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Hart breaks meet record in winning at Richard Spring Classic

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ILXCTF - Mike Newman   Sep 16th 2018, 1:16pm
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Glenbard West edges Wheaton-Warrenville South for Girls team title; Wheaton-Warrenville South dominates Boys race; Methner wins tactical Boys race

 

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

 

Peoria – It was only a matter of time before Glenbard West’s Katelynne Hart broke away from the pack in the Girls Varsity race at Saturday’s Richard Spring Classic.

It was in fact just before 880 yards into the race where Hart went through in 2:30 as she had opened up a six second lead on the rest of the race. It was not whether she would win or lose on this day. She was not racing the pack. It was a personal matter between Hart and the clock.

The margin of her win was 33 seconds for the Glenbard West junior. Hart’s time of 16:14.7 broke the five-year old meet record that Kaylee Flanagan ran in 2013 (16:20.3).

“I just wanted to improve from last week,” Hart said. “I was happy the way that I performed today. I was happy the way the team performed. I was going to try to run even splits (running 5:20’s) but that did not happen.”

“We talked before the race with the course being dried out, I thought she could get a fast time,” her Coach Paul Hass said. “She did not execute the race plan as we wanted. She gets excited sometimes at the start of races and tends to go out too fast. We wanted her to go out in 5:20 and get a good second and third mile.”

Hart had a 13 second lead ahead of the pack at the 1-Mile mark. At 2-miles, she went past in 10:40 with the lead growing to 29 seconds.

Alice Abbott of St. Charles East had raced Hart the week before at Lake Park finishing 37 seconds behind. The sophomore was the leader of the pack for the first half of the race and then pulling away in the final mile to run a personal best of 16:47 this time 33 seconds behind Hart.

“I knew she was going to go out fast. We all knew what she was going to do,” Abbott said. “It’s exciting to see what other Girls can do too and to see what can do in races against. It’s coming into races and not be scared and to see that anything is possible.”

Five runners in this race were 17-minutes or faster on this course Saturday compared to the two runners in last week’s First to the Finish Invitational. Samantha Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South ran 16:53 to finish third using a strong kick up the incline to finish five seconds ahead of Grant’s Aly Negovetich who ran 16:58 to finish fourth. Glenbard West’s Katie Hohe ran 17:00 to finish fifth just two seconds ahead of Rosary freshman Lianna Surtz who ran the fastest 2A Girls time on this course in 2018 (17:02).

The battle for the team title in the Girls race was supposed to be close between #4 Glenbard West and #5 Wheaton-Warrenville South. That did not disappoint as the West put three runners between 27th place and 53rd place to secure the team win by just two points 131 to 133. Part of it had to do with the two freshmen that Hass had in the lineup. Both were in the team’s top five as Audrey Allman finished 27th and Delaney Engel was the team’s sixth runner placing 82nd. Abby Hoffman (48th) and Chloe Connolly (53rd) were the team’s fourth and fifth runners.

“You just never know when you have one race under your belt in a career as a freshman.  You just don’t know what will happen,” Hass added. “I was satisfied with the team performance. I thought we were too far back in the beginning and we had to work to get up into contention. It’s still September and we have plenty of work to do.”

Hohe may have been the difference maker in this race for the Hilltoppers after running 17:48 last week at Lake Park. “She ran an uninspired race last week,” Hass stated about Hohe. “She let Abbott go last week. We told her she had to stay with her. She (Hohe) was really focused this week on improving on her performance.”

Wheaton-Warrenville South was close as Laurel Moneysmith was the team’s second runner finishing 11th. Kaitlyn Nenninger (21st), Haley Ansiel (44th), and Sarah Kulkarni (56th) were the Tigers’ other three scorers. It was not a matter of just one runner’s place in this race, it was the way that the team executed their race plan according to their Coach Rob Harvey.

“We had seven individual races today and not one team race,” Harvey explained. “It’s still September. We still have time to work on that.”

Oswego finished third (224 points) behind Isabelle Christiansen’s ninth-place finish. Oak Park-River Forest ran a 29 second split on their top five to finish fourth (230 points). Palatine, in their first invitational of the season, placed fifth (242 points behind sophomore Anne Marie Jordan’s seventh-place finish.

There was no question who won the Boys Varsity race. State top ranked Wheaton-Warrenville South showed they will be the team to beat in November with a superb performance in winning the team title with only 42 points. The Tigers moved throughout the race. In the final mile when they needed to get towards the front, they accomplished that. Their top five split in this race was only 13 seconds led by Scott Maison running 14:48 to finish fourth overall. Then his teammates came in as William Hauenstein placed 7th (14:56), Sean Maison 9th (14:56), Jacob Kluckhohn 10th (14:57), and David Zeller 12th (15:01). There was no other team in this meet that was going to touch that.

“Our main goal today was to have a tight split,” Scott Maison said afterwards. “We have been working on that in practice. We just wanted to replicate that in this race.”

“We did not want to run out of our heads and stay controlled the first mile,” Kluckhohn stated. “Everyone stayed together, worked through the triangle, and finished through.”

#5 St. Charles was just as impressive last week when they dominated at Lake Park. The Saints finished second (116 points) behind top ten finishes from Bob Liking (5th) and Bennett Melone. #7 Neuqua Valley finished third (145 points) using a 32 second split off their top five led by 14th and 15th place finishes of Michael Madiol and Chris Keeley. #2 Hersey (165 points) and #12 Sandburg (177 points) rounded out the top five teams.

Conditions were opposite of the Girls Varsity race one hour before as temperatures spiked into the 80-degree range with humidity levels matching that of the temperatures. The individual race became tactical as Hersey’s Josh Methner pulled away from York’s Ethan Kern in the final 800 meters to secure the win with a four second margin with a 14:37 winning time.

Mathias Powell of Mahomet-Seymour led the pack including Kern and Methner through the first mile in 4:45. The pace slowed down in the triangle portion of the course as the three went through 2-miles in 9:47. It was a matter of time before Methner going.

“This was not about time to day. It was about winning,” Methner said. “I just wanted to stay composed during the first mile.  I did not want to take it out that hard. I was just trying to stay on the shoulders of the leaders. I was not worried about pace.”

“With 1000 meters to go, Methner started pushing it really hard,” Kern said. He ran 14:41 to finish second overall. “I just tried to stick as long as I could. With 800 to go, I was just trying to hold on. I was going to see if I could get him with a kick. I just didn’t have it today.”

Powell ran 14:44 to finish third ahead of Scott Maison (14:48) and Liking (14:50) to round out the top five individual finishers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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