2026 Coach's Comments

September 9, 2026

We kicked things off at Elmwood Park, as we had for the last 19 seasons. The word ‘rust buster’ often gets used for these early eason meets, because it is a chance to get back into racing mode. Training all summer makes us strong at training in summer, racing improves with more racing. Put the two together, that’s when the magic starts happening. We have no expectations at this race, we just want the races to happen and see what we are looking at for the upcoming season. Heading into the 26-27 campaign, we knew our youth would lead the way. And they fulfilled this with a dominant first place finish with Maggie Morrissey, Elena Vlahos, Nora Trayser and Cate RIberto grabbing top 10 spots. Varsity wasn’t too shabby, taking 2nd against a more upper class laden Wheaton Academy team, Kathleen Hardy and Claire Sigmund were top 10 finishers. It was a strong showing for the program and now the real racing would begin as we shed off our rust. 

In one of our first seasons, there was a feature article in one of the main Chicago newspapers about the LT Girls cross country team. It was about the impressive size of the team and about the pros and cons of having a team of that size. LT has always cast a shadow on West Suburban cross country, we see their team in summer camp, wave after wave of teenage girls running on 47th street. Whenever we train at Spring Rock Park a group of LT girls the size of our team always show up, one of our team members will recognize one of them and say; ‘that’s just their jv team’, acknowledging that their varsity cluster is elsewhere, their freshman team is likely still on campus, and the sophomores are somewhere else too. This makes sense, as the school is 4x more than us. The disparity always hits on race day when the gold and blue walk to the starting boxes of the LT Invite, our first invite of the season. As the JV was nearing, I couldn’t help but notice that box 14 belonging to the Nazareth Roadrunners might not have been the largest (DGN & LT probably had us beat), but we had a near identical population to LT stationed in box 13. Seeing us fill up boxes on race day has always been a source of pride for our program. In a school of under 400 girls, we had 50 on roster, I’d like to put that per capita stat against any school (Yes, I know that flag football is coming for us too). When the gun rang out, we felt that we’d be in the mix for a top 3 spot. At the first pass, this was looking good as we had a strong cluster up front in Mya Mann, Cate Riberto, Avery Janiszewski and Maura Butler near the top 10. Ellie Lopez and Mal Waters were trailing next to be our fifth. Counting spots is impossible in a meet like this, but we were looking good. After 1 mile, our spots were holding with Mann all by herself in second, Riberto was in a battle in the 3-6 zone and Janiszewski was in contention for a top 10 spot. For the latter 2, this would be their first race over 2 miles, how would they hold up? All three kept their spots to put 3 in the top 10 earning ‘shirt’; status. Butler and Lopez closed out our scoring with Waters and Alana Hamilton rounding out the 7. As scores came in, we would assuredly get a top 3 spot to earn a plaque, but we were exceptionally close to DGN for first place. When the dust settled, we were 4 points off the perennial power. Taking 2nd at this race is quite the accomplishment. Our final tally was 24 finishers (LT had 25), 11 completed their first 3+ mile race, it was a great start to the day. 

Varsity was next and we have always framed this race as a chance to be tested by some high level 3A schools and set a goal to beat all 2A schools present (not many left at this one), but understanding that this is just a starting point, our true objective comes in October & November. I feel like a broken record every year, but the pack is the key to any strong team. Having a low number or two up top helps, but if your 3-4-5 are separated by a huge gap, a team will get exposed. We knew we had some depth this year, but we also knew that there would be no hierarchy of the pack. This has played out at training, now we see how it plays out on race day. We knew that there would be many individuals up ahead of our pack, so we had to wait a little bit, but then they emerged. I couldn’t tell you from my memory what the order was at the first, second or third pass, and that is exactly the point. Claire Sigmund, Maggie Morrissey, Elena Vlahos and Nora Trayser pushed hard early to stay in the 20th place range, and their separation was about 7-10 seconds. Allie O’Halloran, Julia Parkes and Audrey Wendt were encouraged to hold back early and let the race unfold a bit before being aggressive. Again, counting spots is next to impossible at this race, and we weren’t likely to get a plaque at awards, but could hold our own score wise against ranked 3A teams, one of these being LT, a team that we wouldn’t dream of being near score wise, let alone beat 19 years. As our front pack took turns leading and grinding, O’Halloran began to surge and join them. This was going to assure us at least 4th place, but how would we finish? Sigmund put her track skills to the race finishing 19th and dropping 45 seconds off last year's time, Vlahos was spots off, also dropping around 45 seconds off last year's time. O’Halloran improbably was our third finisher, showing her racing experience to close the final two miles incredibly swift. Trayser and Morrissey closed the door. We were secure in 4th place, only falling to DGN, Maine South and Sandburg, schools that double/triple our enrollment. We even beat a few of these perennially strong 3A teams. To claim 4th place with our top runner coming in at 19 is a testament to the strength of our pack. Our 1-5 was split of 13 spots and 32 seconds, that is a recipe for strength as we start to gauge our teams prospects. This will be on display next week at the First to the FInish Invite that will give us a chance to see most of the top 2A schools at Peoria. 

The frosh/sophs closed our day and this is our last ‘training wheels’ race as the freshies get one last crack and a sub 3 mile race. After a grueling week of heat and humidity, the race directors decided to combine frosh and soph race to avoid another race in the rising temps, so it was a crowded one. Scarlett Mathey was our top finisher, followed by Mia Sloan and Sarah Becker. It has been great to see the freshmen begin to push the effort at practice and start to accept the pre race nerves. It is a long journey and it never gets easier, we just get stronger. 

--Coah Wejman