Girls cross-country: McIntosh cruises to title

Palatine’s Sarah McIntosh is getting used to running a cross-country race as a front-runner should.

She’s learned to run with everyone for a while, break away on the downhill portions and conserve enough energy to be able to give it one final burst toward the end.

Still, though, she isn’t quiet yet used to being that “front-runner.”

After being a middle-of-the-pack frosh-soph runner a year ago, it’s still taking McIntosh some time to realize she’s become one of the state’s fastest as a sophomore. She showed it again Saturday as she dominated the Palatine Invitational with a time of 17:00.6, more than 20 seconds faster than the next girl and good enough for third best in course history.

A year ago, she finished fifth in the fresh-soph race on the same course

“I think it’s really cool,” she said. “Next year, it will be weird.”

McIntosh broke away from the pack early in the race and stayed there the rest of the way.

“I was surprised she opened up that quickly and early,” Palatine coach Steve Currins said. “God’s blessed with her with a great cardiovascular system and she’s a hard worker.”

As a team, the Pirates were just as impressive. Courtney Brown came in fifth, Ruth Allen finished 14th and Tory Wright took 15th.

Palatine (63) was followed by Hinsdale Central (95), Buffalo Grove (104), Lyons (116) and Barrington (163) in the 28-team invite.

“We want to get better,” Currins said. “We want to be up on the trophy stand and maybe win it. We’ve won it six times. This team is as good as the others.”

Individually, Buffalo Grove’s Olivia Jones (17:22.4), Lyons’ Katherine Rehn (17:22.8), Barrington’s Rebecca Tracy (17:25.9), Brown, Maine South’s Kristen Zillmer (17:30.7), Prospect’s Annette White (17:31.2), Hinsdale Central’s Elaine Kuckertz (17:33.2), Wheaton-Warrenville South’s Elise Anderson (17:44.6) and Buffalo Grove’s Cari Meyer (17:45.8) closed out the top 10.