Naperville North sophomore Claire Hamilton spent a lot of time looking at her watch at Thursday’s Class 3A Naperville North Sectional, but she wasn’t trying to hurry out of the event.
No, all season long, Hamilton has used her watch to keep her on target during her races, and the watch told her plenty of good news on Thursday.
Hamilton won the 1,600 run and ran a leg on the winning 3,200-meter relay, helping propel the Huskies to the team title.
“I’m just looking at it and knowing what I should be hitting,” Hamilton said. “I think I started doing it one of the first meets of outdoors and, I don’t know, it went well.”
Things have continued to go well for Hamilton and the Huskies’ crew of distance runners all year. It started with a Class 3A state championship in cross country, and it has been a prominent part of the Huskies’ success in track and field as well.
Junior Judy Pendergast won the 3,200, with freshman Sarah Schmitt also qualifying for next week’s state meet at Eastern Illinois University. In the 1,600, senior Elly DeTurris joined Hamilton among eight qualifiers for state in the event, the most qualifiers in any event of the meet. Junior Ella Guppy and freshman Natalie Dunnett each advanced in the 800 for the Huskies.
Hamilton led off the winning 3,200 relay, followed by Emory Griffin, Jenny Gibson and DeTurris, the first time the foursome had ever run the event together.
“Again, the watch, I knew what I wanted to do for my first lap and the plan was to try to distance myself as much as I could from the pack and get my team in a good spot,” Hamilton said. “Emory had an awesome PR. Jenny and Ellie also ran really well. Hopefully we’ll improve on it next week.”
North also qualified in the meet’s final event, the 1,600 relay, which gave them enough team points to push past Naperville Central 75-73 to win the team title.
“Obviously coming off an extremely successful cross country season, being state champions, they have such a rapport and such a work ethic that they want nothing more than to not only see themselves succeed, but to see other people succeed,” North coach Joanna Wilson said. “That’s what it’s all about. They’re very selfless. IT’s difficult to instill that in someone. It’s innate.”
Sophomore Elise Chao (triple jump) and freshman Sarah Wastek (shot put) also advance to state for North.
Central was led by a pair of state qualifications from junior D’Jenne Egharevba. She battled Oswego’s Natajah Simmons all day, winning the 200 by 0.14 seconds over Simmons. Simmons bested Egharevba by one-hundredth of a second in the 100 meters, though both qualified for state.
“It feels so good right now,” Egharevba said. “I’m so excited. I’ve doubled before, but to do this for the team, it’s a bit different this time. It actually turned out better than I thought it would.”
The Redhawks had another sectional champion in junior Josilyn Dostal, who won the triple jump. Sophomore teammate Lauren Kainrath also advanced in that event. Junior Alissa Gorzak advanced in the long jump, senior Rachel Hoffman moved on in the 1,600, and the 3,200 relay also advanced.
Seniors Olivia Griswold and Grace Merritt went 1-2 in the shot put for Neuqua. Junior Kenne Lonergan won the high jump. Neuqua’s other advancers were junior Samara Miller (400) and senior Lauren Penkala (1,600).
Waubonsie Valley sophomore Brooklyne Wilson won the discus (120-1).
Paul Johnson is a freelance writer
