Shorthanded Yorkville edges Waubonsie Valley in Boys race at West Aurora Stampede; Stephens and McCue individual winners

By Michael Newman

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Montgomery, Ill --- The West Aurora Stampede has been more of a tune up for teams over the past few years getting ready for their conference meet and the state series. This meet was moved to the Stuart Sports Complex last fall. When West Aurora was named to host one of the 3A sectional meets for this season, this meet became more of a destination meet. 2A #1 Yorkville and 3A #4 Batavia proved that on Saturday morning in the Girls race.

In previous years, both schools had run their JV runners in the varsity race. This season it was a little different. Batavia wanted to get a run through on this course for the October 31 sectional race. They just did not expect Yorkville to be running their top runners in this race.

“I found out at the start,” said Batavia’s Emma Stephens. “It was the first few meters of the race and saw them out there.”

It was a different experience for Yorkville in this race. Yorkville’s Chris Muth knew his team had a conference and regional meet coming up in which they would be heavy favorites and most likely resting some of their top runners. It made sense to get one more good effort race in before those two meets.

The Batavia trio of Stephens, Dakota Roman, and Marygrace Golden pushed the pace at the beginning announcing their presence up front. Yorkville bided their time in their first mile like they have done in every race this season. Stephens passed the mile in 5:40 and started pushing the pace. By the two mile, Stephens had control of the race. The dynamics changed in the team battle during the second mile as Yorkville moved into position with all of their scoring runners in the first twelve. Freshman Nicole Greyer was Yorkville’s top runner at that point as she surged away from the pack with her sights on Stephens. Neuqua Valley’s Caitlin Horn and Rosary’s Madison Ronzone were also embedded within the top pack.

Stephens held the lead in the final mile and costed in to win at 17:10. Greyer was next thirteen seconds back in 17:23. Roman edged Ronzone by two seconds for third (17:35 – 17:37).

“I think I wanted to be a little bit faster at the mile. This is a faster course. I was looking to run sub 17,” Stephens said. “That last mile was really tough. I was not registering in my mind that I had a mile to go. I think I might have moved too soon.”

Yorkville’s pack again was the difference as they won the team competition 33-46 ahead of Batavia. The Lady Foxes had a five second split from their second through fourth runners behind Greyer with Summer Pierson (6^th), Alyssa Edwards (7^th), and Maddie Dearborn (8^th) were within that group. Olivia Borowiak was Yorkville’s fifth runner placing 10^th overall. Their overall split on their top five in this race was only 28 seconds. Not bad considering the week that they had been through.

“This is probably the last time we will run every body until we get to sectionals,” Yorkville Coach Chris Muth said after the race. “This was their third solid effort in the last seven days (Wheaton North Classic, Naperville Twilight, and today). It was a lot of racing and more than we would like. WE will probably give them the next two weeks off sporadically and then get ready for the upcoming races in November.”

Batavia ran a good race in placing second as they gear up for a trophy run at Detweiller Park this November. The Bulldogs placed five runners in the first seventeen with a split of 58 seconds. Marygrace Golden (11^th), Daphne Kolody (14^th), and Anna Malay (17^th) completed the pack behind the top finishes of Stephens and Roman.

“I found out that Yorkville was running their varsity was when the race was going on. We did not run our varsity here last year either. I think it is a year to year thing for a lot of teams,” Batavia Coach Chad Hillman said. “There were two reasons why we wanted to run here today. The first was that it was the sectional course. The second was that we needed race time together. We are kind of running like individuals out there. Our splits are kind of close together yet we are not running together. I was glad they (Yorkville) were out there. I was watching the video of Wednesday night’s race. We need to be out there against teams like that. It has been since First to the Finish (in September) that we have run against those top tier teams.”

3A #13 Neuqua Valley bounced back from their race at the Naperville Twilight Invitational placing third (80 points) behind top ten finishes by Caitlin Horn (5^th) and Sofia Medina (9^th). St. Charles East (173 points), Glenbard East (213 points), 2A #9 Chatham-Glenwood (217 points), and Sandburg (218 points) were closely bunched between fourth and seventh.

The Boys race dragged for the first mile as none of the runners were willing to take the lead and push the pace. That strategy worked well for West Aurora’s Connor McCue. As the pack passed the first mile between 5:07 and 5:09, McCue urgently picked up the pace. The individual race was pretty much over at that point. McCue’s lead was 12 seconds at 2 miles as he passed by in 10:09. His pace picked up as he ran the last mile in 5:00 to cross the line in 15:09 negative splitting the final two miles (5:02 – 5:00). Trevor Nold (Oswego East HS) had been sick most of the week but fought that off to finish second (15:27) less than a second ahead of third place Landon Skelly (Chatham-Glenwood HS).

“My Coach (Anthony Rizzo) told me to go out and have fun with it,” McCue said. “I have been kind of hanging back in my races and not taking charge. I noticed that the pace went out slow. I just wanted to take charge and see what happened.”

The team battle was much closer than that of the individual race. Despite the fact that Yorkville was without two of their top seven in this race (Thor Hester and Jake Firrantello), the Foxes still managed to be on top for the Boys Varsity winning 89 to 90 ahead of Waubonsie Valley. Yorkville’s normal pack was up front led by the 12 second split between Trevor Wills (4^th), Cody Hornyak (7^th), Alexx Nauman (13^th), and Zack Price (14^th). Brett Staufenberg stepped up as the team’s fifth runner placing 51^st.

“It was tough to come back from Wednesday and to have their adrenalin going again,” Muth said about his Boys team. “They did a solid job today.”

Waubonsie Valley has bounced back and forth in the 3A rankings this year partly due to some minor injuries that have hit some of their top runners. Things looked good for Waubonsie Valley Coach Kevin Rafferty on Saturday as his team ran a 28 second split on their top five led by the fifth place finish by Justin Caton. Their split from their second to fifth runners was only twelve seconds.

“Justin came out and set the pace for us today,” Waubonsie Valley Coach Kevin Rafferty said. “We had a talk this week when he leads us, our team runs really well. He pulled the group forward and we looked good. We have a few things that we need to sharpen up a bit. We look like the team that I thought we would be at the beginning of the season.”

Wheaton North was only thirteen points behind Waubonsie Valley as they finished third (103 points). 2A #9 Chatham-Glenwood was next with 121 points followed by Oswego East in fifth (127 points).