Oak Park and River Forest senior Katie Stabb made her cross country season debut Saturday with her highest finish at her fourth West Suburban Conference Silver Division Meet.
Stabb was 11th over the wet and muddy 3.04 miles (19:40.67) to help the Huskies finish fifth (130 points), six points ahead of Glenbard West.
“I was pretty itching to race again,” said Stabb, who recovered from a stress fracture that sidelined her for track.
“I went out pretty conservatively. Then I got to the first mile and I was like, ‘OK. It’s time to go.’ I sped up and it felt pretty good. I was laughing.”
Stabb (19:40.67 for 3.04 miles) and senior Lenny Sterritt (15th, 19:58.22) were all-conference with top-16 finishes. Anne Lynch (33rd, 21:00.80), Alana Gerona (35th, 21:16.01), Violet Schnizlein (36th, 21:18.43), Ingrid Medgyesy (40th, 21:49.63) and Malie Cassel (42nd, 22:07.04) also raced.
Stabb (12th in 2021) and Sterritt (13th in 2020) were previously all-conference once.
“(All-conference) was my biggest goal for the day,” Sterritt said. “The mud back there in the woods was really tough. Everyone ran with a lot of grit.”
The OPRF boys, ranked No. 6 in Class 3A by ILXCTF.com and No. 5 by MileSplitIL, were third (68) behind No. 1 Downers Grove North (37) and No. 10/16 Lyons Township (56).
Junior Liam O’Connor (7th, 16:22.05) and seniors Lewis O’Connor (11th, 16:33.39), Daniel Johnson (13th, 16:41.66) and Michael Michelotti (16th, 16:46.61) were all-conference, followed by Andrew Harmon (21st, 16:58.00), Mariano Escobedo (23rd, 16:59.96) and James Nacke (37th, 17:57.84).
Michelotti, sixth in 2022, fought off illness to earn the last all-conference spot by .16. The other three are first-time varsity all-conference.
“I more so care about conference to see all of my (JV senior) teammates run for the last time,” Lewis O’Connor said. “I’m happy to get all-conference but we have higher aspirations.”
In 2022, Johnson battled illness and could not complete his race. “It was good to get a finish this year,” Johnson said. “I’m glad to finally make (all-conference). It’s a good way to start to the end of my (OPRF) career.
