McKee, Simmons Set Top 5 School Marks At State Meet
Macomb High freshman Ella McKee and junior Alex Simmons closed out their cross country seasons in a blaze of glory Saturday at Detweiller Park in Peoria.
Racing in the Illinois High School Association Class 2A State Finals, McKee and Simmons posted top five state times in school history.
“These two kids would not have been on anyone’s ‘most likely to qualify for 2025 state cross country’ list,” said MHS cross country coach Douglas Bradley. “This unlikely duo of state qualifiers also happen to be excellent young people and coaching them has been a great pleasure.”
For the girls, McKee was 85th of 236 runners and tied her personal record with a time of 18 minutes, 53.24 seconds.
“Ella was fighting nerves as we got closer to the race, but she put together an excellent state debut,” said Bradley. “I’ve had my share of state runners over the years that have had difficulty with the pressure, the crowd, the competition, and such. Ella ran well. She actually tied her season best and should be quite proud of the day she had.”
That effort makes her the third fastest three-miler in Macomb High history at state.
“Ella had never ran a cross country race before late August,” said Bradley. “She ran for the track team at MMS this spring and that put her on our radar. She was a multiple sport athlete coming in and I had no way of knowing if she would even join cross country. She started coming in the summer to our runs and she showed from day one that she had the juice to be something special.”
Among freshmen, McKee was 16th out of 55 runners. Based on Saturday’s times, heading into next season, McKee is the 56th top returner.
“The race felt really fast and with the crowd it had lots of energy to it,” McKee told coach Bradley. “The second mile was tough for me and I wish I could’ve gone faster there, but I felt strong over the last mile. I’m really excited and happy about my race.”
Senior Sydney Gertsen of Lombard Montini claimed the individual title, finishing the three-mile race with a personal record time of 16:34.79.
Chatham-Glenwood won the team title with a score of 81 points.
Twenty-eight squads, seven from each sectional, battled for top team honors.
On the boys side, Simmons was 133rd out of 235 runners, setting a new PR time of 15:53.02. That mark makes his time the fourth fastest state runner for the boys in school history.
“Alex felt no pressure leading up to the race. I think that helped him a lot,” said Bradley. “He was eight seconds faster than his career best and I’m pretty excited by that. He felt like he might have been a bit too fast in the first half of the race though. Still, he moved up 24 places between the mile mark and the mile and a half. I prefer that aggression at that point because sometimes runners will settle into a spot and not move which costs places too.”
“He only picked up one place from the 1.5 mile mark to the two mile which is where he struggled the most,” Bradley added. “The great thing about Alex though is he’s not taking the foot off the gas in the last mile and he picked up 12 more places before the finish.”
“I’m extremely proud of the race today and the season I had in general,” Simmons told Bradley. “I started the year out thinking I may not even make it to sectionals, so I’m just so thankful that all the training I’ve done these past few months prepared me so well for the season I had. I’m tired now and happy that I broke 16 minutes. I also can’t help but feel like I want to go faster.”
“Alex’s biggest accomplishment coming into the season was making the all-conference team last year,” said Bradley. “He ran a 17:04 as his PR at the time in that race. He literally ran every day this summer. That training gave him both physical benefits and confidence. He rode those two elements all the way to the state meet and a 15:53 personal best.”
Simmons had the 49th best time out of 77 runners among juniors and the 85th best time among all returners.
Senior Max Weber of Bethalto Civic Memorial, set a new PR in winning top individual honors, posting a time of 14:08.54.
In team competition, Dixon claimed the championship with a low score of 115 points.
Complete results from Saturday’s Class 2A state finals can be found at the following link: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/ meet/268064/info
