Scout Storms continues her dominant ways on the cross country path Friday evening at Loyola Academy
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Wilmette IL-
The Loyola Academy HS Sports Complex was the place to be as the area's top teams converged to clash on a crispy, relaxed evening at the Loyola Flight Night Invitational.
Barrington is one of a handful of high school programs whose athletic director can boast of how great his cross country programs are.
Twilight invites and Friday night meets seem to be in vogue late in the season over the past few years. Loyola's version is unique in that it is a tiered version with 6th to 10th runners that precede the faster fifth through first runners. It allows lower-level runners to shine in their respects.
With temperatures gripping into the upper 40s and lower 50s Fahrenheit for the first time this season, it wasn't surprising to see many runners don tights, head coverings, and gloves. One such runner is junior Scout Storms from Barrington, who seems to have been on the scene forever. She is an engaging sole who loves running to the core, a prominent social media figure, and a general friend of the sport; there aren't many runners worthy of being in Storm's realm.
Storm's teammates set up the team's win in the penultimate "B" race. They put together a strong performance by going 1-5 courtesy of Angelica Hill (Fr.), Allie Edwards (Sr.), Sydney Sukel (Sr.), Viktoria Higgins (Jr.), and Samantha Rowley (Jr.). Hill led the way at 18:46, and the scoring split was 41 seconds.
The championship race got off to a roaring start with Storms in the driver's seat; she hit the first mile in approximately 5:31 and more than a dozen seconds ahead of the field.
Storms increased her lead in the second mile to 30 seconds over Lindsey Gerhardstein (So., Sandburg) in 11:31. The Fillies pack was running well and appeared to be on their way to an excellent finish.
Storms trotted home in a new meet record 17:23, and the Fillies put all scorers among the top 10 to score 29 points. Gerhardstein clocked 18:01 and held off Mia Sirois (Fr., Barrington), who ran 18:04.
The boys side of the game followed a similar trait as Barrington dominated the "B" race, with the top four runners coming home in succession.
The "A" race opened fast and furious with Matthew Conroy (Sr., Chicago St. Ignatius), Joe Bregenzer (Jr., Barrington), Brian Hatoum (Jr., Highland Park), and Nate Wehner (Sr., Highland Park) all hit the first mile in 4:55.
It was a two man race between Conroy and Bregenzer as they separated from the pack, and it was the second mile in 9:55. Hatoum and Wehner controlled the third and fourth place spots, respectively. The Broncos controlled the race with four runners among the top ten.
With less than a half mile remaining, Conroy began to sense that Bregenzer was tiring put on a final burst that broke the race open for good. The winning margin for Conroy was five seconds in 14:54, and he became the new meet record holder and the first one to break 15:00.
Barrington won by just ten points, 31-41, but it didn't seem that close. The 48-second scoring split off of Bregenzer is what the Broncos needed going into the very tough Mid-Suburban Conference (MSL) Championship next weekend.
