Lightning strikes twice once again for Prospect Girls at DGS Mustang Relays

Prospect repeats in Girls 4x8, 4x4; Plainfield South in command in 4x8 Boys win; Brown leads Neuqua Valley come from behind win; Minooka Boys win 4x2, Naperville Central takes Boys 4x4

By Michael Newman

Naperville, Ill – The weather was warm outside of North Central College’s Res-Rec that had coaches joking they could run the 20th Annual Mustang Relays outdoors. The heat of Monday evening’s competition most likely escaped from the Al. B. Carius Track out the doors into the North Central College campus.

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This meet traditionally produces the top times in the state early in the Illinois indoor season. It happened again in all six relay events where the winning team produced  top times in the state.

It was Prospect in the powdered blue tops that started and ended the meet with two event wins. The excitement in their 4x800 Meter Relay win was just as powerful as when they won in 2023 setting a new meet record.

What defined this race was the first leg of the third section of this event. Prospect last year was on their own in running their meet record time. It was different this time as Downers Grove North pushed the Knights for most of the race.

The pack of the third section passed the first 200-meters of the race between 31 and 32 seconds. In a blink of an eye, Veronica Znajda of Prospect and Ava Gilley of Downers Grove North broke away from the rest of the field. By 400-meters, the two runners passed in 65 seconds three seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Both teams handed off even at an amazing 2:13.3 with Sophie Fransen now taking the baton for the Knights and Lily Eddington stepping in as the second runner for the Trojans.

The two remained in the same order until the final 100-meters of the leg until Eddington took off as they hit the curve claiming the lead Downers Grove North the lead as Eddington ran a 2:18 split. Fransen has run a fast 2:20 split and was second. St. Ignatius behind a strong second leg from Annika Swan had taken third ahead of York and Plainfield North.

North’s lead evaporated in the first 100-meters of the third leg as Lily Ginsberg of Prospect caught North’s Sarah Paul. The race between these two runners between Ginsberg and Paul was fascinating to watch. The resiliency of the two runners revealed their toughness with Ginsberg taking the lead and immediately Paul fighting back to reclaim it.

Ginsberg in the final 100-meters made a definitive move passing Paul and building a gap as she headed to the handoff with Meg Peterson.

It was race over as Peterson took the baton. The first 10 steps she took after the exchange gave her a separation from North’s Sydney Hnatiuk. Peterson opened up a five second lead with 400-meters to go. It was not a matter of whether Prospect would win but rather would they break the meet record or even more.

Peterson gave everything she had coming to the finish. She crossed the line running a 2:16 split and giving her team the win in 9:05.01. The time missed their meet record by 33 hundredth of a second. The Knights now have the top two times ever in this event in this meet. They ran the fastest time this season in the state and the sixth fastest time in the United States.

This race produced the top seven times in the state for 2024. Downers Grove North ran 9:10.14 to finish second. North ran a 13 second school record in the race, the tenth fastest time this year in the United States. York’s Sophia Galiano-Sanchez passed Naperville Central’s Liv Phillips in the last 30-meters to give York third (9:23.66) ahead of Naperville Central (9:25.31). St. Ignatius College Prep (9:29.47), Hinsdale Central (9:32.53), and Sandburg (9:36.42).

The excitement carried over to the Boys section of the 4x800 Meter Relay. The top 11 times in the state were produced in this event. There was a feeling that a high number of teams would surpass the 8:12.09 time that New Trier ran at Proviso West when a final kick from St. Ignatius College Prep gave them a win in 8:18.12 to win Section 1.

Section 2’s race caused even more excitement. Defending meet champion Hinsdale Central is rebuilding this season and was running in this section. The Red Devils were fifth after the third leg. It is nice to have a talented runner such as 3-time state champion Aden Bandukwala as your anchor. “Bunny” exploded around the first lap in just 25 seconds moving from fifth to third. He ran the second lap in 28 seconds closing in the leader.

Close the book. This race was over. Bandukwala ran a 1:53.1 split to give Hinsdale Central the win with an 8:08.29 time (IL #10).

It was close in the opening leg of third section of the Boys 4x800 Meter Relay. Glenbard West slid ahead with a good exchange just ahead of Plainfield South and Whitney Young. All three teams split at 1:58. Glenbard West’s Anthony Nitti extended the lead for the Hilltoppers as the had the lead half way through the race with Dylan Maloney of Plainfield South closing within two seconds and Plainfield North another two seconds behind.

Joaquin DeAlba looked great as he pulled away at the end of his leg to give his team the lead as he handed off to Camyn Viger who looked to be on paper the strongest anchor in the final leg. It was correct assumption since no one got close to him in the final four laps of the race. His 1:56 anchor split gave Plainfield South the win (7:53.44) and the fastest time in the state. South is currently ranked #14 in the United States.

The one person that might have caught Viger was Ryan Eddington of Downers Grove North but he received the baton in fifth-place. Eddington ran a 1:54.9 anchor split to help his team to finish third (7:57.13) finishing just behind Plainfield North (7:56.94). Whitney Young finished fourth (7:58.10) just ahead of Naperville Central (8:02.38) and Glenbard West (8:02.90).

A story on the Girls side of the meet overshadowed by Prospect’s success was the two relay races that Plainfield North ran. The Tigers did not make the final sections in the 4x200 Meter Relay nor the 4x400 Meter Relay. The impression that they made on the fans inside the Res-Rec Center would turn out to be incredible.

Downers Grove North had the fastest time after four of the six sections of the event having run 1:45.86 for the section win. Plainfield North ran in the fifth section. The Tigers had a good opening exchange and had a clear advantage at the break line. They needed to avoid mistakes. No problem there. The Plainfield North quartet was ecstatic when they saw their time of 1:43.55 flash across the scoreboard. Bolingbrook finished second (1:46.35) almost three seconds behind.

It was four minutes of waiting for Plainfield North to see if they would win the overall title. It was clear that this race could be equal to the previous section between Prospect, Batavia, and Neuqua Valley. Batavia had run 1:44.88 on their home track and was up to the task. They had the lead entering the final exchange just ahead of Prospect. Neuqua Valley was in third but had Zawadi Brown as their anchor. Brown came from behind to give her team the section win in the 2023. As she began the gap on the backstretch it was apparent that lightning would strike again. Brown took the lead crossing the line with a 1:43.13 winning time (IL #2). Plainfield North would end up finishing second. Batavia in 1:44.12 (IL #4) finished third just edging Prospect (1:44.21).

The fifth section had power relay teams in it for example in Batavia, Minooka, and Plainfield North. This would be a tougher task for Plainfield North as they were part of a pack behind Batavia who had a three second lead at one point. Lindsey Wenz took the baton from Alex Eydenberg to give her the lead which would turn out to be for good. Joyous disbelief again hit Plainfield North runners as they ran 4:02.05 (IL #2) to take the win. Batavia ran 4:04.79 (IL #6) to finish second in the section, fifth overall in the race.

Defending champion Prospect had their hands full in the final section holding off feisty teams such as Downers Grove North and Lane Tech. The baton went to Veronica Znajda who led off for Prospect in the 4x8. This time, she brought home the win with a state leading 4:00.48. Lane Tech edged by Downers Grove North just before the line finishing second in the section, third overall (4:02.54, IL #3). Downers Grove North was next at 4:02.96 (IL #4).

It seems that this 13 year old meet record of 1:30.58 in the 4x200 Meter Relay will never get broken. Teams get close every year but can never get close to that barrier. Bradley-Bourbonnais set the time standard of 1:32.69 in winning by over a second ahead of Downers Grove South (1:34.29). Downers Grove North followed in Section 4 running 1:32.62 taking the lead. Glenbard West was over two seconds behind in their section finish.

The name of the game in the 4x200 Meter Relay indoors is getting the lead, taking the advantage of being in front, and holding off any other teams that approach them. This was the case for Minooka as they ran this relay strategy to perfection. Minooka won this race by close to a second, but the margin of victory seemed larger. Crisp exchanges always leading gave the Indians the win (1:31.97, IL #7) missing the record but getting the title. Section winners Downers Grove North and Bradley-Bourbonnais finished second and third overall. Bolingbrook ran 1:32.73 to finish second behind Minooka, and fourth overall.

It was evident that the final race of the night could produce fireworks. Glenbard West had the lead after winning Section 4 in 3:32.42. A good time, but a time that the final six teams that were racing could surpass.

The race was even through the first two exchanges as Plainfield North, Naperville Central, and Bolingbrook were separated by fractions of a second. The race turned when Foster Shelbert gave Naperville Central that only grew bigger in the two laps that he ran. He collapsed to the inside of the track handing off Patrick Clune. The senior held off Plainfield North to give his team the win with the state’s fastest time of 3:26.33. Plainfield North finished second in 3:27.37 (IL #2) followed by Bolingbrook in 3:29.85 (IL #3).