After the South Suburban Conference Cross Country meets were rained out and made up on Monday, both the boys and girls teams at Oak Lawn Community High School had a short turnaround to prepare for the Illinois High School Association Regional meets. Both teams managed to get some athletes through and advance to the IHSA Sectional meet coming up this weekend.
On the girls side, the regional was held at Midlothian Meadows, and the weather was perfect. All seven runners ran their lowest times of the season. In the end, there were three senior runners and some freshmen and sophomores. The top three seniors, Ashley Lizak, Jenny Miranda, and Bayan Hammad, qualified for the sectional. The sectional meet will be held at Katherine Legge Memorial Park in Hinsdale this Saturday.
On the boys side, three runners advanced to the sectional as senior Josh Rios, junior Michael Majcherek, and sophomore Angel Reyes all made the cut.
Earlier in the week on Monday, both teams competed in the SSC meet. For the boys, Rios was the only all-conference runner. On the girls side, Miranda, Hammad and Lizak each had a strong race, finishing 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively.
“It was a very tough course with a lot of hills,” said head coach Suzan Szala. “I could not be prouder of our girls. They ran their hearts out.”
In the Frosh/Soph meet, the Spartans brought home the conference championship. All seven runners finished in the Top 20, and freshman Emma McGrath finished first among the 40 runners. The runners included McGrath, Olivia Janik, Berenice Alvarez, Kerrie Mesta, Olivia Shell, Frankie Liberti, and Orla Sheridan.
In addition, both the boys and girls teams were nominated for the SSC Sportsmanship Award among the seven teams competing.