Lisle Sectional Recap: Girls Earn 3rd Consecutive Trip to State With 2nd Place Finish

IHSA CLASS 1A LISLE SECTIONAL GIRLS RECAP

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Lisle Community Water Park 

SPLITS | MILE SPLITS | UPDATED FINISH TIMES

COMPLETE GIRLS RESULTS | IHSA GIRLS SECTIONAL RESULTS PAGE

LADIES EARN THIRD CONSECUTIVE TRIP TO STATE WITH STRONG 2^ND PLACE FINISH AT SECTIONALS

Community Park was definitely more of a water park today (hence my adding the word “water” into the location of Lisle Community Park above), and I think our girls will attest to that, especially after the conditions that their race was run in.

As we boarded the bus back at school to depart for the Sectional meet at Lisle, a light rain shower was already falling after the overnight rain session had lightened considerably. We were hopeful that the light, yet steady rain would be how Mother Nature would treat the Sectional meet.

We should have known by now as Chicagoans that we should never trust Mother Nature to keep things relatively tame for such things as Sectional cross country meets. 

No sooner had the bus turned onto Odgen Avenue than the rain began to steadily pick up in intensity. It would continue to increase as we set up camp in our usual spot next to Lisle High School. The rain continued to pelt down as the ladies began their warmup, in preparation for their Sectional race—with one of five trips to Peoria for next week’s State meet on the line.

The girls were focused. They were ready to go as they finished their warmup, stretches, dynamics, returned to the tent, and switched their shoes for spikes, and stepped to the line.

Rain? What rain? The ladies were here to take care of business. They were ready to run in the rain at Regional last week. This was no different.

At precisely 10:00 am, the tone sounded. The ladies were off and running. They had done everything they could that was in their control to prepare for the race. It was now in their hands.

From our view at the starting line, it appeared that the ladies got off to good starts. We had a race plan for the ladies based on our scouting. We knew that if we executed the plan, we would likely finish a solid 2^nd place behind Chicago Christian again. 

Unfortunately, Coach Dunne had problems with the stopwatch app on his phone that he was using to take splits today and eventually the app stopped working and quit, losing the time, which meant that accurate splits were out the window.

In any case though, it was already apparent that times didn’t matter as much in the sloppy, wet, muddy conditions on this course today. Places mattered more.

Halle led the Sentinel attack at the mile, passing through at about 6:14. Halle was just outside of the top 10 at this point. She was followed by our trio pack of Peyton in 6:28 and Lily and Lisa at 6:34 each. The trio of Peyton, Lisa and Lily were in the top 40 at the mile. Things were looking good.

It got even better at the mile mark: Brittany, Frankie, and Hannah—all three were running well and poised to move up big-time. Brittany led the way at about 6:45, with Frankie passing the mile at 6:52 and Hannah at 7:01. All three of these ladies were positioned inside the top 60. 

The triangle was part of our race plan. It was here that the ladies began to make their moves and steadily passing others. They crossed Short Street and began the long trek out behind the softball fields, where they passed our alternate runner, Ashley Eiermann, shouting out encouragement to her teammates as they continued to pass runners.

Coach Wolf and Coach Dunne then converged upon the two mile mark. It was clear at this point that the ladies were executing our pre-race plan to near perfection. Halle had moved up to 8^th place by this point and in position to earn a Sectional medal. 

Peyton, Lily, and Lisa were within a few feet of each other at the two mile mark as they passed by Coach Wolf and Coach Dunne. All three ladies had moved up a few places and were in very solid position heading into the soccer fields.

Frankie had moved ahead of Brittany at the two mile mark, and Hannah had closed the gap on the other two – that was exactly what we needed from our second trio was to close the gap. All three ladies were running well, and like their teammates, they were continuing to pass runners. 

By the time the ladies emerged from the soccer fields back out onto the softball fields, we were in excellent position. We knew Chicago Christian had the race well in hand; we also knew we were a solid second at this point. Now it was time to bring it home and lock down a third consecutive trip to the State meet. 

Halle was again our top finisher in 20:33 (unconverted, that converts to a 19:53 for 3 miles), charging down Short Street to cross the finish line in 7^th place to earn herself a Sectional medal.

Then our pack left slammed the door shut on any competition outside of Chicago Christian – Peyton stormed home in 24^th place in 22:06 (21:23 converted), quickly followed by Lisa, who claimed 27^th in 22:08 (21:25 converted) and Lily in 30^th (21:29 converted). What made it even sweeter was the fact that Frankie broke into the top 40 with a 39^th place finish in 22:48 (22:03 converted) and she was quickly followed by Brittany in 46^th in 23:04 (22:19 converted) and Hannah was right behind her in 47^th in 23:06 (22:21 converted). 

At our team meeting on Friday, we had set the goal of putting seven in the top fifty spots. That, we felt, would put us comfortably in second place and in excellent position to earn a third consecutive trip back downstate.

Mother Nature didn’t faze our ladies. They executed their race plan to perfection. Four in the top 30; five in the top 39; seven in the top 50. The times didn’t matter. Places did. The ladies set out to earn a solid second place in Sectional and a return trip to state, and they did exactly what they set out to do. 

Our raw score of around 125 points was a pretty good indication that we were in an excellent position to qualify easily to State again.

With the ladies quickly heading back towards to the tent—and eventually to change into dry clothes—the wait for the results to be posted began, although the boys were heading up to the line to begin their race. The boys ran their race as the ladies’ wait for results continued.

The main reason why the wait for results seems very long at a Sectional meet is because the IHSA mandates the use of video review at every state series meet in cross country. It is much quicker at the Regional where there is a smaller field. Not so at the Sectional.

Per IHSA rules, every single runner from the sectional champion all the way to the last place runner must be looked at to verify that they are correctly entered into the results in order to avoid any discrepancies as had occurred at other sectional meets in previous years which caused some athletes and teams that had thought they had qualified for state when the initial results were posted then had their dreams ruined with revised results. Video review goes a great way to ensuring this never happens to any athlete or team again.

While the video review process continued, the ladies stored their equipment on the bus and then made their way into the gymnasium, where awards were to be held.

Finally, Lisle Head Coach Ken Jakalski emerged from the office into the gymnasium to announce the girls results.

The official results confirmed that Halle had earned a 7^th place Sectional medal. Then came the individual qualifiers. Finally, Coach Jakalski announced the five qualifying teams. Timothy Christian earned the fifth and final qualifying spot with 176 points—just nine points ahead of sixth-place Beecher. Willows Academy took fourth with 145 points. Third was Clifton Central with 124 points.

Then, Coach Jakalski announced that the Sentinel ladies had finished in second place with a score of 96 points to earn their third consecutive trip to Detweiller Park! The ladies had scored 4-18-20-23-31-(38)-(39) for those 96 points!

Congratulations, ladies on earning a third consecutive trip downstate!

FUN STATS FROM SECTIONAL

-Halle’s 7^th place finish makes her just the 8^th Westmont Girls Cross Country athlete to earn a Sectional medal! Her medal is the 17^th Sectional medal in girls’ program history.

-Rain – what rain? Halle ran the 20^th fastest time ever run by a Westmont girl at Lisle Community Park today, regardless of meet. Halle now owns three of the top 30 times ever run on this course, all from this season alone.

-Halle’s 20:33 also earned her the 6^th fastest time ever run by a Westmont girl at the Sectional championship on this course.

-The ladies’ 96 points is only the fifth time we have scored below 100 points at the Sectional championship in program history. That is quite an accomplishment, ladies, congratulations!

-The ladies earned their third consecutive trip to the State meet. This is the second time in program history that has happened. The only other time that has happened in program history is the back-to-back-to-back appearances in the 1992, 1993 and 1994 seasons.

-The ladies qualified for State for the fifth time in six seasons. There has never been a stretch like that in program history!

-The ladies’ appearance at the State Final next Saturday will be the 8^th time in program history for the ladies.

SIX DAYS LEFT UNTIL STATE!

The ladies ran an amazing race. Disregard the times and the splits. Those do not matter today.

The ladies were focused all week long.

They ran exactly the way they needed to at the biggest meet yet of their seasons on what was for most spectators a very cold, wet, miserable day.

They did not let the elements bother them. They took control of everything that they could control—be it the warmup, dynamics, the race itself.

It paid off in the form of a strong 2^nd place finish and a third consecutive trip to Peoria.

Now, ladies, with a final week of tapering, we are confident that you will all have the best races of your seasons—and careers—next Saturday at historic Detweiller Park. Come to practice sharp and focused this week and when we leave for Peoria Friday. 

9:00 am on Saturday is show time, ladies. Let’s show the rest of the state of Illinois what Westmont Girls Cross Country is made of. If you do exactly what you did yesterday and today in preparing for your race State on Saturday, you are all going to achieve your goals. We have no doubt about that.

We have one more week left in this journey we began back on June 8^th. 

Enjoy your accomplishments from today, ladies – go for a short cleanout run tomorrow (or rest if you were told to do so by Coach Wolf) and come back ready on Monday. One more week. It’s going to be the best one yet, and we can’t wait.

On to State!

LET’S GO SENTINELS!!!