Girls cross country: Larkin's Durant races to Kane County title
Larkin senior Heather Durant's celebrations lasted for just a few seconds.
Rather than cause a scene or cherish her first-place showing in the girls race of the Kane County Meet on Saturday morning, Durant immediately slowly started walking back toward the finish line.
She wanted to cheer on her teammates for a better finish, including her twin sister.
"I love cheering on my team, love supporting them and they support me," Durant said. "I want to help them finish and be there for them and give them a hand when they need additional support."
Durant needed very little support for her race, topping the talented field with ease to win her first major event of the high school season. Durant recorded a first-place time of 18 minutes, 27.7 seconds to beat St. Charles East's Marley Andelman (19:19.9).
Durant admitted she was shocked at her time, which crushed last season's time of 19:40 at the meet. Durant said her time might cause her to possibly alter her goals for the season. She credited her off-season training and competing in several big events, including in North Carolina, Oregon and California, for a strong showing in the meet.
"I want to break my personal record on each course, have a fun season with my team and build up my team and make them stronger and race strong together," Durant said. "It was very tough because of the conditions. I was hoping to get under 19, so I'm happy how I did today. I'm shocked I got (my time). I was just hoping to have fun, my first last high school cross country with my team, have fun and race smart."
On the team side, Batavia squeezed out the team title with 38 points. St. Charles East took second with 41 points and St. Charles North ended in third with 79 points. Hampshire finished fourth with 99 points, Larkin placed fifth (116) and Kaneland was sixth (152).
Batavia had a number of solid performances on the challenging and hilly course. Senior Liliana Bednarek led the way with a fourth-place effort (19:29).
"It was pretty hard running out there," Bednarek said. "t's a tough race, mentally so hard knowing you have so many hills that are going to be challenging to get up. Even just sticking with it. We had a very good pack, sticking with your teammates so in the end we all finish well and place well as a team, which is huge.
"It's a hard course, but for me, it's good knowing that if I can run this well, I can run others and we all can do well together super exciting. I'm super excited for this season. I think team has a lot of potential to do really really well."
Batavia senior Ava Thomas was all smiles after her race. She posted a sixth-place time of 19:32
"I felt good," Thomas said. "This course is a tougher one with all the hills, so that's a good time to run and I'm excited to see how I can improve. I think I had a really strong summer of training, so I feel in the best shape of my career. I'm excited to see what I can do this season.
"I want to see how my team can do. I think we're going to be really good pack-wise, hope we can quality for a state again and individually I want to keep on getting a personal record and continue to race well."
The Saints rode a solid pack performance to take second, which included four finishers in the top 9.
Andelman had the best showing on the Saints, with Brooklyn Walker (third, 19:21), Morgan Sandlund (eighth, 19:43) and Eleanor Clark (ninth, 19:52) rounding out their foursome. St. Charles North's Norah Dorrance rounded out the top five with a fifth-time time of 19:30.
"It was hot, but definitely a good start to he season," Andelman said. "Definitely, it was not time-wise the best. I feel I went out a little bit fast, but came back in the second mile and running with Brooklyn (Walker) was really helpful. The last half mile to a quarter mile was really good for me. I normally have a good finish, so being able to have my kick was good."
"I think we have a really solid four this year. The rest of the races will be good to have us cruise together. It was nice to see come through in the first race."
Walker, a senior, called the Saints' effort a good early season measuring stick.
"I felt I did pretty good today," Walker said. "It was a good start to the season. It hurt a lot but it always does. I think we did pretty good. It's fun to run with your teammates, and have Marley run with me.
"I wasn't sure what my time was going to be since its a tough course, but I focused on finishing up the front. I want to keep chopping my time down the rest of the season."