Perhaps the best way to explain Palatine`s unlikely victory in the Class AA girls cross country meet Saturday is to chalk it up to the innocence of youth.
Apparently, the Pirates were just too naive to realize you don`t win a state championship when more than half of your runners are too young to drive. But when 25 teams and 207 runners had completed the 2.1-mile Detweiller Park course, Palatine had 95 points to 144 for runner-up and defending champion Conant. Prospect was third with 151 points and Hersey fourth with 156 to complete a sweep of the first four places for the Mid-Suburban League.
The individual competition also had a surprise winner. Senior Marques Sanders of East St. Louis Lincoln overtook defending champion Erin Boland of McHenry with 200 yards to go and won in 11 minutes 51 seconds. Boland, who had been hampered most of the season by a stress fracture, placed ninth.
Palatine junior Tricia Huber placed second, six seconds behind Sanders, but it was freshman teammates Julie Justmann, Kris Abrahamson and Erin Redig who delivered the unexpected first-place trophy by finishing 14th, 19th and 45th.
The only senior to score for the Pirates was Jenny Strande, who was 65th. Palatine had a fourth freshman runner in Shannon Storm, who was a non-scoring 112th.
The result was Pat Gleason`s first state title in 14 years as head girls cross country coach at Palatine, a tenure that has included second-, fourth-and fifth-place finishes.
Less was expected of this year`s team, which helps account for the fact that it accomplished so much more.
”We were very loose because we knew the pressure was on Naperville Central and Hersey and . . . Wheaton Central,” Gleason said, referring to three of the prerace favorites.
”That helps tremendously because we`ve been here before where everyone was saying, `Top three, top three,` and no matter what you tell the kids, it gets to them.”
Even if state-meet pressure was not a problem for the Pirates` four freshmen, one would have expected that the level of competition would have been. But as the team results showed, the state meet didn`t offer Palatine much it hadn`t been seeing weekly in Mid-Suburban League competition.
Saturday`s first four finishers held the same spots at the Palatine regional and Niles West sectional, though in different orders. Palatine won neither those races nor even the MSL conference crown.
”We didn`t run well last week,” said Gleason, whose team was third at the sectional. ”But Niles West was nice enough to let us look at the video right after the race. We said, `Look at the video and see what you think.`
They looked at it and said, `We can beat these teams.` ”
They did it in part by utilizing the experience of Huber, a three-time all-state performer, to steady her teammates.
”We had our strategy all planned,” she said. ”I ran on the far right side (of the course) so they could see me. I wanted them to know I was with them.”
Boland`s chances of retaining her state title were basically crushed in September when she suffered a stress fracture of the lower left leg while running in a meet on the same Detweiller Park course. The junior didn`t miss any meets, but until about 10 days ago her workouts were restricted to work on the stationary bike and light running.
The effect of all that on Boland`s conditioning was grimly apparent in the final 50 yards, when she totally ran out of gas, fell twice and showed great courage just by staggering through the finishing chute.
”She basically ran the state meet on a week-and-a-half of training,”
said McHenry coach Earl Kyle. ”She did everything she could to try to do what she wanted to do.”
”That was my best,” Boland said. ”I couldn`t have done any better so I guess I should be happy.
”I think if I hadn`t been injured, I could have done better. It`s disappointing. You work all summer for it, and then you`re injured and miss things. I`m glad I even got to run.”
Sanders` victory was especially surprising because she had run second most of the year to teammate Montrice Granberry, who placed sixth Saturday. Sanders, 92d last year, realized she could win when she was second to Boland with 600 yards to go.
”I kept saying, `I can catch her,` because it looked like she was slowing down,” Sanders said. ”When I caught her, I saw it was there and went for it.”
Winnebago won the Class A title with 104 points to 109 for Chrisman, which last year won the Class A boys and girls championships. Herscher was third with 146 points.
Senior Brooke Roberts of Shelbyville won the individual title in 12:22. Junior Laura Erffmeyer of Chicago Christian was third and sophomore teammate Amy Kuipers sixth.
