High school girls cross country: Crystal Lake Central hopes to keep strong tradition alive

CRYSTAL LAKE – Debra Tomlinson initially did not realize her good fortune last year when she transferred from Crystal Lake South to Crystal Lake Central.

Tomlinson knew she was leaving good friends, and a Fox Valley Conference champion cross country team behind at South. A few months later, Tomlinson was part of another FVC champion team with the Tigers.

“It was hard because I was leaving my first cross country family,” Tomlinson said. “I hated that I had to go against South. I had no idea Central was this good, I really didn’t.”

Even though it was Central that South beat by one point for the FVC title in 2013.

“I just came in and loved cross country so much, and when I figured out they were good, I was, ‘This is awesome,’ ” said Tomlinson, a junior.

Since the IHSA expanded its classification system in the 2007-08 school year, moving to three classes for cross country, Central’s girls have qualified for every Class 2A state meet. The Tigers were state runners-up in 2008 and 2011.

Former Harvard coach Brett Willhoit, in his second year teaching at Central, leaped at the chance to take over the powerhouse program that Shannon Schroeder and Anthony DeStephano built over the past eight years.

“The culture that’s been built up over the years, it started on the boys side and picked up on the girls side,” Willhoit said. “It’s the commitment to doing all the little things right and doing everything well. They know what it takes to get to that level and stay at that level. They instill that in the younger runners. When those runners move up, they keep doing those same traditions.”

There is no reason to think Central will not end its season at Peoria’s Detweiller Park for the state meet again. Four of the Tigers’ five scoring runners from state – Janine Orvis, Tomlinson, Katelyn Smith and Avani Flanagan – return. Maddie Hollander, Kelly Doerr and Stephanie Doerr also are back.

“We have standards, we’re just expected to go to state every year because we’ve done it so long, and we expect to do well,” Orvis said. “We have a lot of strong runners this year and I think we’ll do really well.”

Flanagan did not run in middle school and, like Tomlinson, was unaware of the Tigers’ success.

“I just decided to try out and see how it went,” Flanagan said of her freshman year. “Once I met everyone, I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know this.’ They’re humble about it, they don’t brag. It’s not something I knew.”

The key losses from last year were graduates Mary Fleming and Rachel Kautz. Fleming was eighth in the FVC Meet and a four-year standout. Central will look to its returning runners, as well as freshmen Becca Orvis and Mikayla Bertalon to keep the tradition rolling.

“They may have been standouts in junior high, but they might not have been,” said Willhoit, who volunteered his help with DeStephano last season. “They get part of the system and culture and know what it’s going to take. We have a lot of nice pieces in place. I’m happy and lucky to be here, working with someone like [boys coach] Bill Eschman is huge. Shannon and Anthony built the girls side into a great program. My main goal is to continue that and keep going.”