Oak Park and River Forest senior Violet Schnizlein missed qualifying for the 2024 Class 3A state meet at sectionals by 5.6 seconds. At her first state meet Saturday, the significantly faster Schnizlein missed top-25 all-state honors by just 7.06 seconds with yet another personal record.
She was 29th (17:20.60 for 3.0 miles) at Peoria’s Detweiller Park thanks to dropping another 18 seconds from her previous-best 17:38.4 at sectionals.
That’s more than a minute faster than her 18:23.5 at 2024 sectionals.
“I was so happy with that time. It was such an incredible experience,” she said. “This was my first time being at state so it was really cool. I was happy with another PR. That was my big goal for this race.”
Fenwick junior Juliana Gamboa (42nd, 17:32.00), sophomore Bridget Brunick (95th, 17:57.86) and junior Mia Bagato (139th, 18:20.23) achieved PRs in their 3A state debuts.
In 3A boys, OPRF senior Yonny Rafter (103rd, 15:11.50) ran his second-fastest time to his 15:08.0 at sectionals and improved upon 2024 state with the Huskies’ team qualifier (127th, 15:22.9).
Huge time drops for Schnizelein started with regionals (17:52.1), her first finish under 18:00.
At state, she opened with her fastest first mile (5:26.9), about seven seconds from her fastest in track.
“Seeing that was a little scary but I kept rolling. After that, I maintained the same times I did at sectionals [5:59.5 and 5:54.2 splits]. I’m proud that I was able to hang on,” she said. “It feels like [this season was] the culmination of hard work. Each week I’d be blown away by each PR. I really shocked myself. I’d never guess I’d get this far, but I think it’s all of my hard work so it’s been really exciting and fun.”
Gamboa was twice all-state in 2A before Fenwick moved to 3A this season. She beat her 21st-place 17:41.2 from 2A state last year and would have contended for top-15 in 2A with Saturday’s 17:32.
“I was super-excited to PR and excited for both of my teammates because they PRed as well,” she said. “If we were in 2A, I think we would have had some top finishes or definitely finished up there.”
Brunick, 30th in 2A in 2024, broke 18:00 for the first time. In her first cross country season, she edged her 18:20.7 sectional performance.
“Being moved up [to 3A] allowed us to race some of the best girls out there,” Gamboa said. “We’re grateful we had that opportunity, even though we haven’t placed up there yet. It definitely gives me some goals for next year.”