Lockport HS; Lockport IL
It was a great two days to get the cross-country season started as the SWSC Pre-Season Conference meet took place. Lots of fun activities across the board for sure. In total, there were four varsity races which all of them were very good.
The first action took place on Wednesday night with the Boys Red Division run. With the heat still going strong, many wondered what was going to be of the race. We would quickly find out. From the gun, Jay Parker and Caden Simone of Lincoln-Way Central stormed out to the front of the pack and held that for the entire race. Racing side by side until about 800 meters remaining, Parker bolted away from his teammate to win by 14 seconds and set a personal best 15:49. #21 Lincoln-Way Central won the team battle scoring 27 points, but with how far back their 4th and 5th runners were, the Knights definitely will have some work to do so they hit their end of season prime.
The second race of the day was the Blue Division which tremendous hype coming in. The talk was of how good #6 Sandburg was? We found out that they might be stronger than last year. The Eagles went 2,3,4,7, 10 to score a robust 26 points in easily winning over Lincoln-Way East and the hosts. Individually, the race was dominated by Wil Kiley of Lockport coming through the first mile at 5:05, holding strong against a trio of Eagles enroute to the win in 15:05.
Girls-
The following day was home to the girl's races which kicked off with the Red Division. Many thought that #20 Lincoln-Way Central would dominate the field, which they did- scoring 30 points to outdistance themselves from Lincoln-Way West's 64. The individual battle was definitely fun to watch as Gianna Arizzi of Lincoln-Way West dominated the field. Arizzi passed through the first mile alone in 6:00, with no pressure applied to her, the final effort was a thrilling win in a PB 18:09.
The Blue division featured the #16 host Lockport who answered questions right away regarding their strength. Led by Kayla Shea's third-place effort, the Porters march through the finish line with three runners in the top five and five in the top ten to score 28 points. The individual race was the thing to watch though with it being a strong battle between Kate Guderjan of Lincoln-Way West and Caroline Schoen of Homewood-Flossmoor. The pair ran side by side for most of the race until Guderjan pulled away after late in the second mile to win in 18:23.