Porters' Mitsos looks for strong finish

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Janna Mitsos was just another 9-year-old kid playing soccer when her athletic career took a fateful turn.

"My dad asked me one day if I wanted to try running," Mitsos said.

She did, and the rest is history for the Lockport senior.

After three straight top-20 finishes at the state cross country finals in Peoria -- including last year when a stress fracture wreaked havoc on her training schedule -- Mitsos is healthy again and aiming to become the first four-time all-stater in Porters' history.

"I had a great summer training," said Mitsos, who averaged 60 to 65 miles a week.

She has taken care to try to avoid a repeat of last year's health issues, cutting back a bit on her mileage and drinking more milk to strengthen her bones.

The hope is that regimen will allow her to get back to her sophomore form, when she was third in Class AA with a three-mile time of 16:56. Last year she took 20th in the 3A state race with a time of 17:36, a comparable showing to her 15th-place, 17:33 effort in Class AA as a freshman.

Mitsos is a bit unusual on the high school distance running scene in that she just competes in cross country for the Porters and not in track. But that hasn't stopped such major colleges as New Mexico, Wyoming and Wake Forest from recruiting her.

But before Mitsos heads off to college and, most likely, competition at the longer distances of 5,000 and 10,000 meters, she and her teammates have some business to take care of.

"I thought we would have a rebuilding year," Mitsos said. But the emergence of freshmen Megan O'Brien and Stephanie Sanders in the preseason had her setting her sights higher.

With sophomore Allie Lakie and junior Stephanie Houts also back from the team that finished seventh in 3A last fall, the future doesn't look so bad for Lockport after all.

"We've got a nice, young group," coach Evon Marie Schlotter said. "We would like to make it down to state (again) as a team."

That's a common goal in the SouthWest Suburban Conference. The league's two divisions combined to send six squads to Peoria in 2007 and produced the first 3A individual champ in Sandburg's Kristin Sutherland.

Though Sutherland has graduated, the Eagles aren't lacking for quality or quantity. Coach Christina Soldan has 68 runners on her roster, including five state-meet veterans: juniors Kimberly Christensen, Kristen Person, Michelle Byczynski and Colleen Brennan, and senior Erin Czuprynski.

"If the girls' training keeps going well ... I would like to see them place in the top 10 in the state," said Soldan, whose team was 13th last year.

Stagg, 11th last season, also has some big shoes to fill after graduating the fourth-place finisher in 3A, Annette Glaz. The Chargers will rely on the senior trio of Ashley Shares and twins Kara and Krista Moylan as they attempt to repeat as conference, regional and sectional champs.

Lincoln-Way Central brings back six of its top seven from the team that finished 18th a year ago, paced by the 1-2 punch of sophomore Monica Hahn (who ran about 600 miles this summer) and junior Chelsea Tribble. Juniors Brittany Melton and Hannah Schliffka and seniors Emma Flock and Claire Zoellner also are back.

"I think we could challenge for a top-10 position," coach Matt Bowden said.

Lincoln-Way East lost one of the four projected returnees from a team that was 13th in 3A, with junior Jordan Wallace heading over to pace the new program at Lincoln-Way North. But the Griffins still have a state-tested trio in juniors Laura Beggs and Maggie Sutor, and senior Britney Kravish.

North coach Brooke Vesely is hoping Wallace can celebrate the Phoenix's debut season by returning to state as an individual. Junior Sara Gottardo and sophomore Maggie Kilbride also show promise.

In Class 2A, Lemont must replace 13 seniors from a team that took 17th at state. Still, coach Tim Plotke said, "we're going to be just as strong if not stronger."

Senior Allie Kostes and juniors Megan Johnson and Katie Kester will lead the Indians' pack.

Hillcrest achieved two milestones last season, sending a team to the sectional and an individual downstate (graduated senior Passion Spann) for the first time in school history. Bianca Rockwood leads an experienced senior pack for the Hawks.

Beecher graduated one all-stater in Jennifer Knuth (17th in Class 1A last year), but returns another in Kaitie Stolzenbach. She was 17th Class A as a sophomore but missed state last year because of an injury.