David runs 16:37 to win 2A Girls race; Winnebago, Stanford Olympia on top of 1A at FTTF; Naperville North packs up for 3A Girls win

By Michael Newman

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Peoria – 69 ranked teams and some of Illinois’ top high school runners converged on Detweiller Park Saturday for a day of racing at the First to the Finish Invitational. When the meet was over, there was one runner that the fans departing the park would be talking about.

A freshman would be leading the pack on this day.

RESULTS | VIDEOS

Tatum David of Olney Richland County was the unknown entity coming into the 2A Girls race. She did have success on the middle school level running 4:58 for 1-miles during the track season. We had a clue of what she could at Detweiller Park having run 16:55 at the Detweiller at Dark race in July.

“I had butterflies in my stomach this morning,” David said. “Yes, I was nervous before the race.”

It seemed that those butterflies jumped back into their cocoons when the gun went off. David had the lead and never gave it up. She crossed the line in 16:37 to win the 2A race with one of the fastest times ever by a freshman girl on this course.

The conditions for the morning races were close to perfect with the temperatures near 70 degrees with a solid ground to run on. David took advantage of that going through the first 800-meters in 2:28 and the mile in 5:16. Ava Parekh of Latin School held close the first mile only four seconds behind. In the next half mile in the triangle back section of the course, David opened up the lead to eight seconds in the next half mile. When the freshman came out of the triangle, the lead just grew from there.

“I was not expecting anything super-fast today. I just wanted to get out fast by the half-mile and have the lead,” David added. “I looked back once (in the triangle) but I felt pretty good.”

Parekh and Rose Sheridan of Vernon Hills were the only runners that were close to David at the mile. There was a 20 second gap after the three runners.

Parekh looked strong crossing the line in second 30 seconds back (17:07). Sheridan was another 24 seconds back (17:31) finishing third. Another freshman, Saniya Mathew of Dunlap, finished fourth followed by Marian Central Catholic’s Siobhan Stoll. Seven of the top eight finishers in that race were either freshmen or sophomores.

Vernon Hills “kiddy corps” confidence continued to grow with a team win in this race that had 15 state ranked teams. The #4 Cougars placed four runners in the top 20 to win the 2A team title with 87 points. Their top seven, will consists of six freshmen or sophomores, had a split over two minutes on their top five. It was their power up front that made the difference. Emma Wakefield followed Sheridan in the top 10 placing sixth. Reina Hill (13th), Caroline Sear (19th), and Anna Todd (53rd) followed.

#3 Latin School, without their #2 runner Marianne Mihas in their lineup, scored 143 points to finish in a solid second. #7 Dixon (195 points), #5 Dunlap (203 points) and #2 Belvidere North (248) rounded out the top five teams. Belvidere North was without their top runner Madison Diercks in this race but did return all-state runner Gianna Sagona who finished 15th overall.

Class 1A Girls Race

Top ranked Winnebago proved that their opening race at the Oregon Open the week before was no fluke. The Indians placed all their scorers in the top 17 to score a miniscule 43 points to win the team title. How good is this team? Their top seven runners all placed in the top 45.

Winnebago put themselves in position the first mile of the race and maintained from there. Grace Erb moved in the final mile to finish second overall. Her sister Katie followed in sixth. Natalia Martino and Marissa Roggensack came in together in ninth and tenth. Kaylee Woolery was the team’s fifth runner (17th). The team had a 76 second split on their top five runners. Their split on their top four runners was only 36 seconds.

The individual portion of this race was also a runaway for Lydia Roller. The Staunton junior just got edged at the line last year to finish second. It was not that close in this race.

Roller had a 13 second lead on the rest of the pack going through the first mile in 5:36. Roller went on to win despite the fact that she has been battling an illness for over the past week. Her time of 17:27 was the best 3-mile time for her this early in the season. It was also 27 seconds ahead of second place finisher Grace Erb. Alexi Fogo of Eureka opened her season by finishing third (18:01). Kate Ahmari of Urbana University and Payne Turney of Clinton finished fourth and fifth individually.

#2 Rock Falls received a top 10 finish from Bailee Fortney (8th) to finish second overall (112 points). The Rockets had five runners in the top 32. #6 Normal University (118 points), #8 Urbana University (162 points), and #14 Eureka (181 points) were the other teams in the top five.

Class 1A Boys Race

Rock Falls’ Dawson Smith pulled away from the lead pack after the first mile to win the individual race in this classification just going under 15-minutes (14:58).  Noah McIntyre of Athens moved up in the final 800-meters to finish second (15:12). Miles Sheppard of Hamilton-Warsaw (15:17), Collin Eisenbarth of Illinois Valley Central (15:20), and Luke Sikora of Chicago University (15:24) were the  other runners in the top five.

Top ranked Stanford Olympia was the deepest team in this field by far which catapulted them to an easy team win. The Spartans were in control from the start charging to the front of the pack. By the time they got to the mile, Olympia had five runners in the top 15. They fell back in the final mile but still ended up with their top seven in the first 29 to score only 68 points. Charlie Kistner led his team with a sixth-place finish. Dylan Bennet (11th), Jon Neville (20th), Owen Dare (23rd), and Anthony Ragland (24th) rounded out the top five. The split on their scorers was 47 seconds. The split on their top seven was 53 seconds.

#3 Urbana University received top 10 finishes from Henry Kraatz (7th) and Aryan Lalwani (8th) to finish second overall (119 points). The big surprise in this team race was the third-place finish from #14 Latin School. They ran a 56 second split  off their #1 runner Ryan Hardiman (17) to score 178 points. #7 Elmwood (197 points) and #8 Father McGivney (261 points) rounded out the top five teams.

Class 2A Boys Race

What was supposed to be a challenge between two of the last year’s top finishers Anthony Farmer of Burlington Central and Charlie Smith of Antioch never developed. Smith did not race on Saturday. Sam Lange of Morton also had a say on who would win the individual race.

The lead pack, with Farmer, Lange, Dixon’s Brock Dregenberg, Wilson Georges of Limestone, and Kaneland’s Daniel Occhipinti along with teammate Austin Adams part of the pack went through the first mile in 4:50. As the group entered the triangle, Lange decided to make his surge. As he came up the homestretch entering the final mile of the race, Lange looked around amazed that he had the lead. He made another surge in the final mile to run away with the individual title crossing the line in 14:47.

His margin of victory grew to 17 seconds with Farmer and Adams finishing within a second of each other. Georges was next placing fourth (15:09). Occhipinti placed fifth (15:16).

Adams and Occhipinti’s finish were two of the reasons why top ranked Kaneland ran away with the team title with only 71 points. The Knights placed five runners in the top 28 with Isaiah Dallal (15), Ethan Walker (20), and Ben Durbala (28) finishing within 13 seconds of each other.

#10 Marmion was 114 points behind Kaneland in second (185 points) behind Alex Carlson and his 12th place finish. #5 St. Ignatius (190 points) and #3 Dixon (199 points) to finish third and fourth. #4 Sycamore and St. Francis both scored 251 points to tie for fifth.

Class 3A Girls Race

By the time that this race went off at 1PM, conditions got a little tougher for the runners as temperatures climbed into the 80’s. Yorkville’s Helena Kleronomos pushed the pace early leading the first mile ahead of the pack led by Molly FitzPatrick and Allison Drage of Barrington, Maggie Gamboa of Naperville North, and Brooke Stromsland of Lakes Community.

The heat was a factor as Kleronomos started to fade during the second mile. Gamboa took the lead trying to separate herself from the rest of the pack. FitzPatrick and Stromsland made their move passing Gamboa with a little less than 600-meters left in the race. FitzPatrick was passed by last year’s champion Katrina Schlenker a year ago. That did not happen this time.

FitzPatrick showed a strong kick heading up to the finish. Her time of 17:02 was three seconds ahead of Stromsland. Gamboa made across the line in third (17:19). Abby Lopez of Argo played it smart in her fourth-place finish as she was 20^th at the mile moving up the pack the remainder of the race. Kleronomos ran 17:25 to finish.

Two of the top three teams in Class 3A faced off for the first of possibly four times this fall. Both #1 Naperville North and #3 Yorkville were running with two of their top runners. Naperville North did not have Campbell Petersen who is expected to be back at the end of the month for the Roy Griak Invitational according to Coach Dan Iverson. Yorkville’s Kailey Fox had a stress fracture but has begun to train again. She could be back in the next month.

Both teams faired well without key components in their top five. Naperville North placed five runners in the top 15 with a 60 second split to win the team title with 46 points.  Audrey Mendrys (7th), Lucy Westlake (11th), Sophie Golobitsch (13th), and Kate Donaldson (15th) followed Gamboa in with only 37 seconds separating their four runners.

Yorkville finished second (93 points) with only five seconds separating their second through fifth runners. #4 Barrington was next led by three runners in the top 12 with FitzPatrick, Allison Drage (6th), and Alyssa Norris (12th) leading the Fillies. Only two points separated #13 New Trier (210 points), #8 Batavia (211 points), and #17 Minooka (212 points) for the next three team places.

Class 3A Boys Race

It was survival of the fittest in the final race of the meet. It would be who would make the move at the right time to secure the win.

In the individual race, that happened to be Lincoln-Way Central’s Jared Kries. The senior led Guillermo Ibarra of Morton and Tyler Cushing of Bolingbrook though 4:45 for the opening mile. Kries took off away from the two in the second mile opening up an eight second lead. Kries came up the final incline to the finish looking strong but looking back to see where his competition was. Ibarra and Cushing were closing the gap in those final 100-meters. Kries crossed the line before Ibarra and Cushing did. Kries crossed the line first (14:35) with Ibarra edging across just ahead of Cushing by one tenth of a second (14:38.6 – 14:38.7). There were n other runners in this race under 15-minutes.

The name of the game in the team race was accept the conditions and move up throughout the race. That was the case for #7 New Trier who scored 150 points for the team win. Charlie Siebert led the Trevians with a 15th place finish. Only three seconds separated their top three runners. Their overall top five split was only 24 seconds. #6 Oswego East was second (173 points) led by Heriberto Alvarez’s fifth-place finish. The surprise team in this race was the third-place finish of #25 Waubonsie Valley who were only one point behind Oswego East. The Warriors played it smart staying back the first two miles before making their charge in the final mile. Their split on the top five was also only 24 seconds.

#8 Lyons Township (191 points) and #17 Downers Grove North (225 points) finished fourth and fifth.