By Diana Leane (@DianaLeane)
A spectrum of colors sped to the finish line, and in a matter of seconds, the chaos settled while the runners discovered their final place. In a matter of one second, girls’ varsity cross country had won. The team had claimed the title over Barrington High School by two points.
The cross country Mid-Suburban League Championships took place Saturday, Oct. 17 at Heritage Park in Wheeling. Girls’ cross country made history after winning conference for the third time in Prospect history.
According to coach Pete Wintermute,, if two of the runners finished in one later place spot, they would have lost. Individually two runners placed in the top ten —  junior Brooke Wilson taking first and junior Aileen White taking eighth.
“The results took me by surprise,” Wintermute said. “I knew our team was young and they were pretty good, but going into the meet, we weren’t running our number two runner, so our goal was still to end up in the top three.”
The boys’ varsity cross country team placed second at the meet, losing by three points to Buffalo Grove. Three runners placed in the top 10 — junior Sean Sanaghan took fifth, senior Karson Lecomte took sixth and senior Matt Cozine took tenth.
All runners in the varsity boys’ and girls’ races placed in the top 50.
“We felt like we did the best we could, and the talent level for BG was just off the charts,” Sanaghan said.
Until conference, the boys’ team was undefeated in dual meets. While Sanaghan was disappointed Buffalo Grove beat Prospect, he’s optimistic for the rest of the season and hopes the team will make it to state.
Wintermute is also optimistic for the rest of the season and accredits the girls’ success to working hard.
“I still today am kind of speechless, and [the win was] something that caught me by surprise,” Wintermute said. “I was watching the race happen, and after we had finished, I looked at someone else and was like, ‘We ran really well, but I don’t have any idea if it’s good enough to win.’ Two points in probably less than one total second separated us from first and second.”