Hinsdale South Girls Cross Country

Senior Night Results 2024

September 13, 2024

The first and only regular season meet at KLM on Thursday meant that it was a night to celebrate our seniors. Andy Esposito and Sam Kantz received gifts from their teammates, got to take photos with their families, and shared words of advice for their younger teammates.

Sam, who joined the team late during her freshman year and didn’t run her first three-mile race until conference that year, shared that her favorite memory was getting lost with Anna Frankel on the Goose Run her sophomore year and where they ended up running nearly eight miles on what should have been a four-mile run. Sam’s least favorite workouts were track workouts, with the exception of the dice workout we did last year. Sam plans to major in pre-law and her advice to her teammates was not to be afraid to advocate for themselves, stay hydrated, and support teammates.

Andy Esposito joined cross country her freshman year after getting convinced by another runner to try it out. Thinking she’d try it for a few weeks, Andy ended up staying for the rest of her high school career and went from a freshman with a P.R. of 26:03 to a junior who nearly qualified for state and a senior looking to break 20 minutes. Andy hates mile repeats, but loved the Peoria meet last year that was on the same day as Homecoming because of the “high-energy vibes.” Andy, who also plans to major in pre-law, told her teammates that “The most beautiful thing about this sport is the love we have for each other so pour yourself into it.”

There was also a race on Senior Night and even though there were no P.R.’s to be had because of the hot weather, short course (1.93 miles), and…KLM, the girls poured their hearts into the race. Anna Wilcox decided she wasn't going to treat a weekday meet any less seriously and led the race wire-to-wire to take home only her second race victory in high school with a time of 12:35. Sophomore Emma Koehler was second for the team and fifth in the race with a time of 14:07. Lucy Wang continued her impressive freshman season and finished eight in 14:42. Alyssa Pendon (23rd, 15:43) and Sam Kantz (34th, 16:15) rounded out the team’s top five. Sophomores Emma Gonzalez, Sofia Salazar, and Sarah Shumard all ran their first high school races while sophomore Yelena Haidamaka ran her first race at KLM at a much faster pace than her debut at Lyons Township last week. This sophomore class is off to a great start!