XC roundup: Minooka sends boys, girls to state

NORMAL -- One day. Two races. Two teams to the state meet.

All in all, a pretty good day for the Minooka cross country program.

The boys finished third at the 3A Normal West Sectional at Maxwell Park on Saturday, while the girls team finished fifth.

"Any time you can get both the boys and girls teams out of the sectional, it's a great day," Minooka coach Kevin Gummerson said. "I am extremely excited for thise kids for accomplishing that goal. They have worked hard and were able to reap the benefits of that work."

In the boys race, sophomores Kyle Smith and Ben Heide led the way, as Smith finished 14th with a time of 16:32 and Heide was a second behind in 15th place. Junior Joe McAsey took 17th in 16:37, followed by freshman Joey Santillo (21st, 16:48), senior Sean Coyle (29th, 17:02), sophomore Andrew Carpenter (39th, 17:13) and junior Chris Patterson (58th, 17:37).

"The boys had a nice group of five in the top 29," Gummerson said. "The story of today was Ben Heide as he threw down a power move around the 1.5 mile mark and never looked back. He really pushed the rest of our top guys."

Also advancing from the sectional were Kyle Counter of Lincoln-Way Central (11th, 16:28), Tom Rotondi of Lincoln-Way East (19th, 16:46) and Matt Niendorf of Lincoln-Way North (21st, 16:48).

In the girls race, the Indians took fifth place, while Lincoln-Way East was the sectional champion.

Catriona McClowry led Lincoln-Way East with a 13th place finish in 19:40, followed by Jackie Newell (18th, 19:58), Kasey Zaremba (24th, 20:12), Tessa Lighty (25th, 20:15) and Britney Kravish (31st, 20:25).

Minooka was led by Maddie Simon (23rd, 20:07), Kiley Saunders (31st, 20:21), Alex Sxymanski (34th, 20:26), Rachel Morman (41st, 20:41) and Laura Simon (53rd, 20:57).

"Alex Syzmknski had a solid race," Gummerson said. "It was great to see her helping lead this team today. Three years ago, she was running 24:00 for three miles and now today, she is pulling these girls through to the state meet."

East Peoria Sectional -- Lincoln-Way West's Monica Hahn finished sixth overall with a time of 19:55 to advance to the state meet. As a team, the Warriors finished eighth and missed advancing.

Joliet Catholic Academy's Rachelle Sartori also advanced as an individual, finishing 15th in 20:22. The Angels finished 11th.

"Rachelle started out strong with the leaders and ran one of her better races of the year," JCA coach Mark Clarke said. "The great thing is that she is only a sophomore."

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