Coming off his best race the previous week, Riverside Brookfield High School boys cross country senior Tommy Bogdan wanted to take another step Saturday at the Class 3A Hinsdale Central Sectional.
That proved to be a challenge. Bogdan ran most of the 3.0 miles with a flat tire.
“Right after the first mile, some kid kicked the back of my (left) shoe off so I had half a shoe on for the rest of the race,” Bogdan said. “Not too bad. It was kind of bittersweet because I knew it might have been my last race. I was just trying to take it all in.”
Neither the RBHS boys nor girls had any qualifiers for the 3A state meet. As team qualifiers, the girls finished 12th (303 points) and the boys were 18th (525). This was the final meet for RBHS girls coach Blair Jensen, who will be retiring from coaching and teaching after nine seasons with the girls track and field programs. This was his biggest team with 57 and best performance-wise with help from assistant coaches Lillian Holubek, Lisa Voigts-Guzman and Vika Bursua.
“This is the best team RB’s ever had if you ask me,” Jensen said. “We had six girls run under 20:00. In all of my years of research, the most they ever had was four. In 3A, it doesn’t really look like it, but these girls are amazing. The chemistry of all (runners and coaches) is top notch. It’s been a great year for us.”
For the girls, freshman Natalie Moran (51st, 19:14.93) and junior Bella Limoges (57th, 19:21.57) were top 60, followed by seniors Rebecca Dosek (63rd, 19:26.25) and Addie Vaia (74th, 19:41.97), sophomore Elsie Clark (81st, 19:52.03), freshman Elia Bursua (99th, 20:27.92) and junior Elizabeth Moran (114th, 20:57.16).
Natalie Moran, Dosek and Clark achieved personal records.
“It was a big goal of mine,” Moran said. “I kind of got out at the beginning and that helped me. I just tried to run the best that I could.”
At the Lyons Township Regional Oct. 24, Limoges (10th, 19:06.63 for 3.0 miles) and Natalie Moran (14th, 19:29.26) also were top finishers for the fourth-place Bulldogs (95). Already in track, Limoges enjoyed many breakthroughs in her first season of cross country.
“I’ve learned that starting out too fast can make you slower the rest of the race. Now I know cross country can be physical (too) because I got tripped a lot (at sectionals),” Limoges said. “I got caught in the pack. Everybody was pushing and it slowed me down a lot.”
Bogdan was the Bulldogs’ top sectional finisher (99th, 17:05.95), followed closely by seniors Emmitt Olson (107th, 17:13.64) and Clayton Dosek (111th, 17:17.65), sophomore Levi Huffman (129th, 17:41.71), seniors Quinn Hendricks (134th, 18:12.31) and Connor Kolodziejski (136th, 18:45.12) and junior Bryson Reum (139th, 19:20.92).
“I was pretty happy with it. Not a PR but I ran a good race considering lots of hills, downhills,” Olson said. “My highlight (this season)? I’d say this race because it’s the last race of the season. It’s really fun to just get out there and have good competition. Sectionals is always a great race.”
Regionals was the team highlight. The Bulldogs (128) were comfortably sixth and got the last berth to sectionals.
Bogdan especially looked elated crossing the finish line as he was 25th in his personal-record 16:37.82 for 3.0 miles.
“It was a good race all-around, too, and our team qualifying was really good,” Bogdan said. “I’ve been battling the second half of the season with my shins and calves. To be able to run a PR and feel good the entire race felt nice.”
Other regional finishes were Olson (32nd, 17:17.91), Dosek (37th, 17:32.67), Hendricks (42nd, 17:39.21), Huffman (44th, 17:39.88), sophomore Wilson Leister (45th, 17:41.01) and Kolodziejski (56th, 18:42.63).
Hendricks also celebrated his PR, even if just .3, and truly did so with his teammates.
“Regionals was awesome. We were all able to run together,” Hendricks said. “I had kind of a bad start to the season, some really bad races, but I was able to come through. I really relied on my teammates throughout that race. That it all worked out in my end, that was probably my favorite memory in cross country. It was hard but I’m proud of how we all did it as a team that race.”
Fenwick/Nazareth cross country
Fenwick junior Juliana Gamboa qualified for state for the third time by taking sixth at the 3A Hinsdale Central Sectional (17:57.92 for 3.0 miles). Gamboa has been all-state the past two seasons in 2A (14th and 21st).
In 2A, the Nazareth Academy girls advanced as a team by winning the Lisle Sectional (64).
Kathleen Hardy (6th, 18:58.74) and Elena Vlahos (10th, 19:42.06) were all-sectional. Maggie Morrissey (13th, 19:47.69), Allie O’Halloran (14th, 19:51.39), Claire Sigmund (21st, 20:39.29) and Audrey Wendt (23rd, 20:42.89) were top 25.
The Nazareth boys (190) also advanced with the seventh and last berth by 35 points.
Senior Dan Lewis of Brookfield was an all-sectional eighth (16:05.18) with Anthony Lopez (33rd, 17:21.61) and Patrick O’Reilly (36th, 17:30.90) in the top 40.