Record setting Saturday morning at Wheaton-Warrenville South Girls Invitational

Neuqua Valley smashes fieldhouse record in 4x2; Berres, Piot set fast pace and times in distance races, Andelbradt in top form with state leading win in High Jump

Dan Billish Photo – Emma Berres on her way to win in 1600 Meter Run

By Michael Newman [email protected]

Wheaton – West Suburban distance powers Naperville North, Wheaton-Warrenville South, and Downers Grove South proved once again that the “tiny” 178-meter track at Wheaton-Warrenville South is the place to go to put up some fast distance times early in the indoor season in Illinois.

Strong races in the 1600 Meter Run and 3200 Meter Run highlighted a good day of track & field on Saturday.

RESULTS | VIDEOS

The spotlight race in the second Girls meet of the season at this track came in the 1600 Meter Run where they freshman finished in the top five that had all of those finishers under 5:20.

This would be the first high school track race for Naperville North’s Emma Berres who was one of her team’s top seven runners during the cross country season. Berres too the pace out fast going past 400-meters in 70 seconds. The pack consisting of freshmen Holly Johnson of Downers Grove South and Nicole Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South along with Marissa Magana of Naperville North and Annie Macabobby of Wheaton-Warrenville South were four seconds back waiting for that moment that Berres would come back to the pack.

When the Naperville North freshman passed 800-meters in a fast 2:26, the reality set in that she was not coming back. Johnson made a surge looking to go after Berres but never came within 50 meters of her.

Berres’ pace slowed down in the final three laps of the race, but the same tie the rest of the field experienced that fastness of the early part of the race.

Nevertheless, there were some fast times put down in this race. Berres in her first venture in a high school race on the track finished with the third fastest time ever in the WWS Fieldhouse running 5:06.17 (IL #4) for the win. Only all-state runners Sarah Schmitt (5:01.19) and Kaylee Flanagan (5:05.1). have run faster.

Johnson’s move in the middle of the race hit her towards the end but she still ran 5:16.21 (IL #7) to hold on for second ahead of a charging Macabobby (5:16.95, IL #8). Magana (5:18.07, IL #11) and Poglitsch (5:18.64, IL #13) finished fourth and fifth.

This fast track also had an effect on North’s Julie Piot in the 3200 Meter Run. Piot and teammate Logan Brennan expressed their presence with authority pushing the pace early and leaving the rest of the field in their dust. Piot went past 1600-meters in a swift 5:24 with Brennan six seconds behind.

Piot’s pace started to slow in the final 800-meters of the race as Brennan slowly whittled down the lead. The result of the two runners pushing each other to the top two times in the state early this season. Piot, who suffered some injuries in her freshman season in 2021 only with a 12:02 best, lopped 50 seconds off her best in running a winning 11:12.46 time. Brennan closed the gap at the end of the race to run 11:15.04 to place second.

Neuqua Valley made their presence known early in the meet when they swept the first three places in the 55 Meter Dash. Zawadi Brown ran 7.42 (IL #3) for the win ahead of teammates Chioma Anyaegbuman (7.52, IL #7) and Inara Ukawuba (7.66).

The three sprinters along with Tolu Aremu came back to team up in the 4x200m Relay navigating the tight turns of this rack with ease. The quartet took the lead early and never looked back as they ran a fieldhouse record of 1:49.78 (IL #5) to claim the win by an astounding 11 seconds. The previous record was run by Naperville North (1:51.02) in 2018.

Madeline Andelbradt of Naperville North was all-state last year in the High Jump. She is on track to do some big things in 2022 especially after her season opener in this meet. The senior cleared a state leading 5-7.25 (1.71m) to claim the win in the event. That mark also set a new fieldhouse record.