Minooka girls 2nd, boys take 3rd at own invite

CHANNAHON – On Saturday, Minooka hosted its annual cross country flight invitational at Community Park.

The event has seven flights for each gender. The No. 7 runners all compete, then the No. 6 runners, all the way down to the number-one runners. An individual’s place in each flight determines the points they receive for their team.

On the girls side, Minooka came away with four individual champions but lost the team title to Yorkville by one point, 14-15.

Yorkville, which defeated Minooka last week in Peoria, is ranked third in the the latest poll in Class 3A, while Minooka is fourth.

Lincoln-Way Central placed sixth, with Plainfield North was seventh and Lemont took ninth in the 14-team field.

The Indians’ Vivian Van Eck got things rolling with a win in flight four, covering the three-mile course in 18:37.

“This feels awesome,” sophomore Van Eck said. “I was second last year and I really wanted the champion shirt that all the flight winners receive. I knew the Yorkville girl (Alyssa Edwards) would be tough and I just kept pushing.”

In flight three, Minooka’s Mackenzie Callahan won by 51 seconds (17:46) over Yorkville’s Maddie Dearborn. It was Callahan’s second consecutive title and third overall, as she won flight two as a sophomore.

“I felt really good today, much better than last week,” Callahan said.

Emily Shelton, the talented Minooka junior, defended her flight two title and ran the fastest time of the day, winning with a time of 17:41, which was also a 51-second victory over Yorkville’s Olivia Borowiak.

In flight one (the championship flight), senior Ashley Tutt also defended her title for the Indians by winning in 17:44. She edged Yorkville’s Nicole Greyer, who ran 18:08.

The other Minooka scorers were Katelyn Gall, who placed fourth in flight five (19:49), Julia Dames, who was fourth in flight six (19:52) and Nina Shanahan, who placed third in flight seven (19:52).

“This was a great experience,” Shanahan said. “This is my first varsity race and I really pushed myself to place as high as I could for the team.”

Plainfield North was led by Juliana Stogsdill, who took third place finish in flight one with a time of 18:31. Lincoln-Way Central had a pair of fifth-place finishes as Gretchen Zirgatis ran 19:53 in flight four and Dana Boucher ran 20:29 in flight seven.

For the boys meet, Downers Grove North, ranked second in the 3A state rankings, easily won with 11 points, followed by Whitney Young,which was ranked seventh, with 25 points. Minooka finished in third place with 27 points.

Plainfield North was sixth, followed by Lincoln-Way Central (10th), Lockport (12th), Plainfield Central (15th) and Lemont (18th).

Minooka’s Soren Knudsen claimed the area’s only title, winning flight one for the second consecutive year, with the day’s best time of 15:08.

“I used today as a learning experience for the big meets down the road,” Knudsen said. “It was a smaller pack up front, which will be like the state meet and you have to learn and practice those tactics of running up there. I made some tactical errors today, but I will learn from that and it is always good to win a race.”

In flight four, Minooka sophomore Mark Dames placed second in 16:11 and was very happy with the effort.

“That was totally unexpected,” Dames said. “I really liked this concept of racing because you really have a chance to win a race and it’s a much smaller group. I like the pressure, that excites me and I’m so happy with the effort and place.”

Local third-place finishers were Plainfield North’s Omar Paramo in flight three and a pair of Minooka runners – Jordan Freese in flight two and Jason Hoffman in flight six.

“I’m feeling much better today about both of our teams, the girls and boys, than I did last week,” Minooka coach Kevin Gummerson said.

“It’s week by week, you just try and get better one day at a time. This is always a great meet for kids to win a race that normally wouldn’t have a chance. It can really change a runner’s perspective when they know they can run up front.”