Girls cross country: Prospect primed for more success

Legendary men's college basketball coach John Wooden coined the phrase "winning breeds winning."

This past spring the Prospect girls track team did some winning at the highest level possible with the 3,200-meter relay team of now junior Cameron Kalaway, junior Hailey Erickson, sophomore Lily Ginsberg and senior Audrey Ginsberg winning the Class 3A state title in dominating fashion.

Those four runners have their sights set on doing some more extreme winning as the Knights begin their quest for even big-meet success this fall on the cross-country course. Prospect ran the table, losing no dual or invitational meets last year. The Knights, under the direction of coach Pete Wintermute, were overall Mid-Suburban League, regional and sectional champions, plus won the Hoka One Postal 2-mile national title.

"We have really built up our confidence with track last season," said Audrey Ginsberg, who would like to run in college and is exploring her options.

"This team is super close and very team-oriented. We run for each other and keep each other in mind with everything we do."

Erickson (regional champion), Audrey Ginsberg and Kalaway each won some sort of IHSA postseason hardware last season. Lily Ginsberg and Audrey Ginsberg were 1-2 for Prospect in the Hoka 2-mile national event.

"We have been training hard," Erickson said. "We are going to practice and making sure we are taking care of all the small things such as getting good sleep, drinking water and doing those small exercises in addition to the big workouts and long runs. Every little thing comes together and will help us do great this season."

Lily Ginsberg said that while winning the state relay championship was exhilarating, the Knights know they cannot simply show up and rely on past experience to generate a repeat performance.

"State was a really fun and rewarding experience and we are all happy we got to do it together, but we are still training hard and working to get better because we know the other teams are doing the same," she said.

Audrey Ginsberg added: "The track season helps us going into this year because now we are training even harder and making sure we still have our goals and making sure we progress and get those goals."

Erickson said this season will continue to be an overall Prospect experience.

"I love this group and the entire team, not just the varsity," she said. "We are all really close. It's fun to be able to talk to so many nice girls and run with them. We have a great community here. We all are very positive and motivating to each other. We all have a goal and we are all trying to reach it. We work super-hard every day at practice so we can reach those goals. Our goal is to really put our hearts out there into running and make sure we enjoy it and get to our highest potential."

Lily Ginsberg added: "We want to do well ourselves, but in the bigger picture it is everyone contributing together for the team."