Hoffman Estates rises to occasion
As a freshman, Haley Goers finished 24th in the Mid-Suburban League frosh/soph meet.
But in three years, things have changed quite a bit. A second-place finish from Goers and a third-place effort from Haley Worman propelled host Hoffman Estates to a Class 3A girls cross country regional title on Saturday morning at Busse Woods to advance to next week’s Schaumburg sectional.
The two seniors have come a long way in leading the Hawks (49 points) to their third regional title in school history, edging Prospect (56) and Schaumburg (77).
“This is a group that when they came in as freshman, nobody knew who they were,” said Hoffman coach Kirk Macnider. “They have worked hard for four years.”
Goers (17:32) and Worman (18:00) trailed only Prospect’s Brooke Wolfe (17:21).
“Being our senior year and with us hosting, we were hoping that we would be able to win,” Goers said. “We knew what we had to do from last week, so were ready the whole week to prove ourselves.”
And while Wolfe pulled away, the Hawks knew they would be just fine with the support of Takshaka Patel (11th), Solome Haile (16th) and Alondra Aguirre (17th).
“We came out and ran our race plan and all did what we were supposed to do,” Worman said. “It’s always nice when it works out.”
Wolfe finished her first mile in 5:35 but then the junior kicked into another gear to create some separation from Goers and Worman.
“After the first mile, I kept pushing the pace,” Wolfe said. “I haven’t been going out as fast as I did today so it was a change of pace.”
Rachel Henk (12th) and Hannah Getschman (14th) also had strong races for the Knights.
“Our team went out hard and suffered a little in the middle but overall we ran pretty well,” said Prospect head coach Dave Wurster. “We would have liked to win but that wasn’t really our main goal. Hopefully it helps us for state.”
Hanna Winter and Meghan Carroll finished fourth and sixth, respectively, for St. Viator while Fremd’s Kelly Breen took fifth.
Hannah Coombs (eighth) and Sam Nordli (ninth) led the third-place Saxons. Amanda Sanchez came in at 13th for Rolling Meadows and Hersey’s Nora Gawlik finished 15th.
Loyola regional: Advancing as individuals were Elk Grove’s Loredana Lapano (29th) and Rachel Pruim (41st) and Maine West’s Mayra Valezquez (38th).
St. Ignatius regional: Junior Danyle Segura took sixth in 19:52 on the 3.02-mile course at Washington Park in Chicago to lead Leyden to fourth place. Rounding out its top five were senior Patrycja Gumkowski (12th), junior Joanna Kopcinska (23rd), sophomore Michelle Fuentes (26th) and senior Christa Pitts (28th).