IESA Headlines

2006 IESA State Cross-Country Meet More Normal Than Usual

The 2006 Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) State Cross-Country Meet Saturday on the 3200-meter course at Maxwell Park was more Normal than usual.

With three of the top seven individual finishers in the Class AA Boys race, host Normal Parkside rolled to the team title with 62 points, finishing 34 points ahead of runner-up Oak Park Julian. And in the Class AA girls race, where five of the top 19 individuals were sixth graders, mighty mite sixth grader Carly Pederson of Normal Chiddix blitzed the field, winning in a time of 11:44. Shorewood Troy took the Class AA team title with 78 points.

In the Class AA boys race, Parkside was led by Drew Kerschieter, who finished second individually in 10:41. Parkside�s Matt Barnet finished sixth overall in 10:58 and teammate Logan Abeling was seventh in 11:00. Parkside�s Eric Gordon took 27th in 11:20, Logan Degroot 33rd in 11:28, Caleb Wiebenga 48th in 11:41, and Peyton Scheuermann 49th in 11:42.

Ryan Mitsos of New Lenox Liberty was the Class AA boys individual winner in a time of 10:27. His brother Robby finished 22nd in 11:13.

The Chiddix girls team placed sixth in the team standing with 156 points. Shorewood Troy won with 78. Carly Pederson won the Class AA individual race by 14 seconds over runner-up Monica Hahn of New Lenox Martino. Pederson is the first sixth grader in the 27-year history of IESA girls cross-country to win the individual title. The other sixth graders in the top 19 were: Brooke Wolfe of Mt. Prospect Lincoln fourth in 12:13, Brooke Gordon of Normal Parkside ninth in 12:21, Laura Simon of Shorewood Troy 13th in 12:26 and Nicole Choquette of Urbana MS 19th in 12:32.

In the Class A girls race, Springfield St. Agnes rolled to the title with 49 points, finishing 60 points ahead of runner-up Metamora Germantown Hills at 109. St. Agnes had four runners in the top 25. Madeleine Negro led the way at fourth in 12:19. Emily Delvo was tenth in 12:29. Kayla Kolis finished 14th in 12:47 and Maria Lowis finished No. 21 in 12:55.

Seventh grader Kristin Rauh of Metamora GS won the Class A girls race with an eight-second win over Lexington�s Mary Francis Leake. Rauh won in 12:05 and Leake ran 12:13. Emily Clay of Bloomington Cornerstone was third in 12:16.

Fox River Grove scored 165 team points to edge defending Class A boys team champion Metamora GS by five points. Cody Busic was the top Fox River Grove finisher, placing tenth in 11:31. Metamora GS was paced by Kevin Kamm who placed third in a time of 11:13. Class A state champion was Clayton Baker of Shelbyville Moulton, who won a battle with Elmwood�s Ryan Bybee. Baker ran 11:04 and Bybee 11:06.