Girls track and field: Batavia rules Kane County invite
Former state champion Lianna Surtz manhandled the 3,200-meter record Thursday evening at St. Charles East.
But the Rosary senior was close to 15 meters behind Katrina Schlenker.
Schlenker, a Liberty recruit, obliterated the Denise Hefferin mark at the Kane County Invitational with a time of 10 minutes, 35.09 seconds.
Surtz lowered her own school record in placing second at the premier regular-season girls track and field competition with her time of 10:40.1.
Hefferin, a former coach at St. Charles East, set the original county benchmark in the longest individual race in 2000 at 10:59.6.
It was only fitting Schlenker was the last Batavia athlete on the track as the senior anchored the Bulldogs' third consecutive sprint-relay title in the 1,600 variety in 4:02.63.
"I have been racing with Lianna since sixth, seventh grade," Schlenker said. "It was like having a teammate out there. I definitely feel a lot stronger. I had a lot left in me over the final lap."
"I had a lot of fun with both of us being from Batavia," said Surtz, who has the 2019 Class 2A metric-mile as well as two cross country state titles to her credit. "We don't get to race each other very often. It made the whole race faster."
The other Batavia luminary was senior sprinter Essie Newburn.
In her lone individual race, Newburn was anointed the fastest girl in the county with her 12.82 clocking in the 100 dash to thwart West Aurora Loyola-bound reigning all-stater Zoe Littlejohn by nine one-hundredths.
With an array of relay comrades - Schlenker, Skylar Sandoval, twins Maddie and Mariah Wilson and Izzy Taylor - Newburn was a four-event county champion as the Bulldogs captured the four-by-one, two and four hundred relays.
"I can't even comprehend that," Newburn said. "It feels so surreal. We were preparing for this meet like it was a state meet."
When the Bulldogs' two field-event triumphs - Bridget Kosky in the long jump and Alex Baumann in the shot put - were added to the track haul, the result was a 128-106 triumph over St. Charles East for the team title.
Kaneland (67 points), St. Charles North (64), Burlington Central (61), South Elgin (57) and defending champion West Aurora (48) were well behind.
The host Saints' Katie Kempff had both a win on the track and in the field. The MIT-bound hurdler and jumper won the 100 lows in 16.24 and escaped Dundee-Crown junior Paulina Tinajero to capture the triple in a tiebreaker at 36 feet, 6 inches.
The Saints also received victories from their 3,200 relay (9:40.95) and 300 hurdler Natalie Grimaldo.
"It's good to get more data to see where you're at," Kempff said.
Natalie Buratczuk, third in the Class 3A high jump last June, won her third consecutive county title for St. Charles North with her 5-5 clearance.
Aurora Central Catholic all-state long sprinter Isa Orozco defeated Class 3A South Elgin all-state metric half miler Naomi Ruff to win the 800 in 2:18.77.
The junior added the 400 moments later for the Chargers; Ruff would later return to claim the metric-mile in a season-best time of 5:07.2.