Jocelyn Long will have another big test this Saturday in the girls meet of champions (Steve Bugarin photo)
Key teams: #3 Yorkville, #6 New Trier, #10 Palatine, #13 Maine South, #19 Prospect, #20 York, #21 Hersey, #23 Stevenson, #24 Lyons Township; 2A: #3 Vernon Hills, #4 Crystal Lake Central, #6 Grayslake Central; Daviess County (Kentucky), Louisville Male Traditional, Louisville Assumption
Meet record: Kaylee Flanagan (Lake Park) 16:49
Yorkville has to be ready for big time-
The team battle for supremacy will fall squarely in defending champion #3 Yorkville's lap. The newly minted Lady Foxes have scored an "A" rating in their new classification. They tallied a one-point loss to #2 Naperville North at the FTTF Invite several weeks ago and last weekend they won the Minooka Flighted Invitational with an aggregate score of 38 points. Most great squads don't have bonified front runners and a tight pack. Yorkville does. The Foxes have attacked with Nicole Greyer. The sophomore has stepped up with top 10 places in each race this season. Her teammates Alexis Grandys (Sr.), Maddie Dearborn (Sr.), and Olivia Borowiak (So.) provide ample firepower to close out races. The scoring split has run under 1:00 in each case.
New Trier has been good but quiet at the same time mainly because they are not a flashy team. But in cross country flashy does not always equal success. The Trevians have a large program with over 150 girls which means athletes are shuffled in and out of line ups. But having flexibility and depth means a coach can build solid training groups. Coach John Burnside's troops ran 38 seconds in their first meet at Hinsdale Invite. The FTTF Invite saw seniors Caroline Fix and Grace Fagan run matching 18:38.6 efforts. They will run with the top pack and hope their scorers will follow suite.
Host Palatine is looking up these days. It just a few short weeks ago that coach Joe Parks did not have the greatest feeling about his team. Well now the Lady Pirates are looking like the team of old. They scored 6th and 3rd respectively at the Hinsdale and Richard Spring Invites. The scoring split has been running around 1:00 which is solid. It will need to come down as the season progresses if the Pirates desire to be the team they ultimately want to be. Danya Lloyd and Liz Lechowitz are the team's top runners. The senior and sophomores have stepped in the face of heavy graduation on the team over the past several years.
#11 Wheaton-Warrenville South is entered in the meet but will not have their top seven runners. Coach Rob Harvey is in Jackson ,Michigan ready to duel some of Michigan's elite teams on Saturday.
The individual race will start with Jocelyn Long-
There are maybe two girls in the state of Illinois whose status is on par if not better than Barrington junior Jocelyn Long. Those two names are Katelynne Hart and Lindsey Payne. The Glenbard West duo have been marvelous as the season approaches the halfway point. But so is Long. She easily won her first three competitions of the season. But even she knows this will be a tough task in winning the Palatine MOC. Last year Isabelle Sparreo of Stevenson swooped in for the kill last year. Sparreo is back and will be ready to defend her title. She did not have her best day last weekend in Peoria with a 13th place finish. Brook Wilson (Sr., Prospect) has been an elite runner in the mighty MSL for her career. She is capable at anytime of winning the MOC. Other standout runners to watch are Maggie Scholle (Sr., Lane Tech), Daly Galloway (Sr., Wilmington S. Gardner), Olivia Nziolek and Madeline Dingle of Maine South. Of course there are many more out there who will vie for top 5-10 status.