Girls track: Glenbard West goes the distance to win state
CHARLESTON - The 3,200-meter run has been the domain of Glenbard West at the Class 3A girls track and field state finals the last five years.
For the fourth time during the span on Saturday at O'Brien Field at Eastern Illinois University, a Glenbard West athlete won the title.
Katelynne Hart, the Hilltoppers' gifted freshman, won the title in 10 minutes, 32.33 seconds en route to the distance racing Triple Crown.
Repeating a script she has fashioned the entire season, Hart took the lead from the get-go and never let another pursuer come within striking range.
Hart later captured the 1,600 run in 4.51.4 to conclude her remarkable freshman season.
Lindsay Payne, the defending champion for Glenbard West in the 3,200, was runner-up in 10:37.55 to Hart. The results mirrored the Class 3A cross country top two from last fall.
"(The same two girls) finishing 1-2 in cross country and the 3,200 in track has never happened before," Glenbard West distance coach Paul Hass said. "I can say that with absolute certainty."
Payne was also seventh in the 1,600, and the 31 points the two distance runners earned was the foundation of the Hilltoppers winning their first state championship in program history.
Glenbard West finished with 47 points to deny Homewood-Flossmoor, which had 44, and the 40 points Naperville North scored.
Hart began her day by anchoring the Hilltoppers 3,200 relay to fourth place.
"I was able to get the job done," Hart said. "I think the team state title is really cool. It's a really cool feeling to win the Triple Crown. I saw Anna Sophia Keller do it (earlier in Class 1A)."
The last Class 3A athlete to achieve the feat was former Glenbard West luminary Madeline Perez during the 2012-13 athletic season.
"(Hart) is just mature, talented and knows her strategy," Glenbard West coach Kelly Hass said. "She is super intuitive."
"This is so much better," Payne said of team title versus an individual championship. "Winning as a team is incomparable."
The Hilltoppers' victory was not possible without the heroics of senior Janie Nabholz in the 800 run.
The Santa Clara-bound star, the last link to the Hilltoppers' 2014 state cross country championship, passed four runners in the last 75 meters to finish fourth.
"That was a huge swing in the meet for us," Paul Hass said.
"I think I went out way too fast in the 4-by-8," Nabholz said. "I kind of hung back, hung back and kicked it."
The middle distance and distance runners at Glenbard West were once again at the forefront for the Hilltoppers' second state trophy in the last four years.
"I think part of it is the race culture the program has built," Kelly Hass said.
Ashley Samuta was ninth for Glenbard West in the triple jump.
The Hilltoppers fittingly finished seventh in the final event - the 1,600 relay behind Nabholz, Maddie Schrouth, Aaliyah Collier and Chloe Arduino - to cement their championship.