Barrington girls win sectional title, look like state contenders at Hoffman Estates

It was a record-setting run by Barrington sophomore Mia Sirois, and a statement-making performance by the Fillies' team Saturday morning at the Class 3A Hoffman Estates girls cross country sectional.

Behind Sirois' course-record time of 16:03.85 on the 3-mile Busse Woods course, Barrington rolled to the team title over Prospect by a comfortable 41-76 margin. The Fillies could very well be the favorites to bring home their first state championship since 2003 next Saturday in Peoria.

Hersey (113 points) easily locked up third place to advance to state for the fourth straight year while fourth-place Lake Zurich (174) and sixth-place Schaumburg (213) also advanced to the 45th IHSA meet.

Sirois was in a class of her own as she ran away from the rest of the field with a time of 10:41 at the 2-mile mark before barely breaking a sweat as she crossed the finish line.

“I just wanted to improve my time from what I ran here two weeks ago and we had a lot of goals as a team,” said Sirois, who improved her Mid-Suburban League meet time by 18 seconds. “You know I can't do it alone (at state), we all have to put in our best effort together, and we have a really strong bond as a team so I'm really looking forward to see what we can do.”

Barrington's Scout Storms placed second in 17:03 followed by teammates Sabrina Roach (eighth), Victoria Tarara (11th), and Viktoria Higgins (20th).

“They came to run today, it was probably not our best race, but today is all about survive and advance to get to the state meet,” said Barrington coach Debbie Revolta. “It's so hard because there are so many good teams (at state) so it always comes down to who runs well on that day and we're certainly going to go for it and hope things work out for us.”

Prospect was led by Veronica Znajda in third, Meg Peterson in fourth, and Ireland Wildhart in seventh.

“We had a great team race and these girls showed up with probably our best team race of the season,” said Prospect coach Pete Wintermute. “You come here with the hopes and dreams of getting to run at Detweiller next week and the back end of our team ran awesome.”

Hersey was led by Madeline Bialko in sixth and Alexa Izenstark in ninth.

“The team looked great, we had four out of seven PR, and our 1-2 looked really strong,” said Hersey coach Mikayla Olsen. “I think top five (at state) is definitely obtainable, and if we have a good day and click anything is possible.”

Lake Zurich was paced by Avery Muhr in 23rd and Ruby Nissen in 24th.

“They've improved dramatically from last year and they put the work in the summer,” said Lake Zurich coach Jeremy Kauffman. “We've battle through injuries and illness, they truly are a team, and there literally is no focus on individual performance.”

Schaumburg teammates Jpia Sodimu (29th) and Miland Pisto (32nd) helped push the Saxons back to state for the first time since 2016. “They ran spectacular, but I'm not surprised,” said Schaumburg coach Caitlin Roberts. “I'm very excited for them, and they continued on their same race plan.”

Individual state qualifiers were Palatine's Elizabeth Garrett (12th), Streamwood's Sophia Baumert (13th), Hoffman Estates' Ella MacNider (15th), Fremd's Isa Hasty (17th), Hoffman Estates' Maya Zabiegly (19th), and Warren's Kaylee Wilson (22nd).

BOYS

There was a logjam of teams trying to qualify for the 78th IHSA boys cross country meet Saturday morning at the Class 3A Hoffman Estates sectional.

It was a close race to the finish on the 3-mile Busse Woods course, but it was New Trier that took home the title by a 98-120 margin over runner-up Lake Zurich.

Mid-Suburban League teams Palatine (129 points), Prospect (134), Barrington (153), and Fremd (158) took places 3-6 while Libertyville edged Hersey 172-174 to earn its first trip downstate since 1992.

New Trier's Ben Crane (14:14.01) pulled away from Barrington's Joe Bregenzer to win by 11 seconds while Cary-Grove's Jameson Tenopir earned the first of 10 individual berths to Peoria with a fourth-place finish.

Lake Zurich's push to second place was led by Karanveer Patil (ninth), Cameron Libby (15th), and Luke Marshall (20th)

“They ran well, they navigated the course well, they've been working hard for this and now they get a chance to hopefully run their best next week,” said Lake Zurich coach J.B. Hanson. “You are going to see the best (at state) so you've got to bring the best. We're looking forward to it, and one of the goals all season is to get there so props to these kids for putting themselves in the position to get that opportunity.”

Palatine's troops were led by Alex Krieg in fifth, James O'Sullivan in sixth, and Carter Hayes in 22nd.

“We ran well, but we also know we've got a better race in us so hopefully we'll save that for next weekend,” said Palatine coach Joe Parks. “I'm proud of our boys, last year we just missed making state and today was much better so a year of work paid off.”

Prospect reached the state meet for the fourth year in a row behind Luke Robinson in 14th and Quinn Davis in 24th.

“We got out pretty good and held our position, we raced a lot better than we did at conference so I think we've got a lot of positive momentum going into state,” said Prospect coach Jay Renaud. “I know these guys are really confident, we're just going to enjoy the next week here and we're going to see what we can do.”

After Bregenzer, Ethan Scott (29th), and Avery Erickson (36th) helped carry Barrington downstate for the eighth straight year.

“There were at least seven teams that we knew could beat us or have already beaten us here,” said Barrington coach Tom Root. “The last few years these seniors have been able to really focus on state and make sure to survive and advance sectional week and we knew it was do or die time.”

Fremd's pack was led by Rory Gaan (13th) and Jack Jennings (18th), Libertyville was led by Michael Chudy (25th), Filip Vojvodic (28th), and Taylor Rihm (31st).

Team unity, trusting the process, and believing in each other was the key to reaching state according to Libertyville coach Stuart Mendelsohn.

“It's exciting for the guys that all the work they put in paid off,” Mendelsohn said.

Other at-large state qualifiers were Jacobs' Max Sudrzynski (seventh), Hersey's Mateus Salomao (10th), Conant's Charlie Calderone (11th), Buffalo Grove's Riley Wold (12th), Hersey's Nathan Marotta (16th), and Hoffman Estates' Brady Faulkner (17th).