2025 Coach's Comments

October 23, 2025

As small as our conference is, we’ve been lucky to run at some great courses over the last three seasons.  Once at Lewis University and then twice at Settler’s Hill Course. These are areas that have been created solely for cross country. Offering courses that can handle middle school, high school and even college. These are well maintained and marked for maximum ease for the runners, but part of the reality is that these courses do have some degree of challenge to them. Settler’s Hill is atop an old garbage dump and has a decent amount of undulation, especially for us Illinois flat landers. While this can propose some challenges, every runner runs on the same course.  

In all likelihood, this will be the last ESCC meet as we will be joining the GCAC next season. The vastness of Settler’s Hill makes our need for a new conference apparent. The frosh soph race only had 23 racers in it and only three full teams earning a score. We always emphasize controlling the controllables, and we can’t control the size of the race, just how we perform, but without a big field it can be hard to find motivation mid course. From the gun a JCA racer attacked to the front and looked in control. I had one last look at the packs before the mile one spot and Mya Mann and Mal Waters were maintaining contact with a pack from Marist and Benet. The vastness of settlers hill (have I mentioned that it’s vast?) is tough for spectators as it’s hard to cover all areas, so I was left with a 10-11 minute gap before I saw the lead golf cart again. When I saw it, it was followed by a cluster, not a single runner from JCA or another school. I then saw Mya Mann starting to lead the pack and looking really strong. I gave her some words of confidence to attack and attack she did. Waters was keeping it close to the next cluster and was looking strong. Her growth over the season has been great to witness and for many years, the times she is posting would likely end up putting her in a post season race, it just happens that this year’s team is rather deep. Ellie Lopez was next and closed out her freshman campaign showing some great grit and determination. Annie Ryan and Abby Fijal were up next and ran neck and neck through the rolling hills of the last mile. When I cut across to catch the final half mile, Mann was opening up more and more, looking strong. Could she hold on and close it out? Mya is rather happy-go-lucky in practice, but when the gun goes off she is a true competitor. As far as I could see she was all gas and no brakes, ran an amazing race and was race champion, our first since Gianna Levato did it in 2012. Overall, the team finished in 2nd place. 

Varsity was next and coming off the high of the Lakes meet, expectations were high. St. Viator has been in the top 5 for much of the season in 2A rankings, so we knew they would be the team to beat. Their pack is up and tight, which as we know, is tough to beat and Benet is always strong. Our start down the long downhill was great, I challenged the team to be aggressive and go after it. This would be our last really competitive meet for a few weeks so we wanted to spin the tires. At the half mile mark Viator moved up and asserted their strength. Kathleen Hardy was challenged to keep up with Benet’s top runner who is a great runner who likes to push early. At mile one, Hardy had fallen off, but she is a fighter and would do what she can to hold every spot. Our tight pack was a bit shaken up early compared to the last two weeks. Was our request to attack early going to back fire? Claire Sigmund continued to be a pace setter and was shadowed by Maggie Morrissey and Julia Parkes. Audrey Wendt and Allie O’Halloran were together about 40 seconds off Morrissey. One nice thing about having a deep team is that everyone is on for ‘next runner’ up. There is no hierarchy, there is no animosity. Coming across mile 2, Hardy was clustered in the 3-8 cluster, but the final mile is where her mentality is one of the best in the state. Sigmund was a minute off Hardy and this was encouraging. It felt like a 2-5 split under 30 seconds wasn’t going to happen again, but how close can we get it? Freshmen Elena Vlahos and Maggie Morrissey were synced up and only 10 seconds behind Sigmund. O’Halloran and Parkes were next about 35 seconds off the freshmen. A 2-5 (even 2-6) under a minute is still the goal, and we seemed to have had that. Wendt rounded out the scoring 7 with a great time on the challenging course showing some great tenacity heading into the state series. Hardy was able to grab 3rd place, matching last year's spot. Sigmund and Vlahos earned Medalist status and we secured a 3rd place position. While we were a few points off projection, it as a solid showing and no one was beating Viator on this day. The course and the competition challenged us in ways that we needed as the state meet looms in a few weeks.  

The open race closed the day and it is always a bittersweet one as seniors in this race will be wearing the Naz uniform one last time. Given the nature of the course, we weren’t going to get too many personal or seasonal bests, but we just wanted to stress being aggressive and race with a confidence that they didn’t have back in August. The seniors in this race certainly did leave it all out there. Esmo crushed it for one last time as Morgan Fantozzi and Esme Bleskin closed out an impressive career, Fantozzi took the reins, but Bleskin wouldn’t all her to get the edge and Bleskin was our second finisher behind junior Gabi Rosales. Senior captain Mary Trayser was next, capping a great career with a great final race. She was closely shadowed by fellow senior captain Maggie Broderick, who closed in on 800 career miles on this day and continues to be a leader in so many ways for our team. Ally D’Apice was the next senior finisher and while this season didn’t go as she planned completely, but as she said to me after the race “I’m proud that I finished” this is true for a practice session, a race, a season and a 4 year career. Ally came so far as a runner and we’re proud she finished too. Sofia Arroyo was the final senior finisher and she gave our team talk on Friday.  In this talk, she said the quote from John Bingham; “The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” This is true for all of us. Some of these seniors started as freshmen, others joined mid high school, but taking that first step across the finish line is transformative. It takes an amazing amount of courage to put yourself out there and give it what you can. The metaphors of running and life are abundant, but this day always hits it home for me. Finishing first is always the goal, but it’s not the take away. Success can come in however you define it, and for these six runners, they should leave feeling successful and accomplished. 

--Coach Wejman

October 16, 2025

We signed up for the Lakes Sunset Invite in the spring of 24 after being encouraged by some of our coaching friends. They spoke of a great course and competition, plus we would be able to get out of school early. In the fall of 2024, Nazareth was selected to be featured in a flyover by a local news station. This made for a long day for many and the student body got out an hour before we were slated to depart on our early bus. It wasn’t our best day of the season, but the meet was one of the best run events we’ve been to. This season, our outlook was the same; great course, great competition and we did get to leave school early. We also have a roster full of talent that, in my opinion, was just waiting to break out. Solorio had HOCO and 80+ temps to compete with, it would have to wait until Lakes to have the breakout, at least that was the hope. 

Lakes is a ‘flighted’ race so the bronze race was up first. This equated to an open race with unlimited entries making for a congested early course. Mallory Waters was our first runner through, and she was able to have a break out last week, but she did it again, with a personal best for the second straight week. Next up was Abby Fijal who continues to be incredibly consistent with her last 5 races all being within 50 seconds of each other, but Lakes was another personal best for her. Annie Ryan was our third and she posted a seasonal best and was just off her personal record that she got last year at conference, which will once again be held at Settler’s Hill in Geneva. Senior’s Esme Bleskin and Mary Trayser closed out the scoring 5 for us on the day, Belskin with a personal best and Trayser with a seasonal best, showing off that racing experience. These five have us a 5th place finish, which is quite impressive. But the personal/seasonal bests weren’t done yet: Bridge Olk put up a seasonal best time, following here were Gabi Rosales, Morgan Fantozzi, Addison Sloan, Emily Ryan and Ella Schmitz all earned new bests for a three mile race. Closing out the day with personal bests were; Mia Gonzalez, Alexa Field, Kelly Parkes, Dahlia Padilla and Amelia Lechuga. It was a great start to the day, but no time to rest as the silver race was about to get under way. 

In a traditional race, 7 racers run, the regular season serves as a way to find out who those 7 will be in the post season.  The Lakes meet is set up where the top five runners run in the gold race, the next five run in silver.  Therefore, the silver race is a chance to shore up who will be the final 2 racers for the postseason.  We had a mix of youth and veterans in this race.  Youth would be in the form of Maggie Morrissey, Audrey Wendt and Mya Mann, the vets would be junior Ashley Kenna and Senior Maggie Broderick. At this point in the season, the freshman have mainly adapted to the three mile race vs the two mile races in junior high. That confidence tends to grow weekly, coupled with consistent training leads to many personal bests week after week for the new runners. Lakes also has co-ed races, so sorting out where the runners fit in place wise is challenging. Morrissey got out real strong, posting a 630 mile one, could she hold this pace? Wendt was right behind at 6:34. This aggression in mile 1 is what is needed for the postseason races when everyone is attacking every mile and every spot to advance to the state meet. Another nice feature of this race is that each mile has a pad that keeps splits, in a concentric course like this, that is valuable information. It also keeps team scores after each mile. This silver group maintained 8th place the entire time showing coveted consistency. Morrissey was able to hold sub 20 pace, locking in a 1952, our first sub 20 of the day. Wendt closed strong as well, clocking in at 2018. Mann grabbed the third spot with a personal best time of just over 21 minutes. Kenna and Broderick closed out the scoring for the group that claimed 8th place in a field full of top level teams from 3A.

Gold division would close things out as the sun began to go down as the meet name indicates. Again, with a coed race and many teams that we won’t see again  for a few weeks, this race was all about keeping the pack tight. Our 2-5 split has been solid the last few races, but can they move up together? If one is aggressive will the others follow? Claire Sigmund and Allie O’Halloran have been taking turns as the pace car, on this day it would be Sigmund. We have tended to focus on our 2-5 split because Kathleen Hardy is a bit of an outlier, often finishing 100-120 seconds faster than the pack. Hardy was a bit passive in the first mile at Solorio after a minor injury, but has made up for it in mile 2 & 3. At Lakes, this trend kept going (though 5:51 isn’t exactly slow, she typically is more aggressive early. An early sign of encouragement was that Claire Sigmund posted a 612 first mile, pulling Vlahos with her. O’Halloran and Julia Parkes were shadowing them, just 5 seconds off.   Thirty eight second 1-5 split after mile one will it hold? Hardy began to find some space and move up, and the pack went with her. Parkes was the 5th runner and sat 45 seconds off Hardy, this was encouraging, but Parkes was looking like the pace was starting to impact her, how much would the gap grow from her to the other three? I raced back to Narnia and got my answer. Parkes was closing on Vlahos and seemed to have gotten a surge of tenacity closing out her third mile with an impressive 6:22. Hardy closed with a time of 1820, taking 23rd place amongst many 2a/3a runners who will be on the podium at Detweiller. It was the next time for the pack. After two miles, Sigmund was 29 seconds off Hardy; could she get close to 19 minutes? She swung by me at 19:03, and crossed the finish line at 19:09, nearly a minute faster than last week. To have an experienced racer drop that sort of time at this point in her career is remarkable. O’Halloran was virtually in her shadow, clocking a 19:11. Parkes and Vlahos did more of the same with a 19:27 for Parkes and 19:32 for Vlahos. Twenty-three second 2-5 split, 72 second 1-5 split.  

This group was ready to break out (waiting since last year to be honest) and break out they did. On the day we had 18 personal bests and 5 season bests. It was the first time that we had 6 girls break 20 minutes in one race. Timewise, it was our best performance outside of the state meet. It was the type of tail wind that we needed heading into the conference meet. Racing is a mental sport and a big component of the race mentality is confidence. This race should give us the confidence we need heading into the big races and conference and more importantly, the state series. 

--Coach Wejman

October 7, 2025

The weather has been an inside joke for us this season, but on race day, weather is one of those uncontrolables that can impact a day. For me, October is the official month of cross country. The season begins in August and ends in November, and September is the only month that has its entirety for all athletes competing, but October feels like cross country. As I checked the weather days a week out for Solorio, it was looking like a nice early autumn day, but every day leading up to the race, the temperature projections kept climbing. Race organizers adjusted race start times twice during the week as midday highs would hit 90. The course at Solorio is flat and quick, but it is mostly exposed to sunlight. This race tends to produce fast times and personal bests, but what impact might the weather have?

The frosh/soph race started our day and this offered the most advantageous of conditions. The gun rang out and the slew of high ranking ‘big schools’ took their spots up front. Mya Mann was our pace setter taking an aggressive start in the first quarter mile. As the racers entered the back of Marquette Park Golf Course, Mann was still our top racers with Mallory Waters not far behind. Ellie Lopez, Abby Fijal and Annie Ryan were clustered up to be our scoring 5. It was a fast first mile for all racers and that fast work early was going to pay off for all the racers as it was a personal best bonanza. Entering the final mile, Mann kept setting a strong pace and Waters closed the gap to less than 10 seconds. At the finish line, it was time to check the clock and see the hard work paying off. Mann dropped nearly 50 seconds from her previous best, Waters was over a minute and better than her time from LT. Other notable personal bests were seen from the following: Ellie Lopez -- 31 seconds, Emilia Garza -- 40 seconds, Mia Moreno -- 61 seconds, Lali Vargas -- 72 seconds, Ella Schmitz -- 73 seconds, Dahlia Padilla -- 146 seconds. Additionally three sophomores posted seasonal bests; Bridget Olk -- 17 seconds, Annie Ryan 45 seconds, Ava Arroyo -- 170 seconds (a great competitive finish for Ava).  A great way to start the day for sure, watching these young runners get comfortable in racing and push themselves in ways that they probably didn’t realize when we began in August. 

Varsity was next and an hour of time allowed the sun to wreak more havoc on the conditions, with temps hitting over 80 by 9:30. The Solorio meet has grown substantially. Since we joined in 2022, and many of these new joiners have been strong programs from 3A (the bigger schools). While this has had claiming hardware more challenging, it gives us a good test at this critical point in the season. It prepares us for fast races and clustered packs. Our pack has been our strength this season, seeking that 2-5 split near 30 seconds. What makes this group special is that our pack is starting to grow to 7, with runners 6 and 7 potentially serving as pushers down the road and giving some insurance in the event of someone having an off day. The gun rang out and the runners raced down the first fairway. In the back stretch, Kathleen Hardy was a bit set back after a challenging first mile, her competitive nature wasn’t going to allow that as the race grew. Then it was pack time as our cluster of; Elena Vlahos, Claire Sigmund, Allie O’Halloran, Maggie Morrissey, Audrey Wendt and Julia Parkes all within shouting distance of each other. Three juniors and three freshmen have given us a nice mix of youth and leadership to instill excitement and confidence in our post season chances. Ashley Kenna, Maggie Broderick were clustered up next and the yeoman’s work these two do at practice has allowed our team to improve and grow on race day. They opt for longer mileage and show resilience in the face of tough workouts, setting an example for others. Esme Bleskin and Gaby Rosales rolled up next with Bleskin posting a 20 second seasonal best and Rosales a 30 second personal best time. Mary Trayser, Addison Sloan and Morgan Fantozzi also claimed seasonal bests in the tough conditions. 

Hardy was able to put herself back in the top 10 with a strong mile 2&3 finishing 9th behind many who will be on the podium in the 3A race in November. Vlahos broke the 20 minute mark with a personal best. Sigmund was a mere 10 seconds off her, O’Halloran 9 seconds off Sigmund, Morrissey 15 seconds off O’Halloran for a 34 second 2-5. But the pushers weren’t done as Wendt was less than 20 seconds off Morrissey and Parkes just 3 seconds off Wendt for a 2-7 split under a minute. This type of packing is going to be tough to compete with in October. 

Still much to work on and improve upon in these last two weeks of the season. Lakes Sundown Invite awaits us, last year we made our debut at this meet and race time temperatures were above 80 degrees. We look forward to milder temps this year and great conditions at this great meet as we wrap up our first full week of October, the month of cross country 

--Coach Wejman

September 24, 2025

During the week of the RB meet, we hit the half point in the regular season. It is hard to believe it comes so fast, but the math doesn’t lie. It also marks the point in the season when the racing gets better as our fitness gets better. The paradox here is that the times at RB aren’t always better because it is somewhat of a ‘slower’ course. I don’t like to get too XC nerdy for those who don’t ask for it, but some things that make for a slower course are; tight turns/ lack of long straightaways (Westmont comes to mind), exposure to sun/ warm areas (LT some years), steep hills (Illinois courses really need not apply), crowded races causing congestion (the FTTF race at Peoria). The RB course at Indian Garden has some of these elements, some tight turns, some congested spots, and Indian Garden typically has a thick grass dynamic to slow runners down a little bit, which over a three mile race can add up. 

All that said, we stress to the team that times are a bit arbitrary, places are what gets the team wins. Low numbers are the order of race day, low places > low times. With Fenwick and RB in 3A and Lemont moving to a different meet, we found ourselves with no other 2A rivals, but a good chance to show our stuff regardless.  Varsity got the day going as racers navigated a tight pinch in the 50 meters. We challenged our pack to keep themselves tight early on and rely on keeping our 1-5 under a minute, ideally under 30 seconds, but that can get a tall order. Allie O’Halloran again set the tempo for us, pushing early, with Claire Sigmund, Elena Vlahos, Julia Parkes and Maggie Morrissey keeping this grouping tight though mile one. We were allowed 10 runners, so we let some of our fabulous freshmen get a taste of varsity running. We are expecting to have a big freshmen contingency in our post season squad, and we still have some spots available for the racing 7 at the races so every weekend is a chance to make a statement. Audrey Wendt led the next wave, followed by Mya Mann, Abby Fijal and Mallory Waters. We knew our freshmen squad would be big after this summer, but it has been pleasant to have so many runners who are willing to push themselves and embrace our team's quirky ways.

Heading into the final mile, O’Halloran opened up on the pack, but Sigmund willed herself to get on Allie’s shadow just like in Peoria a week prior. The RB course allowed me to actually see the finish and Sigmund tried, but failed to edge out O’Halloran, being bested by a second for a 9-10 finish. As a coach, I don’t care what order they come in, as long as there are no racers between them. Vlahos was just 9 seconds off them for a 12th place finish, minimizing damage. Parkes and Morrissey rounded out the scoring five, with a final 1-5 split of 55 seconds, under the magical 1 minute mark. Had Kathleen Hardy run, we are looking at 42 seconds, even closer to the even more magical 30 seconds. We finished ultimately in 3rd place, a result that might not match what we did the last two years, but our sights are more on October. And another big takeaway from this race might be that we ran 6 freshmen, which might be a varsity record for us.  

The open race closed out the day and we put Maggie Broderick and Ashley Kenna in this race, to give the freshmen a chance to race and give them a chance to lead the team from the gun. Broderick grabbed the race lead early and pushed, Kenna kept close tabs, battling with some RB runners. Annie Ryan, Gabi Rosales and Mary Trayser rounded out our scoring 5 amidst a sea of RB runners, their coach said they have over 50 girls, great to see from their program who I have often considered to be our main ‘rival’. This midway point in the season is also a great chance to see gains made by newer runners as they get their racing legs. Freshmen Emily Ryan, Kelly Parkes and Emiliia Garza posted personal bests, with many others getting very close. We should see more of these times drop in the coming weeks. 

As the team race unfolded, Broderick was able to grab second place and Kenna was 4th and Annie Ryan right behind in 5th to earn medalist status. Rosales and Trayser rounded out the scoring 5 to earn second place on the day. The open race is often about depth and I am always proud when we can show this off and have impressive days against schools much larger than us. 

Our next race will be in October, temps will start lowering and our slate of courses are rather advantageous for fast times, no more excuses of tight turns, crowded areas, hills (not applicable ever), sunny spots. We will have a great chance to showcase our racing abilities and prove to ourselves what we are capable of. We will also go against the best teams in the state as we start looking towards the state series as post season locations have been shared and our path to the state meet is laid before us. This is when things get more fun and we realize that all the work we did in the first half of the season makes us better racers in the second half. 

-- Coach Wejman

September 15, 2025

In doing this for so many seasons, we have numerous traditions that have us thinking back to past years’ occurrences. While the Peoria trip is one of them, another is the disdain that our team has for the Westmont meet. To be fair, this is a tough course to run on and we have had many races there with temps in the high 80s.  We always try to keep the mentality good and this year it seemed to have worked. Perhaps temps in the 70s helped with the mindset; how about this weather?

We cruised to a win as a team, with Kathleen Hardy serving as race winner. Our 2-6 split was 42 seconds, which is a great asset and it will be even more so in a larger meet. Many of our freshmen completed their first 3 mile race and, all things considered, it ended up being a great outing for us and a tune up for the upcoming first to the finish meet at Detweiller Park. This race is the biggest in the state and allows us to see how we stack up against the top teams in 2A. More than half the state ranked teams would be at this meet. I enjoy following the rankings conducted by local outlets, and one of these outlets was simply called; Illinois Track and Field and Cross Country (ILTFXC), and it was run by a man named Mike Newman who had a peculiar way of sharing his opinions, but he had a steadfast commitment to running sports in Illinois. MIke passed away this week and his weekly analysis and rankings were must reads on Monday or Tuesday following a weekend of meets, in speaking for many, he will be missed. 

Mike’s preseason rankings had us in 11th place, as did a few others. After a few weeks of races, we had apparently fallen off the radar of many of these prognosticators as we fell out of the rankings. I find these to be fun and good content for us in an often under reported sport, but I know that all that matters is what happens on race day. The First to the Finish Invite would be our chance to see if the preseason opinions were correct or if we deserved to be outside the top 25. 

After enjoying some cool temps, this race was looking like it was going to be a warm affair. We claimed our spot in box 33 and began our warm ups. I didn’t have a strong lean on how the day would go. We’ve had ups and downs at this race and the overnight dynamic throws some off their game. For freshmen, a race of this many people can be overwhelming. The gun rang out and any excuse or reasons for a bad day were all gone.  It’s hard to make sense of who is where in the opening straightaway, and I even tried to see the squad just past the evergreen tree, but there were just too many bodies with more than 450 racers. Coaches gave me updates by the mile marker and I was able to see most of the girls enter the triangle (it isn’t really a triangle). Kathleen Hardy was just outside the top 10 and was looking challenged in this very challenging race. Allie O’Halloran got out strong and we asked for a tight pack early on with Elena Vlahos, Claire SIgmund, Julia Parkes and Maggie Morrissey holding a tight line, with a gap of 35-40 seconds for our 2-6, but there was much race to go. Coming out of the triangle, I tried to take inventory of some of our local rivals and felt a bit dismayed seeing their numbers pile up.  I lost sight of the fact that our pack was staying tight, and most of all were looking strong.  Audrey Wendt, Mya Mann, Ashley Kenna and Maggie Broderick rounded out our roster for this race and these four are training stalwarts and bring so much to our team providing much needed depth. Coming down the stretch, Hardy was able to show her tenacity and power and closed in 12th place. Sigmund finished ahead of  O’Halloran by .10 of a second. Parkes was 11 seconds off them and Vlahos 5 seconds off Parkes for a 16 second 2-5 split. Morrissey wouldn’t be outdone being just 21 seconds off her fellow freshmen. Maybe I’ll explain pushers in a future edition. 

As I made the walk up the opening straightway, I feverishly refreshed the live scoreboard, and once the dust settled, we ended up in 9th place. An impressive showing buoyed by a tight pack. And while this is easy to say in hindsight, if each runner goes 10 seconds faster, we finish in 6th place. It doesn’t take much in a race like this.

Our open race was next and it would be 80 minutes after the varsity race time, which means warmer temps, but our easy going group was having fun pre race as over 600 girls took to the start line. Freshman Abby Fijal was our first finisher, clocking the 9th fastest time for us on the day. Mal Waters and Ellie Lopez took spots 2 & 3 and made cases to be part of our post season roster. These three will get chances at varsity in the coming weeks. Esme Bleskin and Xitlali Vargas closed out the scoring squad and both of these two had great finishes.   Gaby Rosales was next as she clocked another personal best. Mia Moreno was the last returning runner to grab a PR on the day. Many first year racers also posted personal bests on this hot day, but those will be happening quite frequently as they continue to grow as racers. 

We left Peoria and headed to Wally’s with some great tailwinds. Our pack showed up today, it will be our strength as the year unfolds, and the wolves will get stronger. I also feel that we gained confidence and an identity. This tends to happen at the Peoria meet. It is a trip full of traditions and memories and one that will set us up well for the future weeks. I’m not really concerned if we are ranked or not this week, but I know that we have a team that belongs amongst the best in the state and one that is planning on returning to Peoria in early November. 

--Coach Wejman