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US #16 Naperville North’s convincing conference win is first step towards IL girls state title goalPublished by
Results | Elites | IL Conference Central By Michael Newman
Warrenville, Ill — “This is the best team in the state.” Those were the words that opposing coach Rob Harvey of Wheaton-Warrenville South said in describing the Naperville North girls after their commanding performance Friday at the DuPage Valley Conference Meet at St. James Farm.
The #1 Huskies dismantled a talented field, which included two other rated teams, by running seven runners in the first 11 to score only 20 points. Their 1-7 split was only 40 seconds.
The only thing that Naperville North Coach Dan Iverson could say was “wow” after seeing the race results. “I think we have places here that we can get better,” he said. “I think there are areas of the race were we can do some tweaking to continue to get better.”
It would be wrong to say the race was over when the gun went off. But it was close to over at the mile when a pack of seven Naperville North runners were in the front pack, having taken full control of the tone of the race. IL 3A #7 Wheaton-Warrenville South only had two runners within that pack, Hope Schmelzle and McKenna Kiple, with their remaining runners farther back.
“We did not run well,” Harvey said afterwards shaking his head in disappointment.
With the team race pretty much settled, all that had to be determined was who would win. Around the halfway point, the North duo of Elly DeTurris and Maria McDaniel broke away from the lead pack. By the two mile, DeTurris’ lead on her teammate was six seconds. The sophomore went on to win by 10 seconds, running 16:59 on the 2.95 mile course.
“One of our strategies today was to stay close and work together and push each other as a team. I think that is something that we do really well,” DeTurris said after her run. “As a team, one of our targets was to win conference and hopefully win state this year.”
Wheaton-Warrenville South scored 70 points to barely hold on to second, one point ahead of a great performance by #17 Naperville Central. Watch the full interview with Elly DeTurris here The Boys Varsity team race was the complete opposite of that of the girls. By the two-mile mark, it looked like IL 3A #16 Wheaton North had control of the race. IL 3A #9 Naperville North Coach David Racey was encouraging his runners to keep pushing. “We need you. We are losing the race. Keep going,” he told them. The Huskies made a trademark surge in the last mile to close the gap between the yellow-clad Falcons. It came down to the fourth and fifth men for both teams. The 14-18 finish by Wheaton North just edged the 16-19 finish by the fourth and fifth of Naperville North, which was enough for a five-point win. Alex Ryan and Paul Steeno led the Falcons with a 3-4 finish.
“A lot of strategy was just getting out. The race went out hard and we have been working on that aspect of the race,” a happy Wheaton North Coach Nate Roe said. “It was all credit to those kids. They worked together. It was a great team effort. That is what we have been hoping for since the beginning of the season. We had to fight that last mile. Wyatt Didier (14th) moved up five places over the last mile and Zach Ewoldt (18th) just stayed ahead of their fifth runner right at the end. The front guys did their job and held it together. It was those two guys that did it for us today. They were awesome.”
The individual race came down to a three-runner battle between Jimmy Qiao of Naperville North, and Omar Gomez of West Aurora and Nolan McKenna of Wheaton-Warrenville South. Those three runners were the ones that pushed the pace, going past the mile in 4:50. With a half mile to go, the three were still together, but not for long. Qiao started to make a move that McKenna responded to. In fact, McKenna surged to the lead, one that Qiao would not let go of. At the hairpin turn that led the runners to the last 400 of the race, Qiao made a move that left McKenna. Qiao’s winning time of 14:46 was a new course record. McKenna finished five seconds back.
“That was not a nice lead (at 2 ½ miles). It was a scary lead,” Qiao said. “I was counting on Nolan to spend his energy. Thank god that he did. At that point, I was thinking if I could make him spend his energy there, I could spend my energy over there at the end where it matters.”
Watch the full interview with Jimmy Qiao here
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