Cross country: IHSA reversal gives St Charles East a trophy

Updated: November 7, 2011 6:25PM

The Illinois High School Association reversed itself on Monday and decided to award St. Charles East’s girls cross country team a trophy for its performance at Saturday’s Class 3A state meet in Peoria.

The Saints and Naperville North both finished with 183 points, trailing New Trier (82) and Wheaton Warrenville South (144). IHSA officials used a sixth-runner tiebreaker to award third place to the Huskies, even though the IHSA’s terms and conditions for cross country state: “If a tie occurs for first, second or third place [at state], both tied teams will receive the appropriate medallions and trophy.”

On Monday, IHSA assistant executive director Matt Troha sent out an email saying that the organization decided to award duplicate trophies after all because similar situations had been treated inconsistentlyin the past.

Troha wrote: “After reviewing records on Sunday, it was revealed that over the past two decades the tie situation has been handled differently by the IHSA, sometimes breaking the tie and sometimes awarding duplicate medals. Because of this discrepancy, it was decided that St. Charles East will receive a third-place trophy and medals. The IHSA Cross Country Terms & Conditions will be addressed by the advisory committee at their upcoming meeting, as the committee will make a recommendation on how to proceed with tie situations in the future.”

St. Charles East coach Denise Hefferin, who said Saturday that the school would protest, was relieved to hear Monday’s news.

“We’re happy the IHSA did reverse itself and made the right decision,” she said. “They made the wrong call, they apologized and that was nice to hear.”

Still, the East runners did not get to take the awards stand and get recognized by their peers at Detweiller Park.

“Will we ever be able to recreate that moment? No,” Hefferin said. “But are there bad feelings? No. We’re just glad they made it right.”

Contributing: R.J. Gerber

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