Cross country: Hinsdale Central boys, Naperville Central girls champs at Twilight

The annual Twilight Invitational more or less provided an appetizer for the upcoming West Suburban Silver meet in the boys' division.

Dan Watcke and Colby Revold were runner-up and just outside the top 10, respectively, Wednesday night for Hinsdale Central at the prestigious regular-season cross country invite.

The Red Devils eased past conference rivals Lyons Township 98-115 for their second major championship this fall.

Downers Grove North, another league rival of perhaps the strongest conference in the state, was third with 136 points.

Waubonsie Valley (146) edged DuPage Valley Conference foe Neuqua Valley (152) for fourth.

"LT is tough," Hinsdale Central coach Jim Westphal said. "They could flip the script next week (at the league finals). Don't forget what Downers North can do, and then there is always York."

"I was looking for a get-back-into-it race," said Watcke, who was vanquished only by Herscher senior Drew Rogers with his second-place time of 14 minutes, 58.1 seconds. "I am more of a middle-distance guy. I was just sitting on the leaders to see what I could do."

"The thing about this team is we are deep," Revold, who finished No. 11, said. "We have a front-runner (in Watcke). We have guys who are filling in the (Nos.) 4, 5 and 6 spots. You need that."

Lyons' Charlie McLawhorn was third overall in 14:59.8 for the Lions.

In the girls race, Naperville North, the Class 3A champion of the last four state-sanctioned state meets, turned back Minooka - the last team to defeat the Huskies in Peoria - 99-115.

Lucy Westlake and Sophie Golobitsch - both veterans of the Huskies' 2019 state team - led the way as the former snared the last top-ten berth.

Batavia senior Katrina Schlenker, a state runner-up as a freshman, was fifth n 17:08.2.

"I wanted to break 17," the Liberty-bound Bulldogs star said. "It will be motivation to do it in the next race."