In her final race of the season at LT Saturday, Gordon had a much better finish.

Gordon won her first varsity race in helping the Lions capture the team title at the Class 3A LT Regional in Western Springs.

Gordon covered the sloppy 3.0-mile course in 18 minutes, 42 seconds, winning by eight seconds over Hinsdale Central freshman Jill Hardies.

"I'm definitely very happy with how it went. Even more, I'm happy with how everyone did. That really takes first in my mind," Gordon said.

"Especially since we were missing (No. 1 runner Kelsey Kilrea), I'm just so happy about being able to step up and do well as a team. It was hard because the course was pretty saturated. The whole time everyone was working hard to keep going."

LT sophomore Juliet Lusson (19:18) and senior Eliza Dudley (19:24) were sixth and seventh, and freshman Randie Speir (19:40) and junior Carly Rocco (19:40) were 11th and 12th, followed by freshman MaryClaire Flaherty (15th, 19:57) in her varsity debut and senior Kylie Ziolkowski (31st, 21:21).

Lyons Township, ranked No. 10 in last week's Illinois Cross Country Association state poll, scored 37 points to win by 10 points over No. 12 Downers Grove North with No. 11 Hinsdale Central (51) third. It was LT's first regional title since 2006.

The Lions now need a top-five finish at the Lockport Sectional at 10:45 a.m. Saturday at Dellwood Park to advance to the state meet for the 11th consecutive year.

No. 8 Sandburg will be the only other top-15 ranked team in the sectional field. LT coach Julie Metz said senior Kilrea is expected to rejoin the lineup.

"This team is so deserving of a regional championship with their performance. If we continue to stay healthy and focused, we should do very well at sectional," Metz said.

"I was very pleased to see Lisa just go out and attack and dominate the competition in very undesirable conditions -- saturated and muddy from the continuous rain. As for the pack, they are solid and right where they need to be at this point."