By Aidan Leary ’26

On Saturday, Nov. 1, the cross country team competed at the IHSA 3A Sectional meet at Katherine Legge Memorial Park. The team qualified for sectionals after placing fourth the previous week at regionals.

The Crusaders were met with strong competition in a tough 3A field, which was expected. Last year, the team won the regionals meet and qualified for state in 2A. Due to the reclassifications this year in the IHSA, the team received a multiplier which bumped them up to 3A. To receive a multiplier, a team has to win regionals or qualify for state. With the IHSA multiplier, Brother Rice has 2,181 students which falls into the 3A range.

Going into the meet, we knew it was going to be hard to qualify for state, but we still wanted to go out with a bang. We had been training all year for this specific meet; whether it was going to be hard or easy, we were going to do our best no matter what. Saturday came and we were ready to go.

We went on our normal warmup, but it felt weird because this would probably be the last one we did as a team. It was quiet, everyone was locked in, some were nervous, some excited. The goal was to make a splash in our final race together.

Senior Andrew Straley was ready for war; his goal was to qualify for state individually if we had not made it as a team. “Going into sectionals of course there was the thought that this was going to be the last race with my team, but I also knew I was there to get things done,” said Andrew.

It was time, and we were at the line ready to go one last time. The gun went off and the race began, but wait … the gun went off two more times. We had to stop and go back to the line. It felt so weird in the moment, all of us walking back to the line after two kids fell at the start. We were laughing and soon enough we were back at the line. For real this time, we lined up and the gun went off.

It was a tough course, with hills left and right, I relied on my teammates to work through this challenge. I ran with juniors Dylan Cody and Declan Nieto, and we had a solid race together. Dylan said, “This was one of the toughest courses I have ever ran on with all the hills, but it was a fun challenge.”

Soon enough it was over. It was not the way I wanted to finish my career, but it also wasn’t the worst way. We placed 15th, which would not be enough to qualify for state.

Andrew Straley qualified for state individually and became the first runner in Brother Rice cross country history to run at the state meet all four years. He will be racing at Detweiller Park in Peoria on Saturday and looks to accomplish more.

Coach Tom Wazio said, “I expect him to run the way he has all year, gutsy and confident. I know he’ll walk off the course Saturday proud of what he has accomplished, having cemented himself as one of the best cross country runners in school history.”

It was an amazing season, and we are looking forward to seeing what this team will accomplish next year.