of our normal varsity runners down to JV basically to mix up the lineup to get ready for regionals and sectionals," said Grayslake Central coach Jim Centella. "Korina (Gomez) has great endurance, but she also has great leg speed so she is able to hold off people in the end."
Dylan Trauth added a 20th place finish for Prairie Ridge followed by Jacobs teammates Kayla Guiliano in 21st, and Karina Quinones in 23rd.
Lewis continues to be a great leader for Grant with another strong finish Saturday.
"She did pretty well and she is dealing with a calf injury this week so she had a pretty good time," said Grant coach Jeff Durlak. "Our two through five ran pretty strong the last half of the race, but I would like to see them get out a little better because they had to make up a lot of ground in the end.