By Michael Newman

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Jenna Lutzow had a look of amazement on her face as she was surrounded by media after her win in the 2A State Meet at Detweiller Park in November. ““Coming up that incline, I was going to stay strong and finish no matter how much it hurt,” Lutzow said with her teammates and family surrounding her. “I crossed the line I was so tired. But I realized that I just did it.”

After finishing 2^nd in the 2015 2A State Meet race, the senior came into the season as the runner to beat. She showed that basically unbeatable during the year. She finished 3^rd at the Sterling Regional behind Rockford Boylan’s Delaney Appino and Grace McLaughlin as she let them go so she could run with the team’s pack. She followed that up with a 20 second win ahead of Appino at the 2A Belvidere Sectional and then 10 seconds ahead of the Rockford Boylan senior at state. Her time of 16:35 was 18 seconds faster than her 2015 state race.

Delaney Appino was the only other runner that was considered for this award. She comfortably won the 2A race at the First to the Finish Invitational as Lutzow did not compete as she was taking her ACT’s. Appino also won the Sterling Invitational. She finished no worse than second in any race this year. In those races, she finished behind Jenna Lutzow.

Congratulations to Jenna Lutzow of Belvidere North High School in Belvidere, Illinois as the DyeStat Illinois 2016 2A Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.