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Sophomore Brooke Berger and her York girls cross country teammates were probably the last varsity group to compete in the state.
So far, they’ve looked among the best.
The Dukes finally opened their season Sept. 17 by beating Hinsdale Central 21-39 and then topped Glenbard West 20-43 Sept. 21. Both were at the Dukes’ Berens Park home course, reduced from 2.96 to 2.67 miles because of construction.
“We’ve all kept running through all of it and been motivated. It was nice to finally run as a team again,” said Berger after winning the varsity’s opener in 15:37.5. “I was actually really excited for this. I thought I was going to have a good race because I wanted to go in with a good mentality and I ended up having a good race. I was happy.”
York’s varsity did not race in the Sept. 5 season opener against Willowbrook. The Sept. 12 dual with Oak Park-River Forest was tentatively rescheduled to Oct. 14.
Six girls from the 2019 state lineup return – Berger, juniors Katelyn Winton, Bella Swanson and Kathleen Buhrfiend and sophomores Bria Bennis and Maureen Buhrfiend. Added to that are seven freshmen in the varsity training group, including Michaela Quinn and Katherine Klimek – top-five team finishers in both races.
“We have a really, really good group that is young, eager. They’re definitely going after it,” York coach Lauren DeAngelis said.
In 2019, Berger often was York’s top finisher and a team-best 67th at state (18:02.51 for 3.0 miles) despite battling an iron deficiency diagnosed after sectionals.
“That was kind of a bump in the road. We tried to fix it really fast before state and I did good at state,” Berger said.
With her iron level under control by track season, Berger especially was disappointed when that was halted in mid-March by the pandemic.
“It definitely motivated me a lot, especially when track got cancelled, because I wanted to do good in track. Then that ended so now I was like, ‘Cross country, OK. I’m ready,’ ” Berger said.
“Brooke looks awesome,” DeAngelis said. “Since I didn’t really see them all summer, when she came back and was running the 2-mile time trial, I was like, ‘Her form’s different. She’s hitting her foot different.’ She just looks stronger. She’s confident and then she enjoys running.”
Record runs
Senior Pierce Cousins set the Glenbard West boys home-course record at Camera Park Sept 24 (14:49 for 2.88 miles) and won a three-runner dash to the finish against York by one and three seconds.
Simon Peterson held the Hilltoppers’ previous Camera best (15:02) from the 2015 WSC Silver Meet. Cousins ran 15:08 Sept. 10.
“It means a lot to be among the top runners in our school’s history. It’s huge, said Cousins, an all-state 12th in 2019 who finished second his previous two races. “I was running the last stretch, and the lighting was so perfect. It was like one of those movies, (with) the sunset. It was amazing.”
On Friday, senior Melissa Jachim improved her Downers Grove North girls home-course record for Greene Valley Forest Preserve to 18:09 for 3.0 miles.
Downers Grove South junior Sophia McNerney’s winning 17:18 Saturday was another overall girls course record on the Mustangs’ first-year 3.0-mile home site.
Downers North girls edge Lyons on tiebreaker
Junior Ashley Novak’s 10th place clinched the Downers North girls’ 28-28 victory over Lyons Township Sept. 19 on a No. 6-finisher tiebreaker.
Novak, one place ahead of the Lions’ No. 5 finisher, ran at state as a freshman but was injured for 2019.
“I was nervous about (tying), but I was still confident,” Novak said. “I feel like I improved a lot this race. It’s super nice (competing again). Now I don’t take it for granted anymore and I just try to do my best.”