Naperville North, Juarez take titles at St. Charles East
Naperville North didn't leave much suspense at the Class 3A St. Charles East sectional Saturday morning at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.
By the time Emily Hamilton ran into the chute to take 11th place the Huskies had all five of their top runners in. That totaled up to a mere 32 points, well ahead of runner-up Geneva's 101.
It was the fourth straight sectional crown for Dan Iverson's crew.
"I can't complain at all," Iverson said. "The score was pretty good. The idea this time of the year is to take a step forward every chance. We did that last week and we did this week and now we have a step to take at state. We'll see where that puts us. I'm confident we'll get better even from this."
Freshman Sarah Schmitt led the Huskies in fourth place in 17:04. After running in a pack with her teammates in the first half of the race, Schmitt moved up.
"Sarah had something at the end the others didn't," Iverson said. "Good for her and good for us."
The pack that did stay together - junior Judy Pendergast, senior Elly DeTurris and sophomore Claire Hamilton - finished fifth through seventh, respectively.
Martin made an impressive charge to take 11th. She was in the 40-50 range halfway through the race and still in the 20s heading into the last stretch.
"She really moved well," Iverson said. "She ran really smart. She used her energy well throughout the race. Really impressive race."
Streamwood's Gabby Juarez also had an impressive race, breaking away from another battle with St. Charles North freshman Audrey Ernst.
The two were running in the lead most of the way. Juarez ended up winning in a career-best 16:58 while Ernst was fourth in 17:07.
"I knew Audrey, she's always the goal," Juarez said. "I broke off at the hill. Going down the last hill into the finish I knew the race was mine."
Plenty of well-wishers greeted Jaurez after the victory, a culmination of impressive strides up the leader board she has made the past few years.
"I can't even describe," Jaurez said. "Last year was an accomplishment just to make it to sectionals. It's really awesome for me.
"(State) is going to be different this year. Last year I was just happy to make it. This year top five is the goal. We'll see."
Joining Naperville North in qualifying for state were: Geneva, Naperville Central (111), Batavia (117) and Wheaton Warrenville South (137).
"I think they ran awesome. Everybody ran great today," Geneva coach Bob Thomson said. "Naperville North, we weren't giving it to them, but at the same time if you go by rankings and all that, the two Napervilles were right there all season. We just knew we had to be in the top five."
Junior McKenzie Altmayer led the Vikings, finishing second overall just four seconds behind Juarez.
A week ago both Altmayer and the Vikings' third runner, Brooke Nusser (21st, 17:58), fell during the regional race, hurting their places.
They were joined in Geneva's top five by Emma Ehrhardt (12th, 17:41), Mary Grace Neville (28th, 18:14) and Emma McSpadden (38th, 18:28).
"It's nice to have the hardware from conference and regional but at the same time we felt we were right with Batavia and Naperville Central and Wheaton Warrenville South," Thomson said. "Today we proved it and now we get to run one more week, the final rung on the ladder."
So does the team that edged Geneva for the Upstate Eight River title, Batavia. By taking fourth Saturday the Bulldogs qualified for state for the first time since 2003.
"That's the two goals going in all year," Batavia coach Chad Hillman said of winning conference and qualifying for state. "We didn't talk about them a lot because they knew that's what they wanted. Every day you just work toward it.
"Achieving both of those is a huge thing but we want to reset now and understand we're not just happy to be there (at state), we want to go down there and perform extremely well. We want that one to be our best one of the year. Not anything that has happened to this point. That's where we want to be at our best."
The entire Batavia team has been battling a bug throughout the season. Hillman was proud of the way his girls ran through it, starting with lead runner Emma Stephens who finished eighth in 17:24.
Miranda Rea, the only senior in Batavia's lineup, was the team's sixth runner at the conference meet two weeks ago. She moved up to Batavia's No. 2 runner last week at the regional, and she was there again in second Saturday taking 19th overall in 17:56.
"Last week she popped a big one and she popped another big one today," Hillman said. "She's hitting it at the right time. I've been telling her to be confident."
Junior Dakota Roman took 22nd and freshman Daphne Kolody was 29th while Batavia's 5-7 runners - Marygrace Golden, Anna Malay and Erika Mansfield, all freshmen - packed up in 39th, 40th and 41st, respectively.
St. Charles North and St. Charles East took sixth and seventh to miss qualifying as a team. In addition to the North Stars' Ernst, senior Torree Scull from St. Charles East made it as an individual taking 14th in 17:49.
Junior Maggie McClowry paced Naperville Central in 10th in 17:36 while sophomore Sara Atkins led the Tigers taking ninth in 17:27.