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St. Charles North's Ernst runs away from field at Flyin' Hawk

Audrey Ernst ran the Flyin' Hawk Saturday at Sunrise Park in Bartlett wearing the same pink sunglasses she wore Sept. 17 at the age group world championship triathlon in Chicago.

The result was the same for both - a win.

Fresh off becoming the world's best triathlete in the 16- to 19-year-old age division Sept. 17, the North Star sophomore returned to the cross-country course and ran a 17:58 to win by 14 seconds over Maddie Marasco from Schaumburg.

"It was amazing," Ernst said of her triathlon title. "I was so excited beyond words. It was such an amazing experience to represent my county and meet all these people from all over the world and race against them."

Marasco pushed Ernst on Saturday. While Ernst had the lead the entire race she also knew there was competition not far behind.

"All the girls definitely pushed me right at the end," Ernst said. "I definitely looked back a couple times and thought 'Oh shoot, I better speed up.'"

Ernst did just that, finishing the race just as strong as she started.

Earlier this season at the Leavey Invitational at LeRoy Oakes, Ernst had a lead early in the race but wasn't able to hold on.

"After my first race I was definitely disappointed but I'm happy with my season so far," Ernst said. "I'm really working hard and excited to see where the season goes. This race was really awesome to get the lead and stay there the whole time."

Marasco finished second in the race for the second straight year.

"It was a hard first mile because I think all our legs were tired," Marasco said. "As the race started going on we did what the coaches wanted to do and sprinted forward at the last line."

It was a good day for the Saxons who won the 10-team invite with 49 points. Huntley was second with 69 followed by St. Charles North's 86, Jacobs at 123 and Conant at 125.

Schaumburg junior Ellie O'Connell finished sixth, Valarie Schackelton was 10th, Lauren Kubinski 11th and Rachael Vaccaro 20th ironically in 20:00 even.

"Our team has some ups and downs, some little minor cramps and stuff," said Marasco, who finished ninth at Peoria to help the Saxons take sixth there. "We're just working together for the next meets we have. We all want to hit PRs and at least get top five in state. We're aiming high. We'll all working hard."

Freshman Mary Raclawski finished seventh in 18:57 and sophomore Lindsey Ferguson was ninth in 19:17 to lead Huntley.

"I wanted to go out fast and get in the first pack and see how everyone runs and see who I could stay with," Ferguson said. "We all did pretty good. Our goal is to stay together and we did that. Our seventh runner really stepped up."

Conant's Sydney Davis ran an 18:28 to finish fourth. Chloe Walsh led Jacobs in eighth in 19:11.

  Schaumburg's Maddie Marasco takes second place in the girls varsity run with a time of 18:12.2 at the Bartlett Flyin' Hawk meet Saturday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Huntley's Mary Raclawski takes seventh place in the girls varsity run with a time of 18:57.4 at the Bartlett Flyin' Hawk meet Saturday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Bartlett's Coral McFarland nears the finish line first for her team in the girls varsity run at the Bartlett Flyin' Hawk meet Saturday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Jacobs' Chloe Walsh takes eighth place in the varsity run with a time of 19:11.3 at the Bartlett Flyin' Hawk meet Saturday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
  Conant's Sydney Davis takes fourth place in the varsity run with a time of 18:28.6 at the Bartlett Flyin' Hawk meet Saturday. Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com
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