Girls cross country: Seniors lead Prospect to regional crown

Prospect girls cross country coach Pete Wintermute leaned on his seniors at the Class 3A Hoffman Estates regional on Saturday morning and they delivered.

Senior Jenna Baltes (18:11) ran to a fifth-place finish powering the Knights to their 10th regional title with 64 points at Busse Woods.

"It all starts with the seniors," said Wintermute of the Knights' title run. "They have been through this a number of times and the goal was to extend the season one more week."

Fremd and Hersey both scored 74 points, but the Vikings were awarded second place on a sixth place runner tiebreaker.

Host Hoffman Estates (80 points) took fourth place followed by Glenbrook South (119 points) and Glenbrook North (141 points).

All six teams will advance to the Hoffman Estates sectional next Saturday morning at Busse Woods with the race scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

Baltes set the tone for Prospect and was aided by freshman Audrey Ginsberg (18:34) and senior Marissa Valentini (18:44), who took 10th and 14th place respectively.

Junior Emily Hubbard (16th place, 18:46) and sophomore Annika Erickson (19th place, 18:56) aided the Knights' attack that was minus a few of its top runners.

"We ran together and packed up well," said Baltes, who was the Knights fifth runner in their MSL title run last Saturday. "Any girl that steps up can be our number one runner; we're able to pack up and work together."

Fremd Junior Morgan Beaupre (18:28) and junior Rebecca Markham (18:30) went 7-8 to help power the Vikings.

"The pack was closer this week," said Markham who was part of the Vikings fourth place finish at the MSL meet. "We wanted to make sure we stayed together and worked as a team."

Hersey junior Katie Fredian (18:06) ran to a third-place finish for the Huskies, with sophomore Jane Stafaniak (18:30) adding a ninth-place finish.

"The goal today was keeping the pack as close as possible," said Fredian. "We did that much better this week than we did last week."

Host Hoffman Estates also ran a fine race with senior Nikki Rong (18:12) taking sixth place followed by senior Bella Alansari (18:38) and senior Anna Miller (18:39), who went 11-12.

"I felt excited for our team," said Rong. "We tried to position ourselves in the spots we needed to be to get through."

Glenbrook South got a boost from junior Kate Jortberg, who ran to the individual title crossing the line in 17:46 easily outdistancing Glenbrook North sophomore Natalie Sandlow (18:02).

"I made a move a little earlier than I planned to," said Jortberg, "But I'm happy I did that, it turned out the way I wanted it to."

Schaumburg sophomore Ashlee Jenks (23rd place, 19:04) was the top individual qualifier.