OPRF Huskies Girls' Cross Country Squad Advances to State Final

The Oak Park and River Forest High School girls’ cross country team is headed to Peoria.

For the second consecutive season, on the strength of their fourth-place performance in the sectional championship on Saturday, November 2, the Huskies have qualified for the state finals held annually in the central Illinois city.

It was an impressive, gritty display equal to the cold, muddy conditions brought on by snowfall earlier in the week. OPRF advanced from a 19-team field that assembled on the three-mile course at Lake Park High School in Roselle.

Scoring in cross country consists of adding up the placements of each team’s top five finishers—so the lower the score, the better. Glenbard West High School, led by reigning three-time state champion Katelynne Hart, placed first with 53 points, followed by Wheaton Warrenville South (65 points), then York High School (91 points).

OPRF’s 99 points edged New Trier High School’s 104 and represented an improvement over last year’s fifth-place sectional showing.

This coming Saturday, OPRF will be one of 25 schools in Class 3A, from throughout Illinois, who will vie for the title at Detweiller Park in Peoria. Last year, OPRF finished 10th, tied for best in school history.

How they booked a return trip, the school's 10th since 1979, is a testimony to their hard work and determination. On a day where the temperature dipped into the 30s and the three-mile course made for a muddy slog, the seven OPRF runners brought all their training to fruition.

Leading the way was junior Nora Wollen (fifth place, with a time of 17:49) and sophomore Josephine Welin, who was sixth as she crossed the finish line 1 ½ seconds after her teammate.

Another notable effort was turned in by junior Parker Hulen, who shook off a leg injury to come in 16th place, at 18:48. Rounding out the top five point-getters were junior Maggie Rose Baron (19:19, 32nd place) and senior Audrey Lewis (19:32, 40th place). Next in for the Huskies were freshman Avery Minnis (19:50, 50th place) and senior Jana Casey (20:07, 62nd).

The stellar showings by Wollin and Welin were essential, said OPRF coach Ashley Raymond.

“We executed our race plan…to have two in the top 10 is a big deal at sectionals,” said Raymond. “Maggie Rose had a huge day, moving up the entire last mile. Same thing with Parker. Audrey passed a couple of New Trier girls at the very end.”

The crowded field contrasted with a week earlier, when the Huskies had competed against only one other team, Leyden High School, to win its second straight regional title. The Chicago Public School teachers’ strike rendered CPS athletes unable to participate, so those runners came to Lincoln Park in a gesture of solidarity and to cheer on those who could run.

In an 11th-hour reprieve, on the heels of the 11-day strike’s conclusion Thursday, a Cook County judge on Friday evening ruled that they would be able to compete in the sectionals.

Suddenly, the field expanded from 14 teams to 19, with five Chicago Public Schools in the mix for girls’ cross country: Taft, Jones, Lane, Whitney Young, and Lincoln Park.

Although none of those teams placed higher than 12th, one Taft competitor, Sydney Partyka, qualified for the state finals by virtue of her individual 17th-place time. She drew especially rousing cheers when her qualification was announced later during the awards ceremony.

Shortly after the girls' race, 21 boys' teams competed. The Huskie boys' squad finished in the middle of the pack--11th place--to conclude their season.

For the girls’ cross country sectional, click here for the top teams’ scoring.

For all individual performances, click here.

For more photographs from the Sectional, visit the OPRF Huskies girls' cross country website.

Disclosure: the writer is the father of an OPRF girls’ cross country runner.