By Michael Newman

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Naperville, Ill --- Coaches were making comments after the first three races of Wednesday evening’s Naperville Twilight Invitational that the new course on the campus of Naperville North High School was running slow. It made sense because of the plethora of turns that were on this course. But then the sun started to set, the wind died down, the temperature cooled down to 60 degrees allowing magic to happen just in time for the Girls Varsity Race.

The stars in the sky above were not the only stars shining for this race. The top four teams in the state were in this race along with four other ranked teams in this ten team field. There was also the matchup between two of the top Girls runners in the state Judy Pendergast (Naperville North HS) and Lindsey Payne (Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn) that fans that crowded around the course were waiting to see. Even though this race was taking place on Pendergast’s home course, there was no advantage other than fans cheering for her. She had jogged a little on the course and looked at the maps. That was the only preparation that she had.

That did not matter to the Naperville North runner as the gun went off. She shot to the early lead not wavering or looking back. Pendergast passed the mile in 5:18. Payne followed seven seconds back with Minooka’s Ashley Tutt and Emily Shelton close behind. The lead increased to 12 seconds after Pendergast took a lap around the track and re-entered to the Naperville North South activity field. Payne had no slowed down focused on her rival ahead of her.

After the two mile, Pendergast’s margin stopped growing. Payne was making a move to try to close the gap.

“I know she goes out really hard and is able to maintain that the entire time,” Payne said. “I just gave it all I had today. At the end of the race, my legs were shaking.”

As they made a sharp turn to loop back to the track and the finish of the race, the margin was down to nine seconds and shrinking. Did Payne have enough time to catch up to the front?

“I knew that Lindsey is amazing pushing through that third mile,” said Pendergast. “That is where I stumble sometimes mentally getting through that. The crowd and the atmosphere was very helpful. I knew there was going to be a time where she would start closing. I just wanted to mentally prepare myself for that.  It was something that I wanted to work on overall today.”

Pendergast sensed that Payne was starting to move up. Her stride started to quicken and the lead again started to grow. As she entered into the stadium, her lead on Payne had grown back to 12 seconds. A final 400 meters around the track to cut down the middle of the football field to the finish was all Pendergast needed to do. It did not look like she was in an almost full sprint but she was. She crossed the line in 16:15 to record one of the fastest times in the nation this season for three miles. Payne was next in 16:29 recording another time under 17 minutes for the distance this season. The two embraced after Payne crossed the line both out of breath. They had used all of their energy in what was one of the best races of the year in the state.

“I knew there was going to be a lot of hype coming into this race. I just stayed off of Twitter and listening to that. I knew if I ran my best I would be happy,” Pendergast said. “I have been getting better how I feel during a race. Going off a feel is how I’ve raced this season and it has been successful for me.”

“I always aim to do my best. I am not disappointed. She ran so great and I am so proud of her,” Payne added. “It was so cool to have someone push me and to see how much more I could push myself.”

Minooka’s pair of Ashley Tutt and Emily Shelton were next to cross the line. Both were under 17 minutes with Tutt crossing with 16:52 and Shelton running 16:58 to finish fourth. With all the excitement that was going on up front, what was forgotten to some were the dynamics of the team race. The two #1 teams in the state (Naperville North in 3A, Yorkville in 2A) were battling each other for the team title. Both squads were back for the first two miles of the race mirroring each other’s moves. In the last mile, Naperville North started to make their charge with Yorkville following suit.

Naperville North had Pendergast and Sarah Schmidt (6^th) finishing ahead of Yorkville’s #1 runner Alexis Grandys who finished 8^th overall. North’s Emory Griffin was the team’s third runner finishing 10^th. Then it was Yorkville’s 2-3 punch of Nicole Greyer (12^th) and Summer Pierson (13^th). Claire Hamilton was North’s fourth runner in 17^th followed by Yorkville’s Alyssa Edwards (19^th) and Madison Dearborn (21^st) completing Yorkville’s scoring five. Katherine Shannon was one pace behind Dearborn completing Naperville North’s scorers. The Huskies won the battle of this night placing higher than Yorkville placing better in four of the five scoring spots. That gave the host Huskies a 56 to 73 win.

“We were not overly pleased with the race we ran against them (Yorkville) last time. There were some things that we felt that we needed to fix,” Naperville North Coach Dan Iverson said after the meet. “We did not go out that fast. It is not a fatal mistake unless it bleeds into the second mile. We are better because of that mistake at that meet. I think we were where we needed to be. We did not go out overly fast but we moved the second half of the race. I was impressed with that. This was a dynamite field. We were scratching and crawling to move up in the field. I did not think we were running that fast. Yorkville is good…really good. They ran good tonight. We only beat them by a little and that can be flipped in a second. I thought the times were good all the way through.”

Naperville North ran a 101 second split on their first five. It was a split that Iverson would happily have especially with Pendergast that far up front. Their split form their second through fifth runners was only 32 seconds. Yorkville continues to run their tight pack with their five runner split at only 25 seconds. #3 Minooka finished third with 100 points. Glenbard West did not run their best team race of the year according to their Coach Paul Hass but still ended up in fourth with 107 points. #6 Wheaton-Warrenville South rounded out the top five finishing fifth behind top ten finishes by Sara Atkins (7^th) and Allison McGrath (9^th).

The two highest ranked teams in the Boys race #3 Neuqua Valley and #5 Hinsdale Central ran shorthanded with both their #1 runners not running. Neuqua Valley’s Connor Horn actually did run but was experiencing pain in his leg and he dropped out a little more than 800 meters into the race. Hinsdale Central’s #1 runner Blake Evertsen also did not run. He was sick before the race and Hinsdale Central Coach Jim Westphal was not going to take a chance sending his star junior home. The two runners who were expected to challenge for the wins were out. The question was as the pack approached the first mile was who would step up?

Alec Danner (Downers Grove North HS), Jake McEneaney (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville) and Eric Neumann (Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn) had a slight lead on the rest of the pack as they passed through the first mile in 4:50. Coming out of the stadium back onto the activity field, McEneaney started to push the pace. Neumann pushed to stay with him and Danner.

“I’ve always had trouble closing the last 400,” McEneaney said. “When I saw Connor drop out and there was no Blake I just thought I would take my chance at two miles and just see what I could do over the last mile.”

The lead had grown close to five seconds as the Neuqua Valley junior passed the 2 ½ mile point. Neumann was not giving up as he started to close the gap on McEneaney as they passed under the stands and then back onto the track. With a little more than 300 meters to go, Neumann made his move passing him on the south curve of the track. The lead continued to grow as Neumann made the turn for the final 100 meters of the race. The Glenbard senior crossed the line in 14:57. McEneaney was in second nine seconds back. Danner ran 15:08 to place third.

“Everything came together for this race. We really got a perfect night,” Neumann said. “I really wanted to go up there and hang with the top guys. I felt I could do that even when McEneaney started to push. I just kept it in my mind that I had to stick with him. This feels great. This is my first win outside of a dual meet.”

Even without their #1 runner Horn for the second meet in a row, the Wildcats prevailed putting their top seven in the first thirteen to score 32 points to win the team title. Behind McEneaney came in Dominic Dina (6^th), Aidan Livingston (7^th), Jackson Jett (8^th), and Matt Milostan (9^th). Their split on their first five runners was only 15 seconds.

“I wanted to give as many guys an opportunity in the varsity race and I am glad I did,” Neuqua Valley Coach Paul Vandersteen said. “This is a competitive group. I’ve got a good problem. I do not know who I should put in the top seven at conference. I have to figure who will be in the varsity race and the open race will be a dog fight. They are a great group of kids. I do not think I will ever see another group like this depth wise.”

Hinsdale Central was second with 56 points running a tight pack. The problem was that Neuqua’s pack was positioned in front of the Red Devils. Chris Brenk led his team with a fourth place finish followed by Nathan Hill (11^th), Andrew Irvine (12^th), Ethan Planson (14^th), and Sam Fathizadeh (15^th). Their five man split in this race was only 16 seconds. 2A #4 Yorkville once again demonstrated their tight pack running finishing third scoring 110 points led by the 18^th place finish. All of the Foxes’ scoring runners placed between 18^th and 27^th running only a ten second split.