St. Charles E. wins River title
After a one-year break, St. Charles East’s girls cross country team is back on top of the Upstate Eight Conference.
Denise Hefferan’s Saints put the first, second, fourth, sixth and ninth runners into the chute for a convincing 22-56 victory over runner-up St. Charles North at the UEC River Division meet Saturday at LeRoy Oakes.
“Very exciting to have the individual places but more importantly the team title was the main focus this week,” Hefferin said.
Freshman Torree Scull led the Saints edging teammate Mallory Abel for the individual title, 17:34 to 17:41.
Juniors Sarah Hill and Jessica Evans weren’t far behind in fourth and sixth place.
“The four train together, Mallory, Torry, Jessica and Sarah, they pack together in races, it’s a good competitive spirit between them,” Hefferin said. “Anyone of the four is a potential No. 1 runner. We like that about our team. It keeps it competitive.”
Scull has been coming on strong during her freshman year. A recent second-place finish in the second flight at Wheaton North’s Falcon Classic showed what she’s capable of.
“She’s kind of an unknown which is exciting for us,” Hefferin said. “She has been building all year figuring out how to race, how to run in the varsity races and compete up top. Her potential is limitless at this point. We’re excited to see what she can do the next three weeks.”
Senior Kristen Sheehan placed ninth giving the Saints all five of their runners in the Top 10.
Sydney Stuenkel (18:13) and Ashley England (18:25) led St. Charles North in third and fifth place, respectively.
Just off their pace came Batavia’s Rachael Spalding in seventh. The junior has had her share of injuries to work though this year but is getting healthy at the right time.
“It’s definitely been up and down, it’s been a little rough,” Spalding said. ”It’s nice to have a race when everything clicks. I would have liked to be up closer to the top runners but I did what I could.”
A pair of Batavia freshmen joined Spalding in the Top 10. Lexi Slome took eighth in 18:31 and Alicia Grant 10th in 18:59 while Jessica Roach placed 15th for Batavia who took third 8 points behind the North Stars.
“We have some really excellent freshmen and some of the upperclassmen are really pushed to get on varsity this year and it makes the whole team better,” Spalding said.
Freshman Brooke Nusser led fourth-place Geneva in 11th. Streamwood (130), Larkin (194) and Elgin (214) rounded out the final three spots — the top finisher from those schools was the Sabres’ Amanda Patterson in 12th with a time of 19:07.