Ladies 2nd, Men 3rd at Aurora Christian Regional - Both Teams Advance to Lisle Sectional!
Saturday, October 25 2014IHSA Class 1A Aurora Christian Regional
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Oakhurst Forest Preserve
Yesterday, we ran in the first of what is hopefully three postseason meets -- the Regional round kicks off the IHSA Cross Country State Series. Out of this meet, the top seven teams advance to the following week's Sectional, as do the top five individuals not on an advancing team. After a great conference meet, we were looking to continue that through this week's regional meet. We also knew that we were in a very solid position to comfortably qualify both teams to the Sectional meet. Our total focus was on doing as well as we could at today's Regional, and --as Coach Wolf said at Friday afternoon's team meeting-- "to take a risk". In other words, yesterday's Regional meet was our final opportunity to tune up for next week's Sectional meet at Lisle.
Sentinel Ladies’ “Wolfpack” Finishes A Strong 2nd Place at Regionals
Ladies Qualify to Sectional Meet for 9th Consecutive Season
Precisely at 10:00 am, the gun was fired and seven of our ladies took off from the line to begin the first round of the state series. Having run against Chicago Christian earlier in the season, we knew they were going to be tough. The game plan was to stick as close as we could to Chicago Christian for as long as we could and finish as well as we could.
For much of the first two miles, the ladies did that. Chicago Christian’s front four began to break away in the last mile but our ladies hung on for some very nice finishes and to secure a ninth consecutive trip to the Sectional meet next week at Lisle’s Community Park, a streak dating back to 2006.
Imogene Asa was our top finisher, finishing 11th overall. Peyton Nash was just a step and a second behind Imogene to finish 12th. Emilia Maslany was close behind to finish 14th. Brittany Eiermann finished 19th, and Lily Arndt finished 20th to round out the scoring. Hannah Abbatacola finished in 29th, and Lisa Niemiec—battling an injury—ran a gutsy race to finish 38th.
The ladies would end up scoring 11-12-14-18-19-(28)-(36) to finish 2nd with 74 points to a very strong Chicago Christian team.
We will be ready for a rematch with Chicago Christian next week at Sectional with a trip to the State Meet on the line.
Sentinel Men Earn Three Regional Medals; Finish Third
Men Qualify to Sectional Meet for 23rd Consecutive Season
Forty-five minutes after the ladies began their state series run, seven of our gentlemen did so as well. We had done our scouting and we were gunning after Montini runners in the hopes of repeating as Regional champions for the second consecutive year.
Our top three got out to great starts in the first mile and all three were in the top five – in regional medal contention. The top three would remain in the top five for the duration of the race and would earn three well-earned Regional medals. Tanner Chada of Aurora Christian broke away early in the race and never looked back. He will be in contention for All-State honors this season. Nick Dea came across the finish line in 2nd place. Teammate Anthony Alessi finished just behind Nick for 3rd place. Mitch Perrotta claimed the last Regional medal on offer by finishing 5th.
Nick and Anthony each earned their second Regional medals of their careers on Saturday. Mitch’s 5th place finished earned him his first career Regional medal after finishing 6th last year.
After those three finished, Tony Cordero crossed the line next in 31st place with Jake Juska following close behind for a 37th place finish. Sam Asa and Ryan Pleva then finished 46th and 51st respectively.
The boys would score 1-2-4-28-34-(42)-(47) for 69 points to finish in 3rd place. As expected, Montini ran strong and got us by two points. What we didn’t expect though was the great race that Harvest Christian Academy ran to win the Regional title. Both of these teams will be in contention for a trip to State on Saturday at the Lisle Sectional.
Regional History and Medalist Pages Updated
The Regional Championship History and Regional Medalists pages have been updated to reflect this year’s finishes for both teams at Regional as well as our three Regional medalists this year.
Here are some fun stats from Regional:
- Mitch’s 5th place Regional medal made him the 21st Westmont Boys Cross Country athlete to earn a Regional medal.
- The three regional medals earned by the boys on Saturday brings our boys program’s total to 36 Regional medals.
- Nick and Anthony each earned their second Regional medals of their careers. They become the 11th and 12th boys cross country athletes to earn multiple Regional medals.
- The boys team has not finished lower than 3rd place in a Regional meet since 2004.
- The boys team qualified for the Sectional championship meet for the 26th time in program history.
- The boys team qualified for the Sectional championship meet for the 23rd consecutive season, a streak that dates back to the 1992 season.
- The girls team qualified for the Sectional championship meet for the 20th time in program history.
- The girls team qualified for Sectional for the 9th consecutive season, a streak dating back to the 2006 season.
Looking Ahead to Sectional
Next Saturday, we return to Lisle’s Community Park for the third time in the span of one month. This is the biggest meet yet of the season – the prize is one of five spots for a trip to the State meet on November 8th at historic Detweiller Park. The boys have an opportunity to earn a third consecutive trip to the state meet, and the ladies have an opportunity to earn a fourth trip to the State meet in the last five seasons – something that has never been done in Westmont girls cross country history.
We believe that we are in good position to earn those state qualifying spots, but we aren't taking anything for granted. We will have to be on top of our game and leave nothing to chance. It's going to be a fun one on Saturday. Come out to Lisle’s Community Park for the Sectional meet on Saturday! The ladies run at 10:00 am and the guys run at 11:00 am!