IL HS XC Week in Review - August 30, 2020

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

The first week of Illinois High School Cross Country is complete with a different look than we witnessed a year ago. There were more meets that took place during this time period. There were less amount of major invitational meets than we saw a year ago. That is due to COVID-19 Pandemic guidelines set forth by the state.

Even without the BIG meet, there were some great performances in the small meets that we need to look at.

Here are some of the highlights of races from the past week.

Poglitsch and Schlenker racing at Mooseheart

Batavia and Wheaton-Warrenville South will race against each other five times during the 2020 season. Samantha Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South and Katrina Schlenker of Batavia finished second and third at the 2019 IHSA State Cross Country Meet. Their first race sets up great things still to come if the two are in the lineups the next four times. Their conference meet at Lake Park on October 17 should be one to remember.

Batavia will be using the Mooseheart school campus for their home course this fall. The surfaces are a mix of limestone, roads, grass, and everything else that makes cross country racing fun.

Poglitsch and Schlenker ran side by side on this three mile course including coming down to the finish. Poglitsch had the edge in this race as she ran 17:39.08 for the win. Schlenker ran 17:39.74 to finish second.

Wheaton-Warrenville South displayed a nice pack behind Poglitsch that included two freshmen. The Lady Tigers won this quad meet that included Batavia, St. Charles North, and Wheaton North scoring only 28 points. South had five runners in the top nine with a 45 second split from their second to fifth runners. Batavia did not have all of their top runners in the race, but still scored 53 points to finish second.

Wheaton-Warrenville South had a 36 second top five split from their first to fifth runners to win with 38 points ahead of Wheaton North who scored 44 points. Noah Eng of St. Charles North ran 15:43 for the win ahead of Batavia’s Ryan Mansour (15:54).

Metamora Quad

Wilson Georges and Jadyn Jacobs ran to win in their races Saturday. You can read about them here.

Metamora scored only 26 points ahead of Limestone (54 points) in this Boys’ four team meet placing five runners in the top nine. Washington won in the Girls Meet (27 points) to Metamora (39 points). Only three of the schools had five scoring runners.

Saber Corn Invitational @ St. Thomas More, Champaign

Monticello places three runners in the first four overall places to win the Girls championship with 30 points. The varsity race had to be run in five race sections. Stanford Olympia scored 47 points to finish second. Mabry Bruhn of Monticello ran great timed at a fast 17:26 for the individual win. Teammate Rachel Koon finished second (18:14) ahead of Olympia’s Savannah Beavers (19:15).

Arthur Lovington’s Layton Hall is running with a chip on his shoulder after his performance in last year’s state race. Hall is loaded and ready to go as exhibited by his race on Saturday. Hall was the only runner under 15-minutes as he clocked a 14:53 winning time. Ryder James of Paxton-Buckley-Loda ran 15:09 to finish second with Olympia’s Charlie Kistner running 15:14 to finish third. Stanford Olympia put five runners in the first 10 with a 45 second split from their second to fifth runners to give them the team win with 35 points. Arthur-Lovington (55 points) and Monticello (71 points) finished second and third.

Yorkville’s new course looks and is fast

Yorkville developed a new course on their campus for this season. After Saturday evening’s race, it looks like we could see some fast times from this layout. “The course is a true 3-miles,” said Yorkville Coach Chris Muth. “No 90 degree turns. Any of the turns that we have are track-like turns.”

Yorkville and West Aurora faced off in a dual meet Saturday night. Yorkville swept the first 10 places to win with a perfect 15 to 50 score. Helena Kleronomos was the individual winner with a 17:53 time. Their top five split was 49 seconds. Yorkville’s second through eight runner split was only 28 seconds.

Yorkville’s Boys team also scored a perfect 15 to 50 score led by Ivan Westcott and Austin Popplewell crossing the line together in a fast 14:45.

Huntley Triangular Meet

When three quality teams meet, it is probably going to be close. Such was the case in on the girls side of the meet between host Class 3A Huntley and Class 2A Prairie Ridge and Crystal Lake South in this Fox Valley Conference triangular.

Crystal Lake South and Prairie Ridge both scored 38 points ahead of Huntley who only had 48 points. In dual meet scoring between the two Crystal Lake schools, Crystal Lake South would have won 28 to 31.

Isabella Gonzalez of Crystal Lake South was the individual winner (18:45) ahead of Prairie Ridge’s Rachel Soukup (19:11) and Huntley twins Breanna (19:12) and Brittney Burak (19:21).

It was also close in the Boys race as Huntley edged Prairie Ridge 27 to 28 putting three runners in ahead of Huntley’s second runner. Prairie Ridge freshman Will Gelon ran 16:23 for the individual win ahead of Huntley’s Thomas Patel (16:28).

SWSC Pre-Conference Meet

The two day event on August 26-27 featured the Boys meet on that Wednesday followed by the Girls the next night.

On the first day of the competition, Sandburg placed five runners in the first ten to win the Boys’ Blue Division race with 26 points. Their front three consisting of Griffin Lehnhardt, Brock Rice, and Ismail Tineh were only separated by eight seconds. Their top five split was 63 seconds, but only 22 seconds on their first four runners. Wil Kiley of Lockport devastated the field running 15:05 on Lockport’s three-mile course for the win 19 seconds ahead of Lehnhardt. Lincoln-Way East finished second (57 points) just ahead of Lockport (58 points).

Lincoln-Way Central took the top three places in the Red Division race to pace them to the team win with 27 points. Lincoln-Way West placed second (58 points). Central’s Jay Parker ran 15:49 for the individual win ahead of teammate Caden Simone (16:03).

Lockport had a 52 second split on their top five runners to score 28 points to win the Girls Blue Division race on Thursday. Lincoln-Way East’s Kate Guderjan ran 18:23 for the individual win just seven seconds ahead of Caroline Schoen of Homewood-Flossmoor (18:30).

Lincoln-Way Central swept places four through eight to easily win the Red Division race led by Merrigan Allen’s fourth-place finish. Lincoln-Way West’s Gianna Arizzi ran a fast 18:09 to win her race by 70 seconds.

Macomb Early Bird Meet

It was the opening race of the season for Hamilton COOP’s Miles Sheppard. The third-place finisher in last year’s Class 1A race ran 15:30.3 for 3.06 miles Thursday at Macomb’s Spring Lake Park to win by 85 seconds ahead of Macomb’s Stan Melkumian.

Marion Fast Start Invitational

Marion’s Boys team placed five runners in the first ten places to score the win (28 points) ahead of Carbondale (63 points) and Centralia (82 points) who were without their top two runners Brooks Harlan and Cory Fleeman. Alex Partlow of Carbondale ran 15:57 for the win ahead of Carmi White County’s Ty Barbre (16:05).

Madeline Prideaux of Carbondale ran 20:27 for the win in the Girls race. Her winning margin was 59 seconds ahead of Mt. Vernon’s Brittney Brown (21:26). Carbondale scored 21 points for the win ahead of Vienna (58 points).

Photo courtesy of Rob Harvey, Wheaton-Warrenville South HS

©2020 ILXCTF.com