DHS girls cross-country: Lady Indians sweep top 4 places at Sparta Invitational
It may have taken Du Quoin junior Olivia Phillips over two years to win her first high school cross country race, but it took her only a week to get her second win Tuesday at the Sparta Invitational.
"I felt very good when I was warming up," Phillips said. "I just want to do great for my team."
Her team dominated the meet. The Lady Indians swept the top four places to dominate the meet, beating the Pinckneyville Lady Panthers by 35 points and Nashville by 39 for its second team win of the season out of three meets.
Moreover, every Du Quoin runner posted their best seasonal times.
Phillips ran the race in a personal best of 19:30, beating teammate junior Lauren Heape by 51 seconds and improving on her previous best by almost 10 seconds.
"It was me, Lauren, Jacqueline (Crain) and Alexis (George) that sprinted out at the start with me and Lauren staying together for the first 400 meters and I just kept pushing myself and getting faster," Phillips said.
"There was a hill we had to run over twice, but I wasn't scared because I knew if I didn't think about it I could just keep going. Once I got past that hill and out of the woods it was just a straight shot with about 450 meters left and I went for it as fast as I could."
Last week, Phillips' mom was at the end urging her on, but this week she had to remain in her car, so she whistled encouragement to her daughter.
"I could still hear her, because she has an amazing whistle," Phillips said.
As soon as Phillips finished the race, she ran back to cheer on Heape to finish second.
"Once I saw her finish, I started cheering on Jacqueline, Alexis and Grace to get into the chute," Phillips said. "Alexis had to battle it out with a Sparta girl and she ended up barely edging her out, but she got her!"
The junior Heape finished second after two straight third place finishes, with a time of 20:21 edging last week's season best time by two seconds.
"Lauren was solid again," said Du Quoin coach Eric Kirkpatrick. "She and Olivia were up front from the very beginning again. She fell away at the end, but she had a healthy lead over third place.
"Heape is one of those kids who is a great athlete and a strong competitor. She has the potential to be all-conference in five different sports and cross country is not in the top five."
The senior Crain finished third after coming in seventh last week in Benton and fourth at the SIRR Preview with a time of 20:39, lowering her best time by 50 seconds.
The junior George rounded out the sweep besting her previous best season time by 1:05, with a time of 20:49. She edged out Sparta sophomore Sadie Hamilton by one second.
"The Pinckneyville runners were in front of Crain and George for the first mile and a half until they overtook them and never looked back," Kirkpatrick said.
Junior Grace Alongi nipped Pinckneyville freshman Sofia Castellano by 0.7 seconds to finish ninth with time of 21:09.2, shattering her previous season fastest time by 3:15.05.
"Grace has an opportunity to be a difference maker," Kirkpatrick added. "To just gain some confidence with a race like today I was really, really happy for her. I hope that's a start for a lot of good days ahead for Grace. That was a big race for her."
Rounding out the top finishers were Pinckneyville senior Gayle Winter in 6th (21:05), Nashville freshman Olivia Verges 7th (21:06) and Nashville senior Cayla Krueger in 8th (21:07).
Lady Indians Junior Maddie Decker finished 13th (21:29), freshman Lainey Miller 16th (21:51), freshman Kallie Oestreicher 19th (22:50) and senior Maddie Robison 24th (23:23) for the Lady Indians.