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Naperville North sweeps team titles at DuPage Valley Championships

Published by
DyeStatIL.com   Oct 18th 2014, 1:58am
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Naperville North wins Girls title on 6th runner tiebreaker over Naperville Central; Jon Klaiber and Rachel Hoffman take home individual titles

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By Michael Newman

[email protected]

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Glendale Heights, Ill – The conditions were not the best as rain over the last three days made portions of the course at Camera Park a muddy mess Friday afternoon. With the wind whipping out from the west, times did not matter in the races that took place at the DuPage Valley Conference Meet. � It was a matter of pride when the six conference teams took to the starting line.

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It could not get any closer than what happened at the end of the Girls Varsity Race. With only 39 runners in the Varsity race, it would come down to a dual meet between #3 Naperville North and #6 Naperville Central. You could see in the first mile of the race that this would be tactical as the lead pack of runners went by in 5:58 at the mile. Elly DeTurris (North HS, Naperville) and Rachel Hoffman (Central HS, Naperville) led the pack. It was clear that Naperville Central was trying to match their crosstown rival runner to runner. “Yes. Our goal was to break up their top five,” said Naperville Central Coach Aislinn Hicks. “It’s really tough to do that.”

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The middle mile saw the race start to open up as Hoffman and DeTurris broke away from the pack. Sara Atkins and Allison McGrath (Wheaton-Warrenville South HS), Alana Austin (Central HS, Naperville), and Sarah Schmidt & Judy Pendergast (North HS, Naperville). Hoffman passed by the 2 mile in 11:55 with DeTurris a couple of seconds back. At that point of the race, Naperville North had a slight lead 33-41 ahead of Central with Wheaton-Warrenville South third with 63 points.

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Hoffman broke away from the pack in the last mile. She crossed the line in 17:04 on this 2.88 mile course. “I just wanted to push the pace the last mile and I was not sure if she (DeTurris) was coming with me,” Hoffman said afterwards. “I heard all my friends and teammates out there cheering for me. It felt good.”

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Hoffman’s teammates made the same kind of surge in the last portion of the race. Perhaps the difference in the meet was the sophomore Austin passing DeTurris and Atkins in the final 50 meters to place second. Atkins continued her great season finishing third just a half second behind Austin. DeTurris and McGrath finished close together only a half second back in fourth and fifth.

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The surge was the difference to give Naperville Central a 37-37 tie with Naperville North. The tie was broken when they went to the sixth runner’s position at the end of the race. Natalie Dunnett’s 13th place finish ahead of Naperville Central’s 19th place finish by Carolyn Carpenter gave Naperville North the team championship.

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“I have mixed feelings about today. On one hand, I see today as a great step forward. I don’t think we ran fantastic 1-7. I think we ran well in certain places,” Hicks added. “We have a few things to work on for next week. We need to get our split down. We just have to start resting up for the state series.” Naperville Central’s split on their first five was 70 seconds. The split on 2-5 was 41 seconds.

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It was not a loss but a tie was not what most of the fans at the park were expecting. The scores were tighter than what was thought. Nevertheless, Naperville North Coach Dan Iverson was not disappointed at all after the race.

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“We work on the same strategy all year long working a smart first mile, building through the second and third. Sometimes when a race is that small, sometimes you need to brace yourself for the runner on runner thing,” Iverson said. “At the same time, we are training for the state meet and the state meet is not a small race. We got better at the race that we run today.”

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The Huskies placed five runners in the first ten and seven in the first fifteen in scoring their 37 points. ďż˝ Their five runner split was only 15 seconds.

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Lost in the tie between the top two teams was a strong third place finish by Wheaton-Warrenville South scoring only 58 points paced by the top five finishes by sophomores Atkins and McGrath. “Congratulations to Naperville North and Naperville Central. They are real, real good teams. That’s what our girls have to remember,” said Wheaton-Warrenville South coach Rob Harvey. “I am very proud of our effort. Through the times out the window. I thought we battled throughout the race today. We will be better in bigger races.”

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In the Naperville Twilight Meet Boys Race nine days ago, Naperville Central had a commanding lead at the mile only to fade in the final mile to finish third behind Neuqua Valley and Naperville North. It would be a question what kind of pace would the Redhawks go out in against the Huskies.

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Geoffrey McCullough (Central HS, Naperville) had the lead at the mile going past in 5:00. Jon Klaiber & Kerry Gschwendtner (North HS, Naperville) along with Kyle Cepeda (Wheaton-Warrenville South HS were close behind. At that point, Naperville North had a clear advantage with their top five in the first twelve. Naperville Central went out the exact opposite than they did the week before with their 3-7 runners between 20th to 25th place.

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North had the race won at that point. Naperville Central made a move on the final mile but ran out of real estate. Klaiber finished winning in 14:48. McCullough finished second six seconds back. Cepeda was another three seconds behind in third. The Huskies front presence was the difference as they placed four runners in the first seven. It was enough for a 35-46 win ahead of their crosstown rival.

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“I just wanted to move up the second half of the race,” Klaiber said. “My third mile is pretty strong. I knew that if I could stay with the leaders for the first two I would have enough to power through the last mile.”

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The #7 Huskies finished with a 50 second five runner split with a thirty second split on their first four runners. The addition of Kerry Gschwendtner who missed the first half of the season because of injury makes this team the more dangerous.

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“I knew that Jon was going to power through and Kerry was going to hold on (He finished fifth),” said Naperville North Coach David Racey. “We knew that a talented team like Central doesn’t do well like they did at Neuqua, they were going to come back strong. We knew they were a better team than they ran last Wednesday. We knew they were going to come at us hard. I’m proud of these guys and the way they ran today.”

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Wheaton North finished third with 73 points. Wheaton-Warrenville South was two points back in fourth.

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