Cross country: Wheaton Warrenville South doubles its firsts
There is a first time for everything. Saturday at Lake Park's East Campus in Roselle, Wheaton Warrenville South won the inaugural DuKane Conference cross country championships - twice.
Headed by individual winner Bill Hauenstein with teammates Sean Maison, Scott Maison, Jacob Kluckhohn and Jared Peaslee all in the top 11, WW South won the boys varsity race with 28 points to St. Charles East's 46. The Tigers and Saints are, respectively, Nos. 1-2 in the Illinois Cross Country Coaches Poll.
As well, WW South won the girls meet with 54 points to Batavia's 56. Though Batavia freshman Katrina Schlenker won the individual title at 16 minutes, 51 seconds, it was the grouping of Tigers Sam Poglitsch, Laurel Moneysmith, Haley Ansiel and Kaitlyn Nenninger finishing in the 3-12 positions that earned the narrow victory.
"We told the kids over the last couple days, it's history," said WW South girls coach Rob Harvey, who expected a slim margin against Batavia regardless of who came out on top.
"There can only be one 'first' team," he said. "And the fact that we won all three levels, with the fresh-soph, with the open and then varsity, it's really special."
From early on it was a three-girl race. Schlenker, St. Charles East's Alice Abbott and Poglitsch ran well ahead of Lake Park's Mariam Slimane pursuing in fourth. Then Schlenker and Abbott picked it up a notch.
"I wanted to get out there with the top two. I went up there, I was up there for a good amount of time. Then they were just keeping pace really, really strong so I decided to drop back a little, run my own race," said Poglitsch, a sophomore who ran the 3 miles in 17:20.
Confident in her position, Poglitsch ran "with my thoughts."
Which were?
"My mind and my chest was like, 'You can go faster and faster,' but my legs were just like not having it today," she said. "Hopefully I'll have a couple more races in the future, so I look to improve."
Freshman Annie Macabobby completed the Tigers' scoring. Slimane finished sixth overall for the seventh-place Lancers. Tavinya Taylor paced Wheaton North's sixth-place team finish and Elelta Sisay topped Glenbard North, which finished eighth.
In the boys race that followed a top group 15 strong led the field for a good mile before Hauenstein, Geneva's Ryan Kredell and St. Charles East's Bob Liking gained separation.
Out of a hairpin turn the course emptied onto Lake Park's track for a 300-meter sprint to the finish. There, Hauenstein's notable kick took hold, and the junior surged to win in 14:55 to Kredell's 14:57 and Liking's 14:59.
"I knew that Liking and Kredell were going to try to stick with me until the end, so I knew that 300, I had to hammer it just like they would," Haeunstein said.
"I was so happy when I crossed that finish line, I just started to put a fist up in the air, like I did it. It's finally kind of a dream come true that I always wanted to do. It happened now, so now I can look forward and set my goals a little bit higher, maybe."
With usual entry David Zeller out this meet, Tigers boys coach Chris Kuntz praised juniors Peaslee and Ethan Seng for aiding the pack mentality. Though Seng didn't score as WW South's sixth finisher, he placed 13th overall.
"We have a great team," Kuntz said. "That's been our strength for the last three years, is we run as a team."
Wheaton North's Connor Zydek finished ninth overall for the fifth-place Falcons. Glenbard North's Marat Schatz finished 17th for his seventh-place squad and Nathan Jorgensen and Stephen Vozar finished neck-and-neck for Lake Park.