Practice Makes Perfect for Jill Borza

Marist Junior Jill Borza races to the finish line – Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune

Jill Borza has come a long way to her cross-country career success with a simple, yet challenging, secret formula.

“This year I’ve been training a lot harder in practice than normal,” said Borza. “I’ve noticed it’s really starting to pay off with my mental toughness during races.”

Borza, a Marist Junior, demonstrated her training experience when she was able to overcome 90-degree weather to win the Tinley Park Invitational Championship Division race on September 23 at Midlothian Meadows. In sweltering conditions, Borza didn’t make an issue of the dangerous heat and instead led her team Marist to the team championship.

“It was definitely hot. But everyone is racing in the heat, so you can’t really complain about it,” Borza said.

Marist had strong weight on their shoulders to fill in the void of two-time Class 3A All-Stater Maryclare Leonard because of graduation. She was the legendary player who led the RedHawks to numerous team titles in the past four years, before her new journey to Notre Dame.

“We really miss Maryclare, but we really have a strong pack as a team,” Borza said. “I’m really proud with how the team has been doing overall this year. We’ve all been working really hard and pushing each other.”

Borza’s proof of that came Saturday at the St. Charles North Invitational, where both Jill Borza and Freshman Cecelia Light ran 1-2 at the Tinley Park Meet. Light however, was Marist’s top 1st runner at the invitational, whereas Borza came in as the second-best runner. It wasn’t until the Richard Spring Invitational last month in Peoria that Borza believed was a revelation for the RedHawks.

“I think that was the first meet where we really started to notice that we can all run together as a pack,” said Borza. “That really pays off during races.”

Borza as a freshman came a long way to today’s performance, where then she placed amongst the team’s top 5 runners in the 2015 class of 2A. It wasn’t until the RedHawks returned to Class 3A last year, which didn’t qualify them as a team for the state final. Maryclare Leonard at the time only qualified as an individual runner. After gaining much momentum, Borza believes this is the year for the RedHawks.

“We’d like to make it downstate as a team this year,” Borza said. “We’ve done that once before in 2A, but now we’re going to go for it in 3A.”