Sycamore boys and girls runners advance

Comments (...)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Comments

Share

FREEPORT – Coming into Saturday’s Class 2A Freeport cross country regional, Sycamore runner Tyson Kinsley was expected to finish near the top of the boys race. In the girls race, expectations weren’t quite as high for Kendra Johnson, who hadn’t been in the Spartans’ top seven all year.

Kinsley lived up to his expectations, winning the boys race with a time of 15:55.

Kendra Johnson’s performance for Sycamore was a little bit more surprising.

Johnson, a sophomore, came in 10th at 20:29, two spots behind teammate Tessa Strack (20:24) at a muddy course at Highland Community College.

“I have no explanation for that. I wish something like that would happen every year, she ran terrific,” Sycamore coach Mike Lambdin said. “That was a very pleasant surprise. The timing couldn’t have been better.”

Johnson was only running because Lexie Millberg was recovering from the flu and Nicole O’Connor had an IT band issue.

“It felt good,” Johnson said. “They all pushed me.”

Sycamore was able to have both its boys and girls team advance to Saturday’s Belvidere Sectional.

The Spartans finished in second place on the boys side with a score of 54, one spot behind Belvidere North (22), which had six of the top nine individual finishers.

Sycamore had a nice pack going after Kinsley. Riley Powers took 11th (17:00), Steven Konwinski came in 12th (17:03), Brett Harto finished 14th (17:06), while Mitch Aase took 16th (17:14), and Aaron Klein finished 17th (17:14).

The win was the first of the year for Kinsley, who was also helped out by the fact that one of the state’s top runners, Belvidere North’s Paul Zeman, was sick and wasn’t able to run.

“The previous races really didn’t mean a whole lot,” Kinsley said. “Now that this is the postseason and every race matters, and at any time you can get knocked out they get a get a little more serious and a bit more competitive.”

Lambdin said Kinsley did what he needed to.

“He got the job done,” Lambdin said. “He knew what he had to do and he did it.”

Sycamore’s girls took third with a score of 76, behind Woodstock (45) and Belvidere North (53).

Marengo’s Katie Adams won the girls race at 18:06.

Behind Strack and Johnson, Emma Grandgeorge was the next Syamore runner, taking 13th (20:41), Amanda Hurst came in 21st (21:19) for the Spartans while Marisa Tolzin finished 24th (21:38).

“I think everyone ran really well,” Strack said. “Everyone finished pretty strong.”

 
Boys

Team  Scores-1. Belvidere North 22, 2. Sycamore 54, 3. Woodstock 89, 4. Freeport 133, 5. Rockford East 137, 6. Woodstock Marian 157, 7. Rochelle 163, 8. Belvidere 206.

Sycamore-1. Tyson Kinsley 15:55, 11. Riley Powers 17:00, 12. Steven Konwinski 17:03, 14. Brett Harto 17:06, 16. Mitch Aase 17:14, 17. Aaron Klein 17:14, 23. Ryan Fraedrich 17:34.

Girls

Team Scores-1. Woodstock 45, 2. Belvidere North 53, 3. Sycamore 76, 4. Marengo 111, 5. Woodstock Marian 125, 6. Freeport 147, 7. Rochelle 151, 8. Belvidere 186, 9. Rockford East 258.

Sycamore-8. Tessa Strack 20:24, 10. Kendra Johnson 20:29, 13. Emma Grandgeorge 20:41, 21. Amanda Hurst 21:19, 24. Marisa Tolzin 21:38, 42. Jordan Mottet 23:21.

 

Comments