IHSA Regional Recap - Girls

Wednesday, October 28 2015 - IHSA Class 1A Aurora Christian Regional


IHSA REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
GIRLS RACE

Saturday, October 24, 2015

SPLITS | UPDATED FINISH TIMES

COMPLETE RESULTS | IHSA REGIONAL RESULTS PAGE

PHOTO ALBUM (thanks Ashley Eiermann and Ben Padgitt!) 

 

Saturday’s Regional Championship meet was the first leg of the final lap of the journey to Detweiller Park. The three weeks that encompass the Regional, Sectional, and State championships are the culmination of a journey that begins in early June and ends in early November. 

Unfortunately, Mother Nature made sure that she was going to leave her mark on the Regional championship, bringing heavy rains to the area the night before the meet as well as right up until the start of the meet. The girls’ meet was delayed by about ten minutes as a final downpour moved east out of the area.

Fortunately, our ladies weren’t bothered by whatever Mother Nature had up her sleeve and went about the business of preparing to run the race and perhaps claim a Regional championship en route to earning a trip to Lisle’s Community Park next week for the IHSA Sectional championship with a trip to State on the line.

Shortly after 10:10 the starter’s pistol fired to begin the girls race. We knew that advancing to the Sectional meet was not a problem: The IHSA advances the top seven teams from the Regional championship in Class 1A to the Sectional meet the following week. In this race, there were only six complete girls teams, meaning that every complete girls’ team would advance to the Lisle Sectional next week.

What the girls were after was a Regional championship—they wanted to claim it, especially after last year’s Regional (and Sectional) champion, Palos Heights (Chicago Christian), was moved to the Kankakee (McNamara) Regional for this season. Elgin (Harvest Christian Academy) was moved out of our Sectional entirely into the Oregon Sectional.

Coach Wolf mentioned this earlier in the week—it was an opportunity for our ladies. It was an opportunity to claim the first Regional championship for the girls program since 2011. It was an opportunity to be able to say that despite whatever condition the course was in that they would run their race and get the job done.

(Regarding the course… it wasn’t in good conditions – it was muddy in the forest and there were puddles everywhere around the lake loop... but that doesn't matter, everyone has to run in the same conditions anyway!)

The ladies got out well, but were slightly caught up in traffic and packed in as the race wound its way through the forest. Halle was up front, battling with Kremer of Elgin (St. Edward) and Bosman of Elmhurst (Timothy Christian) for the lead. Peyton, Lisa, and Lily were all running together as they passed Coach Dunne at the true mile mark—(we re-measured the course on Thursday while we were out there for practice)—and they were followed by Frankie, Brittany, and Hannah in short order.

Once out into the open, the ladies began making their moves up through the pack in the 48 runner field. The race was already well in hand at the mile – it was time to put a stranglehold on it.

And the ladies did just that: Halle Nash was again our first finisher in second place overall in 19:15, just five seconds behind Kremer for the win. Her sister, Peyton Nash, charged up through the pack in the second and third miles to take home a fourth place finish in 20:15.

With their second and fourth place finishes, both sisters earned regional medals, which are given out to the top five finishers in the Regional championship. Congratulations, ladies!

Not far behind Peyton were Lisa Niemiec and Lily, who finished just a second apart in 20:40 and 20:41 to lock down sixth and seventh places, effectively ending the discussion of who would win the team championship with four in the first seven. Frankie Fabry would shut the door on any team’s dreams of stealing a regional championship by finishing in 12th in 21:21. Brittany locked the door shut with a 14th place finish in 21:38, and Hannah threw away the key to that door by finishing in 16th in 21:48.

To put four in the top seven, five in the top twelve, and all seven in the top sixteen at the regional championship is an incredible accomplishment at any regional. That impressive display earned the ladies a 2-4-6-7-12-(14)-(16) scoring finish, good for 31 points.

Those 31 points earned the ladies a Regional championship – the sixth in program history for the ladies, and the first since 2011, and with it, the right to compete at the sectional championship to earn a third consecutive trip to Peoria’s Detweiller Park for the following week’s State meet. Congratulations ladies! 

FUN STATS FROM REGIONALS:

-Halle’s 2nd place finish and Peyton’s 4th place finish make them the 13th and 14th Westmont Cross Country girls to earn regional medals in our program’s history.

-Halle and Peyton are the first girls to earn Regional medals since Maggie Arndt (4th) and Annie Carlson (5th) did so in 2013.

-Halle and Peyton’s Regional medals are the 22nd and 23rd Regional medals won by the ladies in program history.

-The ladies’ Regional championship is, as previously mentioned, the sixth in program history and first since 2011.

-The other five Regional championships for the ladies came in 1993, 1994, 2009, 2010, and 2011.

-In addition to winning the Regional championship, the ladies set a new team record: This is the 10th consecutive season that the ladies’ team has advanced to the Sectional championship, a streak that dates back to the 2006 season. The previous record was nine seasons in a row, from 1991-99. Congratulations, ladies!

ONWARDS TO SECTIONAL!

The first leg of the state series is done, and we achieved our goal of winning a Regional championship. We did what we set out to do at Regional. We can’t ask any more of that.

Now, we get back to work in preparation for Sectional – the prize on the line is one of five trips to qualify to the State meet. The ladies are looking to secure one of those trips to return to Detweiller Park for the third consecutive season, which would only be the second time in program history that has happened. 

We will have our hands full with Palos Heights (Chicago Christian), Clifton (Central), and Des Plaines (Willows Academy) all also in the hunt for a right to qualify for state. It should be quite the show on Saturday morning at Lisle’s Community Park—our home away from home. Come out and support the ladies at their Sectional meet on Saturday, October 31st! They will toe the line at 10:00 am for a trip to Detweiller Park!