Cross country: St. Viator girls pull out narrow win at Artman Classic
After a long summer of distance running and training, the St. Viator girls cross country team had a big test when the Lions hosted the Artman Classic Invitational Saturday afternoon in Arlington Heights.
Willows Academy of Des Plaines gave St. Viator a very tough battle right down to the finish line of the 3-mile race. But when all was said and done, the Lions' pack held off the Eagles by a narrow 42-46 margin to take home the first place trophy under some warm and muggy running conditions.
Willows Academy's Francoise Lechner won the race in 20:41 while senior captain Maddie Reddin was St. Viator's top runner in sixth. Sidney Jones (seventh) and Catherine Glasstetter (eighth) helped the Lions edge the Eagles down the stretch run.
"It's really hot, but you have to give it your all in the end," said Reddin. "I was behind them (teammates), but I passed them in the woods back there. It would be nice to go to state this year."
St. Viator coach Bill Stanczak could not have been happier with how his squad executed their pack-running plan after emphasizing it throughout recent practices.
"We've been stressing running as a pack in practice so it was nice to see them run as a pack from start to finish," said Stanczak.
After a busy week of meets this week, Carmel Catholic's varsity teams did not compete at St. Viator Saturday.
"We would have had three meets in seven days so we didn't have our varsity teams run here today," said Carmel coach Jim Halford. "Izzy Bing (sophomore) won on Antioch's course on Wednesday, and the boys won at Antioch with six in the top 11 so that was a good day."
In the boys race, Northridge Prep had the top three finishers to easily roll to the team title by an 18-58 margin over runner-up St. Viator. St. Patrick (62 points) was a close third. Junior John Hutchison led the Lions in sixth place while teammate Michael Wallace placed 10th.
The Lions' boys team will really miss the presence of elite runner Michael Schumacher, who placed sixth in the state in Class 2A last year before graduating.
"The competition was great, the Northridge guys really pushed me," said Hutchison. "We've just got to push ourselves and believe in ourselves and it will show in races."
Coach Stanczak praised the hard-work Hutchison has put in during the early stages of the new season.
"Alex Gasey led the boys for the first third of a mile today," Stanczak said. "Hutchison is probably the best runner on the team. He always does more in practice."
St. Edward's young squad struggled under the hot running conditions. But first-year coach Ken Folger is very optimistic that his team can turn things around as the season progresses.
"We got a late start, we barely had enough practices to get here, and we're kind of behind in our training right now," said Folger. "There is no question we're going to see a great amount of improvement as the season goes on. I just wish we had more kids - both boys and girls."