Methner, VanderKooi punch tickets to San Diego with Foot Locker Midwest wins

By Michael Newman

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Kenosha – It seemed like it was an everyday walk in the park for Josh Methner of Mt. Prospect IL on Saturday morning.

It was more like a romp in the mud for the two-time Illinois Class 3A State champion. Methner pulled away from Bob Liking of St. Charles IL in the final kilometer for the win. His winning time of 15:46.7 was almost five seconds ahead of runner-up Michael Hancock of Dearborn MI.

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The goal for Methner in this race was just to finish in the top 10 according to his Coach Kevin Young before the race started. It seemed that was the goal for the rest of the front pack with none of those runners wanting to take the lead. By the time that Methner and Liking passed 2-miles in 10:05, they had opened up a 10 second lead on the rest of the race.

“I was hurting heading into that final kilometer,” Methner said after the race. “I just opened it up and went.”

Methner cruised towards the finish line looking back in the final 200-meters to see that h had the race won. Methner will have a busy next two weeks running on December 7 in the Nike Cross Nationals and then the following week in San Diego for the Foot Locker Nationals. The Hersey senior has done this before earning All-American honors in both races last December.

It was a huge day for runners in this race from Michigan as they placed in seven of the first nine places. With Michigan athletes not allowed to compete on teams at the NXR Midwest Regional, their focus was on this race and it showed. The seven runners finished within eight seconds of each other running in a team pack atmosphere.

Hancock led the group with his second-place finish. Nathan Walker of Fremont MI followed one second later in third. Liking separated the pack by finishing fourth running 15:53.2.

Then came the rest of the Michigan qualifiers with Zachary Stewart of Brighton MI fifth, Evan Bishop of Grand Rapids MI sixth, Brendan Favazza of Clarkston MI seventh, Jack Spamer of Brighton MI eighth, and Carter Solomon of Canton MI ninth.

Parker Wolfe of Denver CO was the final qualifier to San Diego finishing tenth and within a half a second of Solomon.

It was also a big day for Michigan runners in the Girls race as Abby VanderKooi of Fremont MI and Zofia Dudek of Ann Arbor MI took the first two spots in the championship race.

VanderKooi does not get the opportunity to run against the “name” runners during the season as her school Western Michigan Christian is in Class 4, the smallest classification in Michigan. The sophomore showed that she could run with the best last December when she finished third in the Foot Locker National Finals. That memory clicked in for her in this race as she pulled away from Michigan D1 and NXR Midwest Regional champion Dudek in the final 50-meters to win the race in 17:17.8. Dudek ran 17:20.5 to finish second. It was a huge improvement for Dudek as she finished 18th in last year’s regional race.

“It is really scary. I was nervous before the race. I thrive on big races like this,” VanderKooi said. “All I wanted to do today was qualify for the finals. That was my goal.”

VanderKooi, Dudek, Taylor Ewert of Dayton OH, and Katelynne Hart of Glen Ellyn IL separated themselves from the rest of the pack after the first mile of the race. The four runners went through 2-miles in 11:15. VanderKooi and Dudek picked up the pace in the final kilometer. Ewert and Hart were content to let the two Michigan runners go knowing that they had big races ahead in the next two meets.

“All today was about was getting into the first 10 spots,” Hart said. She will be making her third appearance in the Foot Locker Nationals final race. “It was all about surviving and advancing.”

Ewert ran 17:24 and was four seconds behind Dudek in third. Hart coasted to the finish line placing fourth in 17:34.

There was a 30 second gap before the next runners crossed the line. Annalyssa Crain of Bloomington IN led the pack by placing fifth followed by Riley Stewart of Englewood CO, Tatum David of Olney IL, Annalee Weaver of Stillwater MN, Daniella Santos of Hillard OH, and Audrey DaDamio of Bloomfield Hills MI who all qualified for the Foot Locker Nationals.

It was a big weekend for VanderKooi as she accepted an at-large berth to run in the Nike Cross Nationals on December 7. The sophomore did note run in that event in 2018.

There will be a huge Midwest group of runners that will compete in both national races with Ewert, Hart, Crain, Stewart, David, and Weaver all running in the two meets.

Dudek will also be running in two races. She was scheduled to head to Lisbon, Portugal to run for Poland in the European Cross-Country Championships on December 8.

Photos: ©2019 Laura Duffy