Defending state champions St. Charles East, Naperville North in charge at Naperville Twilight

Dramatic individual wins from Dovalovsky, Schlenker

By Michael Newman

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Naperville – It was not supposed to be this way especially in a season that has been slowed down by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Naperville Twilight Invitational was at first only to have teams from the DuPage Valley Conference competing in this meet.

Meet organizers came up with the plan to allow more schools from the DuPage / Kane County region to be able to compete in the Varsity races on the first of two days of competition at Naperville North.

MEET RESULTS | RACE PHOTOS

The outcome of the six varsity races that took place on Friday night was a resounding success especially for defending Class 3A State Champions Naperville North and St. Charles East. Both squads had not had the chance to run in a big stakes race this season up to Twilight. They both proved they are among the top teams again in Illinois.

The final race of the night approved to be the most exciting coming to the finish line. The team race was a definition maker for host Naperville North.

The Lady Huskies placed five runners in the top seven to score only 24 points in the overall standings. In the Girls Orange Division race, their team score was only 19 points.

The individual Girls race did not fail to disappoint, Katrina Schlenker of Batavia pulled away in the final 300 meters on the track to come away with the individual win (17:09) ahead of Naperville North’s Maggie Gamboa (17:13) while Wheaton-Warrenville South’s Samantha Poglitsch ran 17:23 to finish third.

There were no surprises at the start of the final race of the night. Schlenker pushed the pace through a 5:33 opening mile with Gamboa and Poglitsch hanging close as they entered the track for one lap around the track. Gamboa’s teammates Lucy Westlake, Audrey Mendrys, and Campbell Petersen hung close at points of the race only 15-meters behind the lead three.

Leaving the track is when the action started to happening. Schlenker starting making a surge trying to break the front pack. Around 1.75 miles, Gamboa responded taking the lead and trying to break Schlenker. Poglitsch dropped off the pace just a little, but the two runners knew that she was still close.

The three runners passed around 2-miles in 11:25. Schlenker started pushing the pace issue with less than a kilometer to go. Gamboa would not let go. Poglitsch was starting to drop back but was still in the hunt.

Schlenker continued to make little surges entering the track. Gamboa would not let those moments affect her pace. The two runners were only separated by seconds as they entered the infield of the stadium. Schlenker had one more move in that final 100-meters that the other two runners did not have.

While Gamboa ran her best race so far this season, her teammates did not led their senior leader down staying within 45 seconds of each other. Westlake led the way as the team’s second runner (17:37) followed by Mendrys (17:41), and then Petersen (17:44) as the team’s fourth runner. Sophie Golobitsch was the team’s fifth runner running 17:55 to finish seventh. The split between Gamboa and Golobitsch was only 42 seconds.

St. Charles East has been building to a strong finish at the end of this season. The Lady Saints showed that by scoring 86 points to finish second. East ran a 54 second split on their top runner Mandy Andelman that finished ninth overall. Morgan Sandlund (13th), Mackenzie Loomis (17th), Ava Abbott (18th), and Eleanor Clark (29th) rounded out their top five.

Defending Class 2A State Champion Benet Academy showed why they are still the top team in their classification as they scored 92 points to finish third.

The Redwings placed their five scorers between 11th and 26th places with only a 46-second split from Louisa Diamond and Amelia Parisi. Wheaton-Warrenville South scored 164 points to finish fourth overall paced by Poglitsch’s finish and the 25th place finish from Becca Hauenstein. Batavia ran their core of their team in the Blue Division race but ran their top runners Schlenker and Jenna Schifferer (10th overall) in the Orange division. The Lady Bulldogs finished fifth overall (166 points). Lauren Hunecke was the team’s third runner but did win the Blue Division individual race (18:28) by four seconds ahead of St. Charles North’s Ella Townsend.

The way that the meet could be run off meant that only one of six teams would be left out of the final Boys race of the night. That team was Wheaton North. Coaches that would compete in the meet chose which team would run where. Wheaton North drew the short stick. They did not run the short stick when they toed the line and did not run like it in the Blue race for the Boys.

North’s Ryan Schreiner led the pack in that race going through in 4:54 and then extending that lead after leaving the track portion of the course. He was pushed in the final kilometer by Naperville Central’s Brandon Kamp. Schreiner pulled away in the final 200-meters of the Blue division race to run a fast 15:06 ahead of Kamp’s 15:09.

The Falcons looked good in finishing. Now they would have to wait until the Orange stage race finished.

This would be the first time that St. Charles East would compete in this meet. This would also be the first time that the Saints would be pushed in a race. The COVID-19 guidelines prevented them to run in the big stake races. This would not be one of the times.

From the start of the final Boys race, it would be two runners who were figured to be in the front. Micah Wilson of St. Charles East and Nicolas Dovalovsky of Neuqua Valley entered this race with two of the faster 3-mile times in the state. It was no surprised that the two runners would break away from the pack early in the race.

Wilson led the way pushing through the first mile in 4:50 with teammate Luke Schildmeyer and Dovalovsky close together as they made the intermediate lap in the race around the track.

Schildmeyer started to drop back the second mile of the race. Wilson and Dovalovsky plowed ahead distancing themselves from the rest of the race with every stride.

Wilson continued to make small surges as the two runner passed 2 miles in 9:44. It seemed to be working. The St. Charles junior seemed to be distancing himself with his moves affecting Dovalovsky. The Neuqua runner’s arms seemed to be lifting up as he was trying to find ways to stay close.

Wilson entered the stadium area for the final 500 meters of the race. The problem was that Dovalovsky was still within reach. As the two entered the track, they were within strides of each other. With 300-meters left, it was Dovalovsky that had the slight lead. Wilson would not relent refusing to give that lead up.

As the race turned to the infield, so did the lead go to Dovalovsky who made a definitive move to capture the win. His time was a seasonal best of 14:44. Wilson equaled a seasonal best of 14:46 in finishing second. Schreiner’s time from the Blue race earned him third-place overall.

While the individual race was going on in the front, there was some great pack running going on behind. Both St. Charles East and Neuqua Valley had the top teams and the top packs in the final race. It was East’s power up front that gave them the advantage as they scored 60 points for the team win.

Wilson’s second-place finish that led the way for his team. Schildmeyer held on to finish third in his race, fourth overall. Zach Loomis was just a second back in fifth overall. Connor Murphy finished 17th and Matthew Connell (33rd) rounded out the top five for the Saints. The top three runners were separated by 22 seconds. The team’s top five split was 82 seconds.

Neuqua Valley’s pack has continued to develop as this season has moved along. That showed in this meet as the Wildcats finished second overall with 73 points. Dovalovsky’ s win helped them to that place. It was the pack behind the individual race winner that was the difference maker. Only 16 seconds separated Vasant Fong (13th), Austin Burke (18th), Noah Schalliol (19th), and Brian Jett (22nd).

Naperville North and Wheaton North both scored 118 points overall. It was Wheaton North that finished third based on a better sixth-runner finish. 16 seconds separating second-runner Will Roth, Ryan Zydek, and Caleb Youngstedt were the difference makers. Naperville North had a 10 second split on their top three led by the 11-12 finish of Gabe Ryan and Tommy Paltzer.

Naperville Central ran the majority of their runners in the Blue Division but finished fifth overall (137 points) led by Kamp’s finish. Arthur Graham ran in the orange race finishing seventh as the team’s second runner.

Waubonsie Valley finished sixth (145 points) overall but did run a 25 second split on their top five. Their top three runners: Aidan Oster, Angel Solis, and Ethan Marshall, were only separated by one second with Oster finishing 23rd to lead the team.

Race Photos: ©2020 Laura Duffy