Hart completes sweep at Naperville Twilight Invitational

Naperville North too much for the Girls field; Allen pulls away for Boys Individual win; Naperville Central wins Boys team

By Michael Newman

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Naperville – It was not the race that Katelynne Hart of Glenbard West had imagined it to be Wednesday night at the Naperville Twilight Invitational. She still was head over heels the class of the field in the Girls Varsity race taking the lead at 880 yards and never looking back. She crossed the line in 16:26 winning the Varsity race for the fourth straight year.

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“Last year I was 5:16 at the mile,” Hart said. “I was just trying to stay a little more conservative in the first mile. I knew the course was muddy and I had not raced in a while since Peoria. This was my first race back. It was a solid effort and there was a lot to build off from this race.”

It was not the typical Hart-like race where she stormed out to a big lead and dared her competition to chase after her. She passed the first mile in a “pedestrian” 5:22 with the pack led by Lianna Surtz of Rosary, Ava Parekh of Latin School, Brooke Stromsland of Lakes Community, and Maggie Gamboa of Naperville North eight seconds back of Hart.

“I was feeling relatively comfortable at that point,” Gamboa said. “In my head I thought it was too fast. I was relatively closer to her (Hart) than I usually am.”

Hart maintained her pace the rest of the way winning by seven seconds ahead of Parekh (16:33) who finished 53 seconds back of the Glenbard senior almost three weeks ago at the Richard Spring Invitational.

It was a reminder that every runner will not be at their best on a certain day. Even not at her best, Hart was still able to control this field. She still ran the third fastest time ever on this course. Perhaps the stress of a decision on where she would be attending college weighed a little on her.

“I actually think it did. I am going to make my decision either before or after conference meet in a week,” Hart added. “I thought that some of the visits would not be great. All of them were wonderful which makes the decision even harder.”

WATCH THE KATELYNNE HART INTERVIEW

Parekh’s second-place time of 16:33 was a personal best by almost 20 seconds. Surtz, who ran with Parekh the entire race, was next in 16:36. Then followed Gamboa who ran a personal best of 16:42. Stromsland ran 16:46. For the second time in a week in finishing fourth.

The buildup of the Girls race was the dynamics that this charged up field with the top Girls in the state brought. This was the first time that this season that the top teams in the state Downers Grove South and Naperville North would face each other.

As the runners finished in this race, it was evident that Naperville North had the edge. The Huskies scored 56 points to defend their meet title. Downers Grove South was next with 85 points.

“We felt some of the pressure knowing that there was some good teams here like Downers Grove South,” said Gamboa. “We weren’t really making a statement. We didn’t change our race plan. We were just running as best as we could.”

Gamboa was followed across the line with Audrey Mendrys finished 13th. Then followed Molly Morton (16th), Jana Dawson (17th), and Lucy Westlake (20th). The top five split off of Gamboa was a credible 67 seconds. Their split from Mendrys to Westlake was an incredible 20 seconds.

Downers Grove South did not run bad in finishing second. It was just Naperville North ran that much better than the rest. Brenna Cohoon led her team placing 9th. Erin Reidy came across the line five seconds later in 12th. Sophia McNerney (22), Alex Sprang (25), and Kennedy Warden (33) rounded out the Mustangs top five. The split on their scorers was 53 seconds.

Hinsdale Central finished third (120 points) behind the 10-11 finish from Emma Watcke and McKenna Revord. Catie McCabe, who is normally the team’s third runner, was under the weather and was the team’s sixth runner.

Yorkville, in their second big race in less than a week, finished fourth (135 points) led by Helena Kleronomos’ 14th place finish. Batavia was two points back in fifth (137 points) led by Katrina Schlenker’s seventh-place finish. 

Boys Race

It was not a matter if Naperville North’s Jake Allen would win this race. It was a matter of when he would take the lead for good. The Naperville North senior pulled away from Neuqua Valley’s Nicolas Dovalovsky in the final 800 meters to win the race comfortably in 14:43. Dovalovsky (14:54) and Palatine’s Richie Jacobo (14:58) were the only other runners under 15-minutes finishing second and third.

The pace was honest as Allen and Dovalovsky led the pack through a 4:51 opening mile. The pace started to pick up as the race pack toured the Naperville North track for one lap before heading back out to the Naperville North athletic fields. Jones Prep’s Anthony Maida was pushing the pace at that point with Allen, Jacobo, and Dovalovsky on his shoulder. Dovalovsky and Allen broke away in the final mile followed by Allen’s move.

“I was just hoping to go out and get the win,” Allen said. “I was planning on making a move at 2-miles. Nick (Dovalovsky) went with me. I was just trying to match the moves he was making and trying to stay with him. I was just hoping to break away eventually and I did.”

It was a mystery on which Boys team would step up for the team title in this meet. It was Naperville Central that had a say at the end. Despite the fact that Jones Prep had four runners across the line before Naperville Central’s third runner, the difference was the pack of the Redhawks. Central had only a 19 second split on their top five runners that finished in the top 28. Central’s score of 110 was two points ahead of second-place Jones Prep who scored 112 points.

Arthur Graham led Naperville Central with a 14th place finish. He was followed by Nethan Ramachandran (19th), Nicholas Keeling (23th), Patrick Spisak (26th), and Brandon Kamp (28th).

Jones Prep had Anthony Maida leading them placing ninth followed by teammates Ryan DeSantis (16th), Ian Bacon (18th), Aaron Hou (22th), and Luke Benes (47th).

Naperville North finished third (139 points) behind Allen’s win. Batavia (143 points) and Downers Grove North (172 points) rounded out the top five teams.