2026 Coach's Comments

October 21, 2026

Last spring, it was announced that the ESCC would be no more and we would be moving into the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference (GCAC). Coaches were asked to add input into what issues or questions we foresaw. Having done this for close to 20 years, my only concern was; will there be enough porta potties for a 21 team conference meet? We don’t really worry about wins and losses in our sport and we don’t travel against rush hour traffic on Tuesday nights. Tell us where and when to show up and we will compete. The logistics don’t matter, but if anything, the large conference meet would be a good preliminary competition for the post season. 

In what would become a 4 race day; Varsity kicked things off. When post season assignments were shared, we learned that Wheaton St. Francis would be a main adversary of ours in the Regional, Sectional and State Final. They would also be in our new conference. While we weren’t running our top 7, we still wanted to measure ourselves against the Spartans (as well as other top Catholic teams in Chicagoland). When the gun rang out, it was fun to see a thick pack of talented racers that would be dealing with a semi sloppy course where personal times wouldn’t be easy to come by. Heading into the end of mile 1, Kathleen Hardy was in the chase pack following the runners vying for the conference title. Our own version of a chase pack was about 15 seconds behind Hardy: Nora Trayser, Elena Vlahos and Claire Sigmund. This was our first time racing with morning cold and we did look a little flat heading to and through mile 1. Our senior duo of Allie O’Halloran and Julia Parkes would close out our scoring five for the day and we were hoping to break up the gap between St. Francis’s 4 & 5 runners. Senior Lexie Perfect was our 7th varsity runner and she would be finishing her racing career filing in for Maggie Morrissey who will return to the lineup in the Regional round. 

Marmion is a tough course for spectators, there's about a whole mile that is next to impossible to watch so I took my spot at about 600 meters to go having little knowledge of how the race was unfolding. Hardy was 30 seconds off the lead, and looked really strong. I feel safe in saying that she has found her racing form and these next three weeks should be additions to that focus. While I said that I didn’t mind the change in conference, Hardy would have been our first ESCC champion as the other 7 ahead of her were from the GCAC prior to our arrival. Our gap following Hardy was less than ideal with Trayser 67 seconds off, just missing all conference by one spot. Vlahos was 15 seconds off Trayser and Sigmund was 27 off her. With Morrissey, that likely would have put us with a 42 second 2-5 split (30 seconds needs to be our goal)and a 1:49 1-5 split. This has to be 90 seconds at most for us to really be serious about our post season ambitions. Further challenging this was Saint Franics putting their 4&5 before our 5, also impacting our post season ambitions. O’Halloran closed out our scoring and Parkes was close behind taking the 6th spot. Perfect ended her racing with a solid performance, all told, we took 4th in the conference overall (technically 5th in the ‘Red Division’). Not to harp again on missed opportunities, but we would have claimed our second ESCC title had the conference survived one more year. 

JV would be the second race of the day and this would be the racing finale for Addison Sloan, she would be joined by Clare Olson and junior rookie who was a solid contributor to our team at practices and in our team culture. She was followed by Mabel Passino, who made some great gains this season in her first as a competitive racer. Bridget Olk was the 3rd finisher and she was followed by Mia Sloan who edged out her sister for the bigger piece of steak at family dinner. Addison battled some injuries to complete her career with grit and determination, willing herself to get that 500th mile.

Frosh/soph was up next and this race would feature our top 3 alternatives in our post season race; Cate Riberto, Maya Mann and Avery Janiszewski. At first pass a DePaul runner took the race and it seemed like she was going to work her way to a comfortable win, but at about the 1.33 spot, Riberto was gaining ground and made this look like a race. Coming out of the tree farm, Coach Gonzalez texted the coach chat; ‘She’s leading.’ When I saw her before the hill, she was looking even stronger and more determined. She coasted to a 40 second win and a sub 20 personal best time. That is the kind of energy we need and the kind of person poised to be alternate #1 in the event of an illness/ someone needing a week off. Mann and Janiszewski might not have set personal best times, but they raced like champs, blowing past Depaul’s #2 & #3. Having 3 of the top is a great way to make a statement and illustrate our depth heading into the post season and also address the reality that we have 3 top tier racers graduating in the spring. Maura Butler and Mal Waters closed our scoring 5 to secure a second place finish in this division with Waters grabbing a seasonal best time. 

The open would close out our day, and for seniors Ella Cornellis, Alexxa Field, Gwen Passino and Amelia Lechuga it would be their final race and we thank them for their commitment and leadership to the program for the past two seasons. 

We now pare our roster down to 14 and prepare for the journey ahead. What began back in June now starts to get that post season focus as we look to add to the legacy of our team and our program. Heading into this season, I felt confident in saying that this is our best team. Objectively, I think this is still correct, but these next three weeks will be the ultimate way to solidify that assessment. 

--Coach Wejman

October 14, 2026

When I began coaching, our pre-conference invite was at Elmwood Park, and it was hosted on a Thursday or Friday, freeing up the weekend and giving us another day to recover heading into the biggest stretch of the season. About 10 years ago, they shifted to a Saturday morning and around 2021, we felt that as a team we were starting to outgrow the meet.  A coaching friend of ours recommended the Lakes Sunset Invite and in 2024, we made the leap to this meet and it has been a highlight of our season in terms of conditions, times, competition and vibes. As the name indicates, the meet ends around dusk, providing a great backdrop for photos and the dropping temps allow for some solid competition. In addition, this year's meet would have nine ranked teams in 2A doing battle, giving us a good gauge of where we are at against the state’s best. 

The Bronze race got things going, and this race essentially acted as an open race for those outside the Top 10. I have long touted our depth, but this race would really be a chance to show it off. Lexie Perfect was our top racer on this day, posting another seasonal best, breaking 22 minutes. She was just 13 seconds off her personal best set back in her freshman year when she won the open race at Elmwood Park, our last time at that meet. Ellie Lopez, Abby Fijal, Mal Waters and Annie Ryan came through separated by just 29 seconds to close our scoring on the day, giving us a low enough score to claim 3rd overall against some large 3A schools and some elite 2A teams. Elsewhere in this race, Clare Olson and Bridget Olk dropped about 90 seconds off their seasonal bests. Freshman Aileen Gutierrez, who won the week's chaser workout, dropped 4 minutes off her previous best. Sophomore Scarlet Umbrasas also posted a near 4 minute improvement from her prior best. These gains aren’t all coming from the training, but a confidence in racing and willingness to embrace the challenge vs. shying away from it. All told, 19 bronze race runners posted personal or seasonal bests. 

Next up was the Silver division which essentially is a teams 6-10 runners. This would be helpful in establishing who might make up our post season racers. I had a feeling that our clustering would be close up front between Julia Parkes, Cate Riberto, Avery Janiszewski and Mya Mann. Our 10th was Maura Butler who continues to improve and push herself in training, but would be expected to be a minute to 90 seconds off the pace of our peloton. As the racers headed to Narnia, this packing held true as all four racers clustered up and another wrinkle to this meet is that the races are coed and can be rather crowded. This would thin out as the race wore on, but in the first half mile, it was a packed course. All five racers were holding spots and looking strong. Parkes, Riberto, and Janiszewski were right at 10 minutes at the half way mark, breaking 20 minutes was becoming a good shot. We have tried to push that the clock isn’t always the best gauge for a ‘good race’ time is a metric that holds so much weight and it does have use. But my biggest take away from this race was how far dug in all five of these girls were. I got a chance to see them 6 times, including the finish and they all battled so hard. Sometimes a congested portion can stifle momentum, a stumbled or losing stride can cost a few seconds, so time isn’t the truest story. When they came, Parkes, Riberto and Janiszewski came across at 20 flat, 20:02 and 20:08, all hitting personal or seasonal bests. Mann was a bit disappointed that she didn’t beat her previous time from Solorio, but that happens sometimes in a race. She looked really strong, but last week was such a huge jump, growth isn’t always linear. Butler just missed breaking 22, but still dropped 20 seconds of her best time, establishing herself as a postseason team member. 

The Gold race would end the night with the sun going down. I’ve mentioned prior, but we won’t have our top squad intact until Regionals, but we have had them for training and what we’ve seen has been uplifting even if we can’t see the full product on race day. Maggie Morrissey would be missing on this day, but our top group has looked solid regardless and the bar continues to be raised after last week’s race at Solorio. My first time seeing the racers in Narnia the word I would use is ‘crammed.’ I barely saw our five racers, Kathleen Hardy and Elena Vlahos looked frustrated without having open running lanes and contact was constant with runners rubbing elbows. Nora Trayser was close behind Vlahos and was really settling in nicely to the three mile distance, she looked strong coming through mile 1. Claire Sigmund and Allie O’Halloran, the elder stateswomen, had their first race since Marmion, over three weeks prior and looked a little rusty in the early going, but I know what I have in these two and was expecting a nice surge up in the latter miles. As the race thinned out, Hardy began to pounce. Her tenacious competitiveness would push herself to her fastest time since her freshman year, throwing down a 18.11. The top times would continue, I got a chance to see Elena and Nora with about a quarter mile to go, they were on fumes, but they could sense the end was near. I reminded Elena to flick it and empty the tank. Heading over to the finish, I got to see Elena cross the 19 minute mark with an 18:55.  Nora tried everything, even a sprinter's lunge to break 19, but she hit an even 19:00.3, another huge jump for the freshman. Sigmund posted a seasonal best by over 30 seconds and got rid of whatever rust she had. O’Halloran rounded out the five with a seasonal best time, and still has only raced 4 times this season, she is going to thrive in these next three weeks, acting as a 5-6-7 runner for us. We got our golden hour photos and loaded the bus with 25+ personal or seasonal bests. We held our own against the state's best and showed that at 100% we belong in the conversation for top 10, possibly even top 5 or better. I have long struggled with our teams slow starts, but we always seem to find a way to start hitting our stride in mid-October, which is exactly what we want.  This is when it starts getting good. 

--Coach Wejman

October 7, 2026

A few years ago, we made the decision to add a bye week to our schedule. A week off from racing and a chance to have some Saturday morning freedom seemed logical. This year, there was a wrinkle in this logic as the RB meet got cancelled due to heavy rains and potential for strong storms. This meant that aside from a weekday meet at Marmion for about a dozen racers, most of our team would be off form racing for 3 weeks. This return would come at the Solorio Sun Warrior Invite at Marquette Park Golf Course. 

We were greeted by some true cross country weather; temps in the 50s/60s, sunshine, and a sense that Fall is on the way. Adding to the Cross country feels was copious amounts of standing water from two solid days of rain. Mud and puddles are a trademark for cross country videos that go viral, our course conditions probably weren’t going to top our meet at Harvest Christian in 2019, but it was fun to race with some adversity on this course that is rather tame. 

Despite three weeks off of racing, our training has been solid and the Solorio meet tends to be one that we see some of the gains being made. The Frosh/Soph race kicked things off and most runners at this level who are vying for a post season spot were in the varsity race, this was going to be a race for our ‘white’ group runners getting a chance for a seasonal or personal best. Mabel Passino was our top finisher on the day, pulling herself together well after an overly aggressive mile one. Ella Schmitz has shown so much consistency in her training and has really shown more confidence in her racing, dropping over 2 minutes from her previous best 3 mile for this season. Mia Sloan was our third and saw over a minute improvement from her last effort out. Audry Garvida was the biggest improver on this day, improving her 3 mile time by over 3 minutes. Emily Ryan ran her best time of the season by close to 2 minutes, her racing partner, Sarah Becker experienced her 3rd straight 3 mile race with an improved time. Emma Garcia and Scarlet Umbrasas rounded out this early race pushing themselves in the final mile to keep their training momentum going. 

Varsity rang out at 10 and this race would be a good chance for us to measure ourselves against some top tier 3A schools and a couple of our competitors at the state meet in about a month. Due to various circumstances, we will not be racing with our top 7 runners until the post season, but that doesn’t change the mentality that everyone needs to race their race and help the team score overall. It would be Kathleen Hardy’s first invite of the season and first race since September 8th. I cautioned her to ease into it, but she wasn’t having it, leading the race near the end of mile one. Maggie Morrissey continues her ascension as a top tier runner keeping it in Kathleen’s shadow. Elena Vlahos and Nora Trayser continued their tandem as racing partners in the first 2 miles of most races. Two candidates for our #5 runners have been Claire Sigmund and Allie O’Halloran who were out this week, so who would be our 5 today? The 5 runner is crucial as they are the last scorer, and often have the biggest impact on a teams final score. In the first mile, we had a solid trio of Mya Mann, Avery Janiszewski and Julia Parkes in this spot. 

At the second pass, Hardy had been overtaken by a few elite 3A racers, but wasn’t looking as rusty as I might have expected. Morrissey kept herself within a 30-40 seconds and would be flirting with a sub 19 race. Vlahos and Trayser kept playing leap frog and their competitive mentalites would only help the final scoring and their times. Mann had emerged as the leader in our race for 5th, but Janiszewski and Parkes weren’t far off. When the results came in, Hardy ran an impressive 18:39, just 6 seconds off last year's time. Morrissey didn’t break 19, finishing with a 19:01, but she is starting to show what she can do when we hit the post season. Vlahos and Trayser finished within 2 seconds of each other, finishing in an impressive 27 & 29 place, respectively. Mann closed our door dropping over 30 seconds off her personal best from last season, it was the best she’s looked this year or last. Janiszewski and Prjkes closed out our scoring 7, and we corralled 5th place in a packed field.  Nineteen of the 24 racers for Nazareth posted seasonal or personal bests, including Gwen Passino who improved by over a minute from last year's race. Weekly talk giver, Bridget Olk dropped almost 2 and a half minutes off her previous top time for 2026. 

We take the turn in weather and the confidence of some strong days of training into another newer addition to our schedule; the Lakes Sunset Invite. A fast course against some amazing competition is the best way to see where we stack up as the regular season winds down. 

--Coach Wejman

September 16, 2026

No one wants to hear less about the weather than the girls cross country team with their observant coaches incessantly asking about the weather. However, the weather is one of the factors that can contribute to race times being a bit off. It is also one of the ‘uncontrollables’ that we ask our athletes to put aside and merely focus on what we can’t control. The Peoria meet is full of uncontrollables; we travel on a bus for a few hours, eat a meal that is outside of our comfort zone (note; this is mostly false, as Cracker Barrel is the definition of comfort food). We sleep in room arrangements/conditions that aren’t our usual accommodations. We run a race that has 400+ runners crammed into tiny boxes. And then of course, the weather. I don’t need to get into a climate debate, but objectively speaking, August and September the last few years are hotter than they were when I started coaching in 2008. That said, this was probably our hottest Peoria meet ever, even with racing at 9:20am. 

Detweiller is a rather exposed course in terms of sunlight this early in the season and when the gun rang out, there were few clouds to offer help. After an encouraging race at LT, our pack was feeling ambitious and got out quick with Maggie Morrissey leading the charge. Claire Sigmund was close behind, then came Elena Vlahos and Nora Trayser. Seniors Allie O’Halloran and Julia Parkes have been given permission to ease into the race and pick up spots in the latter miles. Mya Mann wasn’t making her varsity debut and even raced in this one last year, but she would be a good pacing partner to Freshmen Avery Janiszewski and Cate Riberto who were making their varsity debuts. The pack of Morrissey, Vlahos, Trayser and Sigmund entered the Triangle close together with Avery having a great mile 1 and O’Halloran in her shadow. Parkes Mann and Riberto weren’t far off them, illustrating the depth we have this season. Going into the race, we emphasized being competitive in the triangle as that is a forgotten part of this race. We didn’t expect everything to go as planned, but we wanted the girls to focus on this aspect for our return in November. Coming out of the triangle the race was starting to thin out up front. Morrisey as our top runner coming out and her new shades gave her some confidence as she looked stronger than ever (aside from the last time she raced here last November) Vlahos, Trayser and Sigmund still were pushing together about 15 seconds off Morrissey. O’Halloran began to do what she did and close the gap between 4-5. Janiszewski continued to grind and the length of 3miles would keep her from catching O’Halloran, but she will continue to learn to race at this distance and her fitness will rise as well, which should make for a strong second half of her season. 

Coming down the stretch, Morrissey ended up as our top finisher, clocking in at 19:40 over a minute faster than this race last season. Vlahos was just 10 seconds off Maggie and Sigmund 10 off Elena. Trayser just missed 20 minutes by being 3 seconds behind Claire, Allie closed the door of our scoring 5 finishing 39 seconds off Morrissey, a really strong 1-5 split time. Avery, Cate, Julia and Mya each posted strong times in making a case for our roster going 9-10 deep comfortably, going to make for some really good competition as we near the half way mark of the season. The team finished 9th against some of the top schools in 2A, proving that we belong among the best in the state, but there is still more room for growth. 

The temps rose even more as the open race rang out. The varsity race is a deep one on this day, but the open race is organized chaos with 615 racers toeing the line (at least that was the amount of finishers). Our athletes battled hard out there, with Maura Butler as our top finisher, showing her growing confidence in racing at 3 miles. OUr next three were Mal Waters, Ellie Lopez and Lexie Perfect, clumped together within 17 seconds of each other, each of these three really got out quick and pushed hard in mile 3. Gaby Rosales was our ‘door closer’ continuing to improve as a racer each year. Abby Fijal was our 6, gutting out a strong finish on a sprained ankle, Lali Vargas closed out the scoring 7 for a 10th place team finish out of 50 schools and if my math is correct, we tied for 2nd amongst 2A schools. It wasn’t going to be a day for Personal Records (PR’s), but it was a day to deal with elements, it was a day to compete and become stronger racers for the upcoming races. As Elena Vlahos reminded us in her team talk, this meet isn’t about times or places, it’s about making memories with teammates and sharing a weekend together. 

We take the momentum from this meet in terms of racing and team growth as we make the turn to the second half of the season, hopefully the weather will be kind to us too. 

--Coach Wejman