Wheaton South Girls, Neuqua Valley Boys Win Close Battles At Richard Spring Invite

Detweiller Park; Peoria, IL

Coming into the Richard Spring Invitational hosted by Peoria Notre Dame High School, the theme was "hot" as in it's hot! Above average temperatures greeted the midwestern city of Peoria with climes well above the 80F mark all weekend. It did not help that virtually everyone kept reminding the athletes of how hot it was.

At PND, the girls cycle of races go first with freshman-sophomore followed by varsity. Talented freshman Lyndsay Wolters of Normal University set the tone running a swift 18:28 and winning by over 20 seconds.

Katelynne Hart (So, Glenbard West) was ready to make her 2017 Detweiller debut. After dazzling the faithful at Lake Park last weekend, the talk was whether she would go after the all-time meet record of 15:53 set two years ago by the former Naperville North great Judy Pendergast during the state championship. Right away Hart chased after a rogue runner who led for almost the opening straight. Soon the comfy 2:35 initial half-mile gave an indication that all bets for a record were off. Hart hit the first mile checkpoint in 5:20- 15 seconds ahead of teammate Lindsey Payne (Sr.). As the race moved to the back loop better known as the "Bermuda Triangle," it appeared as though Hart was on cruise control. She donned a pair a racing/training flats instead of spikes. So, in essence it was a hard "training run" for Hart. As Hart moved through 2m in 10:57, Payne was trying to fight off Madison "Maddie" Marasco (Sr., Schaumburg). Both talented girls had worked together up to this point along with a trailing Isabelle Sparreo (Sr., Stevenson). 

Hart would cruise home ahead of her peers in a smooth like 16:35 with hardly a sweat being broken. Payne steamed past the finish line in a very encouraging 2nd and season best 17:12. Marasco was pleased with her invitational opening 17:22. She had previously been training and was testing and college visiting in recent weekends. Sparreo has been working her way back from some injuries over the past season. She ran a spirited race from beginning to end. Overall, only five girls broke 18:00 compared to 13 last year. This field was more talented coming in, but the weather obviously had something to do with that.