Glenbard West runs into another championship

The Glenbard West girls cross country team showed Saturday that they are capable of success in the upcoming postseason.

The Hilltoppers won the 32nd annual Wheaton North Falcon Classic held at St. James Farm Forest Preserve in Warrenville with just 16 points. New Trier was second at 22 and Yorkville took third with 27. Of the 21 top three finishes in the seven-flight meet, those three schools earned 15 of them.

Other Daily Herald-area teams to crack the top 10 included Neuqua Valley (50 points) in fifth, York (58) in sixth and Benet, which took 10th, at 78.

Glenbard West came into this season having placed third in state in 2014 in Class 3A. Lindsey Payne, now a sophomore, took fifth in state as a freshman and is having another successful season and the Hilltoppers lineup is strong from top to bottom.

But with the West Suburban Silver meet still two weeks way and regionals three weeks down the road, Hilltoppers coach Paul Hass said he likes where his team is heading, but it's not time yet to think about the postseason and Glenbard West needs to keep fine-tuning its running.

"They've worked hard week to week for that time of the year. We keep moving in that direction," Hass said. "The kids trust the process. If they do the little things right and put the work in, more often than not, the process will work in their favor."

The 28-team competition was split into seven flights. A team's No. 1 runner was put into Flight 1, its No. 2 runner in Flight 2 and so forth.

Payne won Flight 1 in 16 minutes, 43.8 seconds on the 2.95-mile course. The rest of the Hilltoppers lineup finished no lower than fourth. Kathryn Kenwood (Flight 2), Katie Hohe (Flight 6) and Claire Kenwood (Flight 7) each took second. Grace Rogers was third in Flight 3 as was Abigail Shaver in Flight 5. Janie Nabholz was fourth in Flight 4.

"I think I have improved a lot. I've learned to push myself more and do the little things," Payne said. "I'm so proud of all of my team. There's so much great teamwork. Everyone works so hard and they push me."

Naperville Central's Alana Austin finished second in Flight 1 in 17:29.1 and was just one of two runners not from Yorkville, New Trier and Glenbard West to grab a top two finish. She was pleased with the conistency of her running Saturday.

"I'm very pleased with how I ran. I finished second last week (at Naperville Invitational) as well. But I held my position today," she said. "I had the lead most of last week but with about three-fourths of a mile left, I was passed."

Runners that finished in the top 15 in each flight earned medals. Neuqua was led by Corinna Pena's third-place finish in Fligtht 3. Top York finishers were Erin Davies (Flight 5) and Bridget Berger (Flight 7), each finishing seventh.

Benet reached the top 10 with the help of Mae Tully's fourth-place result in Flight 6.