Du Quoin girls cross country: Lady Indians win 3rd straight; Phillips makes it four wins in a row
Du Quoin's Olivia Phillips' polished her breakout season a little brighter at the Sparta Invitational last Thursday, winning her fourth straight race and improving her best time this season by 20 seconds.
And in so doing, Phillips led the Lady Indians to their third straight win and their fourth win in five meets.
"Four in a row and it's still new," Phillips said after the race. "Once I won the first meet I was like 'Let's see if I can't win another one'. And once I did that it was like 'Let's go for another one' and now another one after that.
"Things are going very well right now, but I'm expecting more improvement to come. I'm excited to see what else I can do."
Du Quoin won the top three slots and placed its top five runners in the top seven, to beat second place Herrin by 43 points (16-59) and West Frankfort by 51 points (67).
"We did fantastic," Phillips said. "After I came in the chute it was Lauren (Heape) and then Jacqueline (Crain) and after Sadie Hamilton came in it was Alexis (George). After another girl came in I turn around and here comes Grace (Alongi), Maddie Decker, Kallie Oestriecher and Lainey Miller all together running. It just really shocked me. I think Eric (Coach Kirkpatrick) had talked to them prior to the meet to try and pack run and they did great."
Overall the Lady Indians placed nine runners in the top 13 with six running their best times of the season; ranging from Phillips' winning time of 19:10 to senior Maddie Robison's 13th place time of 22:42.
"Right from the start it was me and Lauren again," Phillips said. "We ran together for the first 800 and it was just short of the first mile when I started gaining on her."
The Lady Indians were on the road Monday at the Carterville Invitational before taking their longest break of the season. Du Quoin returns to competition on Oct. 7 at the West Frankfort Invitational.
Phillips said she "felt it" going into the Sparta race.
"Not only was I going to try to win it again, I also wanted to break my season record," she said. "Winning is great, but I think the personal records are greater because they are more of an achievement you can hang on to. My personal best time is 17:58 at the Benton Sectional last year, so my goal is to definitely try to beat that by at least five seconds this year."
Heape, a junior, shaved 19 seconds off her season best time with a time of 20:02 to finish second for the third meet in a row. Crain, a senior, made it a clean sweep of the top three spots with a time of 20:28 besting her previous season low set in week 3 at the first Sparta meet by 11 seconds.
George, a junior, finished fifth with a time of 21:12 sandwiched between the Sparta sophomore Hamilton in fourth (20:35) and West Frankfort freshman Shealynn Rose sixth (21:37).
The Lady Indians then captured the next four spots with the freshman Oestriecher finishing seventh breaking the 22-minute mark and finishing in the Top 10 for the first time with a career-best time of 21:38 cutting 34 seconds off her previous best.
The junior Decker finished eighth with a time of 21:39 followed by the junior Alongi (21:42) and the freshman Miller in 10th, with her career-best time of 21:44.
In other cross country news the IHSA has expanded the postseason by adding a sectional. The Class 1A sectional (which includes the Lady Jackets) will be hosted by Belleville Althoff. Whoever will host the regionals has not been announced.
I'm super excited that we finally get a sectional," Phillips said. "I was kind of sad that we were just having a regional and that was going to be end of it. What's going to come next?"