Three days of rain made for a muddy course at Camera Park in Glendale Heights last week at the DuPage Valley Conference championship, but Naperville North boys and girls took titles over Naperville Central as both teams prepare for the state regional competition this weekend.
Naperville North senior Jonathan Klaiber continued his strong season, winning the overall boys title in 14:48, while Naperville Central senior Rachel Hoffman ran away with the girls title. Her 17:04 put her nearly 30 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, teammate Alana Austin (17:33).
On the boys side, Klaiber shared the early lead with teammate Kerry Gschwendtner and Naperville Central junior Geoffrey McCullough. The three pulled away from the field and opened up a small gap that they maintained for about two miles. At that point, Klaiber picked up the pace.
“I wanted to stay near the front and then see what I had in the last mile,” Klaiber said. “I was happy with how it worked out.”
“I tried to stay with him as long as I could,” McCullough said. “I’m pretty happy with it. My goal was to stay near that bright orange (Naperville North), and I was able to do that for most of the race. So no complaints.”
This was Klaiber’s first individual DVC championship. Wheaton Warrenville South’s Kyle Cepeda finished second with a strong last mile the enabled him to catch and pass the other two in the lead group, finishing in 14:54. McCullough held on for third (14:57) followed by Gschwendtner in fourth (14:59).
In the team competition, Naperville North took the title with 37 points, topping Naperville Central’s 46 and Wheaton North’s 73, which rounded out the top three.
Adding to the scoring for Naperville North were senior Christian Moore in sixth (15:14), senior Andrew Ladeur in seventh (15:18) and sophomore Emerson King in 17th (15:39).
Joining McCullough for Naperville Central in the scoring were senior Scott Hicks in fifth (15:09), junior John Manos in eighth (15:24), senior David Kennedy in 12th (15:30) and sophomore Thomas Chavez in 18th (15:41).
The girls team race was much tighter, as Naperville North and Naperville Central both ended up with 37 points. With the score tied, the winner is determined by the fastest of the teams’ sixth runners — in this case, Naperville North’s freshman Natalie Dunnett, who finished 13th overall.
Much like at the Naperville Twilight invitational earlier this month, Naperville North was able to win the team competition despite not being able to take a position on the podium. Naperville Central’s Hoffman pulled away from the field about halfway through the race, and sophomore Austin was able to give Central a 1-2 finish by holding on against fellow sophomore Sarah Atkins from Wheaton Warrenville South, who finished third in 17:34.
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But Naperville North’s depth was too much for the rest of the field. The Huskies took five of the next seven spots, with five runners within 15 seconds of each other, led by senior Elly DeTurris in fourth place (17:35). Freshman Sarah Schmitt was next in sixth place (17:39.2), and her finish in front of Naperville Central junior Maggie McClowry by a 10th of a second was the difference in the meet.
North took the next three places, with junior Judy Pedergast in eighth (17:40), senior Emily Hamilton in ninth (17:47) and sophomore Claire Hamilton in 10th (17:50).
For Naperville Central, following Hoffmann, Austin and McClowry and contributing to the scoring were junior Ellie Marcet in 11th place (17:52) and senior Isabel Lopez in 16th (18:14).
While the close race was a tough one for the Redhawks, Naperville Central will get another shot at the Huskies on Saturday, when both teams will be competing in the West Chicago 3A regional meet at Kress Creek Farms in hopes of advancing in the state competition. The boys from both schools will be participating in the meet as well, with the girls starting at 9:45 a.m., followed by the boys at 10:45 a.m.