Schlenker and Hauenstein final mile moves capture individual titles

By Michael Newman

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Roselle, Ill – It was like “Field of Dreams” as fog covered most of the Lake Park High School East Campus Course on hour before the start of the DuKane Conference Cross Country Championships. Fans were waiting for ghosts from the past to come out of the fields surrounding the course. Instead they were treated to the fog lifting, temperatures in the 40’s, and some great individual and team races.

Four schools each from the DuPage Valley Conference and Upstate Eight Conference formed this new athletic league. Wheaton-Warrenville South made history as their Boys and Girls teams swept the Varsity team titles in spectacular fashion.

Batavia and Wheaton-Warrenville South were so close together throughout the three-mile Girls race. Through the half way point, it was the South Tigers that had the slight advantage ahead of Batavia anywhere from four to six points. Batavia made moves from 1.5 miles to 2.5 miles to take a three-point lead as they approached the track for the final 300-meters. The lead changed for good as the runners crossed the finish line. The verdict: Wheaton-Warrenville South by two points 54 to 56 ahead of Batavia.

“We knew it was going to be a great team race. Batavia is such a great program,” Wheaton-Warrenville South Coach Rob Harvey said afterwards. “This is the first year of the DuKane Conference and you can only do something once. To win all three levels today was special for our kids.”

The Tigers were led by Samantha Poglitsch’s third-place finish. South also received top ten finishes from Laurel Moneysmith (9^th) and Haley Ansiel (10^th). Kaitlyn Nenninger (12^th) and freshman Annie Maccbobby (20^th) finished their scorers. Their split on from Moneysmith to Maccbobby was 40 seconds. Harvey also said it was their best race of the season as of Saturday. “There is still room for improvement,” Harvey said. “I liked what I saw today.”

Katrina Schlenker led Batavia by winning the individual race. Just as the team race was fascinating to watch, so was the battle that was going on in the front between Schlenker and St. Charles East’s Alice Abbott. The two runners passed the mile in 5:23 with South’s Poglitsch another five seconds back.

Abbott and Schlenker passed two-miles in 11:05. It was that point when the action began.

“We came out to the course on Tuesday to run around, so I got a better sense what it was like,” Schlenker said. “We did not come up with a race plan until yesterday (Friday).

The race plan was to go out fast and then after the two-mile point. Abbott was grinding the pace for the first two-thirds of the race. Now it was Schlenker’s turn. She made a first charge from the starting area. At the next turn at the top of the hill, the freshman surged again coming down hill. It was a surge that Abbott had no answer for. With 800 meters left in the race, Schlenker’s lead a grown from zero to seven seconds. It grew to 14 seconds as Schlenker crossed the line in 16:50 with Abbott (17:04) and Poglitsch (17:19) following. The time, considering how sloppy some of the portions of the course were, is exceptional.

“We have been doing a lot of hill workouts lately. I was going to use the hill to push ahead,” Schlenker added. “I knew it was a possibility that I could win it. I’m glad that I did.”

Batavia ran with a good pack behind their star freshman with a 54 second split led by the seventh-place finish from Mia Gianfrancesco. Jenna Schifferer (13^th), Audrey Pellico (16^th), and Erin O’Brien (19^th) were the next in line for the Bulldogs.

It was impossible to tell who was ahead in the Boys team race between two of the top three ranked teams in the state Wheaton-Warrenville South and St. Charles East. The two teams raced each other 14 days prior. The race that happened Saturday morning was mirror image of the St. Charles North Meet race.

Six Wheaton-Warrenville South runners, five St. Charles East runners along with Ryan Kredell of Geneva and Connor Zydek of Wheaton North were among the runners in the front pack as the group passed two-miles in 10:01. South’s Billy Hauenstein decided the time was right to start to push the pace even harder as he took the lead at the top of the turn on the hill. Kredell and St. Charles East’s Bob Liking refused to let go staying close to Hauenstein. The three together started opening a lead on the rest of the field.

The three runners were even when they approached the track.

“My kick kind of starts to pick up with 1200 meters to go, then 600 and then 300,” Hauenstein said. “With 200 meters left, it’s like bat out of hell going all out to the finish line.”

The three entered the track and Liking tried to make a move, then Kredell. Hauenstein kept the lead as they headed the opposite direction down the back stretch of the track. As they approached the curve with 200-meters left, Kredell looked like he was ready to pass Hauenstein, but the Wheaton runner found one more gear that no one else in the race had. Hauenstein crossed the line in 14:54 two seconds ahead of Kredell (14:56) and another two seconds ahead of Liking (14:58).

If this race was a war, then Wheaton-Warrenville South won all the battles as they scored 28 points ahead of St. Charles East with 46 points. South was without their fifth-runner David Zeller who was sick and did not run. The Tigers still had their first six runners in ahead of St. Charles East’s fourth runner.

Sean Maison and Scott Maison both ran 15:05 passing East’s Aidan King just before the finish. The two finished fourth and fifth. Jacob Kluckhohn was the team’s fourth runner as he finished seventh. Jared Peaslee stepped in as the team’s fifth runner as he finished 11^th. The five runners were separated by only 26 seconds.

The Saints split on five was just as good as 27 seconds separated their top five. Following Liking (3^rd) and King (6^th) were Bennett Melone (8^th) and then Micah Wilson (14^th) and Zach Loomis (15^th). Wilson fell 800-meters into the race but got up and rejoined his teammates in the front.

“It was just a great race overall,” Liking said afterwards. “All of us had a pretty good race today.”

“I love racing against St. Charles East,” Hauenstein added. “I was so psyched when I found out that they were going to be in our conference. Since we won’t see them again until state, this was a good race to see where we were compared to them.”