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Onward to State
October 6, 2018
Congrats to our boys and girls for qualifying for the IESA State Cross Country Championships! This is the eighth time out of nine years that the girls have qualified for State, and the seventh year in a row that the boys have qualified. The girls will be running at 12:30pm this coming Saturday at Maxwell Park and the boys will be running at 1:15pm. We will have free tickets available at Awards Night this Wednesday for any runners (or parents) who want to ride our fan bus to State on Saturday morning.
The Girls Race
Saturday at Kaneland High School was not a day for P.R.'s. The wet conditions in the area even forced the cancellation of the high school's meet at West Aurora. Those conditions didn't phase our girls, though.
Alex Stewart once again led our team with a strong race. While she couldn't beat the top two runners from Herget and Plank, Alex kept within striking distance of them the entire race and finished in third with a time of 12:11 to earn All-Sectional honors. Makenna Edwards ran a strong race up top as well, nearly beating all three of Batavia Rotolo's top runners and earning All-Sectional honors in 6th place with a time of 12:36.
Katie Melzer led our pack and passed a lot of runners in the second half of the race. Katie finished in 14th place with a time of 12:58. Emma Jasutis and Tatum Whisenant weren't far behind and represented our final scoring runners. Emma finished in 19th place with a time of 13:17 and Tatum was just behind in 20th with a time of 13:18.
Alexis Wasserberg and Erin O'Connor were our 6th and 7th runners. Alexis finished in 24th with a time of 13:28 and Erin was in 26th with a time of 13:28. Alexis and Erin were ahead of every other team's 4th runner other than Rotolo's. Our 7th runner Erin would have been the #1 runner on seven of the teams from our Sectional.
The team didn't beat Rotolo, but did gain some ground on the team from Batavia. Batavia Rotolo had 49 points in first place and our girls scored 62 points in second. Oswego Traughber was the final team moving on to State with a score of 97 points, just eclipsing Aurora Herget's 106 points.
The Boys Race
The boys also ran a strong race led by Josh Pugh and Max Rowe. Josh and Max stuck with the top pack of runners, and made a run at passing Batavia's second runner. Max made the first move, but couldn't pass Batavia's runner. Max ended up finishing in sixth place with All-Sectional honors and a time of 11:29. Josh held back at first and made a run at Batavia's runner in the last 800m. Josh couldn't pass Batavia's runner, but finished in with All-Sectional runners in third place with a time of 11:23.
The pack was led by Nolan Wood, who ran a fantastic final 800m to pass nearly 10 runners. Nolan finished in 19th with a time of 12:00. Aaron Wynn was our fourth runner in 22nd place with a time of 12:07. Ben Whaley was our key fifth runner in 25th place with a time of 12:16 followed closely by Zach Russo in 26th place with a time of 12:18. Dillan Black rounded out the team with a 40th place finish in 12:31. Dillan would have been top #1 runner on four of the teams from our Sectional.
The top six runners for the boys beat every other team's 4th runner other than Rotolo's. Rotolo looks to be one of the top teams in the State and finished in first with 32 points. Our boys were second with 75 points followed by Oswego Traughber with 112 points. Traughber just edged our Aurora Herget's 122 points.
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