Weber runs away from field in Girls Det at Dark race

Indiana’s Meyer wins close Boys race.

By Michael Newman

Peoria – Conditions were close to perfect for a summer race with temperatures near 70 degrees with low humidity which is beyond the normal for this meet. Det at Dark run on the IHSA State XC championship course usually sports hot temperatures even at night in the 80’s with high humidity.

Results

Sundara Weber of Sandwich took advantage of the near perfect conditions to run away with the win at the Girls High School Division of Detweiller at Dark Friday evening.

The junior showed that she is having a good summer of training setting a new meet records on this course. Weber ran 16:32.2 to claim the win by more than 45 seconds ahead of Ava Jarrell of Warsaw IN (17:19.10). Weber’s improvement from last year’s meet is remarkable. Weber ran 18:01.7 in last year’s meet to finish third behind Liv Phillips who ran 17:21. Weber went on to run 16:40 to finish third in the 2A State Meet.

There was no real drama up front in the first mile of the race. Weber passed through the first mile in 5:26 with Jarrell close to five seconds back.

It was not that Weber made a surge after the mile to take command of the race. She just maintained the pace she was running while the rest of the field fell behind. Weber ran the second mile of the race in 5:32 to open a 30 second lead on Jarrell who passed the 2-mile point in 11:30. Weber maintained that pace running 5:33 to the finish.

Her time was amazing, but it displayed what kind of aerobic shape she is in as we head into August and a month ahead of the start of the IHSA season.

Warsaw IN finished 15th last October in their state meet. They only scored 20 points to claim the Girls team title in this meet. Jarrell led her team with her finish followed by Kenya Leitch, Liz Smith, Jessica Hegedus, and Hannah Moore who swept the next four places. Warsaw’s top five split was only 16 seconds.

Yorkville finished second (194 points) led by Ashley Schrader (28), freshman Athena Triner (34), and Sophia Keeler (38) who all ran under 19-minutes in this race. Batavia finished third (231 points) led by Avery Hacker running 18:26 to finish 26th.

Zane Meyer of Englewood IN held off Jameson Tenopir of Cary-Grove to win the Boys High School Division championship. Meyer, who finished 28th last year in the Indiana State Meet, ran 14:47.3 to claim the win with Tenopir running a course personal best of 14:48.4 to finish second.

Three more Illinois runners ran under 15-minutes in this race. Owen Horeni of Yorkville ran 1:57.6 to finished third followed by Reece Peters of Maroa-Forsyth (14:58.6) and Cuyler Swanson of Morris (14:59.7).

Plainfield North, who finished second in last year’s IHSA Class 3A meet, concluded the July training period in this meet claiming the Boys team title. The Tigers scored 170 points for the team win. North packed it up led by the 20-21 finish from Thomas Czerwinski and Quinn Davis who crossed the finish line within a second of each other with Czerwinski running 15:21. Aidan Connors (27), Gavin Hall (55), and James Maso (59) finished close behind. Their top five split in this meet was an impressive 32 seconds.

Dixon scored 265 points to finish second just one point ahead of Yorkville (266 points).  Dixon ran a 28 second split off the 32nd place finish from Aaron Conderman (15:35).