Published: November 06, 2009 01:12 am      

Trio of local harriers headed to state CC meet

Three athletes — two girls and one boy — will be representing the area Saturday at the Class 1A state cross country meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

Sophomores Liz Wortman of Effingham St. Anthony High School and Grace Ziegler of Altamont will compete in the girls race, while junior Alex Turner of Cowden-Herrick will be the first Hornet running at the state meet in nearly 15 years.

Wortman is the only repeat qualifier; she took 52nd at last year's state meet and has followed up that freshman season with another successful campaign for the Bulldogs.

A time of 19:14.30 at last weekend's Decatur St. Teresa Sectional made Wortman the top individual qualifier with the sixth-best time overall. Ziegler was the final individual to move on with a 19:36.90.

"Grace said she felt good after the sectional," said Altamont coach Nikki Bloemer. "I told her to do it again this weekend."

It was a sloppy race in Decatur after a week full of rain leading up to the sectional race.

Altamont, with a regional title already under its belt, had aspirations of making state as a team, but will have to settle for a trip to Peoria to cheer for Ziegler and Wortman.

"Liz and Grace are close friends," said Bloemer. "They ran together (Tuesday) and will go up to Peoria (today) to practice."

Justine Seidel, a senior at Altamont, missed state after qualifying the last two years.

Injuries and illness have slowed Seidel down this fall.

"Justine was really disappointed not to make it her senior year," said Bloemer.

The unfortunate end to Seidel's prep career did give her some valuable perspective to pass on to her younger teammate.

"Justine told Grace to make sure not to take this opportunity for granted," said Bloemer. "Grace is only a sophomore, but there's never any guarantee you'll be back."

Meanwhile, Turner is out for his first season of cross country and set a personal best at Decatur with a time of 16:51.15.

It's certainly an exciting development for Cowden-Herrick, which had to cancel the program a year ago without enough interested athletes to field a team.

First-year coach Andy Nohren, a 2005 C-H graduate, jumped headfirst into an enthusiastic attempt to revitalize the program and is understandably proud of Turner's accomplishment.

"You can see how big of a step this is for our program," said Nohren, who ran competitively at Greenville College.

"The fact that we just started this program and we have Alex qualifying for state the first year really says a lot about what a rich running tradition we have here and shows how athletic our students are."

Nohren says he and Turner have been working on race strategy lately, and Turner carried out their plan very well on his way to an 11th-place overall finish in the sectional race.

"Alex is a tremendous runner, but sometimes it may take a whole season for an inexperienced cross country runner to learn how to effectively attack a three-mile race," said Nohren. "It may be safe to say he was the surprise of the day because of his place and how well he ran. I think we caught a lot of people off guard."

Turner was up-and-down over the course of the season - he didn't make all-conference at the Eastern Crossroads Conference meet earlier in the year — but has moved from the back of the pack toward the front when it has mattered most.

Nohren just hopes his star runner's postseason success will pique the interest of some of the other capable athletes roaming the halls of his alma mater.

The future seems bright in Cowden, and it also seems bright for Wortman as she prepares for her second trip to Peoria.

Wortman established herself right out of the gate as a freshman and has settled into most of the major meets as a front-runner and strong finisher.

If the sophomore remains healthy, expect to continue hearing her name as she vies for a first career medal and an improvement over last year's time of 19:29.

Dustin White can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 123 or dustin.white@effinghamdailynews.com.