The OPRF girls and boys cross country teams finished first and second place, respectively, while hosting the Roy Gummerson Invitational at Schiller Woods on Saturday.
The Huskies’ depth in the girls race triggered a top team finish as four runners placed among the first 12 finishers. Erin Schrobilgen ran the three-mile course in 18:31.2 to finish third overall. Katherine Powers (19:02.6/6th place), and a pair of promising freshmen in Haley Thompson (19:13.6/8th) and Ainsley Tran (19:28.5/12) rounded out the Huskies’ impressive group of front pack runners.
“Erin kicked down two strong runners at the end [to take third place],” OPRF coach Tom Torrant said. “Haley and Ainsley are coming along well, and I thought [JV runner] Rebecca Streit performed well. We are a young team that is improving and we placed on two levels [varsity, junior varsity races at Gummerson].”
OPRF won the team title (55 points), followed by Hoffman Estates (65), New Trier (67), Warren (137) and Fenwick (147).
Fenwick sophomore Olivia Ryan won the girls race with a time of 17:47.0, taking the course at a 5:56 per mile clip. Teammate Becky Steinmeyer also ran well for a 13th place showing when she crossed the finish line at 19:31.4.
“I think given the windy conditions and the change in weather, we performed pretty well,” Fenwick coach Mickey Collins said. “Olivia ran exactly how we told her to race. We told her to find [New Trier runner] Jessica Ackerman and hang on as long as possible. It worked to Jessica’s advantage as she was able to make her move with less than 400 meters to go, just holding off Jessica for the win.”
Collins also credited Friars’ Janeen Latz, Meghan Cahill and Ciara Hopkinson, who worked well to push each other during the race.
“The rest of our pack is still building up and developing very well,” Collins added. “We should be able to work well together and move up during future races.”
On the boys side, Prospect won the team title with 84 points, followed by OPRF (44), Warren (99), Morton (104) and Buffalo Grove (109). Fenwick took seventh. The Friars’ Pat Yerkes posted a 15:57.7, good for fifth place, while teammate Ed Egan came in 22nd with a time of 16:39.4.
The Huskies showed strong in the 10 through 20 positions with four finishers, including Ryan Hodes (16:13.5/11th), Alexander Waheed (16:14.1/12th), Tim Howell (16:25.5/15th) and Pierce Sheehan (16:29.6/17th) in that bracket.
Quentin Shaffer of Prospect won the boys individual title with a time of 15:11.4, followed by runner-up Martin Martinez of Warren (15:31.5) and Steven Salvano of Buffalo Grove (15:36.4).
