1-2 course record finish from Cupial and Schroder help Downers Grove North win at Naperville Twilight

Downers Grove North and Plainfield North separated by 10 points in Boys Varsity; Weber pulls away in final mile to win Girls Varsity race; Downers Grove North builds into comfortable Girls Varsity team win

By Michael Newman

Naperville, Ill – What happened on Wednesday night’s Naperville Twilight Invitational went beyond expectations on a perfect night for cross country on the Naperville North Campus course. Temperatures were near 60 degrees. The course was in great condition. It was prime for spectacular racing. And we saw that.

Results | Meet Videos

Sundara Weber of Sandwich ran the fourth fastest time ever on this course opening a six second lead on Maya Ledesma of Minooka entering the final mile. Weber surged in that final mile running 16:27.87 for the win. Her course time trails what Grace Schager, Judy Pendergast, and Katelynne Hart accomplished. It puts Weber in a select list. Ledesma’s time of 16:47 becomes the 12th fastest course time for 3-miles.

The Boys race turned out to be one of the best races that we have ever seen in this meet. There were six runners that came onto the Naperville North track within two seconds of each other, Downers Grove North’s Phillip Cupial and Grant Schroder were in a neck and neck battle for individual and team points with Plainfield North’s Thomas Czerwinski and Quinn Davis along with Liam O’Connor of Oak Park-River Forest and Francesco Benelli of Batavia. Cupial and Schroder with 200-meters left in the race were fighting off Czerwinski from taking the lead. Czerwinski stumbled a little giving the two Downers Borth runners the opportunity to win the race.

Cupial charged ahead of his teammate and crossed the line on a primal scream winning the race with a new course and meet record of 14:24.09 eclipsing the record set by Thomas Shilgalis in 2017 by three seconds. Schroder crossing in 14:25.54 also under Shilgalis’ time.

“I was envisioning in class today how I would finish this race,” Cupial said. “When I got to that point, I realized that it was coming true,”

Czerwinski ran 14:27.86 to finish third with Davis running 14:31.78 to finish fourth. Benelli (14:32.55) and O’Connor (14:34.08) finished fifth and sixth. The top six finishers in this race are now among the top eight runners on this course.

The Boys team race was just as close as expected with #1 Downers Grove North winning the individual battles over #2 Plainfield North 45-55 with the Trojans four of the top five spots. Cupial and Schroder won the battles ahead of Czerwinski and Davis. Will Surratt of Downers North finished 7th while Aidan Connors of Plainfield North finished 9th for the third spot. James Maso of Plainfield North finished 13 while Brady Travers finished 18. The team scored after four runners was 27-29 in favor of Downers North. John Courtney of Downers Grove North finished 18th ahead of Sean Jansen of Plainfield North who finished 26th.

One of the big keys for Downers Grove North was changing up their schedule for this year. “Last year’s race felt like a rustbuster,” Cupial said. “Ryan (Eddington) and I did not feel great finishing at the end of last year’s meet. Coach John Sipple added a triangular meet six days before on the Green Valley Forest Preserve home course that sharpened them up after a hard three-week training block. “We felt stronger in this race,” added Schroder. “It showed the way the team finished at the end.”

#21 Batavia finished third (136 points) led by Benelli’s finish and a 10th place finish from Edward Polaski. #19 Naperville North finished fourth with 159 points. #12 Neuqua Valley scored 174 points finishing fifth.

There was a 17 second gap after Weber and Ledesma. Avery Hacker of Batavia ran 17:04 to finish third ahead of Tessa Russo of Plainfield North (17:06) and Rianna Tandon of Naperville North (17:08) finished fourth and fifth. Marlie Czarniewski of Plainfield North (17:18), Nicole Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South (17:20), McKenzie Willard of Downers Grove North (17:22), Emma Berres of Naperville North (17:22), and Elise Czarniewski of Plainfield North (17:25) finished in the top 10.

#3 Downers Grove North ran a tactical race to repeat the meet team title with 58 points. Downers North explained after the race that their goal was to run a comfortable first mile and then run down the lead pack in the second half of the race. They did just that led by Willard’s top 10 finish. Alayna Todnem and Ava Gilley finished together finishing 11th and 12th. Audrey Casten (16th) and Lily Eddington (18th) were the team’s fourth and fifth runners. Their top five spread was only 19 seconds.

It was close for the next three team spots. #8 Batavia scored 95 points to finish second. #5 Minooka scored 101 points to finish third. #12 Naperville North scored 103 points to finish fourth. #6 Plainfield North (127 points), #17 Yorkville (154 points), and #11 Wheaton-Warrenville South (192 points) finished fifth through seventh.

Meet Notes

There were freshman runners in the Varsity race that should be kept an eye on for the rest of the season. Francesca Mora of Latin was the top freshman Girls runner running 17:29 to place 13th. Athena Triner of Yorkville ran 17:45 to finish 20th and was the team’s second finisher. Grayson Meek of Neuqua Valley was his team’s top runner in the Boys race running 15:03.64 to finish 15th overall.

Clara Franken of Wheaton-Warrenville South moved up nicely through the Girls Frosh/Soph race trailing Ellana White of Naperville North by one second after two miles. Franken pulled away in the final mile to run 18:42 for the race win. White ran 18:57 to finish second. Conrad Saner of Downers Grove South pulled away from the rest of the field in the Boys Frosh/Soph race to run 15:24 winning by 23 seconds ahead of Naperville Central freshman Toby Silder.

Helen Justice of Downers Grove North won the Girls Junior Varsity race running 18:24.27. Namie Bacheller of Wheaton-Warrenville South ran 21:12.04 to win the Girls Open race.

Joshua Ferrero of Downers Grove North came from behind running 15:53.15 to win the Boys Junior Varsity race.  Hassan Ahmed of Downers Grove North led a top 5 sweep in the Boys Open race. Ahmed’s winning time was 17:17.93.