Girls cross country: FitzPatrick, Drage lead Barrington in season opener
Different paths leading up to the season from Fillies Molly FitzPatrick and Allison Drage led the Barrington girls cross country team to victory in the opening meet of the year.
FitzPatrick has already been a standout the past two seasons for Barrington (finishing 21st and 26th in state her first two campaigns), and Tuesday the junior traversed the Beese Park layout in the time of 18:19 to take individual honors.
Drage, meanwhile, is a senior who is in her first year at Barrington (a transfer from Cary-Grove), and she finished second at 18:53 as the Fillies (17) bested MSL West opponents Palatine (41) and Conant (84) to claim the victory.
"It feels good," said FitzPatrick of the win. "This is a course we're familiar with, so it's great for the girls to feel comfortable in their first race and stay relaxed - and this is tuneup that prepares us for this weekend (the St. Charles East Invitational.)"
Drage, who excelled in her first race for the Fillies, said it was a "little bit nerve-wracking" for her Tuesday.
"It's brand new competition (for me) and all that," said the senior, "but it was really exciting. It's been a little bit of an adaptation period trying to get my footing down in a new place, and I was a little nervous at first but everyone has been super welcoming. They've been great with the training, they've explained everything to me and just made it a blast."
"Allison has a great personality and is a lot of fun," said Barrington coach Deb Revolta. "She came right in and mixed well with this group. It's like she's been here with us all along."
Dark skies and downpours through most of the morning led the competitors to wonder what type of conditions they'd be racing in, but it turned out to be a picture-perfect day at start time.
Drage, however, said that she doesn't mind running in inclement weather.
"Personally, I love when it's raining, I love when it's muddy," said Drage. "I just feel like it makes it more fun, more exciting. I think it's great."
Mia Solano was Palatine's top finisher, claiming fifth place individually in a time of 20:18.
"I had a long break this summer," said Solano, a junior, "so it was tough mentally preparing myself for today. There were a lot of great girls out here like Molly (FitzPatrick) and Alyssa (Norris, from Barrington), so it was really challenging, but I focused and made a plan for myself for the day and really pushed myself the last 800."
Junior Alyssa Wong earned the top time for Conant, 22:39.
"I just came out here looking to have a fun race in the first race of the season," said Wong. "The course did turn out to be a little muddy today, but it wasn't like anything I haven't run through before.
"We have some new faces on the team this year, and I'm still fairly new to running myself. We don't have any set goals for the season but we want to place better in conference than we did last year and maybe qualify as a team to sectionals."
Anne Marie Jordan of the Pirates finished sixth in a time of 20:29, while Norris (3rd place, 19:55), Anne Berquist (4th, 20:17), and Morgan Magro (7th, 20:49) all contributed to host Barrington's triumph.
"The kids did a nice job," added Revolta. "Obviously we've got to get packed up a little bit better because in a bigger meet there's going to a lot of people in between there, but I was happy with how they performed today, being their first race in a while.
"We're working out the kinks, there's a lot of improvement to be had and these kids are up for the challenge. "