Hart, Methner defend titles at Richard Spring Invitational; St. Charles East Boys, Downers Grove South Girls impressive in team wins

By Michael Newman

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Peoria – One of the biggest moments at Saturday’s Richard Spring Invitational was the projected storms that were forecast for the Detweiller Park area never materialized.

Bigger things happened after that.

Individual varsity race winners Katelynne Hart of Glenbard West and Josh Methner of Hersey defended the titles that they won in 2018. They ran close to the times that they ran in the state meet almost a year ago.

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The temperatures in the low 70’s with cloud cover and the course in almost perfect condition set up what would be a great race for Hart. A year before Hart ran 15:59.9 to win her third state title. She would not be in the lead by 400-meters into the race like she normally would be. Lianna Surtz of Rosary and Ava Parekh of Latin School hit the first curve with the advantage and Hart just a stride back. In a blink of an eye Hart had a lead that she would not relinquish the rest of the day.

The three-time state champion went through the first mile in 5:12 with Surtz and Parekh together five seconds back.

“Mr. Hass (Glenbard West Coach Paul Hass) had us watch the video of last year’s race,” Hart said. “There were a couple of girls that went out ahead of me. He told me not to be freaked out when I saw the time at the mile. He told me I was in better shape than I was last year at this meet.”

The lead grew from there as Hart went through in 10:32 close to the course record pace that Judy Pendergast had set of 15:53.8 in the 2015 State Meet. There was a difference in last year’s state meet and the race on Saturday for the Glenbard West senior. She had a strained look on her face when she approached the finish line for her third state title last November. On this day, Hart again had the focused look, but her stride looked effortless. The way that she crossed the line was different as the time clicked at 16:00 as she crossed the timing mat. Her official time was 16:00.7. It was the third fastest time ever run by a high school girl at Detweiller Park. Hart has two of those times.

“I was just hoping to be better than I was last year,” Hart added. “I looked at the radar. I knew there was going to be some rain and I did not know what the course would be like. I was happy how the race went. It was a good starting point.”

Surtz was behind by 26 seconds at 2-miles and finished in second with a 16:44.7 seasonal best. She said afterwards that she was hoping for a faster time than she had run last year at state. The time was 15 seconds faster than she ran in the meet last year.

Parekh had run 17:07 at the First of the Finish Invitational seven days before. On this day she finished in 16:53.9. Samantha Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South moved from sixth in the first mile to place fourth as the only runner to finish under 17-minutes (16:59.1). Alice Abbott of St. Charles East rounded out the top five running 17:06.7.

The Boys Varsity race was just as fast but had a hint of more excitement. The runners in the race knew what this course offered as the gun went off. The lead pack went through 800-meters in 2:12. Josh Methner and Brett Gardner of Lincoln-Way East went through 1-mile in 4:39. St. Charles East’s Bob Liking and Micah Wilson, Nicolas Dovalovsky of Neuqua Valley, and Max Svienty of Hersey were just a second back.

By the time they entered the triangle, the dynamics of the front pack changed.

“I looked at Josh and said let’s do this,” Gardner said. “We both knew that it was to keep the pace up and see if we could get close to 14-minutes.”

Methner and Gardner made surge that only Liking would respond to. The three runners passed 2-miles in 9:32 with Wilson leading the next pack in 9:39.

“Brett (Gardner) made many, many moves,” Methner said. “I was just trying to cover them. I just waited until he did not have one left and that is when I went.”

The surges continued entering the final 300-meters of the race coming up the final incline of the course. Gardner tried to make the one move with 150-meters left that Methner had a response to. Methner crossed the line in 14:12.6 almost one second slower than he had run at state a year ago. Gardner was next in 14:14.3. The time that he ran was almost 20 seconds faster than he had ever done before. Liking was third 15 seconds back (14:29.1). Dovalovsky (14:38.9) was fourth. Jake Allen of Naperville North, who was 26th at the mile, ran 14:41.3 to finish fifth just ahead of Wilson (14:42.0).

THE TEAMS

Downers Grove South was ranked second coming into this race with only one other invitational under their belt this season. The Lady Mustangs tuned up for next Friday’s Desert Twilight Meet in Arizona by dominating this tough field scoring only 95 points for the team win. Brenna Cohoon led a tight one through three runner pack finishing 10th. Erin Reidy (12th) and Sophia McNerney (15th) were less than six seconds behind Cohoon. Kennedy Warden (30th) and Alex Sprang (33rd) were the team’s other scorers. The split on their top five was 44 seconds.

#8 Glenbard West ran with their full team for the first time this fall and finished second with 191 points. Hart led the way with the individual win with Delaney Engel (23rd), Audrey Allman (31st), Anna Nicoley (50th) and Ava Powell (92nd) followed.

Claremont traveled east from California and finished in third (212 points). The Wolfpack had three runners in the top 21 led by Maddie Coles and her eighth-place finish. #5 Hinsdale Central (226 points) and #7 York (255 points) rounded out the top five Girls teams.

St. Charles East had made a statement the week before at Lake Park when they won the Boys Varsity race by 20 points ahead of defending Class 3A champion Wheaton-Warrenville South. The East made an even bigger statement in this race with the top Class 3A six teams in the field. The #2 Saints placed all of their scorers in the top 20 to score only 57 points for a dominating win. The team ran only a 34 second top five split with Luke Schildmeyer (13th), Aidan King (16th), and Zack Loomis (20th) following Liking and Wilson. All five ran 15:03 or faster with the top four runners under 15-minutes.

#5 Sandburg displayed strong pack racing finishing second (104 points) with only 40 seconds separating their top five runners. Ben Giblin (10) and his brother Will finished 11th to lead the Eagles. Ismail Tineh (18th), Sam Rodriguez (25th), and Griffin Lehnhardt (53th) were also runners in the top five.

Claremont CA finished third (160 points) on a sixth-runner tiebreak with #3 Wheaton-Warrenville South. Claremont received top 30 finishes from Adam Trafecanty (9) and Jack Keough-Lansford (30). Wheaton-Warrenville South was led by Billy Hauenstein’s eighth-place finish. #4 Hersey finished fifth behind Methner’s win and Max Svienty’s seventh-place finish.

York was ranked the top Class 3A team heading into this meet. They left Detweiller Park with what some considered a disappointing sixth-place finish (223 points) behind the 15th place finish from Daniel Klysh. Their split on the top five was 52 seconds in what for some of their top seven was their first invitational race of the season.