Cross country: Nicole Poglitsch wins girls title, Wheaton Warrenville South boys win

ROSELLE – Wheaton Warrenville South’s Nicole Poglitsch added another first place medal to her growing collection at the Class 3A Lake Park Sectional on Saturday.

The junior, who took top honors in the DuKane Conference meet two weeks ago and the St. Charles East Regional last week, won the race at Lake Park’s East Campus with a personal record time of 17:20.3.

More importantly, Poglitsch’s first-place finish helped the Tigers clinch fifth place in the team standings and earn a berth in next week’s Class 3A state meet at Peoria’s Detweiller Park.

York runners took third through sixth places to win the sectional and earn a chance to improve upon last year’s second-place state finish. Michaela Quinn (third place, 17:38.2), Margaret Owens (fourth place, 17:40.5), Anna McGrail (fifth place, 17.49.9) and Maggie Quinn (sixth place, 17:56.8) stayed together throughout the race.

“The key was they kept racing together and our focus is going out together, staying as a pack, finishing strong in the last part of the race,” York coach Lauren DeAngelis said.

Poglitsch was in front during the entire race.

“The plan for the last two races was just get out and see what I could do,” the junior said. “So today, we just wanted to keep it going with the same thing.”

The top seven teams advance to the state meet. Wheaton North (second), Huntley (third), Maine South (fourth), Batavia (sixth) and Glenbard West (seventh) also qualified for the state meet.

While Poglitsch led from start to finish, Sofia Borter, of Geneva, had to overtake several runners to finish second in 17:32.4. At the one-mile mark, the sophomore was in ninth place and by the two-mile mark, moved up to fifth. Borter overtook the remaining runners in the final mile.

“After I finished my second mile and got up the hill, I could tell I still had more in me and more to push and I felt good,” Borter said. “I wanted to try to be competitive and get up there.”

Borter will also be running at Detweiller as the top 10 finishers from non-qualifying teams also earn a state berth.

Other individual qualifiers include St. Charles East’s Marley Andelman, Hampshire’s Hudson Syzmonik and St. Charles North’s Gwen Hobson.

Poglitsch’s classmate, Josiah Narayanan, won the boys race, completing the 3-mile course in 14:43.8. The top runners stayed in a pack during the first mile. Narayanan pulled away during the second mile.

“You’re told stay comfortable and stay packed up until you feel ready to go,” Narayanan said. “At one mile, it felt like it was the time.”

Despite losing a shoe near the end of the race, teammate Aiden Noel (14:58.1) finished fourth, enabling Wheaton Warrenville South to take first-place team honors.

“They all ran great. Aiden was running with one shoe for the last 600 meters,” Wheaton Warrenville South coach Chris Kuntz said. “Sam Purdue, our fifth, moved up 11 spots from the second to the third mile.”

The DuKane Conference will be well represented at the state meet. St. Charles East (second place), Batavia (fifth) and Wheaton North (seventh) all advanced. Oak Park-River Forest (third), Lane (fourth) and York (sixth) rounded out the top seven teams.

Wheaton North was led by Aidan Murphy’s second-place finish (14:54.4).

Maine South’s Owynn Garrelts (14:55.1) finished in third place and Jacob Barraza (14:59.0) from DeKalb took fifth.

Huntley’s Tommy Nitz also experienced shoe problems and still crossed the finish line in eighth place (15:06.1) to claim an individual state berth.

“After the first 100 meters, I get flat tired and I ran the whole race with half a shoe on,” Nitz said. “We had a heck of a race. Everyone had a big race. I’m just upset that I couldn’t give it my all.”

Cole Tupper (15:13.8), of Elgin, came in 11th and also will be running in Peoria next weekend.

“Even though it’s a good performance for a lot of people, for me, I just feel l could do even better,” Tupper said. “There are things to build off of.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/sports/20231028/cross-country-york-girls-ww-south-boys-win-sectional-titles-at-lake-park