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Final surge earns York Palatine Invitational Boys titlePublished by
Davis and Sparreo win tactical individual races; Yorkville wins Girls title
By Michael Newman
Palatine, Ill --- The first half of the Boys Varsity race at Saturday’s Palatine Invitational could have told the story that has been seen between Hinsdale Central and York the past two years. It was a sea of Hinsdale red ahead of a sea of Kelly green York as the race headed into the final mile of the race on the Deer Grove East course.
The outcome between the two teams was different in the end. A final surge in the final 800 meters by York’s top five was the difference as the #5 Dukes edged Hinsdale Central 88-97 to win the Boys team championship.
“I am 100% in pure ecstasy,” York Coach Joe Newton said after the race. “I’m 86 years old and right now I feel like I am 52.”
“We wanted to get out and get out hard. That first sweeping turn you wanted to make sure you were in a good spot,” Hinsdale Central Coach Jim Westphal said. “I though the first half of the race they ran well. The second half of the race we did not run as well and we got beat. York ran a great second half of the race so they won. Simple as that.”
It was the first significant invitational win for York since the Dukes won this same meet two years ago. It has been a frustrating past two seasons for the Dukes as they have finished fifth and sixth in the last two 3A state meets. Their third place finish at the Richard Spring Invitational gave some an indication that York was starting to come back. The win at this meet was a warning to the rest of the state that the Dukes are coming.
The team split of 31 seconds for York’s top five was a scene of times gone by past York teams. Sophomore Charlie Kern led York with a seventh place finish. Max Denning (14th) and Jon May (17th) finished within two seconds of each other. Devon Davies (27th) and Robert Tomaska (28th) finished together with the same time. Just as last week, their split on their 2 to 5 pack was only 13 seconds.
“The boys had a meet Thursday. We had hard workouts on Monday and Tuesday. They are warming my heart,” Newton added. “It was a great York team effort today. Our 31 second split is great especially to have that on Charlie Kern. Things are getting better.”
Hinsdale Central did look good throughout the race and their five runner split actually did decrease to 45 seconds in this meet. The 2-5 pack behind second place Blake Evertsen was led by Chris Brenk (18th) and Nathan Hill (19th) who were just behind York’s 2-3 pack. Sam Fathizadeh ran his second big race in a row placing 29th. Ryan Doorhy was the team’s fifth man placing 34th. Their overall 2 to 5 man split was only 12 seconds. But it was behind York’s.
“I know Blake is excited about his race. I know he is working to get the rest of the pack pulled up a bit so we can close the gap,” Westphal added. “Our 1 to 5 split is just too big. We have Blake running up front. We just don’t have our 4-5 showing up like we need them to.”
The individual race almost followed the same scenario of a year ago when Jesse Reiser took off in a final 600 meter sprint to win the race. It looked the same way Saturday morning’s race as no one wanted to push the pace up front. Jon Davis (Oakwood HS) and Blake Evertsen led the pack through a lack luster 4:48 first mile. The pack stayed the same as the pace actually slowed down in mile 2. Erratic surges made in that distance were made
I was paying attention to his (Davis) breathing. It seemed pretty much the same as mine. I was pretty confident that I could stick up right with him,” Evertsen said afterwards. “I took some risks and did some surges. I kind of threw them in and Pereira was throwing them in. It did not demoralize me but it made me think that people were still in this race.”
It was Davis just sat back waiting for the right moment.
“We went out in 4:48 for the first mile. We knew that it would with all the great runners in the race,” Davis said. “The pace slowed down considerably to 5:06 for the second mile. At that point I was just going to try to make it tactical. I just let people relinquish the race in front of me and tried to stay in contention.”
A year of experience paid off for the Oakwood senior. Memories of what happened a year ago when the pack moved away from Davis in the final mile were in his head. He simply was not going to let that happen ago. He put down his head and charged down the final 400. There was a nervousness in his final 100 meters as he looked back a couple of times searching for the rest of the pack. Only Evertsen was able to maintain. The defending two time 1A champion crossed the line in 14:41.9 four seconds ahead of the second place effort of Evertsen. Filip Pajak (Prairie Ridge HS, Crystal Lake) was the surprise in the top five to some as he finished third three seconds behind that of Evertsen. It was a final 400 surge where he passed several runners. Matt Pereira (Lake Zurich HS) made a final 100 meter surge to catch Daniel Santino (St. Ignatius College Prep, Chicago) for fourth place.
“I think that me, Blake and Pereria slowed the pace down at the same time to try to measure each other up,” added Davis. “I was pretty happy to play tactical. It was a huge advantage to me.”
The Girls Varsity championship race that took place 30 minutes before that of the Boys mirrored the same type of strategy as none of the runners wanted to pull away for the lead early on. A front pack led by Brooke Wilson (Prospect HS), Daly Galloway (Gardner-South Wilmington HS), Kelly O’Brien (Palatine HS), Isabelle Sparreo (Stevenson HS, Lincolnshire), Jocelyn Long (Barrington HS), and Caitlin Shepard (Lake Zurich HS) took the pace out in a conservative 5:36 first mile. The pack started to move out in the next mile as Sparreo and Wilson started to force the pace issue as others within the pack struggled to hold on. Shepard and O’Brien started to fade the final mile as the four pack led by Sparreo started to move away.
It was again with 800 meters to go when the action started to take place up front. Sparreo started to surge trying to pull away as Wilson tried to maintain her position behind the Stevenson sophomore. A final move by Sparreo was the difference. She stormed across the line in 17:06.9 as Wilson came in three seconds later. The time that the Stevenson runner achieved was significant as it was two seconds faster than she ran the week before at Peoria. The Deer Grove East course is traditionally slower than that at Detweiller Park.
“I thought I went out too fast. I was a little nervous that I was in the front pack in the first mile with so many good girls in the race,” Sparreo said. “In that last mile, I was thinking that I am here. I have to stay with it. I knew girls were going to start to pick it up in the final mile. That is a part that I struggle with in a race. I just kept telling myself I needed to stay with Wilson. I needed to keep pushing until the very end.”
It was a foregone conclusion that 2A #1 Yorkville would win this race near the two mile mark as their five scoring runners were within an elbows length of each other. The way that the Lady Foxes achieved that was something that had Yorkville coaches concerned. The top five started out way back in the pack seeming to wake up just after the mile. Their finish was impressive as Olivia Borowiak (15th), Summer Pierson (16th), Maddie Dearborn (17th), and Alexis Grandys (18th) finished within seven seconds of each other. Freshman Nicole Greyer was the team’s fifth runner as she placed 21st. The split between the five was only 12 seconds which gave 82 points and the team championship. It was not as dominating performance that Yorkville Coach Chris Muth had hoped for.
“We survived today. We were extremely happy with the results. You can’t get better than first,” Muth said. “There are a lot of things in that race from preparation to in game to worry about outside things that we can fix. We can get a lot better. I know I am knit picking. When they are ready to get patted on the back, I’ll pat them on the back but today was not that day.”
The surprise team in 3A this season has been 3A #11 Lyons Township with the way they have rocketed up the DyeStat Illinois rankings. The performance by Lyons Township was again impressive as they scored 135 points to finish second. The addition of three freshman to the team’s top seven has paid off. Freshmen Sarah Barcelona (13th) and Emily Henkel (17th) led their team in this race. It has been the resolve of the senior group in the top seven that has powered this team.
“The seniors all the way back to last track season have been the difference. All the way back home from the state track meet, we had a long talk about the training and the mentality. The entire track season they worked to transform that,” Lyons Township Coach Stetson Steele that. “The girls bought into that. The freshman hat we have in there have the same type of work ethic and the same desires. It has been a nice meshing between our young kids with the senior leadership. We talked about how we want to run against the best teams in the state being at the top with those best teams. They came and competed. They have competed in every race this year. It has been a fun ride for me.”
#7 Wheaton-Warrenville South edged #8 Palatine 155-156 for third place in the team standings. MSL rival #4 Barrington placed fifth scoring 181 points just ahead of #9 New Trier who placed sixth. The effort the two MSL teams (Palatine and Barrington) from their intense dual meet Thursday afternoon showed in their performances at this meet on Saturday. Kelly O’Brien ran 17:32 almost duplicating her time of two days before. Both teams ran good but perhaps the emotional strain of their great dual meet on Thursday showed in their performance on this day. Neither of the teams refused to use that as an excuse.
Wheaton-Warrenville South’s performance backed up their run at Peoria from a week ago that this team should be in the trophy hunt when they get to the state series in the next month. Coach Rob Harvey knows that there is still work to do for his team.
“I think we ran a better team race than we did last week. Our split was a minute compared to 91 seconds a week ago,” Harvey said afterwards. “We still have some holes to fill. Overall while some of our individuals did not have great races, the collective effort was right where we wanted it to be. We are on the right path to where we need to be in October and November. There are a lot of possibilities and a lot of building still to do.” |
