Lady Indians take own cross-country invitational; Phillips cruises to 3rd win

Olivia Phillips' breakout cross-country season hit another milestone last Thursday when the junior broke her personal record time on her home course to win her third straight individual race.

"It was awesome," Phillips said. "I've never had three wins in a row much less one in high school before it started. Me and my mom were joking it was like the trifecta. I'm very proud of myself."

The Du Quoin Invitational also made it clear the Lady Indians are a team to be reckoned with. They won the meet, beating the talented Benton squad by five points (28-33) after losing to the Rangerettes at the Benton Invitational by three points (26-29).

After starting the season at home with a second-place finish, Phillips earned her first-ever high school first place finish at the Benton Invitational. She made it two in a row a week later at Sparta.

Returning home to the Du Quoin Invitational last Thursday - held at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds - she was thinking about two things: that second-place finish at Du Quoin the first week of the season, and how she was hoping to break her home course record of 20:04.

By the time Phillips crossed the finish line 49 seconds ahead of the second place runner, both missions were accomplished with room to spare.

"I had some confidence with only positive thoughts," Phillips said. "If you get one negative thought in your brain it goes downhill from there and you just can't let that happen."

"Everybody got out really fast, so we all kind of huddled in together," Phillips said. "I was then able to cut a corner and get in second behind Mia (Wills), so I kind of ran with her for a little bit. Then after the first mile I was finally able to pull away when we went through the woods. There are some big hills in there and I was able to stride down them really fast. At the end I had a lot of energy left, and my best kick of the season."

When Phillips entered the chute and crossed the finish line she knew she had broken her personal record, but also hoped she might have broken the 20-minute mark for the first time at home. When the official time was announced she had done that too: 19:59.8.

"I've been battling with that 20-minute barrier because this is one of the toughest courses, so I'm very happy that I was about to finally break that this year," Phillips said.

Phillips is already at midseason form after four meets with five remaining on the regular season schedule, including a return to Sparta on Thursday and the SIRR Conference Meet at home on Oct. 15.

"Olivia is getting rolling at the right time," said Head Coach Eric Kirkpatrick. "You want to talk about midseason form - she's in it."

Phillips' winning time last week was almost two seconds better than her time of 21:01.6 in the home season opener. Du Quoin's home course, near Gate 4 of the fairgrounds, is one of the hillier course in the area, along with Nashville's.

"I count down the hills during this race just to keep me focused," Phillips said.

'We know our course'

Beating Benton at home was a signal - to everybody - that the Lady Indians are tough.

"Benton is the measuring stick and with us being at home we felt like we had an advantage," Kirkpatrick said. "At the half way point we were in trouble, but we know our course and that was a big difference in our finishing. We pulled it out because we were mentally tough as a team."

Junior Lauren Heape finished second for the second straight week after starting the season with two third place finishes with a time of 20:48.8.

"Heape is getting stronger too," Kirkpatrick said. "She is somebody who gets in shape during the season and her times continue to drop."

Senior Jacqueline Crain finished seventh (21:41.8), junior Alexis George ninth (21:50.3) and freshman Kallie Oestreicher ended up 11th, with her best time of the season by 37.3 seconds (22:12.7).

"Oestreicher won the meet for us by beating their fifth runner," Kirkpatrick said. "That was the difference. We have depth and probably can go nine deep at most meets. That's a luxury, especially this year, when you don't know when a couple people might be taken out."

Benton finished three through six with senior Addisyn Miller third (21:00.0), junior Hailey Wallace fourth (21:03.0), sophomore Mia Wills fifth (21:18.5) and junior Peyton Tieffel sixth (21:21.5).

Rounding out the Top 10 finishers were Sparta sophomore Sadie Hamilton eighth (21:48.1) and Nashville freshman Olivia Verges 10th (22:02.0).