Davis Places 30th At IHSA Cross Country Finals

Stella Davis turned in one of the best performances in the history of the Evanston girls cross country program Saturday at the Class 3A Illinois High School Association state finals.

And the best is yet to come for the ETHS junior, who earned a 30th place individual finish at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

Finishing approximately 10 places higher than she was seeded coming into the race, Davis delivered an impressive performance and raised the bar --- for herself --- in the future.

A top 25 finish as a senior certainly isn’t out of the question, considering that 11 of the runners who finished ahead of her are seniors this year. Only four other Evanston girls --- Stephanie Goodrich in 1990 and 1991, Kathy McCray in 1979, Amy Simon in 1980 and the state runnerup in 2017, Enyaeva Michelin --- have scored top 25 finishes at State.

Another Evanston junior, Sam Froum, will take aim on another trip to Detweiller next fall after placing 116th overall in the 3A boys race.

Davis used another strong finishing kick to pass several rivals from Central Suburban League schools down the stretch Saturday on her way to a time of 17 minutes, 42.87 seconds over the 3.0 mile course. The winner of the race, junior Scout Storms of Barrington, was clocked in 16:38.46.

“It was a really good experience for me,” Davis said. “My legs felt good, I felt really good. And I had a really strong third mile that gave me the opportunity to beat a lot of the girls who beat me at the regional and sectional the last couple of weeks.

“We’ve been doing a lot of speed work lately in practice and it really helps to know I could out-kick them at the end now. We’ve focused on speed workouts and it was really fun. It really paid off for me. We set a lot of goals at the beginning of the season --- going Downstate and breaking 18 minutes have been my goals since freshman and sophomore years --- and seeing it happen was really fun.”

Fun for ETHS head coach Beth Arey, who ironically finished 30th as a high school runner the first time she competed at the state finals, just like Davis.

“Stella did really well and I’m really excited for her,” said Arey. “She went out in the top 30, fell back in that second mile again, but had enough kick in the last 400 meters to pass several girls. I was counting and she was about 37th or 38th, but I could see when she started to make her move, and she did an outstanding job.

“We trained intensely the last couple of weeks with 800-meter sets and hard 200s right after that, to help her prepare for the finish. She did everything we asked of her and she was only 3 seconds away from being All-State (top 25 finish).

“One cool thing for me was to look at the conference teams (represented at State by Glenbrook North, New Trier and Maine South) and to see how she killed all those other girls who’ve been beating her. She beat all their No. 1s and that was really crazy. I know she was disappointed at the conference meet because she had a glimmer of hope of actually winning there, but didn’t perform as well as she would’ve liked. But who cares about what happened at the conference now?”

Davis knew that she’d be in the fast lane against the state’s elite on Saturday and had to take an aggressive approach throughout the race.

“I knew everyone would get out fast,” said the Kit junior. “After the first 100, down that long straightaway, it was still super packed. At the mile I was just so thankful that I had gotten out into a good position. I had to make more moves than usual.”

Davis doesn’t believe she’s putting pressure on herself with a clear-eyed look at the future, either. She also represented the Wildkits at the state finals in track last spring and has excelled so far at every distance between 800 meters and 3 miles.

“Seeing that the top 25 was in reach for me (Saturday) makes it my goal for next year,” she said. “Maybe I can break into the low 17s, too.”

Froum needed to be a little quicker Saturday to move up in the field and settled for 116th overall in 15:32.22 in a race won by Hinsdale Central’s Aden Bandukwala in 14:13.56. But Froum’s time was right near his season best this fall, and ETHS head coach Donald Michelin Jr. marveled at the consistency the junior displayed all season.

“I told him before the race that there was no pressure on him, just to give the same effort he did at the sectional,” said Michelin Jr. “I know he wanted to get down to around 15:15 if possible. But he’s been so consistent for us all year. He confided in me that after that first 400 he didn’t feel great physically, but he did push through and he didn’t fall back into the 16s, either.

“I think this sets him up for a good track season and for next year in cross country. I know he wanted to do a little better, but I think he did great.

“We have 4 outstanding guys with a lot of talent coming back next year and we need to change some things and develop a front-runner. These guys are going to have to learn to run from the front, not just in a pack, and they’ll have to learn to trust that training to get up front more in races. That will help them put their best foot forward.”