Cavender, West Aurora take first at Aurora City meet
Waking up at the crack of dawn, running shoes on no later than 7 a.m., pounding the pavement for at least five miles a day - sound like a grueling way to spend the summer?
For West Aurora sophomore Rachel Cavender it's the formula to becoming the best high school runner in Aurora.
Cavender covered the 3.0 mile course at Marmion in 19:30.7 on Saturday morning to win the City Meet by 18 seconds over Waubonsie Valley's Ashley Bruner.
Third a year ago at this meet, Cavender credited her off-season training for a promising start to a season she hopes ends at state.
"It was real exciting," Cavender said. "I was hoping to come out and do something good today."
Last year Cavender was the top runner on West Aurora's sectional team. Neither Cavender as an indivual or the Blackhawks has a team advanced to state - a difficult goal to be sure but at least the team is off and running with Saturday's team title.
"We worked great as a team today and I'm so excited for the rest of the season," Cavender said. "I hope my team can make it to state and if we can't I hope to make it as an individual."
West Aurora sophomore Nicole Bartell followed Cavender in fifth place. Seniors Elisia Meyle and Jacquelyn Nagel finished 10th and 11th with junior Greta Meyle 12th.
That was enough to hold off Waubonsie Valley, 39-48. Aurora Central, Aurora Chrisitan, IMSA, Rosary and East Aurora, respetively, rounded out the seven-team field.
A 2-3 finish by Bruner and sophomore Kristina Chapman paced the Warriors.
"All workouts, pratices and meets, we really like to go out together and push each other," Chapman said of running with Bruner the entire race.
Like Cavender with West Aurora, Chapman was encouraged with what she saw from her teammates.
"You see what you are able to do, how fast you can push youself because even our Green and Gold run we had we don't necasarily push ourselves to our full potential because it dosn't count for anything necessarily," Chapman said.
Aurora Central's Jenna Koerner (fourth) and Bailey Shemenski (ninth) both had top-10 finishes to lead the Chargers to third.
Sarina Oleson paced Aurora Christian in sixth while Natalie Runkle was IMSA's best finisher in 13th.
Kelly Keiffer (seventh) and Melissa Lifka (25th) had the top two spots for Rosary.
Normally this race is run at Oakhurst Forest Preserve. Marmion stepped up instead and the change seemed agreeable to the runners.
"It's a little more challenging whish is good," Cavender said. "Oakhurst is a good course but it doesn't have as many hillls. This really shows who the better athletes are."