New kids on the block win individual races at Southwest Prairie Conference Championships

Kleronomos, Morrill win individual races; Yorkville captures Girls title; Oswego East edges Minooka in Boys race tiebreak

By Michael Newman

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Channahon – It was a new location for West Aurora and Yorkville compared to a year ago. At this time last year, Yorkville was competing in the now defunct NIB-12 Conference Meet while West Aurora was a member of the Upstate Eight Conference. Now the two schools are members of the Southwest Prairie Conference.

It was two runners from these schools that made statements in their first race in their new conference capturing individual wins in convincing fashion.

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Yorkville’s Helena Kleronomos broke away from the rest of the field just after the mile and cruised to a 10 second win ahead of Minooka’s Audrey Boles in the Girls Varsity Race. West Aurora’s Jackson Morrill pulled away from five other runners in the final 600-meters to capture the Boys Varsity title running 15:26 on a less than perfect Channahon Park course to win by six seconds ahead of Minooka’s Vincent Van Eck and Hunter Phillips. Rain from the past couple of weeks still had not drained from some portions of the course putting some sections of the course making going through some of the course soaked puddles interesting.

Yorkville’s Coach Chris Muth called this race a rust buster for some. This was the first time this season that the Lady Foxes have been at full strength. One of their top runners Kailey Fox raced for the first time Friday on the Varsity level. Fox had missed most of the season due to a hip injury. It was also the return for Anna Hunter who had a minor injury and had not raced for the past couple of meets.

“We wanted to make the last mile our fastest today,” Muth said. “We went out a little conservative. We were also a little too relaxed before the start.”

The pace was slow in the Girls Varsity race as Kleronomos led the pack going through the mile in 5:53. A pack of four Oswego runners was tucked behind. Yorkville’s pack was 10 seconds behind at this point.

It was time for Yorkville to move as they closed the gap on Oswego’s quartet of Audra Soderlind, Rebecca Corbett, Ella Hale, and Peyton Brueck in the last half of the race. Kleronomos’ win helped Yorkville win their first SPC Conference Championship with 33 points. Alex Stewart was the second Yorkville runner placing 4th. Hailey Simmons (6th), Kailey Fox (10), and Anna Hunter (12) followed. The top five split for Yorkville was 43 seconds. The split from Stewart to Hunter was only 16 seconds.

“I did like how we closed,” Muth added. “We still have work to do.”

Oswego ran their best race of the season so far finishing second with 49 points. What was impressive about the Panthers race was their top four runner split between Corbett (5th), Soderlind (7th), Hale (8th), and Brueck (9th) was only seven seconds. There was a 46 second gap before their fifth runner Sophia Marasco crossed the line in 20th. The week before at the Sterling Invitational, Marasco finished 55 seconds behind Soderlind.

Minooka finished third (79 points) behind the second-place finish from Boles. The Indians were again without their top runner Julia Dames who missed her second straight meet due to a minor injury. Oswego East, behind Morgan Ede’s 3rd place finish, placed fourth with 84 points.

The race plan for Oswego East in the Boys Varsity Race was simple: announce their presence in the front with authority, pushing the pace from the starter’s gun, and daring the other teams to stay with their pack.

In this meet, Minooka took the dare which almost paid off in a conference championship.

The two teams were tied after five runners were scored with 43 points. It came down to Oswego East’s sixth-runner Nathan Brischetto who finished 17 overall and finished ahead of Minooka’s fifth-runner to give Oswego East their second straight conference title.

Oswego East, led by Heriberto Alvarez and Brad Wiggins, had five runners in the top nine as the leaders passed the first mile at 5:01 on this soft course. Minooka, with Jason Hoffman, Hunter Phillips, and Vincent Van Eck, made their way to the front by that point not exerting a ton of energy and looking to take the lead.

West Aurora’s Morrill and Joliet Central’s Jay Dvorak were the only runners from other schools in the front. The final half of the race became between a dual meet between Minooka and Oswego East.

As the runners approached the finish line, Minooka had the advantage on the first four team spots. Minooka’s first and second runners Van Eck and Phillips crossed together in second and third places. Then Oswego East with Alvarez finishing fourth and Wiggins placing sixth. Dvorak finished in between them in fifth. Then Minooka’s third runner Hoffman in seventh followed by Oswego East’s third runner Nichola Bozarth in eighth. Minooka’s fourth runner Daniel Schalk placed ninth followed by Oswego East’s Luke Wentz in 10th.

Through four runners, Minooka had the edge 21-28 over Oswego East. However, it takes five runners to get the final score.

Oswego East took the next two spots in this dual as Maverick Lange finished 15th followed by Brischetto. Oswego East left with the conference title with a 39 second split on their top five runners.

Minooka’s fifth runner to score was Emerson Fayman as he placed 22nd. Minooka’s top four split was 22 seconds. Their split on five runners was 51 seconds.

Yorkville finished third (98 points) behind the 11-12 finish from Ivan Westcott and Austin Popplewell.