Chicago IL-
Never before had there been a cross country championship in the city limits of such magnitude as the one that Whitney Young High School hosted near the Lincoln Park Zoo. Of course, Chicago St. Ignatius hosted the 2A version during the morning, so the initial auditioning was on board.
The flight style format meet was broken up into several races that took place every half an hour beginning with the #7 runners.
The top-rated girls' team in the land of Lincoln is Naperville North who is also the fourth-ranked squad nationally. The Huskies came into downtown Chicago not on a shopping trip, but rather a business affair. That mission started with flight 1 and sophomore Logan Brennan completed the task in 18:21. Next up was junior Sophie Golobitsh in 18:08. The look of determination on each runner's face was priceless. It was like a robotic city function. Finally, Maggie Gamboa took to the starting line in the championship flight and placed second in 17:13.
Not lost in the mix was Oak Park-River Forest junior
Josephine Welin. She took the cross country scene by storm last weekend by "virtually" beating then #1 Ava Parkekh's course record by 30 seconds. Parekh would get a measure of revenge and run 16:44- faster by 10 seconds. However, with nearly a half of a day to think things over, Welin entered the kingdom with a goal of her own. The first mile was a blistering 5:15 followed by the two-mile in 10:54. The final tally was 16:33.31- the exclamation point on a great day of racing.
TEAM SCORES |
PLACE | TEAM | POINTS | SCORERS | TIMES |
1 | Naperville North High School | 41 | 2+3+11+12+13 (20+21) | 1:04 1-5 Split | 17:52 Avg | |
2 | Oak Park-River Forest | 91 | 1+16+18+24+32 (43+48) | 2:20 1-5 Split | 18:14 Avg | |
3 | Downers Grove North High School | 99 | 4+14+15+31+35 (39+47) | 1:22 1-5 Split | 18:26 Avg | |
4 | Oswego East High School | 128 | 9+19+26+36+38 (49+77) | 1:02 1-5 Split | 18:42 Avg | |
5 | Downers Grove South High School | 159 | 17+27+30+41+44 (45+58) | 0:48 1-5 Split | 18:53 Avg | |
6 | Neuqua Valley High School | 160 | 5+6+22+62+65 (66+73) | 2:16 1-5 Split | 18:48 Avg | |
7 | Oswego High School | 173 | 8+23+37+52+53 (70+71) | 1:35 1-5 Split | 18:58 Avg | |
| | | | | | |
The boys had talent on their side as well with 10 ranked teams ready to stake their claim. #2 Downers Grove North appeared to be the hot team in the field but a victory would not come with ease. The Trojans put their five scorers among the top 30 by using a 29-second scoring split. Evan Cummins and Roy Llewellyn led the way with 7th and 9th place efforts respectively. The Trojans scored 77 points to hold off Neuqua Valley 82. Naperville North produced a 1-2 finish in one of the flights, took third (101).
Individually, Arthur Graham led the charge with a solid first mile under 4:45 that led to the win.
Chicago IL-
Never before had there been a cross country championship in the city limits of such magnitude as the one that Whitney Young High School hosted near the Lincoln Park Zoo. Of course, Chicago St. Ignatius hosted the 2A version during the morning, so the initial auditioning was on board.
