Du Quoin girls cross country wins second sectional title in three years
Led by junior Olivia Phillips and senior Jacqueline Crain, the Du Quoin girls cross country team placed four in the top 14 finishers at the Belleville Althoff 1A sectionals Saturday to easily win its second sectional title in the last three years and qualify for the state meet for the fifth year in a row.
"From top to bottom we were solid all the way through," said Du Quoin coach Eric Kirkpatrick. "Jacqueline Crain had her best race of her career and that ended her career. I'm thrilled with what she did today.
"We did not have a weak spot today," he added. "Going into the third heat (the 5 and 6 runners) we were down by six and it was just two freshmen running for us there because the seventh runners were in their own heat. It's not good to put that kind of pressure on two freshmen staring at you in the box and they both responded big."
Du Quoin beat Hamilton County by 35 points (53-88) followed by Benton (90), Pinckneyville (123) and Freeburg (128) to round out the state qualifying teams.
"It's phenomenal that we pulled away with a sectional win," Phillips said. "It was coming up to the third heat when Lainey Miller and Kallie Oestreicher had to run and we were down by six points, so I was telling Kallie not to be nervous and just out there and run because at the regionals the two freshmen ran together and that worked out well.
"Kallie then ended up beating the fourth runner for Benton. Once they crossed the finish line I helped both out. I had to tell Kallie she won sectionals for us three times. She didn't realize how big of a deal that was.
"Lainey was so upset thinking we had lost, it took me some time to make her believe we had actually won sectionals."
The season ended one meet early with the state meet having been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Phillips finished her breakout season with her best sectional finish of her career - coming in third with a time of 19:38.48 after finishing fifth last year and eighth as a freshman.
"I wish my time was better, but I'm happy with my place," Phillips said. "That's the highest I've ever placed."
Massac County senior Ansley Bailey escaped the shadow of four-time sectional champ Mia McLain to win her first sectional title with a time of 18:39.40 followed by Breese Central senior Kristen Ess (19:20.42).
Phillips will get another shot at both Bailey and Ess Friday when she will compete at the ShaZam Racing Cross Country Championships held at Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Illinois. The event was created to offer closure to what was an unorthodox fall of high school cross-country racing.
"I used to run with Ess for the Lebanon Project," Phillips said. "It was good to have competition, but sadly she beat me. But that's OK, because I will see her again Friday."
Crain overwhelmingly had her best sectional, blowing away her three previous performances with a ninth place finish and a time of 20:24.78.
She finished 35th as a freshman, 40th as a junior and 81st as a sophomore when she competed with an injury.
"Finishing in the Top 10 at the sectional was one of the most challenging goals I had set for myself this year," Crain said. "My first was to run under 20 minutes and I did that at conference at the Du Quoin course where I ran a 19:59.
"Then I wanted to get better than top seven at conference because I got seventh last year and I placed third, so I got that marked off the list, too. And then I wanted to finish Top 10 at regionals and sectionals. I then finished fifth at the regionals, so that was another check mark.
"Then the sectionals rolled around and I was so exited with different competition and those girls really pushed me."
The rest of the Lady Indians top five were junior Lauren Heape 11th (20:38.52), Oestreicher 14th (20:46.06) and junior Alexis George 28th (21:26.14) for her best sectional finish of her career.
"Kallie was Kallie again," Kirkpatrick said. "We told her that once she did twice (the previous week at the regionals) that's a habit now. So now that's her floor. Fourteenth is a solid start to her career."
Rounding out the squad were junior Grace Alongi 33rd (21:36.56) and Miller 42nd (21:55.44).
In addition to Bailey and Ess the individuals who qualified and would have been running in Peoria next weekend were Althoff senior Julia O'Neill, Christ Our Rock Lutheran freshman Sarah McKowen, Althoff sophomore Eris Nelson, O'Fallon First Baptist Academy freshman Kara Krulick and Red Bud senior Adrienne Vallett.