Exactly 126 runners finished higher than Mackenzie Brownrigg at the 2016 Class 3A state cross country meet.
That didn’t sit well with Brownrigg.
“I wasn’t happy with my performance at state,” the Lincoln-Way Central junior said.
This year, Brownrigg takes the best sectional time of any Southland runner into the girls state meet Saturday at Detweiller Park in Peoria.
Brownrigg ran the Granite City Sectional in 17 minutes, 45 seconds to finish 10th in a loaded field that included 2016 state runner-up Yorkville and third-place finisher Minooka.
This will be her second appearance at the state meet. Her time last year of 18:38 was a personal best, but Brownrigg expected more from herself in her first year at Central after moving from Missouri. She was motivated to up her miles to help bring down her time.
“I was definitely ready to train during the summer really hard and in practice,” Brownrigg said. “The summer, you can’t practice as a team until later. I trained every day, looking up workouts online, looking what the best stuff to do is.
“Coach (Jack) Young has helped me individually, talking to me about race strategies, what miles I should be running every week, my times.”
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Her sectional time was a personal best. It beat the 18:01 Brownrigg clocked to finish seventh among 420 runners at the Sept. 16 Richard Spring Invitational at Detweiller.
“Definitely, I’ve gotten better through each meet,” Brownrigg said. “Getting close to tapering it got a little hard because your legs are really tired, but I’ve been able to push through it.”
With Brownrigg leading the way at Granite City, Central grabbed the fifth and final team qualifying berth for the state meet. The Knights edged O’Fallon, which finished 21st at state last year, by four points.
Central’s top five were Brownrigg, Merrigan Allen (19th), Rachel Baumgartner (21st), Dana Boucher (34th) and Gretchen Zirgaitis (42nd).
Central missed qualifying for the state meet last year by two points, losing out to Lincoln-Way East. Baumgartner was right about this year.
“I think we have a really good chance of making it to state this year because of last year and how it turned out,” Baumgartner said after the Joliet Central Invitational in September. “We have a lot more motivation. We’re hungry to get there.”
Perennial state meet qualifier Lockport will be there too. The Porters, with no seniors in the lineup, were fourth at the Granite City Sectional. Sophomore Ola Skibicki (15th), junior Kate Wojcikiewicz (24th), sophomore Madison Polinski (25th) and sophomores Anna Kozak (26th) and Abbey Kozak (27th) ran in a 14-second pack.
Lockport graduated all-stater Morgan Bollinger and Karlee Stortz, its top two finishers from last year’s 17th-place state meet team.
Argo has an all-state contender in sophomore Abby Lopez, who won the Hinsdale Central Sectional in 17:48. The state meet experience will be new for the first-year runner.
The state meet also will be a first for Marist freshman Cece Light, who was seventh at the Hinsdale Central Sectional to earn the second individual berth behind Lopez.
In Class 2A, Marian Catholic sophomore Samantha Barrett goes to the state meet as the top individual qualifier from the Wheaton Academy Sectional.
Tim Tierney is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.