Pressure is what you make of it.
After competing in Class 2A in recent seasons, the Macomb High cross country teams slipped to Class 1A for the 2026 season.
An added benefit was the opportunity to host an Illinois High School Association Class 1A Regional at Spring Lake Park.
The Bombers runners took advantage, racing their way to a pair of regional titles Saturday morning.
The titles were the first for the MHS cross country teams since 2014.
“I’m pretty proud of both groups,” said MHS coach Douglas Bradley. “It was pretty awesome to see. And they got to do it here at home where we had a crowd.”
“Having the kids have a good day at home on a beautiful Spring Lake October Saturday is pretty cool,” he added.
“This whole last two weeks we’ve been tapering down to prepare for the postseason,” said MHS senior Alex Simmons. “We definitely felt fresh (for this race).”
Bradley admitted he was unsure about his strategy entering the race.
“I didn’t know exactly fully how to play (this race),” he said. “We kind of decided that we would be aggressive.”
“Coming in we knew we had two thoroughbread teams that were capable of taking the (regional) plaques,” Bradley added. “But then you also don’t want to take the foot off the gas, because if we’re going to go to state, we’ve got to run fast too.”
“That was the approach that I took,” he continued. “Both groups had the same message, and that was to be aggressive early. We really punched hard that first mile.”
“We’re still working on that piece. You can’t play defense in this sport,” said Bradley. “But what you can do is get your No. 5 runner as close to your No. 1 runner as you can get. That leaves less space for other kids to finish in.”
“That’s the part that we really feel like we have to work on right now,” he added.
In the girls race, Macomb claimed the regional title with a score of 37 points. LVC was second with 67 points, followed by South Fulton (81), Liberty (97), Beardstown (130), Havana (146) and WP/SE (153).
MHS had five runners finish in the top 17 with all seven runners placing in the top 26.
Sophomore Ella McKee led the way for MHS, placing fourth overall out of 67 runners completing the three-mile course in a time of 19 minutes, 27.7 seconds.
Senior Ava Weaver also placed in the top 10, finishing eighth (20:17.5).
“I’m thankful for my teammates and my coaches, especially my coaches,” said McKee. “It’s just really bittersweet to run with my best friend (senior) Ava (Weaver) for the last time.”
“I’m glad I got my first medal for the postseason,” she added.
Sophomore Olyvia Clark finished 11th (20:59.1), followed by sophomore Khloe Diggs (14th, 21:43.5), freshman Jalaine Archdale (17th, 22:12.6), junior Sofia Cardenas- Roman (20th, 22:37.8) and freshma Jaidyn Sollenberger (26th, 23:06.4).
For McKee, Saturday’s race brought a bit of added pressure.
“We felt more pressure because we hosted the regional,” she said. “There’s a lot more people. We’re going to get more of a crowd. That was big pressure.”
“But we did pretty good obviously,” she added. “Now we can move on to the next meet (sectional) and hopefully the meet after that (state).”
Havana sophomore Kasyn Jibben claimed a regional title for the second consecutive year, posting a winning time of 17:36.0.
Other individual qualifiers for sectional competition included Rebecca Reed of Pleasant Hill (second, PB, 18:21.0), Hayven Rundle of Monmouth United (third, 18:25.0), Emmalyn Hensley of Knoxville (seventh, 19:57.9), Kaylyn Forbis of Pleasant Hill (ninth, SB, 20:20.4) and Makayla Lewis of Knoxville (19th, 22:37.3).
In the boys race, Macomb won the team title with a low score of 31 points.
LVC was second with 100 points, followed by Beardsown (120), Abingdon-Avon (122), WP/SE (128), Pleasant Hill (143) and Liberty (162) “I think the race went really well,” said Alex Simmons. “With Jackson Petitgout, he’s pushing the pack the whole time. And with Landon Richards surging from behind, the top three was able to stay together and keep pushing each other.”
The end result was the Bomber trio finishing in the top five, earning medals.
While Alex Simmons knew what was expected Saturday, he also knew what needed to be done.
“Pressure is a privilege. It was really a privilege to be in the situation we were in,” he said. “But no matter what on paper it would look like, we’ve got to put our best foot forward and give it all we’ve got.”
Simmons, a senior, edged Petitgout, a sophomore, by one tenth of a second for second place, finishing in 16:09.8. For Petitgout, his time of 16:09.9 was a new personal best.
Meanwhile, Richards placed fifth with a time of 16:13.3. Seniors Eymen Tasdan (17:07.5) and Marc Simmons (17:11.7) finished 12th and 13th respectively.
Sophomore Owen Haley finished 16th with a new personal best time of 17:47.1, while junior Xander Merritt was 24th (18:28.1).
“Obviously we’re comfortable with this course, We’ve been running it for years,” said Alex Simmons. “But also having all these Macomb people out here say hi and supporting us, it was really nice.”
“Being able to win that regional championship on the home turf with all the community support was really special,” he added.
“We’ve just got to keep competing and try to go get this thing as a team,” said Simmons.
South Fulton sophomore Karter Chenoweth won the individual title, topping the field of 83 runners in posting a winning time of 15:56.4.
Other individual qualifiers included Bryar Rodeffer of Illini West (eighth, SB, 16:37.3), Parker Walker of Illini West (10th, 16:45.4), Silas Thiner of Rushville-Industry (14th, PB, 17:27.1) and Max McVey of Monmouth United (22nd, 18:24.0).
The IHSA Class 1A Sectional in Elmwood will be held at Maple Lane Country Club with the girls race beginning at 10 a.m., followed by the boys race at 11 a.m.
“We know we’ve got to race for our lives next Saturday when we go to Elmwood,” said Bradley. “That sectional is loaded. But I think we’ve got the horses in the girls and the boys that we can compete, we’ve just got to do it next Saturday.”
Complete team and individual results from this meet can be found at the following link: https://www.athletic.net/Cross-Country/meet/285878/info
