Chicago Tribune

HIGH SCHOOLS STATE CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

GIRLS

Hinsdale C. in a runaway

By Alan Sutton
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 5, 2006


PEORIA -- Hinsdale Central probably doesn't want to look too far ahead. But consider this: five of its top six runners return for the 2007 season.

That's not such good news for the competition, which watched the Red Devils win their first Class AA state title Saturday at Detweiller Park.

"It's really cool, it's like making history," said Hinsdale Central's Elaine Kuckertz, a sophomore who led her team with a ninth-place finish.

Fellow sophomores Lauren Zumbach and Rosemary Hines managed to finish 29th and 30th, respectively, as Hinsdale Central rolled up an 80-point margin over runner-up Barrington.

For the first time since 1998, a Downstate runner won the Class AA individual title. Peoria Notre Dame junior Caitlin Comfort did it in a state-meet record of 16 minutes 47 seconds for the 3-mile course.

Next came Sandburg's Kristin Sutherland, Lockport's Janna Mitsos, Andrew's Kailyn Kuzmuk and Lockport's Liz Phillips.

Kuckertz could feel the race was different.

"At the end of a race I always feel I could go faster," she said. "But this time I fell down at the end, I collapsed. I felt I had done everything."

Carthage's Katelyn Bastert won her fourth consecutive Class A state title. Wheeling's Dana Miroballi (1984-87) is the only other runner to have won four straight. Winnebago won the team title.

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune