Blazing at their own pace

Prairie Ridge’s Drew Ferguson won the seventh flight Saturday at the Woodstock Ryan Byrne Cross Country Festival at Emricson Park. Ferguson won in 18:09. Prairie Ridge won the overall team title. (Sarah Nader – snader@shawmedia.com)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

WOODSTOCK – Huntley senior Sara Scarbro experienced what it is like to win a race Saturday, but there was another aspect of the Woodstock Ryan Byrne Festival that she enjoyed.

“We’re not running together, so you can cheer for your teammates,” said Scarbro, who calls the flighted race one of her favorite meets. “I got to see some of the other girls. I got to see [freshman] Kelly Meehleib [the No. 1 runner] finish her race.”

Scarbro, Amy Kahl and Delaney Loprieno won Flight Nos. 2-4 to lead the Red Raiders to the varsity girls team title with 14 points, eight points ahead of second-place Vernon Hills.

Prairie Ridge’s boys varsity team finished with 12 points to win that team title by one point over McHenry. Mitch Wilkins (1), Joe Cowlin (2), Adam Procknow (3), David Thompson (4) and Drew Ferguson (7) all won their flights for the Wolves.

The meet is named after former Northwest Herald sports writer Ryan Byrne, who died in 1999 at age 23 after a bout with cancer. Byrne was so beloved by area coaches that Woodstock coach Marty Sobczak decided to name the race in Byrne’s honor.

In the Byrne Festival, runners compete against others in their flight and each flight is scored separately, so every runner’s score counts the same.

Runners in varsity boys, junior varsity boys, varsity girls and junior varsity girls are all sent off together, with the next flight starting 20 minutes later. Competitors learn to run on their own, although the top girls runners can push themselves with boys runners in the same heat.

“I like it with the boys and girls all in one race,” said Hampshire’s Cassie Kruse, who won Flight 1 of the varsity girls. “It’s different. I ran with one guy for the entire race, we were about the same pace.”

Kruse finished in 19:04, 25 seconds ahead of Meehleib, who beat Kruse by 31 seconds two weeks before at the Crystal Lake South Invitational. Meehleib had the second-fastest girls’ team of the Byrne meet.

Prairie Ridge also won the overall team title (varsity and JV boys, along with varsity and JV girls scores) with 70 points. Huntley was second with 116.

“I really like the format, it’s nice to be matched up with those at your skill level,” Prairie Ridge’s Thompson said. “It’s fun to lead a race for once, it really gives you a boost in confidence. You have to know your own pace in this situation.”

The race takes runners a bit out of their comfort zones since they cannot pace with teammates like normal races.

“It shows how much depth you have as a team,” Prairie Ridge’s Ferguson said. “It takes mental strength to do well. It’s a lot more nerve-racking when you’re leading and you hear people behind you.”