Edwardsville eyes future, finishes second in SWC
Heidbrink takes individual title as youngsters get taste of competition
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| Ken Aubuchon photo Edwardsville's Lauren Heidbrink (right) won the individual championship at the Southwestern Conference meet. Kristin Hodge (left) placed fourth as the Tigers took second as a team. |
Two of the Tigers' top seven runners competed as O'Fallon came away with the team title with 39 points. Edwardsville finished second with 47 points, behind Lauren Heidbrink, who won the title in 19:23, and Kristin Hodge who came in fourth in 19:46. Stephanie Dalla Riva (11th, 20:27), Laura Bevis (13th, 20:35), Breanna Schuette (18th, 21:05) and Ellen Atwood (21st, 21:08) also scored for the Tigers.
"The important thing was not winning," Cunningham said. "We've had a good season this year and we need our good season to end at the state meet. But we also need to be looking towards the next year as well. We have a lot of young kids who ran really well this year. You have to give them a test and the Southwestern Conference is a tough conference so you have to see what they look like. We put those guys out here today knowing that we were going to have five varsity guys sitting out. If we wanted to run a different lineup to try to get a different result, then we would have done that today. I'm OK with how we ran today."Heidbrink, running in her last conference meet as a senior, won the individual title by 10 seconds, ahead of Belleville East's Jenny Bealman.
"We each had our own little designated plan," Heidbrink said. "I went out with the leaders of the pack and stayed with them. Then I felt good on the second mile so I just went. I was just excited because it's my last year so I was ready to go. I was pretty fired up and I was excited to be running with the other junior varsity girls because I knew it would be the last time running with them. I was pretty excited. I'm pretty pleased. It was really windy. It was a really nice course though I liked it a lot."
Cunningham said Heidbrink performed well - as expected.
"Lauren wanted to run. Lauren is a really strong distance runner," Cunningham said. "She helped Kristin along for awhile and then she went ahead and ran her race. That's exactly what she was supposed to do. She kind of opened it up and pulled away. She got in, got her victory and she's conference champion."
Cunningham liked how his top five on Friday of two seniors (Heidbrink and Bevis), Hodge and freshmen ran.
"We put the senior out there and co-captain Lauren Heidbrink and she does her job like you would expect her to do," Cunningham said. "Kristin Hodge had a pretty good race and then you have freshmen get 11th and you have Laura Bevis who ran really well. She's been on varsity for us in the past. If you can help it you don't want to have a kid like (Bevis) to have to run JV in something as big as a conference meet. We were able to let some of the current varsity group run. We were able to reward a senior and look at some of the new guys for the future. You want to see what they (the young runners) can do in a high-pressure situation. For them this is the biggest thing they've ever raced in. You will expect some of these kids to be running in regionals, sectionals and hopefully state meets for you in the future. Some people say that's taking a win off the board and it might be, but that's OK with me and it was OK with the rest of the varsity girls. It's OK to help out your teammates."
Cunningham said that three of the Tigers' top seven will compete at this weekend's Wood River Regional at Belk Park as Courtney Smith, Liz Speicher will join Hodge in regionals.
Heidbrink and the Tigers are hoping for a big finish to the season.
"I feel really good, really excited for sectionals and state," Heidbrink said. "It's my senior year. The team is doing really well. We're working really, really well together as a team. It means a lot more (as a senior). I've been looking forward to this for a long time. I definitely want to do better at state. I'm looking forward to the track season too."
E-mail:jcavato@yourjournal.com
