Glenbard West wins with tiebreaker in Boys race; Downers Grove South with dominating Girls win

By Michael Newman

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Bensenville – The story for most of the meets in the Chicagoland area on Saturday morning was the havoc that thunderstorms were having. Meets at St. Charles, Hinsdale, and Lyons Township were among the meets that were cancelled due to thunderstorms that were in the area.

It was not the case for the John Kurtz Early Bird Invitational held on the Fenton High School campus. Meet organizers played the patience card waiting out the storms hoping for a window of opportunity. There were some teams that decided that this was not the day for them. Other schools waited out the delays in the school’s fieldhouse hoping for the moment that they would toe the line.

Meet organizers made the decision to run the meet but not in the format that was planned. One Boys race. One Girls race. In cloudy skies and on and off drizzle, the races proceeded near 11 AM. The fans were not disappointed with two class races.

Three 3A top five teams made their presence known in the two races.

The race that most of the fans wanted to see on this soggy course was between #2 Glenbard West and #4 Hersey in the Boys race. While some teams were leaving, these two stayed wanting to see what they had and to challenge each other.

“We talked about leaving,” said Hersey’s top runner Josh Methner. “Everyone wanted to stay and race.”

That race did not disappoint.

On paper, the two teams looked evenly matched. It was the same on the course Saturday morning. Both teams scored 32 points with the Hilltoppers winning the invitational title on the sixth-runner tiebreaker.

The first mile of the race evolved into a dual meet between the two squads. Methner and Glenbard West’s Rory Cavan were together in the front. Then Hersey’s Max Svienty and Glenbard West’s Stephen Moody followed. It was Cavan and Methner pulled away from the rest of the race. Cavan displayed a huge kick in the final 400-meters to capture the win (15:01) by three seconds ahead of Methner (15:04).

“You know you want to kick it down at the end, but with Methner, you don’t know if you can do it,” Cavan said after the race. “Today, I had it in the legs. I pushed it in the end. I definitely excited to race him (Methner) later in the season.”

“I could hear from the people cheering on what the finish was going to be like,” Methner added. “I was waiting for him to sit and kick. I saw it coming. He (Cavan) has a pretty fast kick.”

Out of the top 12 finishers in the Boys race, Hersey had four runners in the top eight. Glenbard West had six runners with Justin Splitt of Grant Community (7^th) and Tyler Polak of Wheeling (9^th) breaking up the strangle hold that the two teams had in the front.

It was Glenbard West’s depth that was the difference maker with the Hilltoppers placing six runners in ahead of Hersey’s fifth runner. Hersey had a 10 to 11 lead after three runners, 18 to 21 advantage after four runners were scored.

Cavan’s win led the Hilltoppers with Moody fourth followed by Will O’Brien (6^th), and then the pack of Ian Repking, William Hohe, and Pierce Cousins that took places 10^th through 12^th.

Methner’s second-place finish with Svienty third led the Huskies. Ryan Buch was Hersey’s third runner placing fifth followed by Thomas McCarthy (8^th) and freshman Connor Oiler (14^th).

It was Downers Grove South and their depth in the Girls race. The Mustangs, ranked third in 3A Girls in the state, placed their top 7 in the first 11 places to win with only 26 points. #24 Prospect was second with 115 points just one point ahead of Oak Park-River Forest (116 points) and with Fremd (122 points) in fourth.

“I just kept myself focused by surrounding myself with my teammates. We provided a lot of energy for each other,” said Downers Grove South’s top runner on this day Brenna Cohoon. “I know if someone else is down, someone will pick them up.”

There was no down for this team in this race. In their first race almost two weeks ago on their home course, their split on their top 5 scorers was 53 seconds. The team picked each other up with a 45 second split on their scorers led by Cohoon’s second-place finish. Their split on the group of Melissa Weidner (4^th), Erin Reidy (5^th), Alex Sprang (7^th), and Becky Versaskas (8^th) was only 15 seconds. That bodes well for Downers Grove South as they head into a heavyweight showdown next week with top ranked Naperville North and Yorkville at the First to the Finish Invitational in Peoria.

“I’m really excited for First to the Finish next Saturday. It should be a super meet,” said Downers Grove South’s Melissa Weidner. “Throughout the race today, we wanted to stay in that pack mentality. We accomplished that.”

One of the runners that has emerged early in this season has been Aly Negovetich of Grant Community. The freshman started off her high school career with a major win last Wednesday at the Lake County Invitational. It was more of the same for her as she pulled away from Cohoon with the lead in the second mile of the race. Negovetich pulled away to run 17:54 for the win and 21 seconds ahead of Cohoon. Glenbrook South’s Kate Jortberg was third (18:32) ahead of Downers Grove South’s Weidner (18:45) and Reidy (18:55).

“I was a little nervous today sitting there for so long,” Negovetich said. “I just wanted to put up a decent time. I just had to stay focused (despite all of the delays).”

Photo – Cavan, Methner finishing at end of Early Bird Invitational Boys race ©2018 Laura Duffy