Upload a Photo Upload a Video Add a News article Write a Blog Add a Comment
Blog Feed News Feed Video Feed All Feeds

Folders

Featured (267)
All (920)
 

 

Pendergast runs 2nd fastest Girls time ever in Illinois

Published by
DyeStatIL.com   Oct 17th 2015, 3:57am
Comments

Naperville North senior runs 16:05, leads team to conference title; Neuqua Valley Boys take top seven spots to perfectly win title

 

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

 

Roselle, Ill --- It sometime takes a runner to go outside of their comfort zone to find out how fast that they can run. That even happened to Naperville North’s Judy Pendergast at Friday afternoon’s DuPage Valley Conference Meet in the Girls Varsity race. What a discovery that she found out in that race.

 

The Naperville North senior crossed the line in an amazing 16:05 for this 3 mile course on Lake Park’s East Campus. It broke the course record set by Lake Park’s Kaylee Flanagan in 2012 when she ran 16:27. Pendergast did not break the course record in this race. She shattered it. Her time is also the second fastest time ever for a Girls High School Runner in Illinois. Only Madeline Perez’s 16:02 that she ran to win the state meet in 2012 is faster.

 

“I wanted to be quicker in the first mile than I had been the last couple of weeks,” Pendergast said. “I wanted to focus on the first two miles. That is what Coach Iverson and I talked about before the race. I just wanted to run the first two and see how I finished on the last one.”

 

Pendergast got out fast as planned leading on the first turn. She had a 17 second lead at the mile as she passed it in 5:10. The pack followed led by Wheaton-Warrenville South’s Sara Atkins. It was a faster pace than she had expected. But it was necessary to keep in sight of the Naperville runner.

 

“I was just thinking to keep the distance between us to a minimum,” Atkins said. “I knew she was going to be very far ahead because she is an incredible runner. I just wanted to see her up until about the 1 mile or the 1 ½ miles. I think I saw her in the distant up until two miles. I was happy with that.”

 

Pendergast continued to push her pace as the gap between her and the rest of the field grew bigger and bigger. When she passed the 2 Mile mark in 10:35, her lead had grown to almost 35 seconds. She was in uncharted territory. At the Naperville Twilight Invitational nine days before, she passed the 2 mile in 10:50 on her way to running 16:15.

 

Her stride did not waver as she entered the stadium to run the final 300 meters of the race. Her focus stopped as she crossed the line as she shut of her watch that she was wearing at 16:05. It did not seem like the rest of the pack behind her was running a fast pace. But they were. Atkins came in the final straightaway in full sprint crossing the line in a great 17:05. It was a full minute behind Pendergast but the time would have won most any other invitational race. It was also a personal best for the Wheaton junior by more than 20 seconds. Pendergast’s teammate Sarah Schmidt was the next runner in at 17:09. Caitlin Horn (Neuqua Valley, Naperville) was fourth only tenths of a second behind Schmidt.

 

“The fast first two miles gave me a better feel in what I can expect in future races,” Pendergast added. “That last mile was really tough. I just kept pushing it. I knew my teammates were pushing it.”

 

It was not the typical race for top ranked Huskies as they paced five runners in the first twelve to win the team championship with 29 points. North was without one of their top five runners Claire Hamilton who was rested for this meet due to a minor leg injury. Their split on five was their typical 111 seconds. The split between Schmidt and Jenny Gibson who finished 12th overall and fifth runner for the team was 48 seconds.

 

#6 Wheaton-Warrenville South did not run their best race of the year according to Coach Rob Harvey but did finish second with 80 points. #13 Metea Valley is up and coming as demonstrated by their 87 point total and third place finish behind the 9/10 finish by Nicki Cast and Leana Goldman. #15 Neuqua Valley was a close fourth place with 89 points behind Horn’s 4th place individual finish.

 

It was really no contest in the Boys Varsity race. Even though the 3A #3 team in the state will miss their #1 runner Connor Horn who will be out for the rest of the season due to a stress fracture of his talus bone, his teammates came through one again dominating the race. Zachary Schwarz (Lake Park HS, Roselle) led the lead pack through a 4:53 opening mile. That is when the Wildcats took charge. In the next half mile, Neuqua Valley had all of their top seven leading the race. When they passed the 2 mile point in 10:01, they had close to a 10 second lead on the field. The rest was elementary.

 

With the team race decided, it came down to who would take the top spot in the race. Dominique Dina, Jake McEneaney, and Jackson Jett sprinted away from their teammates in the last 800 meters. It was Dina who had the speed at the end to outkick his teammate Jett to win by less than a second (14:54.3 – 14:55.1). McEneaney was third six seconds behind. The Wildcats scored a perfect 15 points with only 15 seconds separating the top seven.

 

“We were not really worried about places in this race. We wanted them to go for time,” Neuqua Valley Coach Paul Vandersteen said after the race. “We did not want any complacency today. We were fearful that they would run between 15:10 to 15:20. They ran their own race today and went after it.”

 

 

It was a big drop off between Neuqua Valley and the rest of the teams. Wheaton North ran a 37 second split off of the 10th place finish by Matthew Beckman to finish second with 92 points. #19 Naperville Central, behind the 13th place finish by John Manos and an 18 second 5 man split, placed third with 99 points. Waubonsie Valley placed 4th with 112 points behind sophomore Wes York’s 14th place finish.



More news

History for DyeStat.com
YearVideosNewsPhotosBlogs
2024 1089 347 13738  
2023 5382 1361 77508  
2022 4892 1212 58684  
Show 25 more
 
+PLUS highlights
+PLUS coverage
Live Events
Get +PLUS!