Date: Saturday November 9th, 2024
Location: Detweiller Park; Peoria, IL
Girls Race: 1:00pm
Boys Race: 2:00pm
Boys Teams: Downers Grove North, Plainfield North, Plainfield South, Edwardsville, Winnetka (New Trier), Elmhurst (York), LaGrange (Lyons), Orland Park (Sandburg), Lake Zurich, Palatine, Mt. Prospect (Prospect), Batavia, Naperville (Neuqua Valley), Barrington, New Lenox (Lincoln-Way Central), Palatine (Fremd), Naperville Central, Wheaton Warrenville South, Berwyn-Cicero (Morton), Libertyville, Naperville North, Chicago (Lane), Oak Park-River Forest, Glen Ellyn (Glenbard West), O'Fallon, Wheaton North, Yorkville, Quincy
Girls Teams: Barrington, Downers Grove North, Elmhurst (York), Minooka, Batavia, Mt. Prospect (Prospect), Naperville North, Arlington Heights (Hersey), Edwardsville, Wheaton Warrenville South, Plainfield North, Huntley, Yorkville, Lake Zurich, Wheaton North, Park Ridge (Maine South), Naperville Central, Northbrook (Glenbrook North), Glen Ellyn (Glenbard West), Winnetka (New Trier), Aurora (Waubonsie Valley), Schaumburg, O'Fallon, Hinsdale Central, Oswego East, New Lenox (Lincoln-Way Central), Frankfort (Lincoln-Way East), Downers Grove South
Girls -
The girls team race has been highly compelling over the last few seasons and this one loks to be the same. Our big three all season has produced some high level performances and traded wins. This saturday will certainly be a nail bitter. Barrington enters the meet as the team that seems to be the favorite. They are led by the 1-2 punch of Mia Sirois and Scout Storms who will both likely be in the top 5 finishers. Sabrina Roach has been running great as of late and will be an all-stater contender along with Viktoria Tanara and Viktoria Higgins. This team is loaded in terms of talent and kept their 1-5 split to 1:54 this past weekend which is amazing considering that their top runner produced one of the fastest 3 mile times in history. If they can keep their 3-5 prunners better pack up in this race then it wil hard seeing this team lose the State Title. Downers Grove North entered the season as the #1 ranked team pre-season. They have a maintained as a great team this season and is undefeated when at full strength. We could see this group with a 1-5 split under 10 seconds if everything goes well. Their top 5 runners all have PRs at or under 17:35, we could see them potentially have 5 all-staters. Their pack of Mackenzie Willard, Alayna Todnem, Ava Gilley, Audrey Casten, and Lily Eddington is leathal when each runner is firing on all cylinders. Elmhurst York has beaten both Barrington and DGN this season and will be looking to do so once again as they attempt to bring home another State Title to its school. Karlin Janowski will be one of the top individuals in the field and be in the front of this race for the Lady Dukes. Maggie Quinn had a massive race at the Sectional as she ran 17:41, but this team in order to win will need their 3-5 runners right with Quinn. If any of those teams falture then potentially Minooka could swoop in and snag a trophy. The Indians are led by Maya Ledesma who will be one of the top individuals in the field and have formed a great pack over the last few weeks led by Natalie Nahs. If their pack can all get under 18:00 then they have a shot at a trophy. Don't count out Prospect as well who has tons of upside and has expierence winning trophies at the state meet. They are led by Veronica Znajda, Meg Peterson, and Ireland Wildhart who will be all-staters this weekend. Mary Laba has been their 4th runner this year, but has some great track speed. The fast Detweiller course could bode well for a breakout race from her. Sophie Fransen missed most of the season due to injury but raced for the first time at the MSL Conference meet. She has been slowly improving over the past few weeks, she has a sub 18:00 performance to her name last year, maybe she can breakout at her final trip to Detweiller. She ran 18:42 at Busse Woods last year for the Sectional and ran 18:45 this year, so running low 18:00s isn't out of the question.
In the individual race, we are offically on all-time record watch as Mia Sirois of Barrington looks like she can potentially take down Judy Pendergast's all-time record of 15:53.8. She is undefeated in every race this year and has set multiple big time course records. Most recently at the Sectional she ran a new PR of 16:03 at Busse Woods and won by a minute. Detweiller has historically been a faster course than Busse Woods so we should expect a sub 16:00 effort this weekend if weather corporates. It will be hard to see anyone near Sirois. Maya Ledesma of Minooka has also set some great course records recently with her most notable one being her 16:54 performance at Channahon Community Park. She hasnt taken lower than 2nd in any race this year and will be running for 2nd place here. Karlin Janowski of York has made a massive mark on the state as a freshman with a PR of 16:45. She also hasn't been lower than 2nd place this year and her only losses are to Mia Sirois. Scout Storms of Barrington is the defending state champion in class 3A. It will be hard seeing her win the race this year after her teammate beat her by a minute at the Sectional, but she has a great opportunity to be 2nd here and really help her team towards a team state title. Veronica Znajda of Prospect made a big move to the front of the race last year at the state meet which ended up with her dropping out of the race. She was 6th back in 2022 and will be looking to be better than that this year. Amelie Ojeda of Willowbrook has been on a roll as of late which includes a win at Sectionals. She has possibly been the most improved runner in 3A this year. She could surprise some people and be as high as 2nd place in this race.
Boys -
The boys team battle seems to be a mirror of last year with Downers Grove North, Plainfield North, and Plainfield South all being the favorites to bring home a trophy. These were the same three teams that brought home a trophy last season. Downers Grove North enters as the favorite to win the State Title as they did last year. This group is led by the great 1-2 punch of Phillip Cupial and Grant Schroder who will both be potential top 5 runners in the race. Will Surratt has also had a great year and will need to be an all-stater for this team. Brady Travers has been extremely consistent for this group this season and you can expect him to be under 15:00 here. The Trojans were without John Courtney at the Sectional, but Jack Loftus had a big race to step up. Whoever their #5 runner is, they will surely be a quality runner that will potentially be under 15:00. Plainfield North has gotten close to Downers Grove North now a few times. Most recently they were 10 points behind them at the Naperville Twilight Meet. They are led by Thomas Czerwinski and Quinn Davis who will both be potential top 10 runners in this race. Aidan Connors will be in the race to be a potential all-stater. James Maso and Gavin Hall will be challenging 15:00 here. Sounds pretty similar to DGN's team makeup right? Expect this to be a close race between those two. Plainfield South was 2nd behind Plainfield North at the Sectional and will look to bounce back this week. This group is led by Dylan Maloney who will be fighting for the individual title. Then Dylan Buturusis and Alex Batsala both have had great races this season and if they have a great day, could be all-staters. The key for this team will be where Austin Cory and Riley Fink are in the race. They have shown great potential this year and could be right around the 15:00 barrier. Kellan Hernandez was the team's 5th runner last week at Sectionals, could he surprise people this week? The Cougars were only 4 points behind Plainfield North at the SPC Conference. If they replicate that performance then they could contend for the win. If any of those three teams slip up then Edwardsville and New Trier could swoop in to snag a trophy. Edwardsvile was only a few points behind Plainfield South at the Sectional.
In the individual race this looks to be between Ben Crane of New Trier and Dylan Maloney of Plainfield South for the individual win. There are lot of runners that will be racing for a top 5 finish. Ben Crane of New Trier has been undefeated this season on Illinois soil. He has been running some great races as of late and most notably just ran 14:14 at the Sectional. He has raced Maloney twice this season and beat him twice. Dylan Maloney of Plainfield South as mentioned has lost twice to Crane, but was only 4 seconds behind him at Nike XC Town Twilight. That margin was a lot closer than it was at the FTTF Invite. Maloney has been running great as of late and is expected to be right next to Crane and duking it out until the end. Thomas Czerwinski of Plainfield North has been running great as of late. He had a rough start to the season, but had his best race of the season this past weekend at the Normal Community Sectional. He was only 7 seconds behind Dylan Maloney and will be fighting for a 3rd place finish here. Joe Bregenzer of Barrington was 2nd to Crane at the Sectional. Coming into the season, Bregenzer was looked at as a contender for the state title after his 3200m State win on the track. Good thing for Bregenzer is that nobody talked about him winning the state meet in track until after the state meet had concluded. He could surprise some here. The duo of Phillip Cupial and Grant Schroder of Downers Grove North have had an excellent last few races since Naperville Twilight. They have been 1-2 at every meet up to this point since. Both could finish within the top 5 here. Evan Parker of Niles North was third at the Hoffman Estates Sectional behind Crane and Bregenzer. He has been competiive in every race that he has ran this year and sports a PR of 14:30. Last year's state meet was a massive breakout for parker. Could he have another massive day at the state meet this season. Jacob Barraza of DeKalb has looked very good over the past few weeks and especially this past weekend at the Lake Park Sectional in 14:35. A lot of people were shocked by Barraza's performance and he may have an even better performance at the state championships. Josiah Narayanan of Wheaton Warrenville South had a great start to his season with some big races, but had a rough few races prior to the Regional meet. He looks to be on the right track from those bad performances. Maybe he can return to the state title convo this race.
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