Argo sophomore Abby Lopez was already talking about next year shortly after her first girls cross country state meet.
“Right now, I’m thinking I want to get first,” Lopez said. “That’s my first goal. But I’m very happy with what I did.”
Lopez finished sixth Saturday in the Class 3A meet to earn all-state status among the 210 runners at Detweiller Park. Lopez just started racing this year after she gave up varsity basketball.
“I feel satisfied with what I did, but I know there’s a lot of work to do,” she said.
Lopez covered the wet course in 16 minutes, 39 seconds, which topped her previous best by 40 seconds. The state meet wasn’t a breeze for Lopez, who didn’t have much competition in previous races.
“It was challenging because I never had girls on me and in front of me before,” she said. “It was very different. It was a learning process to just keep calm and know I could do things beyond what I did before.”
Glenbard West’s Katelynne Hart repeated as the individual state champion in 16:22. Racing against Hart was OK with Lopez.
“I liked it,” Lopez said. “I liked it because she pushed me mentally and physically. I liked it because it makes me tougher.”
With two years of high school running still ahead, Lopez has high expectations for the future.
“I’m preparing for that, getting ready for that,” she said. “I can still come in first. Next year that’s my goal.”
Lincoln-Way Central, which didn’t qualify for state in 2016, put in a solid performance to finish 20th as a team.
“I think we had a good race,” Central coach Jack Young said. “Overall, the individual performances weren’t like last week. But for us to come down here and be close to replicating the sectional was good.
“Our top runner, Mackenzie Brownrigg, had her toughest race of the season. She’s been our No. 1 runner. She was a little off, congested. Thursday, Friday, not feeling great. But considering that, she still had a good race.”
Freshman Merrigan Allen was Central’s No. 1 runner. She placed 72nd in 17:58.
“I’m pretty proud,” Allen said. “I wanted to break 18 minutes. That was one of my goals from the beginning of the season. I’m a second off the time for the freshman record at Central.”
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Allen started running in fifth grade at Martino Junior High in New Lenox. She was moved to varsity this year for the Richard Spring Invitational in Peoria, where she was the Knights’ second finisher behind Brownrigg.
“I loved it,” Allen said of her first season. “Our team, it’s a great environment. Everyone pushes each other every day. It’s so much fun.”
Brownrigg (86th, 18:06) was Central’s No. 2 runner and Rachel Baumgartner (108th, 18:16) was No. 3. Young said Allen and Baumgartner “had great races for us.”
“Our goal in the beginning of the season was top 20,” Young said. “We thought maybe we could get up to top 15 if we had a great race. A bad race would have been 25th. We had a good race so that’s 20th. We’re proud of those efforts.”
Marist freshman Cece Light qualified as an individual and placed 46th in 17:48 in her first state meet, a strong finish running without any teammates.
Tim Tierney is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.