State

******PRESS RELEASE******

by Jane Ryan

SUPERIOR at STATE!!!!

"Have a dream, make a plan, go for it. You'll get there, I promise." -- Zoe Koplowitz, New York City marathoner

What a wonderful day at Maxwell Park in Bloomington! The ladies of BSS/SAS brought home a 3rd place trophy for a magnificent team finish! The boys landed an 8th place finish as a team, ranking both our boys and girls in the TOP 10 TEAMS IN THE STATE!

The top 25 individuals in the state were awarded medals. Strider supreme JESSICA MEGGINSON (12:26) wore a medal home for a 12th place finish overall. Distance demon SEAN RYAN (11:24) wore a medal home for a 15th place finish in the state!

Following JESSICA MEGGINSON into the chute for our ladies was ever incredible EMILY DELVO (12:53), who placed 33rd overall. Next was runner extraordinaire KAYLA KOLIS (13:09) with an amazing run and a 48th place finish overall. Marvelous MACKENZIE WORTLEY (13:12) ran the race of her season and secured a 53rd place overall, while magnificent MADDIE ALEXANDER (13:23) finished 68th. Supreme strider MARIA LOWIS (13:33) gave an outstanding performance on the heels of illness the last couple of days, while talented KRISTIN GRIMSLEY (14:09) ran the best race of her season as well. Almost every one of these is a personal best performance of the season for the girls! Maddie was only one second off of her personal best. BRAVO GIRLS! A giant 3rd place trophy made its way home with the team.

After SEAN RYAN broke the string for our team, terrific talent JOEY WHITE (11:48) ran a personal best race, as trailmaster SEAN ORLANDO (12:16) followed in hot pursuit. Superstrider MICHAEL RALPH (12:34) was next, with rambo runner ERIC DELVO (12:44) giving it his all to round out the score for the boys. Tough runner GRIFFIN LUDWIG (12:56) had a season's best race, while consistent contributor MASON SWITZER (13:15) was not far behind. SUPER JOB GUYS! An 8th place finish at the state meet is something you need to be very proud of. The State's top 21 teams are running against you!

Competition at State is of course very, very steep. The first place girl was Alyssa Lashaway-Mueller from Palatine Quest with a time of 11:41. The first place boy was Tom Pacey from Paxton-Buckley-Loda with a time of 10:41. The first five boys into the chute all had times under 11 minutes. Wow. Metamora won both team titles, with the boys having a score of 29 points, which is an IESA record. We were running with the big dogs, and we did a fantastic job.

"Great is the victory, but the friendship of all is greater." -- Emil Zatopek

We thank our team alternates JENNA HOPKINS, DANIELLE HOEKZEMA, MORGAN CLEM, JOSH MEGGINSON, JOEY SHOWTIS, and BRENDAN FINNELL for coming to the state meet, cheering their teammates on, and being prepared to step in and run if needed. A HUGE THANK YOU to our wonderful and supportive parents who make all of this possible by running your children to practices and meets and providing necessary encouragement! Also a HUGE THANK YOU to our principals SR. JOAN SORGE and KATHY WEAR, as well as our athletic director JOANIE BAKER who all provide our team with so much support and work so hard to help us be successful.

"A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they're capable of understanding." -- Steve Prefontaine

RUN for FUN,

Jane Ryan, very proud coach