It was all cheers for Naperville North after receiving the porcelain trophy (Bryan Deibel photo)
Naperville North has officially been stamped the best ever girls team that the state of Illinois has witnessed. Coming into Saturday the FLO 50 US#3 Huskies was undefeated and ready. They successfully made it through all of the battles in-state and regionally.
Head Coach Dan Iverson is the chief architect of the vaulted program that he took over in the late 1990s. Since then Iverson and his coaching staff has won six state titles and qualified for NXN seven times. This season like every other one is "special" as Iverson likes to say. But 2017 appeared to have more vigor to it. "I think we can improve for next week regionals," Iverson said after his team won the state title in dominating form. The Huskies beat Yorkville again but by a wider margin 87-135. Next up would be a date at Nationals and an opportunity to improve on last year's 10th place finish.
The first mile got off to a solid start in rain slicked conditions. After the first mile the team sat in a comfy 5th place. Naperville North is a squad that strives on running even splits and coming on late with the back its back end runners. Top runners senior Sarah Schmitt and junior Alex Morris usually get out with the front group. They hit the first mat in 5:40 a piece which put them in a position to roll back on the competition. #3 runner senior Hannah Ricci was just five seconds back and beginning to move as well.
At two miles, Naperville North moved to second behind Fayetteville-Manulius. The Huskies were significantly behind the 11-time champion and US#1 team from upstate New York. But remember there was one more mile to go and this is where Naperville North run its best race. As it has been all season Schmitt finished in the top 10 closing hard to take vital low points overall in 8th (3rd scorer) running 17:57. Morris was next in 12th (4th team score).
It was clear that after Ricci came in strong their place on the podium was obviously. But where? After Vail Valley was announced third with 162 points, it was just Naperville North and FM. The suspense was just too much! The announcer: "And coming in second place with 94 points.... North Naperville!" The closest race in NXN girls history came down to the two best teams in the country and the team from Illinois finally earned the respect they deserved on the field.... first timers Yorkville did not have their best race finishing 18th, but the Foxes will be back better than ever with a full deck in 2018.
Trophy Team Scores
1 MANLIUS 89 2-5-16-20-46(96)(139) 1:32:38 18:32 1:19.1 2 N NAPERVILLE 94 3-4-11-33-43(82)(91) 1:32:46 18:34 1:15.2 3 VAIL VALLEY 162 24-26-30-35-47(56)(123) 1:35:00 19:00 0:26.4
Coach Iverson offered these final great thoughts regarding his team: