Prep zone: Hampshire distance runner Kruse picks New Hampshire

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The thought really hit Hampshire’s Cassie Kruse during her sophomore year at the IHSA Girls Track and Field State Meet.

Her teammate, senior Holly Plichta, was going on to run cross country and track at Wisconsin.

Kruse, who anchored the Whip-Purs’ Class 2A state champion 4x800-meter team with Paige Membrano, Tiffany Phu and Plichta, realized she someday could do the same.

“I thought, ‘Yeah, that’d be cool [to run in college],’ ” Kruse said.

Kruse, now the most decorated runner in school history, has her college plans set. She committed last week to New Hampshire and will sign with the NCAA Division I school shortly. The signing period for some sports, including cross country and track and field, starts Feb. 1.

Kruse has two third-place finishes in the Class 2A 800 meters and finished fourth and eighth in the past two Class 2A state cross country meets. New Hampshire coach Robert Hoppler came to the IHSA State Meet in Kruse’s junior year to watch Woodstock’s Kayla and Maura Beattie run. Elise Beattie, the girls’ older sister, runs at New Hampshire.

At state, Hoppler saw Kruse running right with Maura Beattie and started talking to her.

“I visited the campus and I loved it there; it’s beautiful,” Kruse said. “I really liked the girls, too. I want to major in P.E., and they have a great education program.”

Kruse did not compete against Elise Beattie much in high school as Hampshire was not yet in the Fox Valley Conference. She chose New Hampshire over Colorado State, Eastern Illinois, Illinois State and Utah, all schools she visited.

“I liked them all, and all the coaches were great,” Kruse said. “It was a pretty tough decision. I wanted to go somewhere different and experience a different part of the country.”

Kruse has five state track medals and two state cross country medals. She likely will add to that total in May at the state track meet.

“It’s great [to make this level],” Kruse said. “It’s definitely a lot of hard work, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

Remembering Bob Brown: Basketball and football officials around the Chicago suburbs lost a great friend Tuesday when Bob Brown, 75, died.

Brown had served for years as the Fox Valley Conference’s assignment chairman for football and basketball officials. It always was interesting to go to a really important FVC basketball game and see who was officiating that night. Brown had a knack for having the best crews work the best games.

A favorite personal memory of Brown is when he would come up at games to chat and share offbeat observations, such as when the Lake Zurich and Cary-Grove boys basketball teams met in the late 1990s. “You know, these are the only two teams in the league with coaches who have four letters in each name [Lake Zurich’s John Zarr and C-G’s Dave Otto],” Brown said.

It was silly stuff, but still funny.

• Joe Stevenson is the senior sports writer for the Northwest Herald. He can be reached by email at joestevenson@shawmedia.com. You also can follow him on twitter@nwh_JoePrepZone.