2025 Coach's Comments

September 8, 2025

The 2025 campaign began as usual at the ‘Trial on the Trail’ hosted by Elmwood Park. Also as usual, we were tight on time getting to the host school by 4:30. While we do stress this meet as a more official time trial, it is ideal to get the proper amount of time for warming up to do our best. Regardless, the varsity racers got themselves to the starting box (that didn’t exist) and set the tone for our day. This isn’t a true varsity race as it is made up only of juniors and seniors, it is more of a veteran race, and our veterans pack is well decorated.  Our scoring 5 were made up of Allie O’Halloran, Julia Parkes, Claire Sigmund, Maggie Broderick and Ashley Kenna who have all been post season roster members for all of their 3 or 4 years. This solid core handled the rushed start adversity well with O’Halloran, Parkes and Sigmund earning top 10 medalist status. Broderick and Kenna were just a minute off Sigmund to close the door and earn 2nd place as a team. Notable down roster standouts were Gabi Rosales dropping over 3 minutes off her 2024 time. Sofia Arroyo set a 4 year PR for 2 mile race, improving 8 minutes off her 2024 time, the by-product of a strong summer. Last note in this race was 6 runners making their cross country debut in this race; Gwen Passino, Ella Cornellis, Ava Kupetis, Alexa Field, Mia Gonzalez and Amelia Lechuga.

The Frosh Soph race closed our day, and for the frosh portion of this it would mark their first of (hopefully) many cross country races; Elena Vlahos, Maggie Morrissey, Audrey Wendt, Mya Mann, Abby Fijal, Ellie Lopez, Mallory Waters, Xitlali Vargas, Emily Ryan, Kelly Parkes, Ella Schmitz, Emilia Garza and Dahlia Padilla. The returning sophomores would join this group in our starting box (that didn’t exist). We tasked Kathleen Hardy with taking charge of the race and she went out with confidence. She was paired up against a runner from Latin who took a lead after mile one and opened it up. Hardy was in no man’s land for much of the rest of the race, but raced the clock well setting a school record of 11:46, besting Colette Kinsella by 10 seconds. Hardy’s day proved that the sophomore is ready to build upon her breakout freshman year. Elena Vlahos joined us this summer and showed a willingness to work and compete, coming off an impressive middle school career, we knew she would be in the top 7 racers. Her day confirmed this as she put down an impressive sub 13 minute race. Our summer running was heavily populated by freshmen and our scoring 7 (with Vlahos) were some of our hardest workers this summer; Morrissey, Wendt, Mann, Fijal, Lopez and Waters came in within a minute of each other showing that our team’s future is bright. The scoring 7 were able to secure 3rd place overall and gained some valuable racing experience. Sophomores Bridget Martin, Mia Moreno and Ava Arroyo all improved upon their race time from a year ago. 

After Elmwood Park, we enter ‘Invite Season’ weekend meets that tend to be more competitive and are longer distances than 2 miles. Our opener of the Invite season is as usual the Mike Kuharic Invite, formerly the Lions Pride Invite. The course has changed over the years and almost changed this year, but the 5K format created after the pandemic held. Another constant was warm, sunny days. And while it was sunny this past Saturday, it wasn’t terribly warm. It was a pretty choice day for running. The running began at 8am with the JV race. We gave some of our freshmen the opportunity to run in this race, it was a jump to 5k from 2 miles, but this was a challenge we felt many were up to. It is humbling to see starting boxes (we had one this meet) full of 30-40 of runners form large public schools, but it is almost uplifting knowing that we have some great numbers in this race too; 22 to be exact. We were banking on our freshmen to step up and show us something, and did they ever. Through mile 1, the crew of Maggie Morrissey, Audrey Wendt, Mya Mann, Ellie Lopez and Mallory Waters were bunched up incredibly well. Morrissey was rocking early in the top 10 and held this spot throughout, closing in at 6th place overall. Wendt was 15th with about half a mile to go and was able to claim a chunk of spots on her way to 8th place. This was our first time in a race at LT with multiple medalists in over 10 years.  Mann, Lopez and Waters closed out the scoring 5 and were able to earn us some hardware with 3rd place.  Just missing out on second by 1 point, the final standings looks like a 3A (big schools) only meet, but finishing 3rd in a meet where we were the smallest school by far is something I’m proud of. Bridget Martin, Mia Moreno and Gabi Rosales each earned career bests in a 3 mile race (where our managers kept time), and Sofia Arroyo netted a career best for 5K.

Varsity was next up and whenever Downers Grove North is in your race, you know you will see a lot of purple up front. In addition to DGN, Lyons Township, Lincoln Way East, and Sandburg are perennially ranked. One of the allures of this meet is the chance to see where you stack up against these strong teams. We tasked Kathleen Hardy again with seizing control of the race and being confident to lead. Through mile one, this was the case. A side cramp hampered her a little bit and she was looking for 6th place heading into the final mile, and her competitive spirit would have to step up. As she entered the final half time, race mode kicked in and she grabbed 2 spots (and was .05 away from a 3rd spot) to take 4th overall, behind 3 girls who will likely be on the podium for 3A at Detweiller Park.

Our 2-5 racers could very well take turns occupying each spot this season and that is fine by me. Elena Vlahos occupied the 2nd spot for much of the race early, only to be passed by teammate Allie O’Halloran near the midpoint. Claire Sigmund entered the 3rd spot at some point in the final mile and is looking the strongest she has in her 3 years thus far, posting a 3 mile personal best. Vlahos raced aggressively and probably paid the price for it, but this type of aggression is something we can’t coach and she will gain experience and confidence to create a tight grouping as we progress. Parkes rounded out the scoring 5 just 10 seconds off Vlahos. She grinded out a tough race with some minor discomfort keeping our 2-5 split just over 30 seconds.   The squad earned 6th place, with 1-5 all being 3A schools.

Our freshmen closed out the day and this was the last training wheels race of under 3 miles. Xitlali Vargas was our top finisher looking smooth the entire way. It was the fourth best time posted for our team on this race/course of 3.4 Kilometers. Training Partners Emily Ryan and Ella Schmitz were next to finish and these two look better and better at training and look forward to their improvement in racing. Belt holder Kelly Parkes showed more growth looking more and more confident in her racing. Emilia Garcia and Dahlia Padilla closed out our day and I’m proud of how these two continue to challenge themselves and see their effort manifest itself into become stronger mentally and physically.

We now head to Detweiller Park and the First to the Finish meet. We race in the class 2A race, so we won’t be seeing any of these big schools, but we will see almost all of the 2A powers and see what our prospects look like in gunning for the state meet for a 7th straight season.

--Coach Wejman