LP_110917

38 | November 9, 2017 | The Lockport Legend SPORTS
lockportlegend.com
Porter pack sticks together at state meet
Tim Cronin, Freelance Reporter
Call them the Porter Pack.
They run together, pushing
each other to faster times.
Lockport Township’s girls
cross country team ran that
way Saturday, Nov. 4, at Detweiller
Park.
They weren’t fast enough
to make an impact in the 3A
race, finishing 23rd in the
25-team field, but without a
standout runner, there was
likely no other way to run.
“It came about in the summer,”
Porters coach Erin
Truesdale said of the strategy.
“They were naturally
running, training as a pack
in the same tempo and everything.
We used to run like
that, but in the last couple
years we had a couple frontrunners
that I couldn’t hold
back.”
One was Morgan Bollinger,
who graduated last
year.
Speed like Bollinger
boasted – she ran last year
in 17:15 – was missing from
this year’s group. Sophomore
Alexandra “Ola”
Skibicki was the fastest
Porter on Saturday, finishing
130th in 18:26. The next
four Porters were within 11
seconds — Abbey Kozak at
18:28, Kate Wojcikiewicz a
second later, Anna Kozak at
18:34 and Madison Polinski
at 18:37. But that 11-second
spread for the first pointscoring
Porters, surpassed
only by New Trier’s 10-second
spread, began too far
back to make an impact.
“Every week, it’s a different
seven [to run in a race], a different
five [scoring points],”
Truesdale said. “They’re very
close in training. I’d have
liked to have the pack a little
bit further up here. But every
week I had a different No.
1 runner. If someone else
had a bad day, someone else
stepped up. Nobody was being
held back.”
Skibicki’s disappointment
in the outcome was evident.
“I didn’t get the time I was
hoping for,” Skibicki said.
“I wanted to break 18 [minutes].
The start was a little
scary, because you want to
get toward the front.”
She had run 18:06 in the
3A sectional at Granite City,
with the next four under
18:21 on a dry course with
a section in asphalt. Slower
times were to be expected on
the soft and muddy Detweiller
course.
Lockport Township freshman Megan Mitchell sprints down
the home stretch Saturday, Nov. 4, during the IHSA Class
3A cross country championship at Detweiller Park in Peoria.
Tim Cronin/22nd Century Media
“It’s really hard to stick
together because there are so
many people,” Skibicki said.
“But if we’re able to stick
together and go fast, it helps
you get a good team place.
We were excited, weren’t
that nervous. Excited to finally
race. We’d been nervous
all day.”
Freshman Megan Mitchell
(170th, 18:47) and senior
Aubrey Frederich (187th,
19:07) also ran for Lockport.
“It’s a young team,”
Truesdale said. “That was a
thing I was a little bit worried
about at the beginning
of the season. Where is my
leadership going to come
from? But they stepped up.
And being here bodes well
for the future.”
Glenbard West’s Katelynne
Hart won the individual
race in 16:22, repeating
her title jaunt of last year.
Naperville North won the
team race with 87 points to
Yorkville’s 117, with Lyons
Township third at 184.
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Former Chicago Bulls
forward Horace Grant