Date: Saturday November 9th, 2024
Location: Detweiller Park; Peoria, IL
Girls Race: 9:00am
Boys Race: 10:00am
Boys Teams: Aurora Central Catholic, Elmwood, Niles (Northridge Prep), Benton, Lombard (Montini), Eureka, Rockford Christian, Georgetown (Notre Dame de La Salette), Peoria Notre Dame, Murphysboro, Winnebago, Pinckneyville, Glasford (Illini Bluffs), Pleasant Plains, Urbana University, Elgin (Harvest Christian Academy), St. Joseph-Ogden, Roxana, Clinton, Herscher, Gillespie, Edwardsville (Metro-East Lutheran), Tolono Unity, Glen Carbon (Father McGivney), Collum (Tri-Point), Toledo (Cumberland), Rockford Lutheran, Kewanee (Wethersfield), Princeville, Byron
Girls Teams: Anna-Jonesboro, Chicago (Latin), Williamsville, Tolono Unity, El Paso-Gridley, Peoria Notre Dame, Winnebago, Eureka, Glen Carbon (Father McGivney), Pleasant Plains, St. Joseph-Ogden, Shelbyville, Murphysboro, Elmwood, Effingham (St. Anthony), Pinckneyville, Cambridge, Byron, Breese (Mater Dei), Toulon (Stark County), Lombard (Montini), Aurora Central Catholic, Sherrard, Elmhurst (IC Catholic), Belleville (Althoff Catholic), Paxton-Buckley-Loda, Herscher, Fairfield, Seneca, Wilmette (Regina Dominican)
Boys -
The trophy race has seemily narrowed itself down to four teams as we enter the the state meet with every one of them having a chance at winning a state championship. Aurora Central Catholic took down the #1 team in the classification coming into the week at the Sectional with their 42 to 57 win over Northridge Prep. The Chargers have plenty of front end talent with Ben Bohr, Jack Swiatek, and John Reinbold all being potential all-staters. They had a 1-5 split at the Sectional of 43 seconds which will be what they will need to have in order to bring home a state title. Speaking of Northridge Prep, they had their best race of the season at the sectional. They had a 1-5 split of 1:03 at the sectional, which they will need to improve upon in order to bring home a state title. That will need to be under 50 seconds. Peter Kipp, John Masaka, and James Barder will be potential all-staters for this group. Elmwood finally spiked up at the Regional meet and have looked like a force ever since in the classification. They won their Sectional with a score of 53 points in a loaded race. They're top four of Aiden Faulkner, Reed Florey, Darwin Herman, and Mika Nelson will all be in all-state contention in the race. Their key will be keeping their 5th runner under 16:00 in order for them to win a state title number 9. Its been since 2017 that we have seen Elmwood on top of the 1A classification. Benton was the third team at the Sectional, but were without their 4th runner Briggs Miller. Gabe McLain enters the meet as the favorite to win the individual title and Cole Buchanan could potentially be in the top 5 as well which offers this group a great 1-2 punch. Seager Sanchez had a massive race at the sectional as he took 5th and will be in contention for an all-state position. Their 5th runner had a great race at the sectional and this teams trophy hopes will depend on their 5th runner having another great race. The Rangers were the #1 ranked team pre-season, so don't be surprised if they walk away with a trophy. Teams like Montini, Eureka, Rockford Christian, Georgetown (Notre Dame de La Salette), Peoria Notre Dame, Murphysboro, Winnebago, Pinckneyville, and Urbana University will be duking it out for a top 10 finish.
Individually as mentioned before this seems to be Gabe McLain's of Benton race to lose. He has looked great this seasn beside one blemish this season where he was 3rd at the conference, but that seems now like it was just a rustbuster. His PR is 14:39 which is the fastest PR in the classification by almost 20 seconds. He will likely be in the low 14:30s this race. After McLain will be a highly competive race where there will be a lot of runners fighting to be within the top 5. Nicolai Martino of Winnebago has had a great season up to this point as he has gone undefeated in his 10 races this season. Could he challenge McLain? Potentially. We have seen runners have massive breakouts at the state meet and Martino looks to be one of those runners potentially. Chaz Oberkfell of Gillespie has had a great season and seems to have had a massive breakout race at the Cumberland Sectional as he won the race over some top compeition in 1A. He was behind Evan Cook of Decatur St. Teresa and Will Fuson of Cerro Gordo-Bement at the regional, but beat both at the Sectional. He can challenge 14:50 in this race. Evan Cook of Decatur St. Teresa has looked very strong this season with his biggest race being his win at the legendary Spartan Classic. He was also the Regional champion over Oberkfell at the Shelbyville Regional. He will be looking to break 15:00. Will Fuson of Cerro Gordo-Bement has been one the best runners in the classification and has some big wins this season at the Tuscola Classic and Light It Up Meet. The state was a breakout race for him as he finished 12th. Can he have another big day at state? Cole Buchanan of Benton had a big race at the sectional with probably his best performeance to date as he ran 14:33 for 2.92 miles to take 2nd place behind his teammate Gabe McLain. He has been 2nd in most of his races this season behind McLain and looks to be a potential top 5 runner in this race. Andrew Kurien of Rockford Christian has been 2nd to Nicolai Martino for the majority of his races this year. He has looked exceptional over the past few weeks especially. He could also be in the top 5. Landen Boman of Pinckneyville has seen success during his time in high school with former teammate Isaac Teel being the state runner-up last year. Boman will be looking to carry the tradition of being a top 10 placer from Pinckneyville. Maxwell Kirby of Peoria Notre Dame has been on a roll since his massive performance at the Nike XC Town Twilight Meet. He ran sub 15:00 at Detweiller for his Big 12 Conference Meet. He will be looking to do it once again.
Girls -
The 1A Girls team battle is the most compelling girls trophy race of the weekend. Two teams have seemily pulled away in the team title race with Anna-Jonesboro and Chicago Latin entering as the co-favorites. Anna-Jonesboro look like they woke up at the Sectional with their best performance of the season. They had a 1-5 split of 1:04 which they could likely get to under 1:00 if Melanina Bundren runs. Bundren didn't run at the Sectional but had great races at Conference and Regionals. Jadyn Gerardi will led this team and will look to be in the race for an all-state medal after her 9th place performance at last year's state meet. This team has a lot of depth and their top 5 scorers could be very interchangable in this race. Chicago Latin has entered the state title race now that Mia Kotler has made her season debut. The Romans have been waiting all year for Kotler to return and at the state meet will look to have all of their big three in tact. Kotler will be racing for a top 5 finish this weekend. Ellie Anderson and Francesca Mora will both look to be potential all-staters this weekend. Anderson has been dealing with a foot injury, but is expected to run at state. The key for this squad to winning a state title will be keeping Ruby Larsen next to Vivian Sidrys. If they do that, then it will be hard to see Latin losing this race. The real enticing part of the team race will be the race for the 3rd place trophy with multiple teams being in contention. The Elmwood Sectional was a big race where Williamsville ended up walking away with the team win. This group is led by senior Louisa Wilson who has had a great individual career over the past 4 years and has an opportunity to stand on top the podium with a state trophy in hand. They had a split of 1:20 at the Sectional and will need to try and get that split to under 1:00 this week. They have had some big wins this year with a notable win over Anna-Jonesboro at the FTTF Invite, but they did not have Jadyn Gerardi. El Paso-Gridley was 2nd at the Elmwood Sectional and have had a great season so far with many team wins. They had possibly their best race of the year at the Sectional and had a 1-5 split of 47 seconds. They are led by Caroline Wettstein and Kiley Knapp and this group will need one of them to make some big strides and get their way into the all-state positions in order for this group to win a trophy. Peoria Notre Dame took 3rd at the Elmwood Sectional, but have a ton of expierenced runners on this squad. They return their entire top 7 from last year's 3rd place trophy winning team. Meghan Zopel has had a big season this year and she ran sub 18:00 at the Big 12 Conference meet and will look to be the top runner for her team as she fights for an all-stater position. The key to them winning another state trophy will be keeping their 4th and 5th runners as close to 19:00 as possible. Tolono Unity is the defending three-time state champions. They have had success at the state meet, even winning in 2021 in surprising fashion. Could they surprise people and defend their title? This group will need to keep their 1-5 split to under 1:30 in order to win. That means that they will need some big development from their 4th and 5th runners. Emily Decker and Mackenzie Pound will be in the all-stater race for medals. Shelbyville was 2nd to Unity at Sectionals. They didn't produce their best day, but if they can get everyone to fire on all cylinders then they could walk away with a trophy. Winnebago has been running extremely with big races over the last 3 weeks. This program is a very history filled program with a lot of state trophies over the last few years. They could potentially surprise some people here.
The individual race is going to be extremely exciting between Isabella Keller of Effingham St. Anthony and Kate Foltz of Tuscola. Keller and Foltz were locked into a great race last week at the Cumberland Sectional where only a second separated the two of them. Keller is the defending state champion and Foltz didn't have a great state meet last year. With last week being the closest that Foltz has even been to Keller, she could have learned something that she will take into this race. This race will be won by one of these two and both runners will likely run in the 16:10s in order to win. Kyla Babb of Westmont had a massive breakout race at the Sectional where she ran 17:37 for 5K at Lisle. She beat some very talented runners in route to her win. She has only been beat a few times this season and she looks poised to run in the 16:30s this week. Mia Kotler of Chicago Latin made her season debut this past week at the Sectional where she took 2nd to Babb at the Lisle Sectional. Kotler was the state runner-up last year and will look to be within the top 5 finishers again this season. Kotler has never taken lower than 4th place at the IHSA State Cross Country Championship. Tessa Bowers of Shelbyville has had a last few great weeks as she broke the 17:00 at the Patriot Invite 3 weeks ago. She will be one of many runners trying to finish in the top 5. Emily Downing of Cambridge hasn't taken lower than 2nd place in any race this season. She has some big performances against some great competitiors in the race. She will be looking to be under 17:00 this week. Molly Farrell of Marshall had a breakout race last year at the state meet where she took 4th overall in 16:57. She hasn't broken 17:00 yet this season, but can find herself doing so this weekend. She is one of the most expierenced runners in the race and has a 3200m State Title to her name. Miah Gilmore of Murphysboro stepped up with a big win at the Benton Sectional where she won in 16:58 for 2.92 miles. She will be in the low 17:00s in this race and will be looking to be a top 10 runner in the field. Sydney Gertsen of Montini has bounced back and forth with her performances, but at times has looked like a top 5 runner in the classification. She can potentially break the 17:00 barrier and be in that front pack for most of this race. Elena Rybak of Father McGivney hasn't raced to her best over the last few weeks. Hopefully she can regain her footing of where she was at for the FTTF Invite where she was under 16:50.
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