Brook girls want to keep improving

While a conference title might be out of reach in 2009, the Bolingbrook girls cross country team has plenty of expectations and goals as they head into their Southwest Suburban Conference Meet on Saturday.

The Raiders have seen plenty improvement in the past couple of weeks and as the season begins to close, the team looks to make a name for themselves in the SWSC.

"We have been in the bottom of the conference for the last couple of years now. We've taken our strides though in this competitive conference and I look forward to us jumping more towards the center in this meet," Raiders girls cross country coach Brian Zeglin said. "Nothing can ever be taken for granted, however I look for us middle of the pack."

Bolingbrook should be comfortable on Saturday as it will be running on familiar territory at Dellwood Park in Lockport. The Raiders ran their first meet of the season, the Pre-Season Mega Meet, at the same course. The course features a fair amount of hills that the girls have been training for.

"This week is the last week for a lot of girls on the team so I think it is important for the girls to go out there and show how much they have improved from the beginning of the year. Each race we have had as built the girls' confidence," Zeglin said. "While conditions might be different, racing the same course allows the kids to get a good comparison of their times now to when they first started season."

Coming into meet, the Raiders are led by sophomore Mariana Hernandez who previously ran a 22 minutes, 39 seconds effort on the course. In the team's last meet, the West Aurora Stampede on Oct. 10, Hernandez finished with a time of 19:55. Sandburg would end up winning the race as a team.

"In this meet I really want to get down my time and try to stay with the lead runners," Hernandez said. "It would be great to get a high place and set a personal best right now."

On Oct. 24, Bolingbrook hosts its own regional at DuPage River Park in Naperville at 10 a.m.