Cross Country

November 06, 2006

Hughes Caps Her Senior Year with a 32nd Place State Finish.

• Stephanie Hughes runs with her best time ever at the state meet of 17:49.

(Detweiler Park, Peoria, IL) Senior Stephanie Hughes completed her illustrious cross country career for Lane Tech with an impressive 32nd place finish at the state meet held at Peoria's Detweiler Park. Her time of 17:49 (3.0 miles) under excellent running conditions was the best time Hughes has run at the state meet, beating her previous best time of 18:24 she ran last year by over 35 seconds. Despite her stellar run, she was not able to finish in all state honors. The top 25 make all state honors and she missed the coveted 25th spot run by Wheeling's Amber Stack by a mere 15 seconds.

    Just to come close to finishing in the top 25 is an honor for any runner for it is so difficult to maintain the continued excellence year in and year out. For example, Amber Stack from Wheeling won the state championship as a freshman in 2004, then in 2005 she finished in 4th and this year she finished in 25th. Also,  the defending state champion from last year Lauren Haberkorn didn't even run the state meet this year due to injury.  Chelsea Bolton from Fremd finished 9th last year as a Sophomore then fell all the way to 47th this year. Hughes on the other hand improved from last years 58th finish to a 32nd year finish this year. So she improved on both place and time.

    Hughes time of 17:49 would have made it in the top 25 in most years. In fact since the state meet course distance was increased to 3.0 miles in 2002, a time of 17:49 would have been in the top 25 for every year except for one. She finishes he cross country career for Lane as one of Lane's best ever girls cross country runners. She qualified for state all four of her years, she won the individual cross country title for 4 years, while leading Lane to the city championship all 4 years.

    Hughes represented Lane Tech as an individual because the team did not qualify for state. In fact, no Public League team in boys or girls has qualified for the state meet since the elimination of the automatic Public League berth in 2002. Three other Public League individuals also ran in the state meet this year. They were all form Whitney Young .On the boys side city champion Griffin Lawler (sr.) ran an impressive tie of 14:57 to finish in 35th place and teammate Ethan Heppner(sr.) ran a 15:52 race to finish in 166th place. City runner-up Rachel Javorsky of Whitney Young ran a strong race of 18:00 flat to finish an impressive 55th place.

Complete Girls 2006 State Meet Results

Complete Boys 2006 State Meet Results

Stephanie Hughes of Lane Tech                     Ethan Heppner (Left) and Griffin Lawler of                  Rachel Javorsky(fr) of Whitney

finished in 32nd place, 17:49. Hughes          Whitney Young finishes in 166th (15:52) and             Young finished in 55th place

graduates but leaves as the 4 time                  35th (14:57) respectively.                                                in 18:00.

Top Public League Boys Cross Country State Finishers Since 2000

Year  Name               School                           Time                   Place

2006  Griffin Lawler    Whitney Young               14:57                  35th

2005  Griffin Lawler    Whitney Young               16:03                  174th

2004  No Public League Qualifiers

2003  John Krumsee   Northside College Prep   15:20                  53rd

2002  John Krumsee   Northside College Prep   15:35                  69th

2001  Jose Macias      Farragut                          15:20                  32nd        

2000  Emiliano Perez   Kennedy                         15:21                  56th