Palatine pulls away, wins regional
Palatine has one of the best girls cross country teams in the state, and it showed with a regional championship in the Class 3A Wheeling regional at Heritage Park on Saturday.
Palatine coach Joe Parks said it can be hard sometimes for a talented team to get its emotions up for a regional race where the five best teams from a field of only eight schools will advance to the sectional meet.
“Considering that, I thought they ran well,” Parks said. “They did what they needed to do, and hopefully they get better and better each week.”
Fremd was second, Barrington third, St. Viator fourth and Hersey fifth in the regional.
While the main goal for the Pirates was to qualify as a team for the Schaumburg sectional at Busse Woods next Saturday, Parks was happy to win a regional championship along the way.
“To win a regional is kind of one of your goals as the season starts,” Parks said. “I'd rather win one than not win one if I've got the option to.”
Though the Pirates won the team championship, the individual champ was Barrington's Becca Batliner, who finished in a personal-best time of 17:20.
“I think it's just exciting,” Batliner said of her title. “I was coming into this race just thinking of it as just a fun run, because there was a lot of tension. But we came in thinking of it as a fun run and to just pack it up.”
“Pack it up” means to race in a group, or a pack, instead of individuals. Batliner said she really likes the course at Wheeling. When the Fillies ran in the Wheeling Invite on Oct. 9 at the same course, they took first place.
“She looked good,” Barrington coach Debbie Revolta said. “She looked really smooth. I was impressed with her. She ran a really good race. She ran a smart race.”
Revolta said she didn't think her team ran its best race on Saturday, and that it will need to run better to advance out of the Schaumburg sectional in a week.
“They need to pack together a little bit more,” Revolta said. “They need to stay together. They kind of spread out a little too much too early. They need to pack it up, and we should be fine.”
Palatine had three of the top five finishers in senior Courtney Brown (second, 17:30), sophomore Tess Wasowicz (fourth, 17:41), and junior Emily Schulte (fifth, 17:57).
Fremd sophomore Kelly Breen was third with a time of 17:36.
Parks said mental preparation will be important for his team before the sectional meet.
“That kind of happens naturally a little bit because the meet's bigger,” Parks said. “Through the week rest obviously becomes more important, but you can't get too lazy with yourself. It's a fine balance between not doing too much but also making sure your legs are feeling better and getting recovered.”
Also advancing to the sectional meet are: senior Megan Cummings and junior Kathie Woolney from Cary-Grove; and freshman Katie Geraghty, sophomore Caitlin Kelly and senior Katie Donnewald from Buffalo Grove. They advance because they had the five best times from competitors not on advancing teams.