Hart sets meet record in winning Richard Spring Classic Girls race

Glenbard West edges Wheaton-Warrenville South for Girls team title; Wheaton-Warrenville South dominates Boys race; Methner wins tactical Boys race

By Michael Newman

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PEORIA, Ill. – It was only a matter of time before Glenbard West’s Katelynne Hart broke away from the pack at Saturday’s Richard Spring Classic.

RESULTS

It was in fact just about 880 yards into the race where Hart went through in 2:30, as she had opened up a six-second lead on the rest of the field. The varsity girls race was not about whether Hart would win or lose. It was a personal matter between the junior standout and the clock.

The margin of her win was 33 seconds. Hart’s time of 16:14.7 broke the five-year old meet record that Kaylee Flanagan ran in 2013 (16:20.3).

“I just wanted to improve from last week,” Hart said. “I was happy the way that I performed today. I was happy the way the team performed. I was going to try to run even splits (running 5:20s) but that did not happen.”

“We talked before the race with the course being dried out. I thought she could get a fast time,” coach Paul Hass said. “She did not execute the race plan as we wanted. She gets excited sometimes at the start of races and tends to go out too fast. We wanted her to go out in 5:20 and get a good second and third mile.”

Hart had a 13-second lead ahead of the pack at the mile mark. At two miles, she went past in 10:40 with the lead growing to 29 seconds.

Alice Abbott of St. Charles East had raced Hart the week before at Lake Park, finishing 37 seconds behind. The sophomore was the leader of the chase pack for the first half of the race and then pulled away in the final mile to run a personal best of 16:47.

“I knew she was going to go out fast. We all knew what she was going to do,” Abbott said. “It’s exciting to see what other girls can do, too, and to see what I can do in races against her. It’s (about) coming into races and not be scared and to see that anything is possible.”

Five runners ran 17 minutes or faster Saturday compared to two in last week’s First to the Finish Invitational. Samantha Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South ran 16:53 to finish third, using a strong kick up the incline to finish five seconds ahead of Grant’s Aly Negovetich, who ran 16:58 to finish fourth. Glenbard West’s Katie Hohe ran 17:00 to finish fifth, just two seconds ahead of Rosary freshman Lianna Surtz, who ran the fastest 2A girls time on this course in 2018 (17:02).

The battle for the team title was supposed to be close between No. 4 Glenbard West and No. 5 Wheaton-Warrenville South. That did not disappoint, as West put three runners between 27th place and 53rd place to secure the team win by just two points, 131 to 133. Two freshmen that Hass had in the lineup made important contributions. Both were in the team’s top five. Aurey Allman finished 27th and Delaney Engel was the team’s sixth runner, placing 82nd. Abby Hoffman (48th) and Chloe Connolly (53rd) were the team’s fourth and fifth runners.

“You just never know when you have one race under your belt in a career as a freshman. You just don’t know what will happen,” Hass added. “I was satisfied with the team performance. I thought we were too far back in the beginning and we had to work to get up into contention. It’s still September and we have plenty of work to do.”

Hohe may have been the difference-maker in this race for the Hilltoppers after running 17:48 last week at Lake Park.

“She ran an uninspired race last week,” Hass stated. “She let Abbott go last week. We told her she had to stay with her. She (Hohe) was really focused this week on improving on her performance.”

Wheaton-Warrenville South was close as Laurel Moneysmith was the team’s second runner, finishing 11th. Kaitlyn Nenninger (21st), Haley Ansiel (44th) and Sarah Kulkarni (56th) were the Tigers’ other three scorers.

Coach Rob Harvey said his team's runners were focused on their indivdual missions.

“We had seven individual races today and not one team race,” Harvey explained. “It’s still September. We still have time to work on that.”

Oswego finished third (224 points) behind Isabelle Christiansen’s ninth-place finish. Oak Park-River Forest ran a 29-second split on its top five to finish fourth (230 points). Palatine, in its first invitational of the season, placed fifth (242 points behind sophomore Anne Marie Jordan’s seventh-place finish).

In the boys race, Illinois No. 1 Wheaton-Warrenville South showed it will be the team to beat in November with a superb performance in winning the team title with 42 points. The Tigers moved throughout the race. In the final mile when they needed to get towards the front, they did it. Their top five split 13 seconds, led by Scott Maison running 14:48 to finish fourth overall. His teammates came in quickly as William Hauenstein placed seventh (14:56), Sean Maison ninth (14:56), Jacob Kluckhohn 10th (14:57), and David Zeller 12th (15:01). 

No other team was close. 

“Our main goal today was to have a tight split,” Scott Maison said afterwards. “We have been working on that in practice. We just wanted to replicate that in this race.” 

No. 5 St. Charles was just as impressive last week when it dominated at Lake Park. The Saints finished second (116 points) behind top-10 finishes from Bob Liking (fifth) and Bennett Melone. No. 7 Neuqua Valley finished third (145 points) using a 32 second split off their top five, led by 14th and 15th place finishers Michael Madiol and Chris Feeley.

Hersey (165 points) and Sandburg (177 points) rounded out the top five teams.

Conditions were opposite of the girls varsity race one hour before as temperatures spiked into the 80-degree range with high humidity. The individual race became tactical as Hersey’s Josh Methner pulled away from York’s Ethan Kern in the final 800 meters to secure the win with a four-second margin in 14:37.

Mathias Powell of Mahomet-Seymour led the pack, including Kern and Methner, through the first mile in 4:45. The pace slowed down in the triangle portion of the course as the three went through two miles in 9:47. It was a matter of time before Methner got going.

“This was not about time to day. It was about winning,” Methner said. “I just wanted to stay composed during the first mile.  I did not want to take it out that hard. I was just trying to stay on the shoulders of the leaders. I was not worried about pace.”

Kern gave it everything he had for 14:41.

“With 1000 meters to go, Methner started pushing it really hard,” Kern said. “I just tried to stick as long as I could. With 800 to go, I was just trying to hold on. I was going to see if I could get him with a kick. I just didn’t have it today.”

Powell ran 14:44 to finish third ahead of Scott Maison (14:48) and Liking (14:50) to round out the top five.