Date: October 19th, 2024
Location: Maxwell Park; Normal, IL
Time Schedule:
9:15am - 1A Girls
10:00am - 1A Boys
10:45pm - 2A Girls
11:30pm - 2A Boys
12:15pm - 3A Girls
1:00pm - 3A Boys
1:45pm - 4A Girls
2:30pm - 4A Boys
Boys Teams: Lake Zurich South, Lindenhurst (Millburn), Ingleside (Big Hallow), Willowbrook (Westview Hills), Mt. Prospect (River Trails), Western Springs (McClure), Channahon, Lockport (Oak Prairie), Herscher (Limestone), LaGrange (Gurrie), Sandwich, Burr Ridge (Gower), Dixon (Reagan), Geneseo, Prophetstown PLT, Dunlap, Dunlap Valley, El Paso-Gridley, Mt. Zion, Downs (Tri-Valley), Effingham, Rochester, Williamsville, Jacksonville
Girls Teams: Lake Zurich South, Lindenhurst (Millburn), Johnsburg, Prospect Heights (MacArthur), River Forest (Roosevelt), Willowbrook (Westview Hills), Channahon, Lockport (Oak Prairie), Manhattan, LaGrange (Gurrie), Sandwich, Downers Grove (Lakeview), Dixon (Reagan), Winnebago, Prophetstown PLT, Metamora, El Paso-Gridley, Peoria Limestone Walters, Tolono Unity, Mt. Zion, Clinton, Highland, Rochester, Springfield (Lincoln)
Girls -
Metamora enters this meet as the favorite to bring home the state title after a very impressive sectional meet. They had a 1-5 split there of 28 seconds. They will likely have 1 or 2 all-staters, but the big thing for this team is they will have their pack within the top 40 runners in the race. LaGrange Gurrie won their Sectional with a score of 41 points, They had a 1-5 split of 52 seconds at the Sectional. They can challenge for the win here, but will need to get their 5th runner within the top 50. Lake Zurich South has a great 1-2 punch of Chloe Wettstein and Abigail Kocher who both will be top 5 runners in this race. The key for this team will be the teams 4th and 5th runners. If they can get them close their 3rd runner Sarah Vance. If they can keep them within 10 seconds then we could se them walk away from Maxwell with a state title. Lindenhurst Millburn was 2nd at the Sectional to Lake Zurich South by only 8 points. They were led up front by Madison Schrader who will be challenging for an all-state position along with teammate Elizabeth Zajac. This group had a 3-7 split at the Sectional of only 16 seconds. That can be very helpful for this group at the state meet if they can find each other a move up throughout the race. El Paso-Gridley was 2nd at their sectional to Metamora. They are led up front by Audrey Roth and Emersyn Harms who both could be potential all-staters. This group had a great day for their 3-5 runners at the Sectional with them all PRing. Their 3-5 split was 11 seconds. They need to try and keep that pack as close together as possible at state. Dixon Reagan is led by Brynleigh Davis who looks to be an all-stater this weekend. This group has a great top four runners, but in order for them to bring home a trophy they will need their 5th runner to close the gap to their 4th runner
Graceleen Mabry of MacArthur is the defending state champion from last year. She has looked excellent this year as she has been undefeated up to this point. She had a great week last week as she won her conference meet in a new PR of 11:27 and then four days later won the Sectional on a tough Melas Park course. Last year it took 11:41 to win the state meet, but this year it could take a sub 11:20 effort thanks to Chloe Wettstein of Lake Zurich South. We actually have already seen this matchup between Mabry and Wettstein this season at the Prairie Stampede Invite which saw Mabry getting a commanding win. That was over a month ago. In the last month Wettstein looks to be massively improved. She won her Sectional in 11:25 which was a 30 second win. Expect these two to be clear out in front of the rest of the field this weekend. Abigail Kocher of Lake Zurich South was the 2nd place finish at that sectional that saw her teammate run 11:25 at. Kocher ran an impressive PR there as well of 11:55. Kocher was 10th in this race last year. This year expect a top 5 finish from her. Ellie Porath of Channahon was 3rd in this race last year and has been having a great season up to this point. She barely lost to Hazel Atkins who is one of the top runners in the 2A classification at the Dunlap Invite and won the Channahon Invite as she broke 12:00. Madison Schrader of Lindenhurst Millburn was 4th here a year ago. She was 3rd at her sectional but it was behind Wettstein and Kocher. Schrader has actually been 4th at the state meet in 2022 and 2023. She will be racing to be in the top 5 here. If history repeats itself then maybe she takes 4th once again. Her teammate Libby Zajac was 7th here last year. She didn't have the best Sectional meet. Maybe she can return to form at the state meet. McKenna Beck of Clinton really pieced together a phenomenal race at the Sectional as she won in 12:00. She has had a really up and down season until this point. She is a wildcard in this field that could surprise many and get her way into the top 5 runners. Haylie Simpson of Roscoe was 17th in this race last year as a 6th grader, now with state meet experience under her belt. This year she will be even more hungry to perform in the top 10 runners. She won the sectional in 12:08 which is her first result in Athletic.net since Detweiller at Dark.
Boys -
Westview Hills has been one of the premier teams in the state over the last few weeks regardless of classification. They picked up a win over the defending state champions this past week at the Sectional with a score of 33 points. Last year this group barely missed out on a trophy as they took 5th place at the state meet. This group is led by Santiago Lopez who is one of the top runners in the state and Mesfin Diedrich will be a potential all-stater this weekend. We could see them get their top 5 runners under 11:30 this weekend. River Trails was 2nd to Westview Hills at the Sectional. They didn't have their best day at the Sectional, but can bounce back this weekend as they attempt to defend their state title. They are led by Johan Gonzalez and Lucas Pfoutz who look to be all-staters this weekend. They will need to keep their 1-5 split to under a minute if they wish to win this meet. Channahon snagged a trophy last year with their 4th place finish at the state meet and will look to raising another trophy this weekend. They won their sectional with a score of 31 points, but had a 1-5 split that was larger than what they are normally used to. They are led by Trent Leathers and Jackson Joachim who both will be potential all-staters along with Paul Getsoian maybe. If this group can keep their 1-5 split under 30 seconds then they will be a state title contender. Mt. Zion narrowly won their sectional with a score of 49 points over Tri-Valley's 51. They look to have two major runners in the race with Drew St. Pierre and Liam Coon looking like high placing finishers. They had a great 3-5 pack that was separated by only 10 seconds. If that pack can find each other at state and work together throughout the race, it could pay off for them. Downs Tri-Valley looked good as well at the Sectional. They have a great top four runners with Evan Brown, Carson Cattaneo, Josiah Tate, and Brady Kurtyak all being in contention for all-state positions. The key for this team will be keeping their 5th runner out of the back of the race. Dunlap won their Sectional with a score of 55 points with a 1-5 split of 31 seconds. Led by Embry Miller and Max Larson who will be battling for all-state positions this week. Their Sectional was their best race of the season so if they can rekindle the type performances they had earlier this year then they potentially can join the state title talks as they have 5 athletes with PR's under 11:30. Dixon Reagan is another team that had some great early season successes and are looking to return to that form at the state meet. They have one of the best individuals in the classification in Ethan Carter and also have potential all-stater Jaron Greve. They have the front runners to bring home a state trophy. Them getting a trophy will come down to them getting their 5th runner back up with the team 4th runner like they were a few weeks ago.
Individually this race has looked like it would be Ethan Carter's race here, but after the sectional this race got a lot more interesting. Carter has been undefeated this season in big meets. He took 4th at Winnebago in what looked to be a tempo effort for him. He has ran under 10:40 now a total of three times. He won his sectional in a PR time of 10:26. Chris Bennie of Deerfield Caruso logged his first performance on Athletic.net of the year and it was a 10:18 performance at Lakes for the Sectional win. Many questioned the legitimacy of the mark at first, but it was confirmed to be a full two miles. He logged that performance in a 22 second win. With Carter racing next to him could he potentially dip under the 10:10 mark at the state meet? Johan Gonzalez of River Trails looked great at the Sectional as he won over Santiago Lopez of Westview Hills. Both athletes will be in the mix for top 5 spots this weekend. Gonzalez hasn't taken lower than 2nd place so far this season. Could he surprise people in this race and hang on to the two favorites? Ryan Patrick of Williamsville has only had one blemish on his resume this season as he took 4th place at the Dunlap Invite. Alex Lartz of El Paso-Gridley has had a great season up to this point as well. At the Dunlap Invite he was 2nd overall as he ran 11:29 for 2.1 miles. He ran 10:41 for 2 miles at the Delavan Dare Classic which is his current PR. He was 13th last year and this year looks to be in the top 5. Don't forget about Jacob Kelly of Lindenhurst Millburn and Nick Wojtalewicz of Lake Zurich South who both had great days at the Lakes Sectional as they ran 10:40 and 10:43.
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