On Saturday, Sept. 20, the Sequoit boys and girls cross country teams ran at Warren Township High School O’Plaine campus in the Bill Dawson Invitational.
The course was very flat and fast, two things most cross country runners love in a good course. This led to many fast times from the Sequoits and for some, it was their fastest race ever. In the later races, the heat became a factor which led to a pretty tough race for some of the team.
The varsity boys team placed 13th out of 16 teams but left a lot of room for improvement. The boys were led by junior Carter Webb, running a personal best 16:41 and placing 20th out of the 110 runners. Senior Ben Georgia also had a good race, running a season’s best time.
“One of the things I can improve on is just staying consistent and trying to pass people on the final lap,“ Georgia said. “I did that by passing 21 people on the final lap at Warren.”
The varsity girls team placed eighth out of 17 teams but still left the meet feeling like they could have performed better. Sophomores Piper Ipsen and Rosie Gonzalez finished 22nd and 35th, leading the way for the Sequoits. Although Gonzalez ran a personal best of 20:08, she feels she could have ran better.
“I’m getting over COVID and I’m trying to finish my last mile a little faster because I really want to break 20 minutes,” Gonzalez said.
The freshman and sophomore boys races went very well for the Sequoits, with the boys taking seventh out of 19 teams. Freshman Carson Lanners placed seventh out of 299 runners with a 16:52. Sophomore Tony Sculuca placed 21st with a time of 17:34 and sophomore Griffin Freeman placed 31st with a time of 18:04.
Lanners is already one of the best runners ACHS has ever had, and he is only a freshman. His goal was to break 16 minutes, but he knows he needs to do some things differently to achieve that goal.
“I could have gotten more sleep and I definitely could have hydrated more,” Lanners said.
The Sequoits’ next race is the Harland Invite on Saturday, Oct. 1, which is hosted by the team.
