St. Charles East shines
The St. Charles North Regional girls cross country meet began in a torrential downpour, but by the time it ended, the girls from St. Charles East were sporting large sunglasses perhaps due to their shining performance.
The Saints placed three girls in the top 10 to win the St. Charles North Regional by two points over host St. Charles North, 44 to 46. Jacobs and Prairie Ridge tied for third with 108, and Streamwood also earned a chance to compete in next weekend's St. Charles East Sectional to be held at Leroy Oaks Forest Preserve.
Saints head coach Denise Hefferin has always coached her teams to run in a pack in order to be successful, and this year has been no different.
“We had a great pack today,” Hefferin said. “We always say that the pack is going to win it, and we know that no individual runner can win it for the team.”
The Saints were led by sophomore Jessica Evans, who finished second on the muddy course in a time of 18.09.9, and sophomore Sarah Hill, who finished fifth (18:51).
“Jess and Sarah ran together last year as freshmen and were our 5 and 6 runners, but this year they've both really stepped up and had a great year this year,” Hefferin said.
“We really wanted to win as a team today,” Evans said. “Coach (Hefferin) always tells us to work on packing up, so that's what we tried to do today. It helps running on our home course because we know where to make our move.”
Colleen Earl was sixth (18:51.6), Gina Bartindale 13th (19:16), and sophomore Kaitlin Guerin 18th for the Saints.
All seven St. Charles North runners placed in the top 28: Sydney Stuenkel (third, 18:43), Ania Gawlik (fourth, 18:44), Ashley England (seventh, 18:56), Jessica Scheets (10th, 19:08.7), Megan Young (22nd, 19:36.5), Audrey White (24th, 19:41) and Elle Murata (28th, 19:55).
Crystal Lake South's Marianne Collard was the individual winner of the regional in a time of 17:48.8. Collard finished 53rd at the state meet last year as a junior, so she's hoping to make it back to place better in her senior year.
“I had a bad race at state last year, so I'm really hoping to get back to make up for my performance this year,” Collard said. “Last year my goal was just to make it to the state meet, so I don't think I took it very seriously, but I'm taking it very seriously this year and I've made it my goal to get back to state and run well.”
Gators head coach Nikki Lydon indicated that the weather had no effect on her star runner.
“I knew she would have great competition today, but I was confident she would win,” Lydon said. “We ran here last year and it was extremely muddy, but she looked good and I'm really happy with how she ran today.”
Junior Jordan Tuin (11th), senior Katie Goplerud (17th), and Abby Kenny (27th) advanced to next weekend's sectional for South Elgin, and sophomore Fabiola Ortiz (20th) advanced for Larkin.