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Glenbard West romps to Lake Park win behind Payne near course recordPublished by
Hoffman Estates packs it up for Boys win; season opening win for Smith
By Michael Newman
Roselle, Ill – It was not surprising to see Audrey Ernst (St. Charles North HS) up front early in the Girls Varsity race at Saturday’s Harvey Braus Invitational on Lake Park’s East Campus course. It puts the North Stars’ sophomore at a good comfort level and in a better position to succeed. It did not bother Lindsey Payne (Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn) about the fast early pace. Her focus was on Ernst but also her race. You could see that in her eyes.
The lead diminished for Ernst as Payne continued to push the pace getting closer and closer on the second lap. By the half way point, the Glenbard sophomore took the lead with the focus only on what was in front of her and the finish line.
“From when I was a freshman, I am more comfortable going out fast. It just helps me go faster,” Ernst said. “I tried to stay with her but that did not work out. I’ll just try to stay closer. I was more than a minute faster than I was last week so I am happy with that.”
Payne motored to the finish line with her eyes focused on the clock. She crossed in 16:28.4 just missing the 16:27.7 course record set by Lake Park’s Kaylee Flanagan three years before. Ernst followed 25 seconds back in second also under 17 minutes (16:53.1) establishing a personal best. Brooke Wilson (Prospect HS, Mt. Prospect), who was with Payne until just after the mile, finished third (17:11.2) also with a personal best.
“I was not coming into this week with too many expectations. I was not putting any pressure on myself. I just wanted to do my best,” Payne said. “I just wanted to get under 17 again. I did not have a specific time in mind.”
Payne has emerged as one of the top runners in Illinois early in this season. One of the reasons why is the focus on the sport. Last year, she was doubling running with club soccer. Her focus now is on running.”
“Right now, I am just going to focus on running,” Payne added. “It is definitely a hard transition because I love my soccer teammates. I think this sport (cross country) is more for me.”
What a coach wants to see at the beginning of the year is improvement from their runners. That is what Glenbard West Coach Paul Hass saw on the course on Saturday. The #3 Hilltoppers improved their split from a week ago in putting their first five runners in the first thirteen. Glenbard West won the team championship with a mere 43 points winning by almost sixty points ahead of #13 Schaumburg (101 points). A tight 13 second split for unranked Maine South put them only three points behind Schaumburg in third. # 22 Prospect, who moved freshman Marissa Valentini to varsity and was the team’s #2 runner, scored 119 points to place fourth. #24 St. Charles East placed fifth (146 points) ten points ahead of sixth place #20 Hoffman Estates.
“One of our goals was to get our 1 to split down to 80 seconds. We wanted to get our 2-5 split a little closer. Our fifth runner Janie Nabholz has been sick all week. She just performed admirably I thought,” Hass said. “Abby Shaver was a little under the weather. If we can get a little bit healthy, I think we will be okay.”
Glenbard’s split on five last week was at 127 seconds. Even with a few of their top five under the weather, their five runner split dropped to 116 seconds. That is good especially considering how far Payne is up front.
A dual between two of the Boys top runners in the state never materialized as Irwin Loud (Oak Park-River Forest HS) was kept out of Saturday’s race. “It is a long season and Irwin has plenty of races to run,” said Oak Park-River Forest coach Chris Baldwin. “We just wanted to rest him this week.” #7 Oak Park-River Forest was without their top three runners in this meet.
It left Keagan Smith (Huntley HS) the huge favorite. He went through the first mile with teammate Seth Conroy in a comfortable 4:58 first mile. On the second lap of the three 1 mile loop course, Smith started pushing the pace pulling away from his teammate. He was on his own from that point opening up a 15 second lead into the final mile. Smith cruised in at 15:04.2 for the win. Bryan Gamboa (Hoffman Estates HS) made a move in the final circuit of the course but could only close the gap to an 11 seconds on Smith. Gamboa ran 15:15.1 to place second. The race was a rust buster for Smith as it was his first invitational of the year.
The race felt pretty good. We came through the first mile a little slower than expected and I just kind of went from there. I came out with the win but I was hoping for a faster time,” Smith said afterwards. “After the first mile, I was alone with no one to push me. I was hoping that there would be other competition up there to push me. I found myself by myself but it was fine.”
The dynamics of the Boys team race were fascinating to watch. Through the first mile of the race, Huntley had put five runners in the first twelve. But up front with them were the orange jerseys of Hoffman Estates, the navy blue jersey of Jones College Prep, and the black jerseys of St. Charles East. It changed at the beginning of the second mile as the Hoffman Estates pack led by Gamboa and Shiv Patel started to break away from the other three teams.
It was a race for the six spots for Huntley and Hoffman Estates. Huntley appeared to win that battle as they had Smith, Conroy (3rd), and Mike Grocholski (5th) compared to Hoffman’s Gamboa, Patel (4th), and Matt Peterson (6th). It was the Hoffman Estates that won the war as the Hawks 4th and 5th men (Alex Makrounis, 13th & 19th) placed in the top twenty ahead of Huntley’s two scores who slipped back into the thirty’s. The 42 second split was enough for #16 Hoffman Estates as they scored 44 points for the team championship. #10 Huntley scored 73 points to place second.
“We just wanted to put it out there this morning. We just wanted to get out the first two miles to see what we could do and see what happens from there,” Hoffman Estates Coach Brenden Mariano said. “I was excited to see them work up patiently the first mile. To their credit, they were focused. When we do things perfectly, we are going to be a good team.”
“It was an easy first mile so we were able to move up and then went from there,” Gamboa added. “In the second mile, Shiv (Patel) and I were working together as a pack. I started to see Conroy come back to us and decided why not go for it.”
#15 Jones College Prep, in their first invitational of the season, showed promise as they placed three runners in the first ten. They scored 78 points for third with only a 34 second 5 man split.
“This is what we expected today. Our fourth and fifth were a little bit off of what we needed. Our fourth man (Ethan Barrero) has been sick and missed a few days of training. He’s back on the mend,” Jones Coach Andrew Adelman said. “On paper, it would look like we did not race as well as we did last year. In fact, I think we raced too well last year looking back at the training. We had them ready to go too soon. I am content. We have work to do and it is a long season.”
#25 St. Charles East, who was without #4 runner Brent Izzo who was taking ACT’s, still had a tight pack with a 30 second split on five. They finished fourth scoring 80 points behind the ninth place finish of Michael Gerkin. Short-handed Oak Park-River Forest still finished fifth with 122 points.
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