Top rated Downers Grove North teams glide to win in both Boys and Girls races at EIU Showdown

By Michael Newman

Naperville, Ill – The EIU Showdown started out as a small meet where a collection of coaches that attended Eastern Illinois University would bring their teams and let four races go off to start the season. It was held at Greene Valley Forest Preserve on the east side of Naperville.

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More teams have joined in, and the meet was moved to the campus of Neuqua Valley High School on the west side of Naperville. The meet has taken off as the top Saturday meet of the opening weekend of the IHSA season.

Perfect conditions welcomed the six Boys and Girls teams in what turned to have two close races and two new course records. The course was changed from 2.9 miles to 3.0 miles for 2024.

The top two teams in Class 3A faced off as #1 Downers Grove North came back in the final mile to edge #2 Plainfield North 30-35. In the Girls race, #1 Downers Grove North pulled away in the second half of the race to win with 24 points. #21 Neuqua Valley scored 65 points to finish second ahead of #13 Plainfield North (71 points).

The strategy in the Boys race was similar for Downers Grove North like it was in last year’s race. Coach John Sipple instructed his team go out no faster than 5:10 for the first mile. Plainfield North’s Thomas Czerwinski and Quinn Davis along with Jacobs’ Max Sudrzynski pushed the lead pace to a first mile between 5:00-5:02. Downers Grove North’s pack, led by Phillip Cupial and Grant Schroeder, went through the first mile as planned in 5:10.

Near two miles is when Downers Grove North picked up the pace to start to run down the rest of the race. Cupial made a charge to try to run down the two Plainfield North runners in the final miles but ran out of distance before the finish line.

Czerwinski crossed the line first with a new course record of 15:24.72. Davis followed his teammate in with a 15:25.86.

Then came the Downers Grove North as they placed 5 runners in the top 10. Cupial was six seconds behind the lead finishing third (15:31) followed by Schroder four seconds behind in fourth (15:35). Will Surratt (6th), Owen Kelly (7th), and John Courtney (10th) were separated by 16 seconds with a team overall split of 32 seconds on their top five. Downers Grove North was without one of their top five runners Brady Travers who had a minor injury. He could have run but was held out of the raise as a precaution.

Plainfield North ended up with the top two places in the race while placing 5 runners in the top 13 with a 50 second top five split. Gavin Hall led the Plainfield North pack behind Czerwinski and Davis finishing 8th. James Maso (11th) and Aidan Connors (13th) followed. Their third through fifth runner pack was just 12 seconds with the pack 37 seconds behind Davis.

Jacobs’ Sudrzynski broke up the Downers pack running 15:44 to place fifth.

The Girls team title was deciding during the second mile when Downers Grove North moved their pack closer to the front. The only thing that was yet to be decided was the individual winner as Elsie Czarniewski of Plainfield North and Lily Eddington of Downers Grove North ran side by side as the two runners passed 800-meters left in the race together, Eddington had started to move away from the Plainfield North runner. Eddington made one final move to solidify her lead and eventually her win.

Eddington set a course record running 18:20.30 for the win. Alayna Todnem of Downers Grove North passed Czarniewski in the final 20-meters to finish second (18:38.56) with Czarniewski (18:39.71). The Trojans placed 5 runners in the top 9 places to claim the win. The team had a 68 second split on their top five. Their split from their second to fifth runners was 50 seconds.

McKenzie Willard was Downers Grove North’s third runner finishing two seconds behind Todnem. Plainfield North’s Marlie Czarniewski was the team’s second runner with an 18:46 time to finish fifth. Elizabeth Hall of Neuqua Valley (18:52) and Hudson Szymoniak of Jacobs (18:58) finished sixth and seventh. Downers Grove North’s Ava Gilley (19:07) and Audrey Casten (19:28) finished eighth and ninth.

Neuqua Valley did not make it out of regionals in 2023 due to an injury to Hall. After their first race, they could be a team we could see at state. The Wildcats placed 5 runners in the top 19 to get their second-place finish. Sienna McEneaney followed Hall placing tenth followed by Addison Guskey (12th), Katelyn Shen (18th), and Fabiola Gipson (19th).

Plainfield North had two runners in their top five that were under the weather but still ran. Emaan Hussain was one of those runners but still finished 16 as the team’s third runner finishing behind the Czarniewski sisters. Tessa Russo had also gone through illness in the past week but still ran, finishing 20th. Zeta Zbroszczyk finished 27 as the team’s fifth runner.

Downers Grove North’s Girls team was still missing one of their top runners in the Varsity race but not because of injury. Macy Ermitage had her choice of running up in the Varsity race in the Junior Varsity race. “We put her in the lower-level race because she wanted to run with her friends,” said North Coach Tim McDonald. “We thought it would be okay since it was the first race of the season.”

Ermitage stayed with her friends for the first moments in the race and then was on her own. Ermitage ran 12:14.51 on the two-mile course winning by 43 seconds ahead of teammate Sophia Schlueter.

McDonald also acknowledged before this race that this would be the only time this season this happens running in the lower-level race.  After watching her race, I would agree with McDonald’s thoughts..