By Michael Newman, [email protected]

Naperville --- Every time she passed the finish line in Tuesday evening’s North Central College Cardinal HS Classic, Claire Hamilton of Naperville North checked her watch to make sure that she was on pace in the 1600 Meter Run. She did that seven times during the race. On the eighth lap, it was an all-out sprint ignoring the reading on her wrist.

It was the same story last year when Lindsey Payne of Glenbard West crossed the line and found out that she had gone under five minutes for this event. Payne was supposed to race in this meet but a 104 fever (according to Glenbard West coach Kelly Hass) forced Payne to miss her first race in her high school career. This time it was Hamilton’s turn to break that barrier that every distance runner dreams of.

Hamilton crossed the line with the state’s best time for 1600 in 4:59.88. It was the second time in her career that Hamilton has achieved that. She did have help earlier in the race as teammate Sarah Schmitt pushed her in the first half or the race. Hamilton pulled away just after going past the 800 in 2:28. Schmitt ran a personal best 5:02.87 (IL #2) to finish second.

“I was coming down the straight away and could see the time. All I could do was kick it in,” Hamilton said after the race. “My teammates were running amazingly today during the entire meet. For the past few meets, we have been breaking down barriers going places that we have never gone before. Alex (Morris), Sarah, and I had an amazing 800 tempo workout a couple of weeks ago. I thought that workout could put me on pace to break five minutes.”

Naperville North had a great night as a team scoring 92 points to win the team championship. Seven points separated the next three teams with Lyons Township (59 points), Glenbard West (54 points), and Naperville Central (52 points) finishing second through fourth. Halle Bieber led the Lady Huskies earlier in the meet with a win in the 55 Meter Hurdles with the state’s fastest time for the event (8.55).

Naperville North also won the 800 Meter Relay in the seven-section event. Running out of Section 5, the quartet of Tiara Kirkland, Allison Grady, Bieber, and Safilla Allie ran 1:46.29 (IL #3) to win the section race. They had to wait for the final two sections to be contested before they knew if they were the event winners. Wheaton-Warrenville South ran 1:48.24 to win Section 6 (2^nd overall in the event) and Lyons Township won Section 7 running 1:48.56 placing 3^rd overall giving the Huskies the event win.

Katelynne Hart has heart…

The other big story of this meet was the races that Katelynne Hart of Glenbard West ran successfully in this meet. Her last races were memorable winning the 1 Mile Run and then coming back to set the national freshman record in winning the 2 Mile Run at the University of Kentucky High School Invitational on February 18. The events that she ran were just as memorable on Tuesday evening.

The freshman started when she got the baton in the 3200 Meter Relay. Teammates Katie Hohe, Janie Nabholz, and Marika Tammaru had given her the lead. She just extended that in the final 800 meters running a 2:17.0 split helping her team with the win (9:35.20, IL #3) to win by seven seconds ahead of Yorkville (9:42.76). The Lady Foxes the night before ran the second-best time in the state (9:33.26) on the same track at the DGS Mustang Relays with a completely different quartet.

Hart was back on the track 80 minutes later to compete in the final section of the 800 Meter Run. She took the lead at the break and did not look back. Her winning time of 2:15.15 is the fastest time in the state as well as being ranked in the top 30 nationally. Reilly Revord of Hinsdale Central ran her first race of the season after competing on her school’s basketball team in the winter. She finished second (2:18.45, IL #3). Claire Hill of Naperville North also went under 2:20 to finish third (2:19.64, IL #5).

Hart’s splits: 32.6 – 67.3 (34.7) – 1:41.8 (34.5) – 2:15.2 (33.4) = 67.3/67.9

The defining race for Hart on this night was her anchor leg in the 1600 Meter Relay. She got the baton in the lead but just barely as Lyons Township’s Renata Wingert was right on her shoulder. Entering the final lap, Wingert took the lead just before the turn. Hart found an extra and re-passed the Lyons Township runner on the back stretch. She held off Wingert on the final stretch to give Glenbard West the win (4:04.20, IL #2) by just a second ahead of their WSC-Silver rival (4:05.26, IL #3). Hart’s anchor split was 60.9 seconds.

“I didn’t really know where was. I could not really sense her. When she passed me it surprised me a little bit,” Hart said. “The adrenaline started flowing and I responded pretty quickly. In the last 100 meters, I just told myself that I’ve got to go.”

Meet Notes

·    Courtney Morgan of Metea Valley improved on her seasonal best in winning the Shot Put. Her best mark of the night (45-11.25) is ranked second in Illinois and 11^th nationally. Her best effort of the night was one that count. Morgan had an effort that went past 48 feet but landed out of the sector.

·    Jelena Rowe of Bloom Township had won the High Jump and had just cleared 5-10 on her first attempt. The defending national champion in the event had the bar raised to 6-0. Before she made her first attempt at the height, her coach Andrew Schmidt had the meet officials measure just to make sure. “I thought I had cleared 6-0 last week (at Bloom’s Friday Night Lights Meet),” Rowe explained afterwards. “They measured it after I cleared it and the height was only 5-11.25.” She had three good attempts at the 6-0 but failed to make it. The 6-0 height is in her future sooner than later.

·    Rowe’s teammate Hannah Morris did not have a great meet. The senior, who currently is ranked first in the state in the Long Jump, fouled on her first attempt of the event. She came out of the pit with a noticeable limp apparently hurting her foot. After consulting with Bloom Coach Andrew Schmidt, she scratched out of her remining events.

·    Emily Shelton of Minooka High School was like the “Energizer Bunny” in the 3200 Meter Run in which she ran the state fastest time for the distance (10:53.09). She fixed into a pace of 40 to 41 seconds per lap and just kept going and going. “I was really dead tired after running in the relays last night,” Shelton said. “When I got here, I was really hyped up. I think I could have kept going for another mile.” Sarah Barcelona of Lyons Township ran 11:04.44 (IL #3) to finish second.

Results