By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The York girls cross country team put the final stamp on its dominating season by winning the Class 3A state championship last Saturday at Detweiller Park in Peoria.
The title is the second in Dukes’ program history; the other coming in 2000. It’s also York’s eighth podium finish in girls cross country (third, second or first). York was state runner-up in 1999 and 2002.
York, ranked 10th in the nation in the most recent MileSplit.com high school team rankings, also did not lose a meet this season and did not have a runner win an invitational or postseason race — driving home the importance of its signature pack-running philosophy.
In Peoria, York finished with 62 points. Prospect was a very distant second with 151 points.
Sophomore Katherine Klimek finished seventh in the state in 16:51.17.
And then the Dukes made their money with junior Bria Bennis finishing 19th with a time of 17:04.11. Junior Brooke Berger was next in 21st place with a time of 17:07.59. Senior Katelyn Winton was 23rd in 17:15.47 and sophomore Michaela Quinn closed out the scorecard in 27th place at 17:27.12 — giving York all of its scoring runners in the top 30 and four of its five scores in the top 25. In other words, a recipe for state-title success.
York’s 1-5 split between Klimek and Quinn was 35.95 seconds, while the Berger, Winton, Quinn split was 7.88 seconds, allowing the Dukes to gobble up valuable low team points in a hurry.
“We have been focusing on pack running all season,” Winton said earlier last week. “We haven’t really had a No. 1 runner. Any one of us could finish first, and you like to see that. It’s a little competitive, but we are happy for each other. Our coach (Lauren DeAngelis) tells us to shoot off the line and then pack up. Bria (Bennis) tends to go out fast and then we eventually come together as a pack.”
Bennis added: “The team aspect is super-interesting. We have a big pack of six or seven girls. The whole team in general is super-strong. We use each other in races to pack up and push each other. Rather than running alone and pushing ourselves, we are push each other. We are super-interchangeable. That’s part of pack-running success. Any one of us on any given day can push the pace. That’s been very important to the team’s success.”
Berger put it this way: “We are strongest when we are in our pack,” she said. “We know we can run together in races and that gives us confidence. We train together in a pack and that correlates to the races. We try to do our best with it. We have practiced hard every day and we’re all dedicated. We’re all good friends and we work well together. We have come together and have enjoyed training with each other.”
Berger agrees a secret weapon the Dukes had this season is that interchangeability with its top runners.
“This season it has been whoever is having a good day and a good race,” she said. “It’s been fun racing and seeing who could win. We’re all competitive and we all want to win. We’re all so close and we all want to see each other do well as individuals. It’s nice that we have that.”
Bennis said that pack mentality has been made possible by the training regimen put in place. “It has a lot to do with how hard we work and how dedicated we are to our training program throughout the season. It’s definitely a key to our success. We are all close in talent and what we are doing with our training has made each of us faster.”
Winton said being undefeated hasn’t been a complete shock to her. “I have always had faith in us,” she said. “We are all so close. We have one of the best packs so the hope has always been to go out and win every race.”
But beyond running ability and race strategy, Winton said team chemistry ranks up there when it comes to success ingredients.
“We are all really close and best friends,” she said.
Bennis added: “I love how close we are. The team camaraderie is great. We train hard and we have all gone through it together. We have bonded as a team and have become really close. The people you run with, you are spending a lot of time with. We’ve become best friends.”
Berger noted York gained plenty of confidence after its truncated 2020 fall COVID-19 season that saw the Dukes win both regional and sectional titles in dominating fashion.
“Winning last year gave us a lot of confidence,” she said earlier last week ahead of the state meet. “We know we will be No. 1 ranked coming in but we won’t be overconfident. We will walk in knowing we are as good as everybody else and we’ll do our best in the race to show we are even better.”
Mission accomplished.
And the good news for York and bad news for its competition, five of the top seven runners on the team return for at least another season.
“Our hope is to hold on as long as possible,” Bennis said. “Only two of the top seven graduate, so we are keeping almost everyone. Next year is going to be super-exciting as well.”
Sophomore Margaret Owens was 41st for York in Peoria with a time of 17:39.83, while senior Allison Fitzgibbons finished in 106th place with a time of 18:22.29 to round out the Dukes’ seven-runner state docket.
