Margaret O’Brien wasn’t expecting to take a step back when she began her junior cross country at Fenwick this past fall. As a sophomore, she had led the Friars’ cross country team at the regional meet and qualified for the Class 2A state track meet as part of a 4×800-meter relay.
But she said, in part due a reoccurrence of asthma, the season didn’t turn out as she had hoped.
“She wasn’t what she wanted to be,” Fenwick girls cross country coach and assistant track coach Kevin Roche said. “And that competitive side of her, it hurt for her to not be able to be there, not to be where she wanted to be.”
Still, she fought through the down season by her standards, and in the offseason she was able to recuperate and find her legs again.
At the Class 2A Glenbard South Sectional meet on May 11, O’Brien finished second in the 3,200-meter run, qualifying for state with a time of 11:32.31.
“I was really excited,” said O’Brien, an Oak Park resident. “I went down (to state) last year, and it was one of the best experiences ever. This is my first time qualifying individually, so I was just really happy. I’ve been working for a while for this, my whole team has. So it was really nice that it all panned out in the end.”
O’Brien said that her coaches and teammates helped get her through the tough times.
“We have such an incredible team, and they’re so supportive of everyone,” she said. “They push you so hard, they allow you to work harder. I never, ever lost any faith (in myself) because of them. That allowed me to keep going and keep working hard.”
O’Brien won’t be the only Fenwick athlete competing at the IHSA girls track meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on Friday and Saturday. Sophomore Claire Gatermann won the pole vault at sectionals with a jump of 9 feet, 6 inches. Fellow sophomore Colleen Grogan qualified in both hurdles events. A state qualifier last year, Grogan finished third at sectionals in the 100-meter high hurdles at 15.77 seconds and fourth in the 300-meter low hurdles at 47.38 seconds.
“Going to state with Margaret and Colleen is such an honor,” Gatermann wrote in an email. “Both girls put in so much hard work every day, and I’m so proud that we can go on this journey together. They’re both good friends, so I’m excited to make memories with them downstate.”
Roach qualifies for Nazareth
After finishing third at sectionals in the 400-meter dash as a freshman and fifth as a junior, capturing a Class 2A sectional title as a senior was a relief for Nazareth’s Maeve Roach.
“I had been so close to qualifying in the open 400 the past three years and failed each time, that coming out this season and winning it made me realize how far my hard work can get me,” Roach wrote in an email. “I spent my winter months strength training more than I ever had in the past because I wanted so badly to succeed after coming so close.”
Roach ran a time of 59.75 at the Glenbard South Sectional to qualify for her second state appearance. As a sophomore, she competed on Nazareth’s 4×400 relay at state.
On May 3 she took third at the East Suburban Catholic Conference meet with a time of 58.94, which set a Nazareth school record.
“To be all-conference and break the school record at the same meet was truly amazing,” Roach said. “When I finished and my coach told me my time, I was so shocked and thrilled because it was a reach goal that I had since winter training and I wasn’t sure if it would happen.”
Trinity, Elmwood Park fall short of state
Although Trinity did not have any state qualifiers, freshman Leah Hilliard finished fourth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:01.49, scoring four points at the Glenbard South Sectional meet. Sophomore Alexis Cohn finished sixth in the same event at 1:04.46, earning one point. Junior Rosita Ponce finished fourth in the long jump at 15 feet, 4.5 inches for four points. The Blazers’ 4×200 relay finished sixth at 1:57.60 for one point.
Elmwood Park freshman Jade Telphia was the school’s only athlete to score at the sectional meet, finishing sixth in the long jump at 14 feet, 4.5 inches to earn one point. Freshman Gabi Szado finished seventh in the 3,200-meter run at 12:20.17, sophomore Jade Cintron finished eighth in the shot put at 27 feet, 9 inches, and junior Kayla Baker was ninth in the triple jump at 30 feet, 0.5 inches.
Huskies well-represented in 3A
Oak Park-River Forest qualified its 4×800-meter and 4×400 relay teams for the Class 3A girls track meet. Individually, Destiny White advanced in the 400 meters, Eleanor Kallay qualified in the 800 meters, Mahal Schroeder advanced in the 1,600 meters and Caroline Galo advanced in the 3,200 meters. Ella Rosa and Monica Bradford both qualified in the 100-meter hurdles.
The Huskies’ field event qualifiers include Rachel Rowe (long jump, triple jump), Faith Clark (shot put), Passion Worsham (triple jump), Lila Wine (pole vault) and Mary Blankemeier (pole vault).
Leyden’s Aldana qualifies in 100, 200
Leyden junior sprinter Esther Aldana is headed to her first state track meet. She qualified in both the 100 meters, in which she finished third at the Class 3A St. Ignatius Sectional with a time of 12.46, and the 200 meters, in which she took second at 25.65.
Jakub Rudnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @Pioneer_Press
