Beattie sisters superb for Streaks

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Woodstock’s Elise Beattie (right) embraces her sister Kayla Beattie after finishing the Class 2A girls race during the IHSA Cross Country State Meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria. Kayla finished first, and Elise took third. (Adam Gerik – For the Northwest Herald)

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PEORIA – Kayla Beattie has stared at the wall of Woodstock’s James M. Shipley Memorial Gymnasium for three years, hoping someday to add her name to the list of Blue Streaks’ girls state champions.

That day arrived Saturday.

The Blue Streaks junior pulled away from Mount Vernon’s Margo Richardson in the final 800 meters to win the Class 2A girls race at the IHSA Cross Country State Meet at Detweiller Park. Beattie and Richardson, the defending 2A champion, turned it into a two-person race for the final two miles over the 3.1-mile course.

Beattie won in 17:14, Richardson was second in 17:20 and Elise Beattie, Kayla’s senior sister, was third in 17:35. Johnsburg’s Kelly McNeely (18:19) also finished 10th in the 2A race.

Kayla Beattie joins Katie Hartmann (Class AA cross country, 1999) and Jen Nichols (basketball IHSA three-point shootout, 2006) in Woodstock’s elite group of state champion girls. Afterward, Beattie admitted something she didn’t want to talk about a lot before.

“With all my training last summer, this was the goal,” Beattie said. “At first I was a little leery to say it. This was a major goal. I was hoping for a little faster time, but a state championship is a nice tradeoff for a better time.”

Beattie finished 14th as a freshman and 43rd as a sophomore in Class 3A. When Woodstock North started varsity athletic programs this year, Woodstock fell to Class 2A. The Beatties wanted to run times comparable with those of Class 3A runners, and the only girl with a better time than Kayla Saturday was Class 3A state champion Lavinia Jurkiewicz of Whitney Young (17:11).

Kayla Beattie and Richardson had not competed against each other before, but it didn’t take long for them to find each other. By the mile mark, they had put considerable distance on the field. Elise Beattie was running third, having put considerable distance on the next group.

“It was mutual,” Kayla Beattie said. “I was in the lead and [Richardson] didn’t want to let me get too far ahead. The past month, I’ve been working really hard on my 300-meter kick. I just trusted my training and coaches.”

Richardson said she tried to draft off Beattie for a good portion of the race. In the final 800 meters, she was trailing by about five meters.

“She had so much more leg speed than I did,” Richardson said. “Toward the end, she pulled away. I just didn’t have it like I usually do.”

Elise Beattie, who was 17th last season in Class 3A, was thrilled with her third-place finish.

“I wanted to run my race and not go out too fast,” Elise said. “I ran the best I could and seized the opportunity I could best seize.”

Woodstock’s team took seventh with 204 points, Crystal Lake Central was 10th with 227 and Prairie Ridge was 13th with 303.

Central’s Molly Flood was 19th to lead the Tigers and joined the Beatties and McNeely as All-State runners.

McNeely, a sophomore, completed a remarkable season that saw her miss five weeks because of a stress fracture in her left foot, which limited her to training in a swimming pool. She healed in time for the postseason and finished about where she had started the season.

“I amazed myself, to be honest,” she said. “I was aiming for 15th, then I get 10th. It was a really fast start. I tried to get my place by the mile mark, and move up inch by inch.”

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