Maryclare Leonard has solid day for Marist

In a race that ended with familiar leaders from last year, Maryclare Leonard moved even closer to the head of the class.

Marist’s sophomore All-Stater ran to a third-place finish among 137 runners Saturday in the RedHawks’ Class 3A sectional at Midlothian Meadows.

Leonard, who was fifth in the 2013 sectional hosted by Hinsdale Central, covered the Midlothian course in a personal-best this season of 17 minutes, 24.36 seconds.

“I tried to stay calm beforehand. Usually when I get myself nervous, that’s when I don’t do as well,’’ Leonard said. “The Under-Armour helped a lot. I was worried about that at first, I’d be too hot. I’d never worn it.’’

Hinsdale Central’s Alexa Haff, state runner-up last year, won Saturday’s sectional in 17:02.72 to 17:12.06 for Plainfield North’s Rachael Lau.

“In the woods, I was trying to hang with them.’’ Leonard said. “I lost contact a little bit. Then Anne Zaher caught up to me.

“My brother, I kept hearing him say, ‘This is your course, this is your course.’ I just figured I wanted to stay with her. I remember she (Zaher) won the mile at state last year.’’

Zaher, a junior from Hinsdale Central, finished fourth in 17:27.95. The Red Devils won the team title with 50 points ahead of runner-up Lockport (82). Downers North (112), Neuqua Valley (124) and Downers South (158) also advanced to the state meet.

Lockport’s first five were All-Stater Morgan Bollinger (5th, 17:34.80), Emmie Hahn (6th, 17:38.67), Karlee Stortz (19th, 18:14.21), Haley Beaumont (21st, 18:17.56) and Aubrey Friedrich (37th, 18:28.48).

“After the mile, Emmie and I pushed it to get up there with the leaders,’’ Bollinger said. “Once we got up there, we just kept pushing to stay with them.’’

“I think it went really good,’’ Hahn said. “We had a new strategy this meet. The first three of us, after the first mile, we were allowed to break off and get up to the lead pack.’’

Alicia Ary (38th, 18:30.47) and Emily Stoklosa (42nd, 18:33.20) completed the Porters’ lineup.

Sandburg scored 183 and finished seventh, two spots from qualifying for the state meet as a team.

Besides Leonard, Sandburg sophomore Casey Jensen was the only Southland runner to qualify as an individual for the girls state meet. Jensen finished 13th (17:58.97) and earned the fifth of seven individual berths for the state final.

Sandburg junior Grace Foley came within two seconds of returning to the state meet. The final individual spot went to Bolingbrook’s Arianna Amill, who was 16th in 18:01.13 while Foley finished 17th in 18:03.27.