Cross Country

November 1, 2006

Stephanie Hughes Advances to State Meet for 4th Year in a Row!

Lane Tech's Stephanie Hughes (sr) advanced to the state cross country meet by virtue of her 2nd place individual finish at the Niles West Sectional held last Saturday, October 28, 2006. Hughes finished 6th overall with a time of 18:39, but qualified as an individual. The top 7 individual finishers who are not from advancing teams qualify for the state meet. This is her 4th year in a row advancing to the state meet. The state meet held this Saturday, November 4, 2006 will be Stephanie Hughes last opportunity to finish as an all-state runner. the top 25 individuals receive all-state honors and medals. Hughes best finish in that state meet was her sophomore year (2004) when she  finished in 32nd place with a time of 18:32. In that race she was only 11 seconds away from the 25th place finisher.

    The Chicago Public League has not had a girls cross country runner finish in the top 25 in recent years and probably not since the mid 80's when Michelle Giampapa ran for Lane Tech.

    Lane Tech qualified freshman Stephanie Pineda to the Niles West Sectional meet but Pineda could not break the top 5. The boys team also ran in the Niles West sectional meet and finished in 11th place with 300 points. Whitney Young qualified the only other public league state qualifiers with Grifiin Lawler and Ethan Heppner on the boys side and freshman Rachel Javorsky for the girls.

Top Public League Girls Cross Country State Finishers Since 2000

Year  Name                    School         Time                   Place

2005  Stephanie Hughes   Lane Tech     18:24                  58th

2004  Stephanie Hughes   Lane Tech     18:32                  32nd

2003  Stephanie Hughes   Lane Tech     18:31                  73rd

2002  Elizabeth Carrillo      Kennedy       18:05                  31st

2001  Laura Macias          Farragut        15:21 (2.1 miles) 44th        

2000  Laura Macias          Farragut        15:08                  43rd                  

Stephanie Hughes with the 2006 girls cross country individual champion medal

and the girls cross country city championship plaque won by Lane Tech.

Hughes has won the individual city championship the last 4 years to help lead

Lane with the team championship for 4 straight years.