LANSING | For the Illiana Christian girls cross country team, Saturday's 2A Illiana Christian Regional at North Creek Meadow was a run through for what the girls wants to do next week at the Nazareth Academy Sectional.
Led by Alexa Beezhold and Emma Pawlowski who finished the race in first and second respectively, the Vikings got out fast and held on throughout the race to capture first place in the team standings. The Vikings captured the top six spots of the race and had seven runners finish in the top ten.
"We didn't really reach our goal for today, Beezhold said. "Because we were going for time and we didn't get our time that we wanted. But I still think we did pretty good."
Beezhold's time of 19 minutes, 40 seconds was good for first place in the race. Pawlowski, Kristen Brink, Alex Clausing, Monica Smits, and Chloe Porter, rounded out the top six for the Vikings. Illiana Christian will look to repeat its performance next week at the sectional and earn a team berth to the state meet.
"For this race we did awesome, Pawlowski said. "It was the practice race but for next week I think me and Alexa will be doing a little bit better because we'll have more people to push us. We were going for the lower nineteens and I think in the sectionals we're going to do way better, even our whole team."
T.F. North's Monica Munoz finished in ninth place with a time of 22:45 and was happy with her overall run.
"I think I did really good, Munoz said of the race. "There's always one spot where I get tired but I liked it. This isn't my favorite course but now I'm getting used to it and it's getting easier for me."
In the boys race, Illiana Christian's Matt Hall took first with a time of 15:35. Teammate Mylo Dixon finished second in 16:16 and Illiana Christian sophomore Tony Wondaal took third with a time of 16:36.
"I just tried to work the last mile," Hall said. "I'm happy with 15:35 by myself. I really want to get past this though and get down to a little bit lower times."
The Vikings' boys team took first with 18 points and Evergreen Park finished second. Marian Catholic took third with 75 points.
"Today was a good day," Dixon said. "I didn't feel like I was pushing and I was just floating perfectly. No stress and even at the end when I had to sprint it out there was no stress. I would have liked a little more competition then it would have kept me going."
Marian Catholic's Noah Brim ran to a fifth-place finish with a time of 17:04 for Marian Catholic while teammate Matthew Lamb was seventh.
"It probably wasn't my best time race," Brim said. "But I felt overall pretty good about it. To be perfectly honest, the main goal was to make sure that Illiana Christian didn't sweep the whole thing. And I had a good kick at the end to get a couple people so I feel pretty good about it."
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