It’s all Storms for Girls individual title; Viger, Maloney lead Plainfield South in repeat of Boys team title

By Michael Newman

PALATINE, Ill – This third meet in a row had the top three teams in the state. Saturday’s meet at Deer Grove East Forest also included Barrington, which was looking to see how they compared. 

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On this day, it was the pack of York that ruled this meet. The Dukes again ran a 23-second split in their top five runners. It was not as close as we had seen at Lake Park and in Peoria but this time it was #3 York that earned the team title repeating their effort from a year ago scoring 64 points for the title. #4 Barrington ran a strong race scoring 80 points to finish second. #1 Downers Grove North scored 84 points to finish third ahead of #2 Prospect (97 points). Assumption, the top-ranked team in Kentucky made their presence known throughout the race and scored 100 points to round out the top five.

There was no question after the first 400 meters of the race that Scout Storms would control this race. It seems like a repeating story for the Barrington junior this season. “I wanted to go out a little faster that I have done the season,” Storms said. “I felt (Veronica Znajda) near me after the first quarter. After that I did not feel anyone near me the rest of the way.” By the time the race got to the mile, Storms had opened a seven-second lead ahead of Prospect’s Znajda and the Assumption duo of Julia Schmitt and Reagan Gilmore.

The lead doubled from that point as Storms looked relaxed as she crossed the line with a 17:06.78 winning time. By the time that the race had reached the halfway point, Assumption had the slight lead. York’s pack was as close as they were the week before in Peoria. Instead of maintaining their race performance, the five-runner pack continued to move up. Barrington and Downers Grove North were shadowing York’s moves. Prospect had their three runners of Znajda, Lily Ginsberg and Meg Peterson within the front pack but their fourth and fifth runners were losing touch of their first three.

Gilmore had finished seventh in this race in 2022. This time she moved up to second overall with a 17:19.02 time. Znajda followed finishing third (17:24.12). The gap after the first three runners was close to 30 seconds before Assumption’s Schmitt and Nicole Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South burst out of the pack crossing the line within a second of each other. Schmidt was fourth timed in 17:53.28. Poglitsch ran one of her top races of the season so far running 17:53.28 to finish fifth edging Lily Eddington of Downers Grove North by less than a second (17:53.42).

York ended up putting their top five runners in the first 22 places to secure the win. Maggie Owens and Katherine Klimek crossed the line within a second of each other with Owens at 17:54.68 and Klimek at 17:55.00 finishing seventh and eighth. Michaela Quinn led York’s 3-5 pack as she finished 14th followed by Anna McGrail (18th) and Sophia Galiano-Sanchez (22nd). The three runners were separated by close to five seconds. Their overall split on their pack was 23 seconds just like their previous race in Peoria.

Barrington showed they belonged with the three heavy hitting teams in the field only 16 points behind York. Mia Sirois led the pack behind Storms running 18:01.24 to finish 11th. Abby Lewis (20th), Sabrina Roach (23rd), and Kaleigh Burns (27th) were separated by seven seconds in their 3-5 pack. Barrington’s top five split off Storms was 75 seconds. The split from second runner Sirois and fifth runner Burns was just 20 seconds.

Downers Grove North ran a good race on Saturday with 5 runners in the top 29 led by Eddington’s sixth-place finish. McKenzie Willard was four seconds behind Eddington finishing 10. Sarah Paul followed another 10 seconds behind finishing 13th. Alayna Todnem (28th), Audrey Casten (29th), and Ava Gilley (30th) were separated by three seconds. Their top five split in this race was 31 seconds.

Prospect had a presence in the front in this race throughout not like they did the week before in their Peoria race. Znajda third-place finish was followed by Ginsberg (ninth) running 17:55.83 and Peterson running 18:03 to finish 12th. Ireland Wildhart ran a good race in this meet just 17 seconds behind Peterson finishing 26th. Kaitlin Skelton (49th) and Sophie Fransen (51st) were within three seconds of each other as the team’s fifth and sixth runners. Their top four split was 56 seconds. The overall top five split for the Knights was 106 seconds.

Assumption has three tough meets in a three week span first running at this meet and then following at the Louisville Classic on September 30 and then the Great American Classic in Cary, North Carolina on October 7. They showed how good they are this season with 5 runners in the top 46 led by top 20 finishes from Gilmore, Schmitt, and Leah Penick (16th).

#6 Hersey scored 192 points to finish sixth led by Margaretha Grabske in 17th place. #15 Lyons Township scored to finish seventh led by Julianne Melby finishing in 31st place. #12 Edwardsville (253 points), 2A #2 Grayslake Central (268 points) and New Trier (310 points) rounded out the top 10 teams.

Viger, Maloney lead Plainfield South to back to back meet titles

It was evident through this race that the runners with the Blue and White pinstripe pants had put themselves in position to win this race in the opening mile as Camyn Viger and Dylan Maloney led the race leading pack through an opening fast 4:45 mile over a pack of runners that included Joe Bregenzer of Barrington and Ben Crane of New Trier.

Maloney, who said after the race he missed a day of workouts during the week due to a bout of food poisoning, looked refreshed in a way as he opened up a three second lead ahead of this talented pack led by Viger.

The pack closed on Maloney and came even with him with about 1,200 meters left in the race. Viger had been in this position on this course before, so he knew what needed to happen. A series of little moves by Crane and Bregenzer set up Viger taking the lead with less than 400 meters to go.

Viger’s move set him up for the win running 14:36.20 for the win to repeat as the Varsity race winner. It took a kick for the senior to win the year before to run 14:44. This year he was within four seconds of Josh Methner’s course record of 14:32.2.

Crane was close again two seconds within Viger running 14:38.07 to finish second. Bregenzer ran a strong race with a 14:40.45 to finish third. Maloney held off Trey Sato of Grayslake Central for fourth. Both runners were timed at 14:42. Thomas Czerwinski of Plainfield North was another second behind in finishing sixth.

Alex Krieg of Palatine ran 14:51.25 to finish seventh ahead of Fremd’s Rory Gaan (14:55.90), Matthew Conroy of St. Ignatius Prep (14:56.65), and Zac Close of Neuqua Valley (14:59.18).

The 1-2 punch up front of #7 Plainfield South was the difference maker in this meet that included eight of the top ten Class 3A teams in this meet.

The Cougars scored 112 points to repeat as team champions in this meet. Joaquin DeAlba was the team’s third runner behind Viger and Maloney running 15:31 to finish 23rd. Alex Batsala (41st) and Riley Fink (45th) were the team’s fourth and fifth runners. The split between those runners was 18 seconds. The split between Maloney and DeAlba was 49 seconds.

Crosstown rival #5 Plainfield North scored 126 points to finish second 14 points behind Plainfield South. Czerwinski’s top 10 finish was followed by Quinn Davis (11th) and Owen Stahl (17th). The three runners were separated by 28 seconds. Aidan Connors (38th) and Gavin Hall were the Tigers’ fourth and fifth runners. Plainfield North’s top five split in this meet was 65 seconds.

#2 Hersey came back after two opening season wins to score 139 points to finish third in this meet. Liam Naughton (12th), Zach Frayder (18th) and Cameron Donner (19th) were separated by eight seconds. Rob Geissenberger was 16 seconds behind as he finished 24th. Nathan Marotta ran 16:06 to finish 67th. The top four split for the Huskies was 24 seconds. Hersey did not have last week’s #5 runner from Peoria AJ Svienty in their lineup.

#9 Barrington behind Bregenzer’s third-place finish scored 156 points to finish fourth. The Broncos ran better than the week before in Peoria. Mark McGinn finished 30th as the team’s second runner followed by Ethan Scott (32nd), Justin Hurtado (44th), and Manasyu Chaudhari (51st). The split between these four runners was 19 seconds.

#6 New Trier finished fifth (164 points) behind Crane’s runner-up finish and 4 runners in the top 48. St. Louis University ran a 39 second split on their top five runners to score 176 points to finish sixth behind Charles Murray finishing 20th. #8 Neuqua Valley scored 242 points to finish seventh behind Close’s finish and Robert Glenn finishing 14th.

#13 Palatine moved their top two sophomores up to the Varsity level for the first time this season. He helped in scoring 250 points to finish eighth. #3 Oak Park-River Forest did not have their top runner from last week Finn Kelly running along with Lewis O’Connor. The Huskies scored 264 points to finish ninth led by Daniel Johnson finishing 22nd.

Fremd scored 270 points to finish 10th led by Rory Gaan’s top 10 finish. The Vikings were without their #2 runner Jack Jennings who ran in the freshman race to start the meet. Jennings led from the start and set a new meet record of 12:29.75 to win the race. The old record was set in last year’s meet when Alex Krieg ran 12:41. Luke Marshall of Lake Zurich also ran under the old meet record running 12:39.89 to finish second.