By Michael Newman

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It was another weekend where weather cancellations played a big part of the story for high school cross-country meets throughout Illinois. Over two inches of rain in a 24-hour period from Friday to Saturday morning forced meet directors to cancel meets at West Aurora, Wheeling, Prairie Central, and Sterling.

The cancellations also will cause coaches in the next week to scramble to organize impromptu meets. There are some schools including the top ranked Naperville North Girls team and Wheaton-Warrenville South Boys team that by the time that conference meets are completed next Saturday, will have only competed in five varsity meets.

According to the terms and conditions for cross-country by the IHSA (Section II-D):

When completing the Regional/Sectional Online List of Participants, only schools entering a team must check the Six Contest Verification box to be eligible to compete for team honors. By checking the Six Contest Verification box in the Regional/Sectional Online List of Participants, schools are verifying that the school’s boys or girls interscholastic Cross-Country team has participated in six boys or girls interscholastic Cross Country meets during the current Boys and Girls Cross Country season and is thereby eligible to compete for team honors at the state meet series in accordance with IHSA By-law 3.054. Individuals: Schools with only individuals competing do not check the Six Contest Verification box as they are not required to meet this requirement. Individual entries are not eligible to compete for team honors in the state series meets.

It is something to keep an eye on the next two weeks. Failure to have your team run in six varsity meets will cause a school to enter the state series as individuals, not a team.

The three big meets of the weekend being cancelled does not take away from the fact that there were some good meets that took place the week before conference meets are scheduled to take place.

The story that had a big effect on cross country this week was the tragic accident in which former Tolono Unity student-athlete Savannah Day lost her life. Tolono Unity ran with heavy hearts as their Boys team competed at the Cumberland Invitational and the Girls team traveled to Metamora. You can read more about Day and this story from the Champaign News-Gazette.

Here are some highlights from some of those meets that took place over the weekend. The week’s big meet was the Naperville Twilight Invitational that took place on Wednesday. You can read the recap and watch videos from that meet here.

Metamora Runnin’ Red Invitational

The Black Partridge Park course was not in the best of the conditions due to the weather. However, that is how cross-country is supposed to be run in any type of conditions. There was no letdown for Morton’s Aspen Gordon after a convincing race last week in Peoria. The senior took control of the Girls race early on and went to run 17:16 for the individual title winning by 29 seconds ahead of Mahomet-Seymour freshman Elizabeth Sims.

Mahomet-Seymour, led by top ten finishes by Sims and Brisa McGrath (7^th), put the Bulldogs in position for the win with 94 points. Top ranked Tolono Unity scored 104 points to finish second led by Caroline Bachert’s ninth-place finish. The Rockets pack supported the team effort led by Jordan Harmon and her 17^th place finish. The split on their top five was 55 seconds. Their split from Harmon to fifth runner Kylie Decker was 27 seconds.

Mathias Powell of Mahomet-Seymour proved in this race why he is the 2A individual runner to watch heading into the state series. The senior ran 14:56 to win the Boys race in this meet by 31 seconds ahead of Bloomington’s Nick Doud. The thing to look at is that Doud ran 14:47 last week at Peoria and then Powell ahead of Doud by 31 seconds in this race. It will be interesting to see how fast Powell can run at Detweiller when we get to Detweiller Park in November.

Normal University’s Boys team was moved up to 3A due the “IHSA Success Factor” for the next two seasons. The Pioneers displayed they are ready to make a run at the state series winning the Boys team title with 72 points. U-High was led by top ten finishes from Cooper Wilken (4^th), Jackson McClure (7^th), and Dane Alexander (8^th). Bloomington, ranked second in 2A, was second with 99 points led by Doud’s finish and the 11^th place finish from Evan Turnbill.

Toledo Cumberland Invitational

St. Joseph-Ogden’s Girls team are on the move again getting close to their peak like they usually do this time of the year. The Lady Spartans placed five runners in the top 15 to capture the Girls team title with 44 points. Senior Cassidy Bagby led her team with the individual win. Her time of 19:26 was almost a minute ahead of second-place Breanna Chandler from Freeburg. The split on SJO’s second through fifth runners in this race was 45 seconds. Freeburg scored 81 points to finish second just ahead of Mattoon (88 points).

Top ten finishes from Corbin Schwable (4^th) and Carson Smith (10^th) led Freeburg to the team win (69 points) in the Boys race ahead of Marshall (98 points) and Cumberland (111 points). Tolono Unity’s Cameron Woodard ran 16:23 to win the individual race three seconds ahead of second-place Layton Hall of Arthur-Lovington.

Centralia Invitational

Centralia’s Boys team continues to improve and showed that heading into the state series. The Orphans defended their home course placing their scorers in the top 12 to win the team title with 34 points. Cory Fleeman and Brooks Harlan finished third and fourth to lead Centralia with a 57 second split on their top five. Mascoutah (56 points) finished second behind Casmir Cozzi’s individual win. Cozzi’s time of 15:45 was 10 seconds ahead of second-place Ethan Cherry of Carbondale.

Carbondale edged Mascoutah 37 to 40 led by the 2-3 finish from Madeline Prideaux and Anna Schurz. Centralia’s Cheyenne Finley ran 19:31 to win the individual race.

Liberty Invitational

Liberty’s Katelyn Robbins appears to be ready for the state series after a season full of injuries. The senior ran 18:44 to win the individual title. Jacksonville Routt’s Kirsten Huffman ran 19:25 to finish second. “Katelyn is really coming around right now after her stress fracture over the summer,” said her coach Jared Schmidt. “We held her out of some early races for training purposes, but she looks to be on track.”

The Boys race was close as a pair of freshmen finished within five seconds of each other. Quincy’s Fiker Rosen ran 16:11 for the win five seconds ahead of Warsaw’s Miles Sheppard.

East Alton-Wood River Invitational

This meet is divided into four individual races by year in school. The fastest time on the Boys side came in the Junior race as Waterloo’s Jackson McAlister ran 15:54 for the win in that class.  Staunton’s Lydia Roller win in the Sophomore Girls race was convincing. Her time of 17:50 was over two minutes ahead of the next closest runner Maggie Fitzgerald of Collinsville.

Elmwood Park Invitational

Morton Township placed three runners in the first four places to win the Boys team title with 46 points ahead of Carroll (OH) with 53 points. The Dayton, Ohio school was scheduled to run at West Aurora. With that meet cancelled, the school was allowed to compete in this meet. Morton’s Guillermo Ibarra ran 15:29 for the win ahead of teammate Pedro Ocampo.

Morton Township made a team sweep scoring 57 points to win the Girls race ahead of 1A IC Catholic Prep who scored 60 points. Round Lake’s Fatima Giron ran 18:42 for the individual win ahead of IC Catholic Prep’s Kennedy Calcagno (19:00) and Carly Manchester (19:08).

Jimmy Daniels Olympian Run @ Rich Central HS

Marist edged Lincoln-Way West 42-47 for the Girls team title behind Jill Borza’s second-place finish and Nora McClorey’s third-place finish. Lemont freshman Kaylie Politza ran 19:39 to win the individual race 21 seconds ahead of Marist’s Borza.

Lincoln-Way West scored 61 points to win the Boys team race ahead of Palatine (76 points) and Solorio Academy (86 points). Adon Hernandez of Solorio Academy ran 16:43 for the individual win finishing 22 seconds ahead of Oak Lawn’s Jadon Pirkl.

Joe Fedenic Invitational @ Lisle Community Park

Benet Academy made it a sweep in both the Boys and Girls Varsity team races. The Redwings scored 36 points to win the Boys Varsity title (36 points) ahead of Plainfield Central (93 points) and South Elgin (110 points). Benet Academy’s Connor O’Keefe led the individual race (16:21) winning by 20 seconds ahead of South Elgin’s Ryan Harvey. Benet Academy placed six runners in the top 13 with a 55 second split on their top five.

Benet’s Girls team placed five runners in the top 15 on a sloppy Community park course to win the team title with 34 points. Downers Grove South did not run their top runners in this race, but still finished second with 72 points. The top two finishers, both freshmen, are runners to keep an eye on in the state series. Naomi Ruff of South Elgin ran an impressive 18:11 to win the Girls Varsity title by 30 seconds ahead of Julia Wolke of Christian Liberty Academy.