By Michael Newman

[email protected]

The Naperville Twilight Invitational started in 2011 as a five-team meet featuring schools from the Naperville area. The meet moved from the campus of Neuqua Valley High School to its current home at Naperville North High School in 2015.

The eighth edition of this meet could prove to be the best of the eight contested. The meet has grown from five schools to 17 schools in each of the boys and girls varsity races. The popularity of the meet has also increased proving in some cases that this is a preview of the IHSA State Meet in one month at Detweiller Park.

Here are some of the storylines to keep an eye on for Wednesday’s race. The gun goes off for the first race at the Naperville North Campus course at 4:30 p.m. Eight races will be contested at this meet with a race going off every 30 minutes. The girls varsity race starts at 7:30 p.m., with the boys varsity race starting at 8 p.m.

Live Results Link | Meet Homepage | Extended Boys Preview | Extended Girls Preview | IL Speed Ratings (ilxcspeedratings.com) Race Projections

1. The three Griak Illinois teams back on the starting line – Yorkville hit the national spotlight on Saturday when they won the Meet Team Championship at the Roy Griak Invitational on the campus of the University of Minnesota. Four days later, Yorkville, along with second and third place Griak finishers Naperville North and Downers Grove South, will be back on the starting line in another high impact race.

This is usually not the case with this meet as it is usually 10 days after the Griak get together. That meet was moved back seven days for 2018. A question will be fatigue after running on such a hilly course like Les Bolstad Golf Course is.

“We treated the week before Griak as an easy week buffering for that race,” Yorkville Coach Chris Muth said before the Minnesota race. “We will take it easy after we get back from Minnesota gearing up for the Twilight meet.”

These three teams might also will face a possible emotional fatigue heading into Wednesday’s race especially after a race like Griak was on Saturday.

That might not be a problem. “This is one of the best races of the regular season in the state of Illinois, so I eagerly anticipate the endless opportunities that await,” Downers Grove South’s top runner Brenna Cohoon said. “The Twilight competition is phenomenal. The crowd offers so much great energy while we are racing.  We all eagerly await the race this Wednesday and cannot wait to see what this meet has in store.”

2. There are more than three teams to watch for in the girls race – While all eyes will be on the three teams from last weekend, the Girls field offers a preview for the IHSA 3A State Meet that takes place one month from race day on November 3. Eight of the top 11 3A ranked teams are in this field including the top four schools.

Glenbard West will be one of the “non-Griak” teams to watch for. The Hilltoppers have individual race favorite Katelynne Hart leading them with Katie Hohe a possible finisher in the top five individuals. We will get an idea of how their third to fifth pack runners pack matches up with Yorkville, Naperville North, and Downers Grove South. The same holds true for Wheaton-Warrenville South who finished one point behind Glenbard West at Peoria’s Richard Spring Invitational on September 15. Samantha Poglitsch should be one of the top five runners in the race. The Lady Tigers will hope for better pack running than their last race at Centerville, Ohio on September 22 where they finished fourth. A tight pack could draw Wheaton-Warrenville South into a five-team race. 20 points or under could separate the top five teams in what could be a tight finish.

3. Hart goes for Pendergast’s course and meet record – When the meet was first run on Naperville North’s XC Campus course in 2015, Judy Pendergast put her mark on the course running 16:15.2 in winning the meet race and setting the course record. One month later, Pendergast ran 15:53.8 to set the course record at Detweiller Park as well as winning the 3A State Championship.

Glenbard West’s Katelynne Hart is chasing after her third straight title 3A State XC title. She is also chasing after her third straight win in this race. She will also be going after the course record that she missed by seven tenths of a second running 16:15.9.

Conditions look good for fast times on this course that finishes in the middle of Naperville North’s Football stadium. Hart also looks ready for the challenge. In her last race more than two weeks ago at Peoria’s Detweiller Park, Hart won the race by 30 seconds clocking a 16:14 winning time. That was after she went through the first 880 yards in 2:30 and the first mile in 5:10.

Glenbard West Coach Paul Hass stated after that race that Hart just got a little excited for that race going out that fast. The plan was hitting 5:20 for each of the three miles to get close to 16-minutes. Maybe we see that kind of race Wednesday evening.

Hart could be pushed by Batavia’s Katrina Schlenker. The freshman has gone undefeated this fall with a 16:42 best at Detweiller part of her resume.

4. Shilgalis attempts back-to-back wins at Twilight – Naperville Central’s Thomas Shilgalis won the 2017 Boys Race by waiting until the final 600-meters taking the lead away from Zach Kinne before the two runners hit the track for the final 400-meters of the race. Shilgalis set a course record of 14:27 winning ahead of Kinne by six seconds.

The Naperville senior showed he was fit in last Saturday’s Peoria Invitational when he ran 14:11 to win the 3A race by 11 seconds ahead of Maine South’s Tommy Brady.

In a post-race interview, Shilgalis disclosed that he had been sick for the past three weeks with bronchitis and a viral infection. His coach David Ashton stated that his runner was not yet at 100% health. Shilgalis even mentioned in the interview that he might not run.

His Peoria race shows that he could go back to back in this meet possibly eclipsing his course record. He will have company up front with him. Rory Cavan of Glenbard West ran 14:24 at Peoria’s First to the Finish Invitational to win by two seconds ahead of Jack Roberts from Downers Grove North. Both runners are in this race, rested, and capable of pushing the winning time past the course record and possibly under 14:20 on this fast course.

5. Downers Grove South leads the pack in a wide-open boys race – The team deck for this race was shuffled on Saturday when Downers Grove South jumped into the favored role with a convincing win at the Peoria Invitational. The Mustangs could have the edge on the rest of the pack after running a 35 second pack on their top five runners led by the top ten finish by Eddie Siuda. South will need to have that type of a race to pick up their second major invitational win in a week. Defending meet and 3A state champion Downers Grove North has not run their entire top seven in one race. We could see how good this team is on Wednesday evening.

Neuqua Valley displays a solid pack that does not have any star runners in the front since their top runner Zach Kinne moved to Pennsylvania during the summer. Their pack is still potent enough to come away with the team win. Glenbard West has Cavan and Stephen Moody that could finish in the top five individually. It’s getting their next five runners closer to their front two that will be something to watch in order for the Hilltoppers to come away with the team win.

6. The anticipation, the race atmosphere – Some of the athletes after last year’s race commented how loud it was during the race with fans surrounding most of the two-lap course. They also commented that the cheering moved them to faster times.

Part of the anticipation of this year’s meet comes from Naperville North Girls Coach Dan Iverson who also serves as the co-meet director along with Naperville North Boys Coach David Racey. The addition of Palatine and Batavia strengthens an already strong field. Teams have commented to Iverson that they would like to get into the meet. The course may not be wide enough in some portions of the course to hold the 170 runners that will race in both Varsity races. Still, this race is one of the favorites of the runners and one of the top invitational meets during the regular season in Illinois.

Still, you never know. This meet has grown over the past three years. We could see 20 squads on the starting line in 2019. That’s only a guess. Anticipating this meet for another year could see this meet grow even larger.

Photo – Katelynne Hart winning the Naperville Twilight Girls race ©2018 Laura Duffy