Naperville Central both hosted and came out on top of its annual Naperville Invitational cross-country meet on Friday night.
The Redhawks finished first in the 13-team field with 63 points, beating out Lockport in second with 69 and St. Charles East, which had 105 points for third place. Naperville North, which sent most of its varsity team to the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota, showed off its depth by finishing fifth with 123.
Plainfield North junior Rachel Lau took the top spot at the meet in DuPage River Park, finishing in 17:30. She was able to pull away from Naperville Central senior Rachel Hoffman, who finished second in 17:36. St. Charles East senior Torre Scull finished third in 17:44.
Scoring for the Redhawks after Hoffman were sophomore Alana Austin in seventh (18:09), junior Maggie McClowry in 10th (18:25), senior Isabel Lopez in 12th (18:29) and junior Kyra Conroy in 32nd place (18:57).
Benet placed seventh in the meet, getting scoring from junior Clare McCabe in 11th (18:28), junior Anna Brown in 35th (19:02), sophomore Amanda DeSitter in 40th (19:06), sophomore Rachel Strons in 46th (19:18) and senior Elli Chalkey in 55th (19:35).
This year, Naperville North is again expected to be one of the teams in the mix for the state 3A title. The Huskies won it all in 2012 and finished second to Glenbard West last year. Those two are expected to duke it out again with much of their squads returning, along with a strong Hinsdale Central team. Naperville Central isn’t far behind, in a second group of schools competing for a top-10 state finish. Last year, the Redhawks finished 11th at the state meet.
Most of the Huskies’ varsity squad traveled to the Minnesota invitational, which attracts some of the top teams in the country. Naperville North finished third overall in the 100-team field, led by sophomore Claire Hamilton’s 18th place finish in 19:34. Freshman Sarah Schmitt finished 25th (19:48), senior Emily Hamilton was 31st (20:04), junior Judy Pendergast, 39th (20:20) and junior Jenny Gibson, 59th (20:43) on an unseasonable 85-degree day.
Naperville North junior Emory Griffin led the remaining members of the varsity squad at the Naperville Invitational. She finished 16th overall in 18:37, followed by Huskies sophomore Kathryn Abe in 17th (18:40). Naperville North senior Jenny Smith finished 24th (18:50), senior Anna Mandarino was 27th (18:51) and junior Allison Ray was 39th (19:05) to close out the scoring for the Huskies.
It’s safe to say that both Naperville North and Central can expect solid teams in the future, as the two schools dominated the freshman/sophomore meet that started the invitational. The two schools took the first 10 spots of the meet, and 14 of the first 17 places. Naperville North sophomore Elise Chao took the victory in 19:18, followed by Central freshmen Meghan Donovan (19:22) and Erin McHugh (19:27), who finished second and third. Naperville North edged Central for the freshman-sophomore team title, 26-29.