The Benet girls cross country team looks to build off their regional victory, at the 2A Sectional hosted by Trinity. Facing a tough field, the Redwings are led by the times of Delilah Helenhouse, Payton Mathelier, and Keira Jenke. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Benet girls cross country gets off the starting line
Right off the start the Redwings in the red on the left of the screen, pack up together. Helenhouse, Jenke, Mathelier, Faye Ferrell, Terese Tully, Ashley Donovan, and Aniela Gaudio are the runners for the Redwings. St. Ignatius’ Annika Swan gets out ahead of the pack as well.
Going into the first turn, Swan already builds a solid lead as a pack behind starts to form led by Helenhouse. St Ignatius’ runners Ella Hwang and Meghan Semmer are right behind with Mathelier and Jenke there as well.
The runners are getting ready to start the final mile and it’s Swan about 20 seconds ahead of everyone else in the pack.
Just behind, Helenhouse starts to grow a lead with DePaul’s Emily Stecky and Fenwick’s Juliana Gamboa right behind. Last week’s regional winner Molly McGreal of Trinity is near the front as well. Mathelier and Jenke come by in eleventh and twelfth.
Swann and Helenhouse place one and two
Nothing went wrong for Swann as she took the victory in the sectional by 38 seconds with a 17:34.70 time.
Helenhouse grows her own gap from the rest of the field and takes second place with a time of 18:12.70. Gamboa comes through in third for Fenwick as Stecky and McGreal run side by side ending in fourth and fifth respectively. Hwang comes through in sixth for St. Ignatius, Lulu Ton-That slides in at seventh for Northside and Jadie Chavez of St. Laurence comes in eighth. Mathelier and Jenke finish ninth and twelfth for Benet. Faye Ferrell and Terese Tully both finish in the top 30 for the Redwings as well.
It’s St. Ignatius who wins the sectional with a team score of 43, while Benet finishes in second. DePaul College Prep finishes in third with Nazareth in fourth. Fenwick, Payton and St. Laurence round out the top seven teams who will be heading to state.
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