Flanagan pulls away from Rakosnik to win
It was plain from the start that the individual title of Saturday’s Class 3A Fenwick girls cross country regional would be won by one of two people.
Lake Park’s Kaylee Flanagan and Glenbard East’s Lindsey Rakosnik took off ahead of the pack on the flat 3-mile course at Chicago’s Schiller Woods. They ran together through the first mile in about 5 minutes, 23 seconds.
Flanagan, a junior, edged ahead of the Glenbard East senior and maintained her margin, winning the regional in a time of 17:00.4.
“I think it was the second mile, just like putting in a surge and then continuing with the surge, go with that pace. I think that was helpful,” said Flanagan, ninth place at the 2010 state competition and the younger sister of 2008 champion Lindsay Flanagan, now running for the University of Washington.
“I knew she was there the entire time because she’s a really strong runner,” Kaylee Flanagan said of Rakosnik, who at 17:10.0 finished three seconds ahead of York’s Emma Fisher and nine seconds ahead of Glenbard West’s Madeline Perez. Kayla Spencer of York, which won the team title, rounded out the top five.
“She’s like right up there so I was like, ‘Well, we’re going to push each other and see where it goes.’ That was the main goal,” Flanagan said.
Rakosnik’s background is as a track sprinter — she is the reigning girls 3A 800-meter champion — who despite having run the state’s top 5-kilometer time and fourth-best 3-mile is still figuring this distance thing out.
“My goal was just to go out fast with her and just try and maintain it,” said Rakosnik, about 10 yards behind Flanagan at the 2-mile marker, which Flanagan met at about 11:04.
Flanagan’s pace was 5:41 a mile, three seconds ahead of Rakosnik.
“I don’t know what it was,” Rakosnik said. “Maybe I can’t go out hard for the whole thing. Next week (at the Niles West sectional) I’ll probably have a different strategy. I think maybe more consistent would help. I think I just went out too fast today.”
Advancing seven of the eight competing teams into the sectional, York, Glenbard West, Lake Park, Glenbard East, Oak Park, Willowbrook and Proviso West all will run on Oct. 29.
Though well over a minute gap separated York’s Fisher and the Dukes’ fifth-place finisher, Allison Smith, York’s top pack finished third, fifth, seventh and eighth to win the regional, 40 points to 49 for Glenbard West, which saw freshman Lisa Luczak finish sixth.
Lake Park placed third, Glenbard East fourth, Oak Park fifth and Willowbrook, headed by Molly Krawczykowski, sixth.
“They ran great today,” said York coach Annette Schulte, an Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee who directed the girls program’s 20th regional championship.
“Shari Lund and Michelle Frigo had their best race of the season, really came through for our team. And Kayla Spencer and Emma Fisher up front have always been a nice strength.
“So it’s great individual competition — Flanagan, Rakosnik from Glenbard East, Perez from Glenbard West. They’re all up there, they keep the top runners sharp.
“We’re celebrating today,” Schulte said. “We’ve got to go back to work on Monday.”