YMS Cross Country Heading To IESA State!

For the fourth year in a row, the Yorkville Middle School girls cross country team will be heading to IESA State, and the boys will be heading down for the third time in four years. The girls have finished 22nd, 10th, and 8th the last three years and the boys finished 14th in 2010 and 7th last season.

Batavia Rotolo was the team's main competition going into the Sectional, and Batavia proved they were a team to contend with after a great score of 24 in the girls race. Yorkville's score of 57 was well ahead of 3rd place Oak Park Julian's 98 points, though, and the majority of the team ran about what they ran at the Fox Trot Invite the previous weekend, or better, which hopefully means the team is on track for big P.R.'s next week at State.

The girl's front four stuck together most of the race. Maggie Klemm led the way for the majority of the two-mile course, but Kimberly Batdorf ended up finishing first for the team in 8th place with a time of 12:25. 7th graders Olivia Borowiak and Colleen O'Connor also had All-Sectional performances with their 9th and 10th place finishes in times of 12:26 and 12:29, respectively. Maggie Klemm finished next for the Foxes in 11th with a time of 12:30. Lindsay Harrison had a big P.R. of 12:57 to break 13 minutes for the first time this season and finish the team's scoring in 19th place. Kaylee Deutsch earned a P.R. as well with her 13:03 to finish 23rd, and Emily Berge was the 7th finisher for the Lady Foxes with a 35th-place finish in 13:32.

The boys team gained a lot of ground on Batavia in what turned out to be a relatively close race. Batavia finished 1st with 51 points while the Foxes had 68 points to finish 2nd. Woodridge Jefferson just edged out Kaneland with 78 points to Kaneland's 81 to take the final state qualifying spot.

Patrick Black took off with the front pack early and ended up as the team's top finisher in 5th place with a team-record time of 11:09 on the Yorkville High School course. Zack Price and Rio Lara fought to stay in All-Sectional contention, and both ended up taking home those honors. Zack finished in 6th with a time of 11:12 and Rio had a huge P.R. to finish in 10th with a time of 11:19. Alex Loos, as the team's lone 7th grade runner, finished in 20th with a time of 11:52, and Matt Cox finished the scoring for the team in 27th with a time of 11:59. Chase Dexter was two places back at 12:02 and Ben Summers had a big P.R. with his time of 12:16 to finish in 36th place.

The team will compete next Saturday at the IESA Cross Country Championships at Maxwell Park in Normal.