New format brings change, but some things just stay the same

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By Kevin Hieronymus

khieronymus@bcrnews.com

PEORIA — While some things remain the same in IHSA state cross country with Winnebago winning their 10th girls’ title and fourth boys’ title, the new three-class system also opened the door for change.

Sycamore, no longer having to run through AA against the likes of Elmhurst York, won its first boys’ state title in 2A, while the girls from Spring-field Sacred Heart Griffin (2A) and Geneva (3A) won their first team titles.

The Winnebago girls had three top 10 finishes to defeat Eureka and race winner Olivia Klaus. 65-90. The Bago boys also used three top 10 finishes to beat out Elmwood/Brimfield 81-122.

The Sycamore boys cruised to a 73-189 victory over Chat-ham Glenwood while Sacred-Heart Griffin used three top 10 and five top 28 finishes to top Peoria Notre Dame 63-140. The upset of the day saw Notre Dame’s Caitlyn Com-fort, last year’s AA champ, beat out by Limestone’s Nicole Benson by 13 seconds.

Naperville Nequa Valley, led by race winner Chris Derrick (13:52) was able to unseed 26-time champ York 86-105 for the 3A boys’ team title. Thgis Derrick was a real wrecking ball, becoming the first runner in any class to break the 14-minute barrier in 30 years since Tom Graves of Orland Park Sandburg in 1977.

• County shines: Satur-day’s medal haul by Prince-ton’s Colin and Hunter Mic-kow, Bureau Valley’s Alisa Baron and Hall’s Mikey Miroux is the best for Bureau County since 2001. BC also landed four medals then with Jason Bill (2nd), Richard Krafft (16th) and Dustin Marquis (23) and Princeton’s Rebekah Faber (2nd).

“It was fun to be able to watch all of our talent in the county shine at state. They all represented Bureau County well,” BV coach Dale Donner said.

 • Scouting mission: Former Bureau Valley standout Johnathan Eckberg, who led the Storm to their first state appearance in 1998, attended Saturday’s state meet recruiting for Greenville College where he is an assistant coach. He moved up from Nashville in August where he had been pursuing a music career and coaching at Lipscumb University.

He was impressed with all the Bureau County runners and said would love to have Bureau Valley’s Alisa Baron, Hall’s Mikey Miroux and Princeton’s Colin and Hunter Mickow. He was especially intrigued by the upside of Hunter Mickow, who was running cross country for the first time.

A coach from Monmouth College said Miroux would be his No. 2 runner if he was in school right now.

• Shirts off their back: You can tell what makes the many cross country teams around the state tick by just looking at the team mottos displayed on their shirts. At least one, seen in Peoria, Saturday, was really not fit for print, but somehow made it on the team shirts.

A sampling of shirts are:

“Excellence isn’t an accident”

“Do or do not, there is no try.”

“Today I will do what others won’t do, so tomorrow I can do what they can’t do.”

“Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion.”

“Our coach allows us to smoke ... the competition.”

• Out of the box: All four runners who were in Box 10 for the 2A Boys’ race made All-State — Colin and Hunter Mickow of Prince-ton, Tim Hird from Alleman (6th) and Brian McGuire of Alleman (25th).

Colin Mickow got closer to Moe Bahrani of Vernon Hills every time he ran. He finished 12 seconds behind him at the Peoria Invite, seven seconds behind at sectional and just two seconds Saturday.

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