Surtz pulls away for opening win at Yorkville

Minooka Girls, Oswego Boys display strong packs in team wins; Forsell kick gives him win in Boys Varsity Race

By Michael Newman

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Yorkville, Ill – It was not the race that Lianna Surtz of Rosary expected when she stepped to the line for the start of Girls Varsity race at the Yorkville Invitational Monday at Yorkville’s Campus XC Course. Surtz bided her time before moving away from the pack in running 17:34 for the win.

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“I was planning on going out a little bit faster. I was hoping to be mid to high 5:20’s. Having the pack with me kind of threw me off,” said Surtz about the first mile. “I just made little surges in the second mile to keep myself ahead.”

It was surprising to most of the fans on the course to see the defending 1A champion Surtz with eight other runners around her as they passed the mile in 5:38. Surtz started making her move in the next half mile with Anna Hunter trying to hold onto the pace. Surtz’s margin of victory was nine seconds.

Jocelyn Host of Minooka made a move in the final mile to garner second (17:43) ahead of Yorkville’s Anna Hunter (17:48). Gabriella McCollum finished fourth (17:55).

Five ranked teams throughout the three classifications were in this race. 3A #5 Minooka placed five runners in the first 12 to win with 34 points. Host and McCollum led the way into the top five. Then came Gabrielle Kics (7th), Kathryn Cichon (9th), and Audrey Boles (12th). Their top five split was 95 seconds. Their slit from Kics to Boles was 39 seconds.

3A #6 Yorkville finished second (43 points) with four runners in the top 11, five runners in the first 18. Anna Hunter led the way followed by Makenna Edwards (5th), Margaret Hunter (6th), Ava Galloway (11th), and Katie Melzer (18th). The Lady Foxes had a 106 second split on their top five runners. Their split between the Hunter sisters was 43 seconds.

1A #5 Rosary finished third (73 points) behind the win from Surtz. 3A #10 Oswego East was fourth (86 points) behind top 10 finishes from Anna Barosso (8th) and Morgan Dick (10th).

The last race of the day had the most exciting finish. The pack went trough the first mile of the Boys race in 5:04 as the 85 degrees temperatures and high humidity was taking effect on the runners.

Alex Das and Parker Nold of Oswego East made the first move in the race just before the half-way point on the race. Oswego’s Ethan Forsell led his team pack managing to stay in contact with the front. Das made his move opening a five second lead.

The lead that Das had created continued to grow in the next half mile. That lead started to decrease as Forsell was making a hard charge to the front. With 200-meters left in the race. The Oswego senior had caught and passed Das as he started a hard sprint to the finish. Das tried to counteract that move but with no avail.

Three runners went under 15-minutes on this hot and humid late afternoon race. Forsell took the win (14:51) with Das (14:53) and Nold (14:55) close from behind.

3A #12 Oswego kept their top five together throughout the race and it showed at the end scoring only 27 points to win the team title. The Panthers had a split of only 36 seconds with five runners in the top nine. Forsell led the way with his win. Balin Doud was the team’s second runner (4th) followed by Brady Nelson (6th), Braden Cardamore (7th), and Benjamin Forsell (9th).

3A #15 Minooka did not have their full lineup in the Varsity race. They still scored 64 points to finish second in this seven-team field. Zachary Balzer (5th) and Emerson Fayman (10th) were the first two runners in for the Indians. Cole Kics (17th), Alex Forster (25th), and Nick Paugys (26th) were next. Their top five split was 99 seconds.

Yorkville and Oswego East finished third and fourth both scoring 74 points. 1A #13 Wheaton Academy finished fifth with 129 points.