Above: Naperville North’s Judy Pendergast leads just before the mile in the Girls Championship Race (Mike Newman photo)

By Michael Newman

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Portland, Ore --- The rain came down Saturday morning on Portland’s Glendoveer Golf Course transforming the course used for the Nike Cross Nationals into an adventure land for most of the runners. It did not slow down the four Illinois teams and five individuals that took part in both the Boys and Girls Championship races.

Judy Pendergast (Naperville North HS) had high expectations entering this race having won the Midwest Regional on November 15 and then finishing second in the Foot Locker Midwest Regional last week. She hung back for the first 800 and then burst into the lead before the first kilometer mark. Pendergast was among the leaders passing through the mile in 5:15 along with Katie Rainsberger (Air Academy CO), Kaitlyn Neal (Fayetteville-Manlius NY), and Cailie Logue (Girard KS). The next mile in the back loop was a matter of moves and counter moves by each of the leaders. Neal would make one move to take the lead and that would be countered by either Neal or Pendergast. Rainsberger was content to just stay in the back of the group.

The Colorado state champion made her move just as the group went through the 2 mile point in 10:55. It was a move that none of the top runners including Pendergast could match. Rainsberger crossed the line in 16:56.8 setting a course record. Her 14 second winning margin was the largest in the 12 year meet history. Ella Donaghu (Grant OR) moved from seventh at the 2 mile to finish second overall (17:10.2). Pendergast finished eighth overall. That finish was the fourth best ever in this meet by an Illinois girls’ athlete.

“You have to remember that Judy just burst on the national scene this season,” Naperville North Coach Dan Iverson said after the race. He was there to watch Pendergast and her athletes run. “I know this is not the finish that she wanted. This experience will help her in future races.”

Naperville North dug themselves in a hole early in the race getting out slow. It was a deficit that they could not recover from. At the 1 mile checkpoint, they were in 17^th place. North moved up during the race but ended up finishing fourteenth with 336 points. Behind Pendergast’s finish came in Sarah Schmitt (63^rd), Kate Shannon (138^th), Emory Griffith (150^th), Claire Hamilton (151^st), Kayla Glowacki (158^th), and Jenny Gibson (171^st). Their five runner split off of Pendergast was 122 seconds. Their split from second runner Sara Schmitt to Claire Hamilton was 62 seconds.

I know the team is down,” Iverson added later on. “They are already starting talking about track and next season getting back here.”

Lindsey Payne (Glenbard West HS) was in her first national meet but it did not show. The sophomore took it easy early in the race as she went through the first mile near 50^th running 5:30 at that point. It is a similar pace that she has used all season. She moved up from there finishing 30^th overall (17:50).  “I was really happy to just run my race today,” Payne said after crossing the finish line. “I moved up during the race. I stayed calm. The last mile I just kicked it in. I did not want to finish like I did at regionals in Terre Haute. I just wanted to finish hard. I did not let anybody pass me. I wanted to finish in the top thirty and I did that. I’m happy.”

Jocelyn Long (Barrington HS) ran conservatively with the pace she has run with all season. It paid off for her in this race. She went through the mile in 5:35 position her in 70^th. She maintained that position until the final 400 meters. She passed twelve runners in the final stretch of the race to place 57^th overall (18:18). “We (the Midwest individuals) just wanted to lay it all out there today,” Long said. We knew the hills and knew when to push it. I did not realize how much I had left until I heard 400 to go from the crowd. I just went from there and kicked it in.”

The course was not in the best shape after the Girls race and especially since there was still a presence of rain in the area. The course did not slow down Jon Davis and Sandburg’s team early in the race. Davis knew in his mind that he could win this race. His workouts and last three races had demonstrated that. He was in the lead pack along with Ben Petrella (Liverpool NY), Paul Roberts (Lyons CO), Morgan Beadlescomb (Algonac MI), Ben Veatch (Carmel IN), and Eduardo Herrera (Madera South CA) that went through the first mile in 4:41. There were close to 70 runners within six seconds at the lead at that point. Considering that the course was soft with some runners slipping with every step, that pace was fast. Perhaps a little too fast.

Sandburg all season long has put themselves in good position by the first mile. They did so in this meet having the team lead ahead of Woodlands TX, Great Oak CA, and Dana Hills CA. As the race went into the back loop of the course, the action began among the leaders. Roberts started to push around the 1 ½ mile point along with Petrella and Spencer Dodds (Great Oak CA). There were a series of small spurts in the next half mile that dropped some of the favorites off of the pace including Davis. Dodds had the leading passing through in 9:43. Davis had fallen nine seconds off the pace and was now holding on in 25^th.

“We went by the mile in 4:41 and I said I can do this,” Davis said. “In the second mile, I began to slow down and the pack did the opposite. They kept speeding up. It was kind of like an “oh-no moment”. I think today’s race was a humility check.”

Sandburg was starting to feel the strain of the second mile falling to second place behind Great Oak who had three runners ahead of Sandburg’s #1 runner Sean Torpy.  The next inner loop of the course going near the finish was a matter of just maintain position. When it came up to 400 meters to go, Great Oak had lengthened their lead on the pack. American Fork UT had jumped up ahead of Sandburg and was now in second. Timpanogos and Dana Hills were within ten points of the Illinois 3A State champs.

Davis was holding onto his position but was still pushing it. In his head, the goal of win in the race was pretty much gone. The battle between his mind and body still continued with his mind starting to win. He moved up three spots in the final 400 meters to capture 22^nd place behind the win by American Fork’s Casey Clinger who won in a sprint one second ahead of Veatch. “The race came down to a sprint like I prefer and I was not up there,” Davis said after the race. “I’ve run well all season. I just picked the wrong day to have a bad race.”

Teams waited for about fifteen minutes to hear the announcement of the top three teams. When Great Oak, American Fork, and Dana Hills were announced, Sandburg walked quietly as a group up the hill back towards the athlete area. In their minds, they did not accomplish what they wanted to in this race. What they were not remembering in those moments is the way they raced as champions on this day and what they had achieved leading up to that point.

“We just wanted to go out early and commit up front like we have been doing all year long,” Sean Torpy said afterwards. “We did what we needed to today. We went out (of this meet) running hard.”

Sandburg ran a great team race with only an 18.6 second split on their top five. Sean Torpy (62^nd), Brandon Lukas (68^th), Chris Torpy (70^th), and Max Lehnhardt (80^th) all finished within five seconds of each other. Martin Skucas was the team’s fifth runner (102^nd) fourteen seconds behind Lehnhardt. Tom Brennan (149^th) and Dylan Jacobs (189^th) were the team’s next two runners.

National rankings were dismissing Lyons Township during the regular season. They ignored that heading into this race and proved that they belonged with the nation’s best. The Lions maintained a top ten team spot throughout the race placing ninth overall with 277 points. Sophomore Danny Kilrea stepped up again and was the team’s #1 runner with a 45^th place finish. Vince Zona (65^th), Connor Madell (88^th), Matthew Begeman (94^th), Dan Palmer (157^th), Alex Pall (184^th), and Tim McCarthy (188^th) rounded out the runners for Lyons Township.

“As a team, we pride ourselves being able to finish a race strong,” Zona said afterwards. “There were a lot of guys dying on the last straightaway. We were able to pass some of them.”

Neuqua Valley had a 23 second split on their top five in this race. Their top three runners moved during the race from the back. The problem for the Wildcats on this day was that they were too far back. They ended up finishing 19^th with 381 points. Jake McEneaney (99^th), Danny Winek (100^th), and Scott Anderson (104^th) all finished within a second of each other. There was a 22 second drop off before Matthew Milostan (140^th), Aidan Livingston (142^nd), Dominic Dina (145^th), and Caleb Ferguson (160^th) crossed the finish line.

“We just had to go out and see what we could do just like we did the last few races,” McEneaney said. “We just did not move up far as we wanted to today.”

Illinois’ other two individual runners had mixed returns in their races. Jack Aho went out in 4:47 for the opening mile. He maintained positions 55 to 60 during the race. He passed five runners in the end to place 53^rd. “I went out in 4:47 and I was way back,” stated Aho. “I just thought I could pick people off. The surface was so slippery and soft that it was hard to gain on anyone.”

It was a tough race for York sophomore Charlie Kern Jr. in his first national competition. He passed the mile in 4:46 (41^st) within five seconds of the leaders. He dropped off the pace from that point on finishing in 126^th place (16:30). It will be an experience that he can build off of for the next two seasons. “You win some and sometimes you just lose some,” Kern said. “I did not have the best race today. I just tried to be as tough as I could.”

For Davis and Pendergast, they still have one more race to go. For the other Illinois athletes that competed in Portland, they can celebrate the fact that they had great seasons with so many wonderful accomplishments.