Cross country: Naperville North's Schmitt, Neuqua Valley's Kinne stick to their plans
For both Naperville North's Sarah Schmitt and Neuqua Valley's Zach Kinne, Monday's DuPage Valley Conference cross country meet went pretty much according to plan.
Well, except of course for how the weather forced the meet to be postponed from Saturday.
Both Schmitt and Kinne got out to early leads at St. James Farm in Warrenville and found themselves alone at the end to win the DVC girls and boys races. Their teams also won.
"I wanted to go out fast, break (Naperville Central's Thomas) Shilgalis and all that," Kinne said. "He had a great race Wednesday, the other day, outkicked me, so I just wanted to take that kick out of him. Or create enough distance that he couldn't do anything to me."
Kinne, a junior, crossed the finish line in 14:50.72. Wheaton Warrenville South's Sean Maison and William Hauenstein were next across the finish line, each just more than nine seconds back. Shirgalis took seventh.
"I took the lead after about 800ish," Kinne said. "There was Shilgalis and someone else around with us and then we took a turn and I got the inside and I just used that to my advantage. Surged a little bit, created some distance and then just went from there."
Schmitt, a senior, took the lead a little later but won by a bigger margin.
"I don't know exactly when I took the lead. I think it was around a mile, mile-and-a-half-ish," Schmitt said. "Me and my teammate, Alex Morris, we took it out together and we balanced it out really well. We just kept pushing the pace and back forth and we were together for a really long time."
By the time she got to the finish line Schmitt was all alone. She finished in 16;46.75 and won by nearly 17 seconds over second-place Morris. Huskies teammates Hannah Ricci and Claire Hill finished third and fourth.
"I turned around and saw them coming in boom, boom, boom, so that was really exciting," Schmitt said of Morris, Ricci and Hill. "We've been training and our core group has gotten a lot closer in our workouts and I think it's starting to show as we come into championship season. We're excited."
The runners will compete in IHSA regionals on Saturday.
The Huskies won the girls race with 22 points. Wheaton Warrenville South placed second with 53 points, Neuqua Valley was third at 105 and Naperville Central fourth with 109.
In the boys race Neuqua Valley won with 34 points, with Ryan Kennedy and Christopher Keeley adding top-10 finishes. WW South was close behind in second place with 37 points, Naperville Central (70) took third and Wheaton North (86) was fourth.