Recapping Batavia Distance Madness

Batavia High School on Friday the 14th saw some cut throat racing that produced elite times. The atmosphere here was unmatched and the athletes responded with energy.

800

Girls

Both 800’s saw a wire to wire leader, Ally Shutler of St. Ignatius owned this race from the gun. She was not playing around, her first 2 laps were 31 and 33 for a 65 first 400. Lily Hodneland of Hinsdale Central was the only girl brave enough to hang with Shutler, but she detached after 400 meters. Margaret Andrzejewski of St. Francis had a valiant kick at the end, but there was not enough room for her to reel Shutler in. The freshman superstar came away with the win in an IL #2 2:13.26. Andrzejewski was 2nd in IL #3 2:15.19, Hodneland took 3rd with an IL #4 2:16.30. Gwen Hobson of St. Charles North was hanging on to Andrzejewski at the beginning of the final lap, but was unable to hold on and took 4th. She dropped a PR of 2:18.02 and took home IL #10 with that performance. There was a massive pack of girls that followed Hobson of Athena Triner from Yorkville, Cecilia Hilby of Central Catholic, Mia Forystek of Lincoln Way Central, and Avery Braker of Morton. All of them ran within a second of each other, Triner led the way in 2:20.39. However, heat 1 was not the only heat with fast running. Heat 2 saw Natalie Nahs of Minooka and Kara Glenn of St. Charles North both hit the top 10. Nahs was 5th overall in 2:19.14, Glenn was 7th overall with a 2:20.60. Nahs and Glenn were trailing Nicole Mayer of St. Charles East for 600 meters before they decided to take the race into their own hands. Mayer ran a fantastic race and finished 3rd in that heat with a 2:21.55. Mayer was the reason that this race happened, I applaud her for making it her own race for as long as she could. She just missed the top 10, taking 11th behind Avery Braker from heat 1. 

Boys

The boys 800 was not a close race. Jackson Summy of Lakes took it from the gun and did not let anyone get close. He led the pack through 400 at 57 seconds before he made his move and separated himself from the rest of the racers. He came through 600 with several seconds on second place and coasted it in with a 1:56.19 final time. He is currently IL #6 in this event in a mostly solo effort. Like in the girls race, the real action went on behind the leader. Adam Strombom of Crystal Lake Central hung out in the back for the first 2 laps and came from behind to take second. He ran an IL #15 time of 1:58.30, which beats his outdoor PR from last year. He narrowly beat Nathan Gabriel of Joliet Central and Samuel Wollak of St. Charles East. Gabriel ran a big season best in 1:58.56, Wollak was 4th in 1:58.83. St. Charles East had not one, but two guys who ran under 2 minutes. Michael Wilson was the other part of that duo, he ran 1:59.89 to take 6th overall. St. Charles is a sleeper pick in the 4x8, because they also have Greyson Ellensohn who showcased his ability to run down in the 1600, you will read about him later in this article. Evan White of Rockford Christian was the fastest individual who didn’t make the fast heat, he was the only other other athlete under 2 minutes. He ran 1:59.30 to win heat 2 and take 5th overall.

1600

Girls

In my preview, I had mentioned that I expected a group of 2 to battle it out for the win with a large chase pack gunning for third. I wasn’t that far off of the truth. Veronica Znajda of Prospect led for most of the first half, but Kyla Babb of Westmont was not content with sitting in second. Babb led for the majority of the second 800 and she took home the win in an IL #6 4:58.99. There was a brief moment in the final 100 meters where Znajda took back the lead and it looked like she had finished Babb off, but then Babb came flying back to first to claim her title. Znajda finished second with an IL #7 time of 4:59.15. Lola Satre Morales of Naperville Central had a terrific final 400, she worked her way from 5th to 2nd and put a 3 second gap on 3rd. She finished in 5:02.82 over Sofia Arcuri of Maine South in 5:05.59. Emma Berres of Naperville North was 5th in a 5:06.43 and Reese Kohnle of Boylan Catholic kicked her way to 6th with a 5:06.83. Kohnle was hanging out in the back for the majority of the race, it was cool to see her unleash a kick and find her way back into the pack. She was able to pick off Stella Davis of Evanston in her final 400, Davis was 7th in 5:07.04. There was a whopping total of 12 girls who ran under the 3A state qualifying standard in this event, which was almost double the number from all of the other events. From a fans perspective, this was probably the most fun event of the night, it was impossible not to get excited when it’s that close at the finish. 

Boys

The race got closer as it went on, but early on it was all Max Sudrzynski. He was determined to prove that his 4:13 was not just a one time thing, and he proved it here at Batavia. The Jacobs senior burned the pace out of everybody early on, he had almost a 40 meter gap at 800 meters. He ended this race early on, and was able to close the win in 4:16.59. The real race was happening behind him, it was an absolute warzone for second. There was a crowded pack that didn’t string out at all, they stuck together for the entire race. Jameson Tenopir of Cary Grove led the chasers for most of the first 800, but he swapped with Carter Hayes of Palatine and Greyson Ellensohn of St. Charles after halfway. Hayes and Ellensohn went back and forth, but Ellensohn got the better of him in the end. Both of them went for IL #4 and #5 respectively, Ellensohn ran a PR of 4:17.65 over Hayes in 4:17.82. I figured Hayes had it wrapped up because he was leading going into the final lap, but I was unaware that Ellensohn had that magnitude of a kick in his arsenal. Jameson Tenopir was 4th in a PR of 4:18.19 which was good enough for IL #8. Christian Harris of Morton was in and out of the chase pack throughout the race, but had an incredible closer which put him at 5th in 4:19.07. He is currently 2A #2 in the 1600 and he just missed his PR of 4:19.02. Andrew Straley of Brother Rice and Patrick Clune of Naperville Central were 6th and 7th respectively, both had good season bests. There was a lot of scrappy, gutsy racing, and it wasn’t just in the fast heat. Ed Polaski of Batavia and Bryant Lester of Vernon Hills missed out on the fast heat, but both ran outstanding PRs as well. Polaski ran 4:22.12 and Lester ran 4:23.89 and both are only sophomores. Both of them destroyed their heats, but in different styles. Polaski used his devastating kick to take the lead within the last 150 meters, he put 2 whole seconds on 2nd place in that short span. Lester ran more like Sudrzynski and made his heat play chase, he also won his heat by 2 seconds. Even heat 4 got some action, when a massive shove (that should’ve maybe resulted in a disqualification but didn’t) occurred before we even got halfway through the race. I personally had a lot of fun watching the boys 1600 go down, it certainly lived up to the hype.

3200

Girls

Meg Peterson of Prospect and Maya Ledesma of Minooka put on a show in the 2 mile. They were virtually inseparable as they cooked the pace out of the rest of the field. Ledesma was leading for about 2400 meters, trying her best to shake Peterson. Peterson, however, was not to be shaken. She hung with Ledesma and then used her speed to separate at the very end to take the win. She put 4 seconds on Ledesma in the final 200 to run 10:44.25 over Ledesma in 10:48.65. Ledesma truly did everything she could’ve done, Peterson just got the better of her on Friday. Peterson is IL #5 in the event, Ledesma took IL #6. Avery Hacker of Batavia played line leader for the girls that were in pursuit of the leaders, but she was eventually hawked down by Lily Baibak of Waubonsie Valley and Nicole Poglitisch of Wheaton Warrenville. Baibak took 3rd with a time of 11:08.70 for IL #17. Poglitisch narrowly beat Hacker, 11:11.30  to 11:11.54. A wicked kick for Baibak resulted in a huge PR for her, and the majority of the runners either dropped time or hit big season bests. 

Boys

Thomas Jochum of Glenbard South scares me. The sophomore used the oldest trick in the book, but was not ready for the consequences. What was his strategy you might ask? Well, he blew the entire field out of the water on his first mile, with an aching 4:30 halfway split. Whether you think it’s stupid or not, there is a reason for his madness. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Jochum was not going for a personal best. If he was, he would not have run that way. He wasn’t in it for a personal best, he wanted to win. I think he was nervous about leaving the race to a runner like Tommy Nitz of Huntley, and he is smart to be nervous. Nitz has a dangerous kick to end his race, and I think Jochum was trying to avoid being hawked down by creating a gap as soon as he could. It was a brave move, it was a bold move, and it unfortunately did not work. The chase pack of Rory Gaan of Fremd, Francesco Benelli of Batavia, Tommy Nitz of Huntley, Josiah Narayanan of Wheaton Warrenville and Santiago Chavez of Reavis quickly reeled him in after halfway. He held on to his lead until 2400, when Gaan led the chase pack around him. Nitz took the lead from Gaan’s hands soon after that, and then it was a one man show from that point on. He took home the win in 9:05.30 for an IL #2 and US #14 3200. Gaan had an incredible race, he finished 2nd in an IL #3 and US #34 9:10.45. Francesco Benelli hung onto Gaan until the very end, he finished 3rd in 9:13.72 for IL #4. Jochum ended up in 4th place, he ran 9:19.17 to close probably the most painful race he’s ever ran. Josiah Narayanan and Santiago Chavez were the only 2 members of the chase pack that were unable to pick off Jochum, they went 5th and 6th. Narayanan seems to have finally broken through the rust, he dropped nearly 20 seconds off of his season best to run an IL #8 9:21.38. Chavez is making his name known, he competed with the best of them and ran a PR of 9:26.17. He’s only a sophomore as well, so watch out for him in the future. Finn Richards of Benet Academy was unable to stay attached to the chase pack, but he nearly picked off Chavez at the very end. He ran 9:27.33 to take 7th, I believe there is more in the tank for the state champ. This race was set up perfectly for snipers like Gaan and Nitz, there was no surprise that they ran some blistering times here.