3A Girls-
It appears that we are in the midst of a dynasty with Naperville North. The two-time defending state champion Huskies could very well be four-time defending champs if not for an out of the world performance by Minooka in 2015. Be as it may, the living legend Dan Iverson's squads has amassed seven crowns in his tenure. We could see another one this fall as five of the top seven runners return. With the addition of Dunlap transfer and emerging superstar sophomore Campbell Petersen, can we can it a slam dunk? We haven't even touched on the team's Nike Cross Nationals runner-up finish... Yorkville has been an outstanding program under coach Chris Muth's guidance. He has five state titles when the team competed in 2A and two runner-ups in two attempts in 3A. The Foxes return six of its top seven plus a solid transfer named Kailey Fox from Peotone. They will battle for another state trophy this fall.
The surprise team of 2017 was Lyons Township. No offense but the job that coach Alex Lyons performed was of 5-star quality. He did not have his ace runner Sarah Barcelona, who was out the entire season with an injury. The Lions were able to rally around a strong scoring split all season and run up front. Now with Barcelona back in the fold and if they can get fellow senior Emily Henkel back to 2016 levels, this will be another dangerous team.
Individually, everyone's pick is Glenbard West Katelynne Hart of course. The all-great still has two more full seasons of cross country remaining. While it is certain that she is on her way to winning a third straight state title, Hart will be looking for a solution in overthrowing the amazing Katelyn Tuohy of New York. Along the journey will we see the Detweiller Park and all-time best of 15:53 by Judy Pendergast of Naperville North fall down? It will be remained to be seen. Some familiar faces like... Alex Morris is the second-best runner in all of Illinois and will run like it when the time merits. Look for her new teammate Petersen to join her at the hip throughout the season. There are tons of graduation that hit the ranks hard, but this state reloads quickly. The high mileage running junior Abby Lopez of Argo figures to play in somewhere. She now has a full school season under her belt. One young lady that will be a force is freshman Katrina Schlenker of Batavia. Schlenker has dominated on the junior high circuit for the last two years. The last time we had a dominant girl was?? Katelynne Hart. Schlenker has impressively clocked 5:04.34 for 1600m and 10:55 for 3200m indoors at a high school meet. They do not contest the latter distance in middle school competition. Schlenker has not run a three-mile race yet so the jury is in court until she does.