Welcome Back, Batavia Distance Madness

Meet returns after two year hiatus with two meet records falling and state leading 1600 by New Trier’s Cahill

Photo: Brett Wasick sets new meet record in 800m win (Courtesy: @coachlesterxctf)

By Michael Newman [email protected]

Batavia Distance Madness returned Friday evening with actual racing that this meet had not seen since the 2019 meet took place. The COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to the last two years of this distance session.

The seventh edition of this meet produced two meet records and almost a third by the time the meet ended. Caden Simone of Lincoln-Way Central had his way in easily winning the 3200 Meter Run to set a record while Brett Wasick of Bolingbrook pushed the pace to a new record in the Boys 800 Meter Run.

Here are summaries of each of the six events that took place at the Batavia Fieldhouse.

RESULTS                  

Girls 800 Meter Run – This was only the second time that Lianna Surtz of Rosary had actually run in the open race at this distance. The senior pulled away to win the individual with a 2:16.34 time (IL #2). Isabella Orozco of Aurora Central Catholic also achieved a personal best of 2:17.21 (IL #4) to finish second. Amelia Bellizzi of St. Charles East dropped her personal best by more than four seconds by running 2:19.65 to finish third. Annie Macabobby of Wheaton-Warrenville South ran the fourth fastest school time ever indoors by finishing fourth in 2:19.95. Jackie Liu of Naperville North finished fifth (2:22.91).

Boys 800 Meter Run – The first meet record of the night fell in the first (fastest section) of this event. Brett Wasick had a big lead entering the final lap of his race as he went on to run 1:56.21 (IL #2) to win the championship and broke Charles Harders’ meet record of 1:57.91 by more than a second. Glenbrook South’s Brett Hiltebrand ran 1:57.94 (IL #7) to edge Tim Neumann of Downers Grove South by less than a tenth of a second. Neumann’s time was 1:58.03 (IL #8). We would see Neumann three hours later in the final section of the 1600 Meter Run. Jonah Fallon of Batavia ran 1:58.46 to finish fourth. Jett Breed of Oswego surprised some by becoming the fifth runner under two-minutes by running 1:59.97 to win the second section of this event. The junior finished fifth overall in the event.

Girls 3200 Meter Run – Two sections of this event produced an indoor personal best of 11:28.91 for Emma Skinner of Morton to win the first section. Things wound up in the second and faster section. Audra Soderlind of Oswego was familiar with this track having run 10:50 two weeks before in a smaller meet. Soderlind bided her time and waited to make her move. It paid off in the end as she ran 10:52.80 for the championship win. Breanna Burak of Huntley ended last year with a 11:09.23 personal best at this distance. Friday’s race was a huge breakthrough for this junior as she ran 10:55.86 (IL #6) to finish second. Julie Piot of Naperville North improved her personal best by 16 seconds by running 10:56.70 (IL #7) to finish third. Anna Harden of Hersey was also under 11-minutes with a 10:58.85 time (IL #8) finishing fourth. Liv Phillips of Naperville Central also had a huge drop in her personal best in finishing fifth (11:03.23).

Ava Galloway of Yorkville led the next pack running 11:17.89 placing sixth. Nicole Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South and Sofia Arcuri of Maine South moved into the top three freshman in the state for this event. Poglitsch dropped her personal best 18 seconds placing seventh in 11:18.67. Arcuri’s time of 11:22.99 placed her eighth.

Boys 3200 Meter Run – Caden Simone of Lincoln-Way Central ran by himself two weeks ago when he ran 9:16.52 to easily win that race at Olivet Nazarene. He liked that race plan so well he did it again. The senior did it one better by setting a new meet and fieldhouse record with a 9:15.31 (IL #4) for the win. He set the record previously held by Tyler Cushing set in 2019.

Simone again did it by himself this time winning by 13 seconds ahead of St. Viator’s Michael Schumacher (9:28.47) and Ethan Forsell of Oswego (9:29.50). There were huge breakthrough races for the next two finishers. Nathan Lehman of Geneva ran 9:31.67 to finish fourth. Louie Leahy of Richards won the second section and placed fifth overall running 9:37.90.

Also notable was from Weston Forward of Rockford Christian. The sophomore dropped his personal best and moved into the Class 1A Top 5 running 9:41.56.

Girls 1600 Meter Run – We knew that the seventh and final section in this event would be fast after seeing what happened in the earlier sections. Louisa Diamond of Benet Academy ran 5:13.55 to win Section #5 by seven seconds. Sarah Fischer of Hinsdale Central followed that up by running 5:11.37 to win Section #6 less than a second ahead of Rachel Soukup of Prairie Ridge (5:11.78).

The final section failed to disappoint with the first three finishers all under five-minutes. Emma Berres of Naperville North was up front pushing the pace along with Grace Schager of Glenbard North and Katrina Schlenker of Batavia. Less than a second separated all three runners at the end. Schager took home the championship in 4:58.73 (IL #7) to edge Schlenker in 4:59.47 (IL #7) and Berres in 4:59.55 (IL #8).

Catie McCabe of Hinsdale Central ran 5:04.83 (IL #10) to finish fourth just ahead of Holly Johnson of Downers Grove South running 5:04.87 and Audrey Ginsberg of Prospect running 5:05.92.

Boys 1600 Meter Run – There was just as much excitement on the Boys’ side of this distance as there was on the Girls’ section of races. Five of the top seven times in the state were run in the final section. All of those times were under 4:20.

That did not mean that there were slow times before the final race of the evening. Balin Doud of Oswego came back after running 2:00 in the 800 Meter Run to run 4:25.54 to win Section #5 by four seconds.

While his teammate Nick Falk was putting a sub-nine time at the New Balance Nationals in New York City, George Cahill of New Trier was also doing some special things. One of the closest finishes in meet history was produced as Cahill ran a state leading time of 4:17.55 to win the race missing the meet record by nine hundredths of a second. The next two finishers both were close and under 4:19. Riley Newport of DeKalb ran 4:17.89 (IL #3) to finish second. Tim Neumann of Downers Grove South came back from the 800 with another great race running 4:18.97 (IL #4) to finish fourth. Michael Atkins of Wheaton-Warrenville South continues to drop his personal best. He improved it by four seconds running 4:19.14 (IL #5) to finish fourth. Daniel Winkelman of Harvest Christian Academy moved to #2 in Class 1A running 4:19.78 (IL #5) to finish fifth.

The next three runners were two seconds back finishing a second within each other. Quintin Lowe of Batavia ran 4:21.17 (IL #9) to finish sixth ahead of Jake Phillips of Marist (4:21.78) and Luke Noren of Naperville Central (4:21.86).