Stuenkel, St. Charles N. take titles

St. Charles North’s Sydney Stuenkel started her senior year with a relatively simple goal — win a race.

After Saturday, Stuenkel is at three and counting. Her victory at the St. Charles North Invitational at LeRoy Oakes followed her earlier wins this season at the Elgin City and last week’s Bartlett Invite.

Stuenkel ran a 17:33 on this same course that was set up at 2.8 miles for the Leavey Invite. Her winning time Saturday of 17:52.7 came with the course measuring 3.0 miles.

“I had to adjust to the weather, my legs get numb sometimes in the cold,” Stuenkel said. “I felt really strong and felt I kept my pace the whole time.”

After finishing third at last year’s St. Charles North invite, Stuenkel got out fast Saturday and led the entire way. Her teammate Ashley England took second in 18:13.

Stuenkel is looking forward to a week off next week before the conference meet.

“We need to get our last big volume of training in and then start tapering for all the postseason meets,” Stuenkel said.

The 1-2 finish by Stuenkel and England set the tone for a relatively easy team win for the North Stars. Their 33 points bettered Batavia (64), Geneva (95), Streamwood (100) and Burlington Central (171) in the 11-team field.

The North Stars also had the No. 9-13 runners: Kelly Manski, Elle Murata, Megan Young, Ania Gawlik and Natalia Gawlik.

“We were excited because it is our home race,” Stuenkel said. “We have a really strong team and gave it our all.”

Batavia coach Chad Hillman has been excited all fall about what his freshmen have brought to the varsity lineup. They were at it again Saturday with Lexi Slome finishing fourth in 18:22 and Alicia Grant sixth in 18:44.

“Lexi has been running well all year,” Hillman said. “She has been as consistent of a kid as we have. She’s been a real positive part to that top group.

“Alicia, same thing. She has been very good as our (No.) 2 or 3. They have traded off a few times.”

Hillman rested Batavia’s No. 1, Rachael Spalding, with a tight leg.

“It’s good to find out what we have without her,” said Hillman, whose 3-5 runners Saturday were Jessica Roach (14th), Gracie Ball (19th) and Anita Wolff (21st).

“We’ve had a little bumps and bruises but overall we’re doing OK,” Hillman said. “We’re pretty much where we want to be at this point. If we hold a girl out at this point it’s to make sure everyone is healthy.”

Geneva coach Bob Thomson has three or four freshmen who can make his top seven. He left them in the frosh-soph race Saturday and that group finished first, second, third, fourth and ninth in the underclass race.

Kathryn Adelman led Geneva’s varsity with a 19:05 time for seventh place.

“They looked close together,” Thomson said. “The spread wasn’t too bad. I wasn’t mattering so much about place as I wanted them to run well. We had a tough training week.”

South Elgin’s Jordan Tuin took third behind the two St. Charles North front-runners. Her 18:15 time was a PR on by far the nicest day she’s run at LeRoy Oakes.

“I’m pretty happy with it,” Tuin said. “Whenever I run at this course it has been disastrous conditions like rain and mud. This is one of the first runs when it wasn’t too messy.”

Tuin said she has been working on keeping the same pace each mile. She moved up in the second half of the second mile Saturday to go from sixth place to third.

“From there I just tried to keep it for the third mile,” said Tuin, whose third-place finish Saturday trumped a fourth-place showing at Elgin for her best finish this year.

“We did a workout this week that really helped me for pacing,” Tuin said. “Everything just clicked today.”

Streamwood senior Amanda Patterson and Burlington Central junior Jane Crocetti also placed in the top 10 in fifth and eight place, respectively.