Date: September 6th, 2024
Time Schedule:
4:40pm - 6th/7th Girls Open
5:05pm - 6th/7th Boys Open
5:30pm - 8th Girls Open
5:55pm - 8th Boys Open
6:20pm - Elite Girls
6:35pm - Elite Boys
Teams: Antioch Upper, Barrington Prairie, Rox River Grove, Mt. Prospect Lincoln, Arlington Heights South, Palatine St. Teresa, Buffalo Grove Cooper, Mt. Prospect River Trails, Lake Zurich South, Mundelein Carl Sandberg, Wilmette JH, Lake in the Hills Marlowe, Lake Forest Deer Path, Arlington Heights Thomas, McHenry, Minooka, Johnsburg, Barrington Station, Gompers, Rockford Eisenhower, Algonquin Heineman, Prospect Heights McArthur, Evanston Haven
Outlook: This meet brings in a lot of firepower on both sides with many IESA powerhouses running at this excellent meet. This is one of the best middle school meets each year and looks to be another great edition.
In the girls team race we see preseason #2 Minooka, #7 Mt. Prospect Lincoln, #11 Arlington Heights South, #15 Lake Zurich South, #18 Prospect Heights McArthur, #19 Arlington Heights Thomas, and #20 Johnsburg. Minooka is only only currently ranked team as they have had a competition registered on Athletic.net from 2 weeks ago. They currently sit at #11 in our rankings. Last year they took 3rd place at this meet. They take a little bit to get going, but finish their seasons great every year. They look to be the favorites still coming into the competition. Mt. Prospect Lincoln hasnt had any logged competitions to date. They add a lot of intruge to this field. They look to be led by Ashley Skelton who was a 4A All-Stater last season. They have a strong pack that was about 30 seconds back from her last year. They need to keep that pack together if they wish to win this meet. Arlington Heights Thomas won this meet a year ago and are coming off a big win at the St. Viator Artman Classic this past weekend. Madeline Serur, Clara Vincent, and Adelaide Galla had a 3 second split in that race as the teams top 3. They need to close their 1-5 split from 1:50 if they wish to be successful here.
Individually the top returner and favorite in the race looks to be Graceleen Mabry from Prospect Heights McArthur. Mabry took 2nd to 8th grader Klarke Goranson who had a great season last year and is now at Manteno High School at this meet. Mabry was the IESA 3A Individual State Champion last fall running 11:41 at the state meet. Its hard seeing anyone beating her here, but it isnt impossible with the field assembled. Lake Zurich South is a new team to this meet and bring a great duo of Chloe Wettstein and Abigail Kocher to the meet. Wettstein over the summer ran 18:45 for 3 miles at the Palatine Pack No Frills Meet. If that indicates anything its that she looks ready to break the 12:00 barrier. She also ran a very impressive 5:22 this summer in the 1600m. This looks to be the time for a lot of people to learn the name Chloe Wettstein. Kocher took 10th at the IESA 3A State Meet last year and sports a PR of 12:23. She ran 5:26 in the 1600m over the summer so she looks ready to run something fast this season. Regardless of who wins, we know that Lake Zurich South's top two will set the team up in a great position.
In the boys race we see preseason #4 Mt. Prospect River Trails, #8 Arlington Heights Thomas, #9 Minooka, #13 Prospect Heights McArthur, #23 Lake in the Hills Marlowe. This looks to be a great team matchup with 3 preseason top 10 teams in the field. River Trails returns 5 of their top 7 runners from a team that won the IESA 3A team title last fall. They potentially could be an even better team than that team last year. They are the favorites entering this meet led by Johan Gonzalez and Lucas Pfoutz who could both be in the top 5 places here. Arlington Heights Thomas took 2nd at this meet last year with a great team, but graduated a lot of their team. They still return three runners under 12:00 so they will be an interesting team to see how they reloaded over the last year. Minooka could be a team that surprises here after a good season opener.
Johan Gonzalez of Mt. Prospect River Trails is the top returner in the field after taking 4th place at the meet last year. He took 22nd at the IESA 3A State Meet last year. Joseph Zawacki of Lake in the Hills Marlowe had a great track season running 4:58 in the 1600m. He looked much improved over the track season and is ready to show out on the grass. Joshua Morrison of Arlington Heights Thomas ran 11:19 last cross country season and will be looking to rekindle that same magic here. This will be a very tight individual race with this being able to go in anyones favor.
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