Cross country: Burlington Central girls, Kaneland boys win sectional crowns
After Rosary's Lianna Surtz took all the suspense out of the girls race Saturday morning at the Class 3A Kaneland sectional, Daniel Chen, Anthony Farmer and Daniel Occhipinti made up for it in the boys race.
Surtz continued her blazing freshman season, winning the girls race in 17:19 - over a minute ahead of runner-up Rachel Richtman from Kaneland in 18:25.
"Coming into race I thought if I was ever by her maybe go her pace and see if that was too fast or whatever, get a feel for it," Richtman said. "But I never even had an opportunity because she took off and I was like, 'I don't think that's where I'm going to be running today.'"
Surtz took the lead early and ran by herself the rest of the day. She has won every race she's entered this year except for a meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria that she set a PR in 17:02.
She will return there next week for the state meet and will be joined by her Rosary teammates who finished second to Burlington Central.
"I am real excited," Surtz said. "I know there's going to be a lot of fast girls so I'll definitely have competition. I want to stay with them."
"Lianna Surtz, I give all credit to her, I don't know how she does it," said Burlington Central's Natalia Rodriquez, who took fourth. "She is amazing."
Surtz said her strategy Saturday was to run the first two miles in 11 minutes. She got there a little off her pace in 11:20.
"My coach and I decided to try to run the first two miles faster than I usually do and see what I had left for the last mile," Surtz said.
Teammates Maia Italia (9th, 19:12), Katie Ubertino (29th, 20:06), Brooke O'Carroll (31st, 20:10), Allison Tippett (32nd, 20:13) and Katie Lifka (33rd, 20:13) all finished in the top 33.
Richtman will return to the state meet where she finished 18th as a freshman and 12th last year.
"I had three surge points so I focused on getting to those and picking up my pace for six to eight seconds and then going back into cross country pace and finding where I'm supposed to be," Richtman said. "I wanted to run a good time to put myself in a good position for my team. I'm really proud of my team."
Kaneland sophomore Olivia Franklin finished sixth in 19:01. Grace Purcell took 18th.
No team ran better, though, than Burlington Central who won just the second sectional title in school history. The other came in 2006.
The Rockets also qualified for state in 2007 and they have not been back - until Saturday.
"We talk about packing it up and running together and you do it in practice and a lot of times what happens in races is kids defer back to their own mental thought process without embracing the idea of believe in myself and believe in my teammates," Rockets coach Vince Neil said. "Today was the best race I've seen the girls run. They followed the plan exactly what we wanted them to do. We've had a great month of practices. You like to think this is how you map it out when you draw it up at the beginning of the season, and it went fantastic."
The Rockets won with 42 points, 60 ahead of Rosary. Kaneland (124), Lemont (129) and St. Francis (144) also qualified for state.
Rodriquez, the lone senior in the Rockets' top seven, led the way in fourth in 18:55.
"Just go out fast for the first mile and try to keep it up the next two," she said of her plan. "All heart in the second and all heart in the third. I couldn't feel my legs but thought I have to kick it in. The girls are counting on us."
The Rockets' next six runners were all sophomores starting with Erin Jossart in fifth, Brooke Barkocy in seventh, Avery Andersen in 10th and Lauren Dowd 16th.
"We were predicted to get first so we wanted to live up to that," Rodriguez said. "We have a lot of underclassmen. We all work hard together and we try to do everything together as a team. I give them (her younger teammates) race tips and tell them stay mentally prepared."
Coming off its first regional crown, the Rockets are looking to make more history next week.
"Another page in the history book," Neil said. "There are some really good teams (at state) but our team pack was phenomenal today, one through five, six and seven stepped up. Our seven did some damage to other teams around us."
Boys race: Chen, Farmer and Occhipinti separated themselves from the pack in the boys race about halfway through, and the three stayed close for the final mile.
Chen, a senior from IMSA, won in 15:13 just a second ahead of Farmer who - like Occhipinti in third in 15:20 - set his PR.
"We stayed together until the last mile and then went," Farmer said. "I was happy with my race."
Occhipinti led Kaneland to the team title with 55 points, six ahead of Benet. Burlington Central, Hinsdale South and St. Francis also advanced to the state meet.
Austin Adams (7th, 15:52), Aidan Lodwig (14th, 16:08), Ethan Walker (15th, 16:08) and Jacob Wielgos (16th, 16:09) made up a tight pack for the Knights.
"They ran awesome. They all stepped up. All the seniors came through," said Occhipinti, whose team made the most of their home course advantage.
"Being able to train on it every day you are used to the whole mental aspect of it. Think back to all the times you ran at practice. Strategy-wise you know where all the turns are going to be."
Gio Martinez (20th), Jack Hartmann (26th), Adam Kries (32nd) and Logan Andersen (39th) made up the top five for the Rockets who took inspiration from their girls team winning earlier.
"The girls were our motivation," Farmer said. "They ran so well. We wanted to follow what they did and have both teams make it to state. Our team has been working hard all summer for this day."
Connor O'Keefe (fourth, 15:32), Ben Grundman (eighth, 16:00), Jack Robinson (ninth, 16:01), Jack Tams (19th, 16:17) and Sean Donnelly (21st, 16:18) made up the top five for runner-up Benet.