Winnebago just too much in Girls win at the ShaZam Championships

Front pack leads Harvest Christian Academy to Boys Division title; Rogers, Perry pull away in final mile for individual titles

By Michael Newman

[email protected] 

Division 1 Boys Results | Division 1 Girls Results

The IHSA season ended at the end of October. Friday started the post season in high school running on the first day of the ShaZam XC Club Championships at Chillicothe’s Three Sisters Park. Temperatures climbed past the 70 degree mark as this weekend could be the warmest November weekend in 149 years. The warm weather did not bother the top ranked team in the state Winnebago who crushed this field to win the Girls D1 Championships with 43 points double the score on the next team in this 19 team field. #2 Monticello and 3 #Tolono Unity did not compete as club teams. Even if they had, Winnebago still would have dominated for the club team championship.

Girls Division 1 Team Recap

#1 Winnebago had their top five runners in the top 22 before individuals were taken out of the raw scoring. It then dipped down to all seven runners in the first 21 team spots. Natalia Martino in her final race finished eighth overall in the championship race. Grace Erb finished ninth overall and won Flight #3 as the team’s second runner. Marissa Roggensack (11th), Kaylee Woolery (13th), and Katie Erb (22nd) were the team’s third through fifth runners. The top five runner split was 62 seconds. That did not matter. No one could match Winnebago’s strength up front. Renee Rittmeyer (24th) and Sophia Martino (39) were Winnebago’s sixth and seventh runners.

Rosary and IC Catholic Prep split their matchups at Harvest Christian Academy the past two weeks. The tiebreak went to #7 Rosary as they finished second overall with 86 points. Lianna Surtz led her team by finishing second overall. Mia Italia (17th), Kate Ubertino (42nd), Olivia Kunio (43rd), and Katie Lifka (47th) were Rosary’s other scorers. #4 IC Catholic Prep finished third with 115 points even though their usual second runner Kennedy Calcagno finished as the team’s seventh runner having an off race. Carly Manchester led her team finishing seventh overall. Frankie Chaidez was the team’s second runner placing 21st. Kelsey McDonough (45), Alia Johnson (46th), and Hayden James (69th) were the Lady Knights third through fifth runners.

There was almost a 100-point gap between third and fourth places. #21 Wheaton Academy was a surprise fourth-place (214 points) led by the 41st place finish from Lucy Lebo. #10 St. Joseph-Ogden finished fifth (217 points) paced by the 36th place finish from Ava Knap.

Girls Division 1 Individual Race Recap

The championship and final race of this Girls Division had the top three ranked runners in the classification in this field. Mabry Bruhn of Monticello was undefeated all season before finishing second last week at Decatur. She had the slight lead in 5:45 with Anna Perry of Eureka and defending Class 1A State Champ Lianna Surtz of Rosary right on her side. Savannah Beavers of Olympia and Hailey Heiar of East Dubuque led the chaise pack some four seconds behind the front trio. The front pack slowed down to a 5:57 second mile in 5:57 with Perry taking over the lead and Bruhn and Surtz close by. They put another 18 seconds on the field with Heiar solidifying fourth-place. Perry made the first move in the final mile of this race opening a seven second lead on Surtz. Perry had run 16:59 the week before at Elmwood and 17:08 this fall at Detweiller Park at her conference meet. She passed 3-miles in 17:37 on her way to 18:11 for five-kilometers and the overall race win. Surtz ran 18:17 to finish second. Bruhn was more than three seconds back in third overall (18:21). The surprise in Class 1A at the end of this season has been the sophomore from East Dubuque. Heair finished fourth (18:43) after finishing second the week before at Seneca. Beavers ran 18:49 to finish fifth overall.

Flight 3 featured the club teams’ second and third runners. Winnebago had finished 1-2 in the previous two races. The question was if this would happen for the third time. Estella Miller of Monticello pushed the pace from the start leading passing the 1-mile mark in 5:59. The pack thinned out quickly in that opening mile with Winnebago’s Grace Erb two seconds back and her teammate Marissa Roggensack another four seconds behind. Erb made up the gap in the middle mile and passed Miller and was one second ahead passing 2-miles in 12:25. Erb pulled away in that final mile to win this flight in 19:14. Roggensack made up three seconds in the final 200-meters to catch Miller to finish second (19:25) by more than a second.

It was also a sweep by Winnebago in Flight 2. There was no question about it especially with Kaylee Woolery and Katie Erb breaking open the race in the first mile as Woolery passed in 6:11 with teammate Erb just four seconds back. The next closest runner at that point was almost 30 seconds behind. Wooley won the race covering the 5k course in 19:47. Erb ran 20:13 to finish second. The closest non-Winnebago runner was Katie Ubertino of Rosary who ran 20:52 to finish third.

Winnebago started the day with a 1-2 sweep of Flight 1. Vivian Wyller of Rosary pushed the pace going past the first mile in 6:31 with Winnebago’s Sophia Martino and Renee Rittmeyer right by the Rosary runner’s side. Rittmeyer broke open the race opening up a 14 second lead at 2-miles on Martino and another 10 second lead on Wyller. It was an easy win for Rittmeyer (20:19) with teammate Martino finishing second.

Boys Division 1 Team Recap

This would be the first time this fall that Harvest Christian Academy has eft their home course. It did not seem to affect them as they used their strength in front. #3 Harvest Christian Academy scored 90 points to capture the ShaZam XC Club Boys D1 Championship placing three runners in the first 12 runners. Mathew Olech led the Lions by finishing seventh in the championship race. Hayden Colclasure won the Flight 3 race finishing ninth overall. Daniel Winkelman finished third behind Colclasure in that race finishing 12th overall. Those three runners were only separated by 15 seconds. Carson Welsh (47th) and Alex Powell (53rd) were the team’s fourth and fifth runners.

#1 Arthur-Lovington had a great fall which finished second (102 points) in this meet. Layton Hall finished his high school career by finishing fifth overall. Logan Beckmeier led the pack behind Hall by finishing 26th. Then followed Jace Green (34th), Lyle Adcock (40th), and Jacob Adcock (46th) as the team’s third through fifth runners. Arthur-Lovington put five runners in before HCA’s fourth runner crossed the line. The difference was pack up front by Harvest Christian Academy. The split for Arthur-Lovington from second runner Beckmeier to fifth runner Jacob Adcock was only 23 seconds.

#7 Chicago Latin School used strength through their first three runners to garner a third-place finish with 127 points. Ryan Hardiman led the Romans finishing eight overall. Akili Parekh (13th) and Peter Bernhardt (15th) were close as the team’s second and third runners. Henry Coleman (63rd) and Will Del Hierro (74th) were Latin School’s other scorers. #9 Elmwood-Brimfield just missed a top three finish scoring 134 points to finish fourth overall. Luke Hoffmann paced Elmwood with a 16th place finish. #2 Stanford Olympia finished fifth (172 points) behind the sixth-place finish from Charlie Kistner.

Boys Division 1 Individual Race Recap

The Championship Race of this division was to be one of the featured races of this meet. It failed to disappoint. Miles Sheppard of Hamilton (COOP), Drew Rogers of Herscher, and Justin Mumford of Trenton-Wesclin were dominant in the regions that they competed in this fall and expected to be in the front. Charlie Kistner of Olympia had defeated Sheppard the week before at Elmwood and was also expected to challenge  for the win.

The course had been running slow all day, but it did not show in the opening mile of this race with Rogers, Sheppard, and Mumford all passed in 4:58. Ryder James of Paxton-Buckley-Loda, Layton Hall of Arthur-Lovington, and Kistner all were within a second of the lead. There was a break in the second mile with Rogers, Mumford, and Sheppard opening up a 13 second lead on the chase pack. The lead trio passed 2-miles in 10:07. Now the question was who win this race. Rogers has been undefeated all season was aiming to keep his record perfect. He made the move in third-mile with a surge that his competition could not respond to. Rogers split 4:58, 5:08, and 5:00 in his three miles. He ended up crossing the line in 15:34 for five-kilometers and winning this high stakes race. Mumford and Sheppard were even entering the final stretch of the race. Mumford had the edge at the finish (15:41) just ahead of Sheppard (15:42). James led the next pack running 15:50 to finish fourth. He made up some of that gap he lost in the second mile running the final segment of the race in 5:02. Hall finished fifth running 15:58.

Flight 3 was just as exciting as the championship race as four runners in the final mile challenged for the win. Gavin Genisio of Benton tried to break the race wide-open in the first mile as he passed that point in 5:04. The pack, led by Daniel Winkelman and Hayden Colclasure of Harvest Christian Academy as well as Akili Parekh of Latin School, were eight seconds behind Genisio. That changed in the second mile as Genisio realized that he had company as the trio worked together to catch the Benton freshman. Parekh broke off the pack in the third mile trailing the other three by five seconds entering the final stages of the race. It was Colclasure who had the advantage at the end winning this flight race in 16:20. Genisio followed in 16:23. Winkelman and Parekh finished third and fourth. Peter Bernhardt of Latin School was 10 seconds back (16:36) finishing fifth.

One of things that was spotted in the Flight 2 race was how strong Arthur-Lovington was and how it catapulted them into the team title chase. Jace Green of Arthur-Lovington led from the start passing the first mile in 5:21 with Victor Lampe of Elmwood-Brimfield just a second back. Green extended the lead on his way to a flight win in 17:13. Lampe was next in 17:21. Green’s teammate Jacob Adcock finished third (17:27) ahead of Carson Welch of Harvest Christian Academy (17:32), and Isaiah Hill of Elmwood-Brimfield (17:34).

Flight 1 opened the Boys D1 day with a third win of the season in flight races from Luke Stegall. The junior from St. Joseph-Ogden covered the 5k course in 17:44. The margin of victory was 18 seconds ahead of Brenden Williams of Elmwood-Brimfield (18:01). Northridge Prep’s Aidan Martin (18:09) and Sam Schuler (18:18) finished third and fourth.