The fours were with the defending champions in the 3A Girls Race

Naperville North wins their fourth straight team title; Katelynne Hart ends her run at Detweiller Park with her fourth straight individual state championship.

By Michael Newman

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Peoria – It all played out as planned for the defending state champions in the final Girls race of the day at Detweiller Park. Naperville North dominated the team race to capture their fourth straight team championship. Katelynne Hart of Glenbard West crossed the line to a standing ovation in winning her 11th state championship in her high school career.

If there was a lock on who was going to win each of the six individual races that would be held on this day, Hart would have been the biggest favorite.

3A RACE VIDEO | RESULTS

She did not disappoint as she took the lead at the first turn of the race and never looked back. She passed the first mile in 5:10 and then 10:31 through two miles. Her sights before the race was going after Judy Pendergast’s four-year old state course record of 15:53.6. That just did not happen, but she still came home with the state title crossing the line in 16:05.81. She handled the race and afterwards with class.

“There was a lot of pressure from that from the outside as well as on myself,” Hart said after receiving her first-place medallion. “I have high expectations on myself. The biggest thing today was trying to stay relaxed and stay confident which can be tough for me at times.”

Hart becomes the fourth Girls runner in state meet history to win four state titles. Hart follows Dana Miroballi (1984-1987), Katelyn Bastert (2003-2006), and Anna Sophia Keller (2013-2016) into the record book immortality.

“I felt great going past the first mile (5:10),” Hart added. Going into the last mile, I just did not have it going back up the hill which unfortunately cost me the record. I’m a little disappointed but I won which was exciting and the team ran well. There were definitely some positives as well.”

FULL KATELYNNE HART INTERVIEW

Perhaps the most anticipated moment of the individual race was who would get second some 30 seconds later behind Hart.

That developed in the first mile of the race as the pack of Aly Negovetich of Grant Community, Maggie Gamboa of Naperville North, Samantha Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South, and Katrina Schlenker of Batavia lead the rest of the field going through in 5:25.

The four runners were on their own at that point as one of that group would end up finishing second.

The final 300-meters coming up the incline towards the finish was a reenactment of the finish that happened three weeks earlier at the DuKane Conference Championships. Poglitsch and Schlenker were side-by-side with 100 meters to go. It was the final surge of the Wheaton junior that mad the difference as Poglitsch crossed the line in second (16:37) just ahead of Schlenker (16:40).

Negovetich followed in fourth (16:43) followed by Gamboa (16:45).

Erin Reidy of Downers Grove South led the next group in finishing sixth another 17 seconds behind.

“I wanted that second-place finish so bad. I am still kind of star struck,” Poglitsch said. “Rankings put me into the top three. It made me believe that I wanted this. I never saw myself here. I was talking to my mom about state track my freshman year and running with Katelynne Hart and Alex Morris and all these runners that I looked up to. They were the top five runners in the country and that was insane. So, to be one of them right now is so mind blowing.”

SAMANTHA POGLITSCH INTERVIEW

Naperville North has a race plan that they execute close to perfection in every state meet. That results in great things including their fourth-state cross country team championship scoring 90 points.

Gamboa’s fifth-place finish led the Huskies. Audrey Mendrys ran her best race of her life (so far) as the team’s second runner as she finished eighth (17:03).

Then came their pack led by Lucy Westlake (29), Kate Donaldson (36),and Molly Morton (44) that were separated by 20 seconds with a 59 second top five split.

Yorkville was building for this moment since the beginning of the season when injuries to top runners Kailey Fox and Hailey Simmons slowed them down. The two runners were prominent scorers for the Lady Foxes as they finished second (142 points) for the second year in a row.

Helena Kleronomos was in her top spot as she led the team with a 17th place finish. Then followed Simmons (41st), Fox (42nd), Sara Klemm (48th), and Maggie Hunter (50th) as the team’s other scorers. Their split on that group was only 10 seconds. Their overall split was 42 seconds. Yorkville still did not have top five runners Anna Hunter and Alex Stewart who are expected to run Saturday at the NXR Midwest Regionals.

WSC-Silver champion Hinsdale Central had two all-state runners to help them finish third with 183 points. Emma Watcke led the Red Devilettes as she finished seventh overall followed by teammate McKenna Revord three places later (10th). Freshman Catie McCabe was the team’s third runner (63rd) followed by fellow freshman Sarah Fischer (77th) and Louisa Brorson (82nd).

Batavia finished fourth (207 points) led by all-state finishes from Schlenker and Mia Gianfrancesco (25th). Downers Grove South placed fifth (226 points) led by all-state finishes from Reidy and Brenna Cohoon (14th). Cohoon who lost her shoe in winning the sectional title the week before, lost her other shoe 500-meters into the race and ran with one shoe the rest of the race to earn all-state honors.