Prospect’s 3A Girls State win was a race for the ages against defending champion York

Grace Schager cruises to second overall state title winning by 36 seconds

By Michael Newman

Peoria, Ill – I was able to witness the Boys Class 2A Meet in 1999 when York only scored 24 points with six all-state runners and winning by over 160 points. The race that we witnessed Saturday afternoon just after 1 PM took that Boys race to an entirely different stratosphere.

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York and Prospect’s Girls teams were the two teams ahead of the rest in this 2022 season. No one asked who would win. The question was which team behind these two powerhouses would finish third. We saw both teams race against at full strength against each other once this year. The race in September was on a warm summer day where the course was rock hard awaiting fast times. Prospect won by just one point.

The Saturday afternoon race in November on the same course was a polar opposite. The rain that had hit the park Friday night and Saturday morning made some portions of the course unmanageable. Add in lead vehicles leading the runners made the course even worse. The trucks leading the way were not needed on this day. The runners knew where they wanted to go.

The team totals were of epic proportions in the history of Girls Cross Country running in Illinois. Prospect scored an unthinkable 39 points to capture their first 3A State championship. Defending champion York scored 58 points to finish second. The 39 points scored by the Lady Knights is the lowest winning score ever for a Girls team in the Illinois High School State Cross Country Meet. The first Girls meet occurred in 1979. The previous record was when Geneva scored 51 points to win the 2008 Class 3A State Meet. York’s point  total on Saturday is third all-time and one point less than the 59 points that they scored when they won last year.

“I was feeling confident. I was feeling confident because of my teammates,”  Ireland Wildhart said. “We knew everyone here was supporting us. We went into this race believing in ourselves.”

There was no drama in the individual race as expected. It was thought that Grace Schager of Glenbard North would take the lead and build up her margin as the race progressed. That happened as she passed the mile in 5:24 with already a 10 second lead. It grew from there as Schager won her second state championship overall in track or cross country. Her winning time was 16:40, the fastest of the three races. Her winning margin was her smallest of the year as she won by 36 seconds ahead of Glenbrook North sophomore Juliet Frum.

“The time factor was taken off the table as soon as we saw the weather earlier this week. I know a lot of people still wanted me to go for it. It was just not possible today on this course,” Schager said after accepting her medal. “Today was just a game of tactics. It was a really slippery course. I just wanted to make sure I did not fall. It was hard to tell how far away they were from me. It was such a crazy environment. It was so loud.”

The team race was just as close as the September race. The two teams were within a couple of points of each other. The final 600-meters of the race is when the changing of scoring happened. One of the bigger move ups of the race came in the final half for Prospect. Cameron Kalaway was in 23 entering the final half mile. There were six runners from either York or Prospect in the top 10. They were moving into position keeping the score close. Lily Ginsberg was in 15 and she was closing the gaps on Prospect’s first three runners in the top 10. Those two moves tipped the favor to Prospect.

Both teams ran great on this day. It was just Prospect was a stride or two faster than York. Prospect had 5 all-state runners all in the top 18. York had 3 all-state runners in the top 10. How can you beat excitement is this kind of atmosphere.

Prospect’s top three runners, Hailey Erickson in fifth, Veronica Znajda in sixth, and Meg Peterson in eighth, were separated by just six seconds. Lily Ginsberg was 11 seconds back finishing in 13th. Cameron Kalaway closed Prospect’s scoring finishing 18th. Their overall top five split was just 26 seconds. It is hard to beat a team with that kind of split in those sloppy conditions.

“I knew we came in together and we saw each other. We knew we all ran the best that we can do,” Kalaway said. “That is all that mattered.”

Prospect’s sixth runner, Samantha Patterson finished 36^th while their seventh runner Ireland Wildhart was four seconds behind finishing 41st.

York was in shock for a few minutes after the race. It happens when the goals that you set are out of reach. They fine after that passed realizing how well they had run.

Bria Bennis capped off a great season to again lead the Dukes by finishing third. Michaela Quinn also finished in the top 10 placing seventh. Katherine Klimek ran her best race of the season just four seconds behind Quinn in placing ninth. York’s fourth runner Brooke Berger just missed all-state finishing 26th. Her teammate and fifth runner Lily Beerhalter as a place and two seconds behind Berger as was freshman Maggie Quinn who was the team’s sixth runner finishing 28th. York’s seventh runner was Lilly Bianchi who finished 58th.

There were four non-Prospect / York runners that were in the top 10 after Schager and Frum. Anna Harden of Hersey ran 17:31 and was 12 seconds behind Bennis in fourth. Evelyn Hett capped off a great comeback senior season by running 17:46 to finish 10th. Catie McCabe of Hinsdale Central ran 17:53 to finish 11th ahead of Breanna Burak of Huntley was less than a second back in placing 12th.

Naperville North was the answer to the question of who would finish third in this team race. The Huskies had a 20th place finish to help them finish third overall with 229 points. The Huskies had four runners in the top 56. The first four runners were separated by 46 seconds. The pack of Shania Tandon (33rd), Logan Brennan (55th), and Rianna Tandon (56th) were separated by just 21 seconds. Naperville North’s fifth runner was Sennah Rashidian who finished in 125th place.

Minooka ran a great race but finished in fourth (236 points) missing a trophy by seven points. The Indians were led by Gabriella McCollom (34th) and Gabrielle Kics (37) who were separated by one second. Downers Grove North finished fifth (2 points) with a 35 second split on their top five runners led by Lily Eddington (40th) and Claire Pyne (45th). The West Suburban Conference Silver Division had four teams finish in the top eight with Lyons Township in seventh and Hinsdale Central in eight trailing York and Downers Grove North.