By Michael Newman

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A great performance by a team to earn a state championship is due to great teaching and patience of the coach that heads the team. In all three classifications this fall, that was evident by the three teams that won state championships.

Naperville North Coach Dan Iverson preached patience to his team throughout the season in the way that they ran their race. The Lady Huskies would get out in position the first half of the race and then moved in the final mile to put themselves in position for the win. In what was a competitive year for a group of four strong 3A Girls teams, the Huskies prevailed going undefeated against Illinois teams including winning the 3A State Championship as well as qualifying for the Nike Cross Nationals. The only to setbacks for this team was when they went out of state finishing 2^nd to Edina (MN) in Iowa at the beginning of September and then finishing third behind the Minnesota school as well as Mountain View (ID) at the Roy Griak Invitational at the end of September. Naperville North did get a little revenge at the Nike Cross Nationals as they finished 10^th overall ahead of Edina who finished 12^th.

We also considered Doug Plunkett of Downers Grove South and Chris Muth of Yorkville for the 3A award. Congratulations to Dan Iverson of Naperville North High School in Naperville, Illinois as the DyeStat Illinois 2016 Overall Coach of the Year as well as the 3A Girls Coach of the Year.

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The 2A Girls State Meet was one of the most competitive is recent memory. Three schools scored under 100 points with Crystal Lake Central scoring 124 points to finish fourth. Belvidere North’s Ken Husser, Dunlap’s Chris Friedman, Vernon Hills’ Suzanne Curry, and Crystal Lake Central’s Brett Willhoit all deserve recognition for that. It is Husser and his team that came out on top at the end of the year. He did have 3 all-state runners coming back heading into this season. It was the 4 freshmen that entered the top seven that included Madison Diercks (4^th) and Gianna Sagona (11^th) that were all-state that helped the Blue Thunder to their first state title in the Girls program history. Belvidere North finished second behind Dunlap early in the season at the First to the Finish Invitational. Husser was without State Champion Jenna Lutzow in the race. Even after Dunlap had on that race. Dunlap coach Chris Friedman acknowledged that Belvidere North was the best team in 2A. In November, the Blue Thunder proved that statement true.

Congratulations to Ken Husser of Belvidere North HS in Belvidere, Illinois as the DyeStat Illinois 2016 2A Coach of the Year.

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St. Joseph-Ogden was the most dominant team in 1A this year going undefeated against 1A teams. Jason Retz did a great job getting this team into position after losing 3 of his top 7 to graduation along with their third runner Hayley Grice transferring to another school. Retz got his team to believe more and more that they need to keep their pack close together in order to win meets. Their split of 50 seconds in November at Detweiller Park led by the 21^st place finish by Faith Houston was the recipe for the 1A state championship after finishing third the year before.

Congratulations to Jason Retz of St. Joseph-Ogden High School in St. Joseph, Illinois as the DyeStat Illinois 2016 1A Girls Coach of the Year.