By Michael Newman

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I was looking forward to the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park last September. Not only was I looking forward to the great 3A Girls team race, I wanted to see Batavia’s Katrina Schlenker run her first big High School Cross Country race.

Schlenker had a dream middle school career ending with meet records in the 800 (2:16.42) and the 1600 (4:59.57) at the IESA State Championships. She ran 17:19 at Detweiller at Dark. I just wanted to see how this translated in a high school race.

The translation went great for her at FTTF pulling away from Barrington’s Molly FitzPatrick to run 16:42. I was even more impressed with her after the race in her interview. She did not talk like a freshman talking in detail about her strategy. We found out at the end of the year that she did not race like a freshman. More so, she raced like a seasoned veteran runner.

Her state race was impressive as she stayed within five seconds of Katelynne Hart for most of the race. She ended up finishing second overall (16:07) with the fourth fastest performance ever at the IHSA State Meet and fastest time ever at state for a freshman.

Schlenker made it to the Nike Cross Nationals finishing fifth at the NXR Midwest Regional. She was the third freshman to finish in the national race as she placed 27^th just three places behind training partner and friend Lianna Surtz.

This freshman class in 3A was tough with Aly Negovetich of Grant Community (4^th), Naomi Ruff of South Elgin (12^th), Rachel Price of St. Charles North (18^th), and Becca Corbett of Oswego (23^rd) all earning all-state honors. It seemed at times this year that Schlenker was light years ahead of this group. It was not in reality. I am looking to see how much better this group gets in the next three years.

Congratulations to Katrina Schlenker of Batavia High School in Batavia as the 2018 ILXCTF.com 3A Girls XC Newcomer of the Year.

Photo Credit: © 2018 Laura Duffy