LANSING | With a conference championship that's even more difficult than its regional assignment, T.F. South couldn't ask for a better warm-up for the Class 3A Bloom Twp. Regional at Crete-Monee.
Saturday morning in the South Suburban Blue Conference championship at North Creek Meadows, South's Patty Stellfox and Jess Fierce ran in sixth and 18th place, respectively, as the Rebels finished fourth (111 points). Hillcrest won the girls team title (33).
In the boys race, Oak Forest won with 33 points.
"Next week's a lot harder course," Stellfox said . "Especially compared to this. It's really hilly."
The 3-mile course at North Creek Meadows is a fairly flat course and allowed many of the runners to achieve personal records in their runs. Stellfox finished with a time of 20:11 while Fierce timed 21:18. Hillcrest's Keyanna Dennis won the girls race with a time of 19:18, 25 seconds better than second-place finisher, Amber Trick of Lemont.
"It's a very tough conference," South coach Steve Nelson said. "Hillcrest is amazing, Lemont's amazing, Oak Forest is awesome. I'm very proud of my team. They all PR'd except for one girl. You can't really ask for anything more."
In the boys race, T.F. South Kenny Karrson ran a personal-record time of 18:10. which was good for 28th place. Tinley Park's Matt Jemilo won the boys race with a time of 15:47.
"Today was a pretty tough field," Karrson said. "We have some good teams in the conference. I was very happy to have PR'd by 12 seconds. Next week, we have eight teams in our regional. I think we can get somebody out of the regional."
The Oak Forest boys won a fierce team competition over Tinley Park, 33 -41. T.F. South was unable to place in the boys team competition because it didn't have five runners.
"As usual, we're lacking numbers," Rebes coach Fred Seibel said. "We need more runners. These are great kids, they work hard. I'm proud of my guys."
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