CL Central finds right pieces

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Sophomore Molly Flood has been the top runner for Crystal Lake Central this season. She's led the team back to the state tournament after the Tigers lost their top two runners to graduation. (Lauren M. Anderson – landerson@nwherald.com)

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Crystal Lake Central’s girls cross country team started its first season in five years without Haley Staples and Stephanie Peisker, and with several questions.

“At the beginning of the summer, it was a toss-up,” sophomore Molly Flood said.

Tigers coach Shannon Schroeder agreed.

“I thought it could go either way,” she said.

Central again has risen to the occasion. The Tigers have two top-five finishes in the IHSA Class 2A State Cross Country Meet and will be shooting for a third Saturday at Detweiller Park in Peoria. Central was fifth in 2007 and was state runner-up last year.

Staples is running at Indiana and Peisker is at Eastern Illinois, but Central has filled its vacancies well with Flood leading the way and senior Taylor Miller assuming a huge role.

“Like any other team, we’d love to win state,” Miller said. “We’d really like to get a trophy. We think we can do that.”

To get a trophy, the Tigers would have to finish in the top three, which would be tough. But so was coming back without Staples and Peisker.

“Molly’s had an outstanding season with her consistency,” Schroeder said. “She hasn’t really had a bad race. She fell last year at state, and that was a lot of motivation for her. It could have happened to anybody. I think she’ll do great.”

Flood said she was stuck in congestion and fell, then got knocked down again, right at the start of the race. She recovered well and finished 51st, but when the Tigers finished with 90 points, three points behind state champion Springfield Sacred-Heart Griffin, she couldn’t help but think, “What if?”

“It was tough when I heard it was three points,” Flood said. “I made my mind up that wasn’t happening again. Having that experience down there helps a lot with knowing what to expect.”

Miller might be the key for the Tigers. Junior Rachel Bush usually runs her best at the end of the season and has two top-30 finishes at state.

Sophomore Madie Edwards was the Tigers’ No. 1 runner last year, taking 12th at state. Cristy Kinahan, Bronwyn Harper and Marlena Milkowska make up the rest of the lineup.

Miller was sparked by running with Flood on Central’s 4x800-meter relay team which took eighth in the Class 2A State Track and Field Meet last spring.

“[Miller] was good, but she never really wanted to run cross country as much,” Schroeder said. “She was on our junior varsity. She came to me and said she wanted to run in college.”

Miller has been a solid No. 2 runner behind Flood most of the season.

“We had an amazing track season,” Miller said. “They were so close last year and they wanted some girls to take it seriously. I’ve never run so much before [in the summer].”

Woodstock’s Kayla and Elise Beattie led their team to the Class 2A Belvidere Sectional championship title, just ahead of Central. The Tigers have answered their own questions and will finish the season right where they had hoped.

• Joe Stevenson covers high school sports for the Northwest Herald. He can be reached at 815-526-4513. He also can be reached by fax at 815-459-5640 or by e-mail at jstevenson@nwherald.com.

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