Inside cross country

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Athlete of the week

Boys

Matt Lytle

Richmond-Burton, jr.

Lytle turned in another strong race to take fifth in the IHSA Class 2A Belvidere Sectional and earn a trip to the State Cross Country Meet on Saturday in Peoria.

Lytle finished the 3-mile course in 16:21.0, which was 12.2 seconds behind the winner, Sycamore’s Tyson Kinsley.

Girls

Kelly McNeely

Johnsburg, so.

McNeely missed almost five weeks of the season because of a stress fracture in her left foot, but came back to qualify for the IHSA Class 2A State Cross Country Meet with an eighth-place finish at the Belvidere Sectional.

Noteworthy

Huntley heartbreak: Huntley junior Haley Loprieno fell at the start of Saturday’s Class 3A St. Charles East Cross Country Meet and eventually missed qualifying for state by just more than a second.

Loprieno, who missed qualifying by two spots and four seconds last year, missed by one spot and 1.02 seconds Saturday. The race was stopped and restarted, but Loprieno came up just short and was bloody and muddy all over after the race.

Loprieno thought one of her own runners clipped the back of one of her feet in the crowd at the start.

“When we started again, people were saying, ‘You can’t freak out,’ and I said, ‘I’m trying not to,’ ” Loprieno said. “When we restarted I didn’t want to go out too fast and fall again.”

Maybe that hesitation was just enough to set Loprieno back, although she had a strong race in a tough sectional. She scraped her knees and one hip badly and had a good deal of blood on her afterward.

“I didn’t feel it at all until I was done,” Loprieno said. “Then I looked down and thought, ‘That hurts.’ ”

This week’s top meet

IHSA State Meet

Saturday at Detweiller Park, Peoria, 3.1 miles

• Class 1A Girls Race, 9 a.m.

No local competitors

• Class 1A Boys Race, 10 a.m.

No local competitors

• Class 2A Girls Race, 11 a.m.

Local teams: Woodstock (Kayla Beattie, Elise Beattie, Kerstin Wolf, Hailey Jacobs, Hannah Jacobs, Nicole Rhino, Erin Sarich), Crystal Lake Central (Molly Flood, Taylor Miller, Rachel Bush, Madie Edwards, Cristy Kinahan, Bronwyn Harper, Marlena Milkowska), Prairie Ridge (Amanda Marwitz, Kyra Saley, Genna Hempen, Keri Rasmussen, Lauren Gilbert, Dylan Trauth, Amanda Hoyland).

Local individual qualifiers: Kelly McNeely (Johnsburg), Holly Plichta (Hampshire), Alli Manning (Marian Central), Ava Henning (Marengo).

• Class 2A Boys Race, noon

Local teams: Prairie Ridge (Matt Neubauer, Marc DiVerde, Mitch Wilkins, Alex Wagner, Tommy MacMeekin, Matt Tunnicliffe, Matt Hearne).

Local individual qualifiers: Ryan Alvarez (Crystal Lake Central), Ian Sanchez (Richmond-Burton), Matt Lytle (Richmond-Burton), J.D. Fuller (Woodstock), Phil Meyer (Woodstock).

• Class 3A Girls Race, 1 p.m.

Local teams: None.

Local individual qualifiers: Marianne Collard (Crystal Lake South).

• Class 3A Boys Race, 2 p.m.

Local teams: Cary-Grove (Phil Fairleigh, Eddy Gibbons, Matt Klein, Ryan Gustafson, Jason Maxwell, Dan Jacquier, Max Anderson).

Local individual qualifiers: Anthony Manfrin (Dundee-Crown), Nathan Prom (Dundee-Crown).

– Joe Stevenson

jstevenson@nwherald.com