On Saturday, November 4 in Peoria, Illinois, junior Audrey Shadle and senior Jack McNabola competed in the cross country state meet. Both runners were successful in the state meet. McNabola finished in third place, running the three mile course in an astounding 14 minutes and 41 seconds. His time was only 15 seconds behind the first place runner. His performance in sectionals and regionals gives him all conference, all sectional, and all state honors. McNabola was also selected as the ISL Cross Country Athlete of the year for the second year in a row. Shadle finished the course in 19 minutes and 51 seconds.

The state meet is split up into 3 divisions: 1a, 2a, and 3a. Parker is a 1a school, which is the smallest division. The actual races are not split up into groups, but there are 2 races, one for boys and one for girls. Both these races are 3 miles long, with time being taken at 4 different checkpoints. Each race had hundreds of runners this year, and the top 25 finishers for both boys and girls got a medal.

At the sectional race, on October 28, Shadle and McNabola qualified for the state cross country meet. The top 7 runners from teams that didn’t qualify get spots at state.

For Shadle, this was a new experience. She qualified for state by breaking her personal record in the sectional. “For sectionals, my time was 19:47, and my previous record was 20:59,” Shadle said. “So I got a personal record by over a minute.”

McNabola qualified for state for the 3rd consecutive year, as well as qualifying for 4 events in the state track meet in the past. In the previous years he was happy just to make it to state, but this year he was looking for. McNabola said, “I should do way better in terms of state this year.”

The two runners were well prepared. “At this point in the season, you don’t up your mileage,” Shadle said as state drew nearer. “If anything you taper. Running intensely this week isn’t going to help me in any way, so I’m just trying to stay in shape.” The runners had to prepare for possible weather conditions, as the forecast predicted temperatures in 40’s on the day of the race.

Athletic director Bobby Starks saw this as an opportunity for other Parker teams and players as well. “We hope this has an immediate positive effect on the cross country team,” Starks said. “Numbers-wise, we are looking to increase the size of the team.”  He also thinks this can carry over to other sports. “The volleyball team, the tennis team, all the fall sport teams see this success,” Starks said,  “and it pushes them over the edge to achieve the success, wanting to go to state.”

McNabola and Shadle had worked hard the whole season, running up to six miles per session at their practice location, the gravel path at the lakefront, in all different types of Chicago weather. “It was so successful,” Shadle said. “Last year and freshman year I personally didn’t make it this far.”