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Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back State Qualifiers!
September 24, 2025
During the week of the RB meet, we hit the half point in the regular season. It is hard to believe it comes so fast, but the math doesn’t lie. It also marks the point in the season when the racing gets better as our fitness gets better. The paradox here is that the times at RB aren’t always better because it is somewhat of a ‘slower’ course. I don’t like to get too XC nerdy for those who don’t ask for it, but some things that make for a slower course are; tight turns/ lack of long straightaways (Westmont comes to mind), exposure to sun/ warm areas (LT some years), steep hills (Illinois courses really need not apply), crowded races causing congestion (the FTTF race at Peoria). The RB course at Indian Garden has some of these elements, some tight turns, some congested spots, and Indian Garden typically has a thick grass dynamic to slow runners down a little bit, which over a three mile race can add up.
All that said, we stress to the team that times are a bit arbitrary, places are what gets the team wins. Low numbers are the order of race day, low places > low times. With Fenwick and RB in 3A and Lemont moving to a different meet, we found ourselves with no other 2A rivals, but a good chance to show our stuff regardless. Varsity got the day going as racers navigated a tight pinch in the 50 meters. We challenged our pack to keep themselves tight early on and rely on keeping our 1-5 under a minute, ideally under 30 seconds, but that can get a tall order. Allie O’Halloran again set the tempo for us, pushing early, with Claire Sigmund, Elena Vlahos, Julia Parkes and Maggie Morrissey keeping this grouping tight though mile one. We were allowed 10 runners, so we let some of our fabulous freshmen get a taste of varsity running. We are expecting to have a big freshmen contingency in our post season squad, and we still have some spots available for the racing 7 at the races so every weekend is a chance to make a statement. Audrey Wendt led the next wave, followed by Mya Mann, Abby Fijal and Mallory Waters. We knew our freshmen squad would be big after this summer, but it has been pleasant to have so many runners who are willing to push themselves and embrace our team's quirky ways.
Heading into the final mile, O’Halloran opened up on the pack, but Sigmund willed herself to get on Allie’s shadow just like in Peoria a week prior. The RB course allowed me to actually see the finish and Sigmund tried, but failed to edge out O’Halloran, being bested by a second for a 9-10 finish. As a coach, I don’t care what order they come in, as long as there are no racers between them. Vlahos was just 9 seconds off them for a 12th place finish, minimizing damage. Parkes and Morrissey rounded out the scoring five, with a final 1-5 split of 55 seconds, under the magical 1 minute mark. Had Kathleen Hardy run, we are looking at 42 seconds, even closer to the even more magical 30 seconds. We finished ultimately in 3rd place, a result that might not match what we did the last two years, but our sights are more on October. And another big takeaway from this race might be that we ran 6 freshmen, which might be a varsity record for us.
The open race closed out the day and we put Maggie Broderick and Ashley Kenna in this race, to give the freshmen a chance to race and give them a chance to lead the team from the gun. Broderick grabbed the race lead early and pushed, Kenna kept close tabs, battling with some RB runners. Annie Ryan, Gabi Rosales and Mary Trayser rounded out our scoring 5 amidst a sea of RB runners, their coach said they have over 50 girls, great to see from their program who I have often considered to be our main ‘rival’. This midway point in the season is also a great chance to see gains made by newer runners as they get their racing legs. Freshmen Emily Ryan, Kelly Parkes and Emiliia Garza posted personal bests, with many others getting very close. We should see more of these times drop in the coming weeks.
As the team race unfolded, Broderick was able to grab second place and Kenna was 4th and Annie Ryan right behind in 5th to earn medalist status. Rosales and Trayser rounded out the scoring 5 to earn second place on the day. The open race is often about depth and I am always proud when we can show this off and have impressive days against schools much larger than us.
Our next race will be in October, temps will start lowering and our slate of courses are rather advantageous for fast times, no more excuses of tight turns, crowded areas, hills (not applicable ever), sunny spots. We will have a great chance to showcase our racing abilities and prove to ourselves what we are capable of. We will also go against the best teams in the state as we start looking towards the state series as post season locations have been shared and our path to the state meet is laid before us. This is when things get more fun and we realize that all the work we did in the first half of the season makes us better racers in the second half.
-- Coach Wejman
September 15, 2025
In doing this for so many seasons, we have numerous traditions that have us thinking back to past years’ occurrences. While the Peoria trip is one of them, another is the disdain that our team has for the Westmont meet. To be fair, this is a tough course to run on and we have had many races there with temps in the high 80s. We always try to keep the mentality good and this year it seemed to have worked. Perhaps temps in the 70s helped with the mindset; how about this weather?
We cruised to a win as a team, with Kathleen Hardy serving as race winner. Our 2-6 split was 42 seconds, which is a great asset and it will be even more so in a larger meet. Many of our freshmen completed their first 3 mile race and, all things considered, it ended up being a great outing for us and a tune up for the upcoming first to the finish meet at Detweiller Park. This race is the biggest in the state and allows us to see how we stack up against the top teams in 2A. More than half the state ranked teams would be at this meet. I enjoy following the rankings conducted by local outlets, and one of these outlets was simply called; Illinois Track and Field and Cross Country (ILTFXC), and it was run by a man named Mike Newman who had a peculiar way of sharing his opinions, but he had a steadfast commitment to running sports in Illinois. MIke passed away this week and his weekly analysis and rankings were must reads on Monday or Tuesday following a weekend of meets, in speaking for many, he will be missed.
Mike’s preseason rankings had us in 11th place, as did a few others. After a few weeks of races, we had apparently fallen off the radar of many of these prognosticators as we fell out of the rankings. I find these to be fun and good content for us in an often under reported sport, but I know that all that matters is what happens on race day. The First to the Finish Invite would be our chance to see if the preseason opinions were correct or if we deserved to be outside the top 25.
After enjoying some cool temps, this race was looking like it was going to be a warm affair. We claimed our spot in box 33 and began our warm ups. I didn’t have a strong lean on how the day would go. We’ve had ups and downs at this race and the overnight dynamic throws some off their game. For freshmen, a race of this many people can be overwhelming. The gun rang out and any excuse or reasons for a bad day were all gone. It’s hard to make sense of who is where in the opening straightaway, and I even tried to see the squad just past the evergreen tree, but there were just too many bodies with more than 450 racers. Coaches gave me updates by the mile marker and I was able to see most of the girls enter the triangle (it isn’t really a triangle). Kathleen Hardy was just outside the top 10 and was looking challenged in this very challenging race. Allie O’Halloran got out strong and we asked for a tight pack early on with Elena Vlahos, Claire SIgmund, Julia Parkes and Maggie Morrissey holding a tight line, with a gap of 35-40 seconds for our 2-6, but there was much race to go. Coming out of the triangle, I tried to take inventory of some of our local rivals and felt a bit dismayed seeing their numbers pile up. I lost sight of the fact that our pack was staying tight, and most of all were looking strong. Audrey Wendt, Mya Mann, Ashley Kenna and Maggie Broderick rounded out our roster for this race and these four are training stalwarts and bring so much to our team providing much needed depth. Coming down the stretch, Hardy was able to show her tenacity and power and closed in 12th place. Sigmund finished ahead of O’Halloran by .10 of a second. Parkes was 11 seconds off them and Vlahos 5 seconds off Parkes for a 16 second 2-5 split. Morrissey wouldn’t be outdone being just 21 seconds off her fellow freshmen. Maybe I’ll explain pushers in a future edition.
As I made the walk up the opening straightway, I feverishly refreshed the live scoreboard, and once the dust settled, we ended up in 9th place. An impressive showing buoyed by a tight pack. And while this is easy to say in hindsight, if each runner goes 10 seconds faster, we finish in 6th place. It doesn’t take much in a race like this.
Our open race was next and it would be 80 minutes after the varsity race time, which means warmer temps, but our easy going group was having fun pre race as over 600 girls took to the start line. Freshman Abby Fijal was our first finisher, clocking the 9th fastest time for us on the day. Mal Waters and Ellie Lopez took spots 2 & 3 and made cases to be part of our post season roster. These three will get chances at varsity in the coming weeks. Esme Bleskin and Xitlali Vargas closed out the scoring squad and both of these two had great finishes. Gaby Rosales was next as she clocked another personal best. Mia Moreno was the last returning runner to grab a PR on the day. Many first year racers also posted personal bests on this hot day, but those will be happening quite frequently as they continue to grow as racers.
We left Peoria and headed to Wally’s with some great tailwinds. Our pack showed up today, it will be our strength as the year unfolds, and the wolves will get stronger. I also feel that we gained confidence and an identity. This tends to happen at the Peoria meet. It is a trip full of traditions and memories and one that will set us up well for the future weeks. I’m not really concerned if we are ranked or not this week, but I know that we have a team that belongs amongst the best in the state and one that is planning on returning to Peoria in early November.
--Coach Wejman
September 8, 2025
The 2025 campaign began as usual at the ‘Trial on the Trail’ hosted by Elmwood Park. Also as usual, we were tight on time getting to the host school by 4:30. While we do stress this meet as a more official time trial, it is ideal to get the proper amount of time for warming up to do our best. Regardless, the varsity racers got themselves to the starting box (that didn’t exist) and set the tone for our day. This isn’t a true varsity race as it is made up only of juniors and seniors, it is more of a veteran race, and our veterans pack is well decorated. Our scoring 5 were made up of Allie O’Halloran, Julia Parkes, Claire Sigmund, Maggie Broderick and Ashley Kenna who have all been post season roster members for all of their 3 or 4 years. This solid core handled the rushed start adversity well with O’Halloran, Parkes and Sigmund earning top 10 medalist status. Broderick and Kenna were just a minute off Sigmund to close the door and earn 2nd place as a team. Notable down roster standouts were Gabi Rosales dropping over 3 minutes off her 2024 time. Sofia Arroyo set a 4 year PR for 2 mile race, improving 8 minutes off her 2024 time, the by-product of a strong summer. Last note in this race was 6 runners making their cross country debut in this race; Gwen Passino, Ella Cornellis, Ava Kupetis, Alexa Field, Mia Gonzalez and Amelia Lechuga.
The Frosh Soph race closed our day, and for the frosh portion of this it would mark their first of (hopefully) many cross country races; Elena Vlahos, Maggie Morrissey, Audrey Wendt, Mya Mann, Abby Fijal, Ellie Lopez, Mallory Waters, Xitlali Vargas, Emily Ryan, Kelly Parkes, Ella Schmitz, Emilia Garza and Dahlia Padilla. The returning sophomores would join this group in our starting box (that didn’t exist). We tasked Kathleen Hardy with taking charge of the race and she went out with confidence. She was paired up against a runner from Latin who took a lead after mile one and opened it up. Hardy was in no man’s land for much of the rest of the race, but raced the clock well setting a school record of 11:46, besting Colette Kinsella by 10 seconds. Hardy’s day proved that the sophomore is ready to build upon her breakout freshman year. Elena Vlahos joined us this summer and showed a willingness to work and compete, coming off an impressive middle school career, we knew she would be in the top 7 racers. Her day confirmed this as she put down an impressive sub 13 minute race. Our summer running was heavily populated by freshmen and our scoring 7 (with Vlahos) were some of our hardest workers this summer; Morrissey, Wendt, Mann, Fijal, Lopez and Waters came in within a minute of each other showing that our team’s future is bright. The scoring 7 were able to secure 3rd place overall and gained some valuable racing experience. Sophomores Bridget Martin, Mia Moreno and Ava Arroyo all improved upon their race time from a year ago.
After Elmwood Park, we enter ‘Invite Season’ weekend meets that tend to be more competitive and are longer distances than 2 miles. Our opener of the Invite season is as usual the Mike Kuharic Invite, formerly the Lions Pride Invite. The course has changed over the years and almost changed this year, but the 5K format created after the pandemic held. Another constant was warm, sunny days. And while it was sunny this past Saturday, it wasn’t terribly warm. It was a pretty choice day for running. The running began at 8am with the JV race. We gave some of our freshmen the opportunity to run in this race, it was a jump to 5k from 2 miles, but this was a challenge we felt many were up to. It is humbling to see starting boxes (we had one this meet) full of 30-40 of runners form large public schools, but it is almost uplifting knowing that we have some great numbers in this race too; 22 to be exact. We were banking on our freshmen to step up and show us something, and did they ever. Through mile 1, the crew of Maggie Morrissey, Audrey Wendt, Mya Mann, Ellie Lopez and Mallory Waters were bunched up incredibly well. Morrissey was rocking early in the top 10 and held this spot throughout, closing in at 6th place overall. Wendt was 15th with about half a mile to go and was able to claim a chunk of spots on her way to 8th place. This was our first time in a race at LT with multiple medalists in over 10 years. Mann, Lopez and Waters closed out the scoring 5 and were able to earn us some hardware with 3rd place. Just missing out on second by 1 point, the final standings looks like a 3A (big schools) only meet, but finishing 3rd in a meet where we were the smallest school by far is something I’m proud of. Bridget Martin, Mia Moreno and Gabi Rosales each earned career bests in a 3 mile race (where our managers kept time), and Sofia Arroyo netted a career best for 5K.
Varsity was next up and whenever Downers Grove North is in your race, you know you will see a lot of purple up front. In addition to DGN, Lyons Township, Lincoln Way East, and Sandburg are perennially ranked. One of the allures of this meet is the chance to see where you stack up against these strong teams. We tasked Kathleen Hardy again with seizing control of the race and being confident to lead. Through mile one, this was the case. A side cramp hampered her a little bit and she was looking for 6th place heading into the final mile, and her competitive spirit would have to step up. As she entered the final half time, race mode kicked in and she grabbed 2 spots (and was .05 away from a 3rd spot) to take 4th overall, behind 3 girls who will likely be on the podium for 3A at Detweiller Park.
Our 2-5 racers could very well take turns occupying each spot this season and that is fine by me. Elena Vlahos occupied the 2nd spot for much of the race early, only to be passed by teammate Allie O’Halloran near the midpoint. Claire Sigmund entered the 3rd spot at some point in the final mile and is looking the strongest she has in her 3 years thus far, posting a 3 mile personal best. Vlahos raced aggressively and probably paid the price for it, but this type of aggression is something we can’t coach and she will gain experience and confidence to create a tight grouping as we progress. Parkes rounded out the scoring 5 just 10 seconds off Vlahos. She grinded out a tough race with some minor discomfort keeping our 2-5 split just over 30 seconds. The squad earned 6th place, with 1-5 all being 3A schools.
Our freshmen closed out the day and this was the last training wheels race of under 3 miles. Xitlali Vargas was our top finisher looking smooth the entire way. It was the fourth best time posted for our team on this race/course of 3.4 Kilometers. Training Partners Emily Ryan and Ella Schmitz were next to finish and these two look better and better at training and look forward to their improvement in racing. Belt holder Kelly Parkes showed more growth looking more and more confident in her racing. Emilia Garcia and Dahlia Padilla closed out our day and I’m proud of how these two continue to challenge themselves and see their effort manifest itself into become stronger mentally and physically.
We now head to Detweiller Park and the First to the Finish meet. We race in the class 2A race, so we won’t be seeing any of these big schools, but we will see almost all of the 2A powers and see what our prospects look like in gunning for the state meet for a 7th straight season.
--Coach Wejman
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