Cross country: York’s Janowski, Neuqua’s Gudauskas lead the pack at Palatine invitational
When it was all completed at Saturday’s Palatine Meet of Champions Invitational, there were some stellar performances headlined by race winners Karlin Janowski of York and Jesse Gudauskas from Neuqua Valley.
The 64 cross country teams also saw a pair of strong team efforts by titlists Barrington in the girls division and St. Louis University Prep in the boys competition at Deer Grove East Forest Preserve.
Janowski, a sophomore, nabbed the lead near the midway point of the race and never looked back as her time of 16:58.51 outpaced senior Mabel George of Louisville (Kentucky) Assumption, who came in second in 17:09.86.
Janowski credited a strong cerebral approach in concert with a team-centric mindset for her success.
"Running isn't (just) a physical sport, it's a mental one," Janowski said. "I (also) started to focus more on running for your team. Your team runs for you and you run for them. It was a big thing that kept me going. I'm more proud of that than anything."
Prairie Ridge sophomore Emalin Foster, Plainfield North junior Marlie Czarniewski and Barrington junior Angelica Hill (17.40.72) rounded out the top five.
Hill's effort helped pace a Fillies performance that had four runners in the top 20 —sophomore Victoria Tarana (17:55.14, eighth place), and seniors Abby Lewis (18:21.24-18th) and Madison Miles (18:21.96, 20th), which led to their team title. They finished with 81 points, 22 ahead of runner-up Hersey.
Plainfield North (146), Assumption (149), and Lake Zurich (199) rounded out the top five.
Hill talked of how a practice run at the course last weekend helped her as well as her teammates achieve a strong finish.
"That workout was really solid and it worked really well," Hill said. "I'm really excited for my team and so happy that we get to (run) together."
Boys:
The boys race turned out to be a hard-fought battle between race winner Gudauskas (14:46.38) and runner-up Karanveer Patil of Lake Zurich (14:48.45).
Neuqua junior Gudauskas got to the lead pack early enough.
"Once I got up there, I was able to stick with it," Gudauskas said. "It was a good day today. I definitely prefer competing in the morning because it's a fresh start to the day and you’re focusing on one thing."
Patil's silver effort helped him avenge a subpar performance in a meet last weekend.
"I came into the race with the purpose to win so coming into this race I was happy to be able to perform under the emotional and physical stress I've been putting on myself," Patil said.
"So yes, it was great to be able to compete."
In addition, that effort plus senior teammate Cameron Libby's sixth-place finish (14:58.45) helped the Bears to a fourth-place spot as its 208 points came 17 ahead of fifth-place finisher Dixon (225).
St. Louis University Prep (141) took the team crown led by junior Jackson Miller's fifth-place effort.
Plainfield North (146) and Plainfield South (161) took the silver and bronze positions, respectively, as Patil spoke of the mindset most, if not all, racers took as the first Saturday of fall greeted the competitors with near 80-degree temperatures.
"Once you get into the season, it's all about performing no matter what you're going through,“ Patil said. “Once it's race day, you have to perform."