On Saturday, Nov. 5, the Antioch girls cross country team, alongside junior Carter Webb and freshman Carson Lanners, took on the muddy course of Detweiller Park, Peoria, Ill., to participate in the IHSA Class 2A State XC Championships.
Leading up to the state finals, Antioch’s athletes departed Antioch Community High School Thursday morning with high hopes of getting to the course around two o’clock. When they arrived at Detweiller Park, the coaches had an informational meeting, and the runners were instructed to do a run-through of the course. Unfortunately, it was closed due to the large amounts of rain that Peoria had gotten prior to their arrival. Though Sequoits were unable to do a walk-through of the course, they remained confident as they ran a meet at Detweiller earlier this season. After traveling all day, the Sequoits rested to succeed at the most important meet of the season.
Coming into this meet, the girls cross country team, alongside the two individual boy athletes, had high expectations for their performances. Detweiller Park is known to be a very flat course making it one of the fastest courses the Sequoits have run on this year. With that being said, the poor weather Peoria was experiencing turned Detweiller park into a mud pit.
Sophomore Piper Ipsen led the Sequoit girls cross country team to 27th place overall at the state championships. Ipsen came into this meet with high expectations of achieving a personal record and placing in the top 70. Although these expectations were not exactly met, Ipsen still had a great showing, placing 98th out of 234 very talented runners.
“Overall, I didn’t place where I was supposed to in the race; however, we always have next year to improve,” Ipsen said.
Ipsen was not the only one having this mindset after the state meet had concluded. Along with Ipsen, the boys and girls cross country head coach Christopher Bailey experienced a similar eagerness to see what the future will hold for the Sequoit cross country program.
“I think anytime you look at any level of athletics, that being high school level or collegiate level and you can look at the professional level, and anytime someone gets to the highest stage to perform on, you don’t always see success the first time around,” Bailey said. “It’s usually the second or third time where you start to find that success.”
Like her coach, sophomore Rosie Gonzalez believes that having the experience of participating in the state meet will benefit the Sequoit athletes for the seasons to come. Gonzalez may not have reached her goal of placing top 100, yet she thinks with the experience of the state championships, the Sequoits will be even more successful next season.
“I think that next year, we’re going to go into the season with the same mindset, if not even more determined to do better,” Gonzalez said. “I think everybody was able to learn a lot from this experience.”
Webb was one of the two individual boy athletes that made it to state to represent the Sequoits, placing 67th out of over 230 male runners. Although Webb had hoped to crack the top 50, he had an amazing season that ended at the state finals with athletes of great caliber.
Although the Sequoits did not come away from this state meet with the outcome they had hoped for, this experience will only prepare them for the future. These athletes were determined all season to make it to the state finals; by doing so, the girls cross country team made history. The girls team is now one of two teams in ACHS history to make it to the state finals in cross country. Bailey believes this was a beneficial experience for all of his athletes that participated in the state finals and hopes to see great success in the future.
