The Palatine Girls crew posing after winning the 2014 MSL Indoor crown
At Palatine, we use most of the indoor season to get in some good workouts, get race experience, and try different people out in different events. With this in my mind, we usually don’t put together our best line-up to maximize point scoring until our indoor MSL conference meet. The conference meet, which was this past weekend held at North Central College, is a great chance for us to put together our best line-up and see where we stack up against some of the great teams in our conference.
Everyone on the team came together and stepped up as we scored highly in almost all the events we entered. We were able to secure the championship and we had some real outstanding performances.
This meet was the first time this year we put together our top group in the 4x800 meter relay. We focused on competing hard and trying to get the win for our team, but we also figured if we did that we would be able to run a good time on North Central’s fast track. We hadn’t even talked about any specific times or breaking any records, so when we broke both the meet record and our indoor school record we were really excited. The meet record and our school record were set at this meet in 2011 by some of my former teammates back when I was a freshman. I remember celebrating with Sarah Macintosh, Becca Sund, Courtney Brown, and Tess Wasowicz when they broke the record back in 2011, so it was really fun to break it this weekend.
This race was a good starting point for our 4x800 meter team since we have lofty goals this season. Kara Burton, Cassidy McPherson, and I all return from our 4x8 team that placed second in state last year. As fun as it was, there is still a step higher on the podium we would like to shoot for. We also have sophomore Kelly O’Brien who is running phenomenal, and a really solid group of other girls who have been working to push us and give us some depth in this event. This should make for a fun season in the 4x8.
Later, as I was getting ready for what I knew would be a loaded field in the 1600, I reflected on all the truly outstanding runners I am privileged to compete against. In past years I’ve faced off multiple times against legends like Emma Fisher [York], Brooke Wolfe [Prospect], Lindsey Rakosnik [Glenbard East], Emma Reifel [Glenbard West], and Courtney and Jessica Ackerman [New Trier]. I have also faced current stars Madeline Perez [Glenbard West], Mimi Smith [New Trier], and Skylar Bolinger [Yorkville] many times this past year, and expect to see them several more times this Spring. Specifically in the MSL, there’s a talented group of distance runners who I’ll be facing frequently.
The early stages of another classic MSL 1600m battle (Liz Cox photo)
Unfortunately, Kaitlin Ko [Buffalo Grove] and Caroline Reynolds [Barrington] were not able to compete this past weekend, but the 1600m was still highly competitive with Christina Santiago [Prospect], Meagan Biddle [Hoffman Estates], and several other great runners. Six runners ran 5:13 or better in this race. It is tough being in such a good conference and state where one constantly has to battle with all these great athletes, but I found it definitely pushes me and makes me better. After missing some training, I wasn’t quite ready to fully compete with so many good runners in this 1600m race, but I know it’s making me stronger and I’ll be ready next time.
As always this conference meet was very fun, so I would like to send a shout-out to North Central College for hosting us in their facilities every year, it’s one of my favorite places to run. Also a shout-out goes to all the MSL athletes and coaches, everyone’s always friendly and sportsmanlike, and it makes me proud to run in this Conference.