The 1,600-meter final at the Class 3A girls track and field meet in Charleston last May represented a changing of the guard for Elgin-area elite runners.
Gabby Juarez, Tori Scull and Lauren Van Vlierbergen were making their final prep appearances for Streamwood, St. Charles East and Jacobs, respectively.
But for St. Charles North freshman Audrey Ernst, the race offered yet another opportunity to make her presence known on the state level.
Juarez ran a scintillating final 400 meters to turn back Scull for the title, and Ernst was one better than the Michigan-bound and national Heisman Award winner Van Vlierbergen for fourth.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better race,” St. Charles North girls track coach John Osmanski said.
“It was such a great experience to run against Gabby, Tori and Lauren,” Ernst said. “It was a lot of fun.”
The trio of 2015 graduates also had exceptional cross country careers, but Ernst will be the face of the area runners this fall as the lone returning state qualifier in either Class 3A or 2A.
After a fourth-place result at the St. Charles East Sectional last fall, Ernst earned her first all-state medal with a 13th-place finish at Detweiller Park in Peoria.
Ernst was fourth among at-large qualifiers, including Van Vlierbergen, who was state runner-up to Glenbard West junior Lindsay Graham.
“I knew there was a lot of great competition in the state,” Ernst said. “I really had no expectations.”
“(Ernst) is very self-driven, self-motivated,” St. Charles North girls cross country coach Shari Hayes said. “She is probably the hardest working runner I have ever had.”
As a team, St. Charles North rates a slight edge over city and Upstate Eight River rival St. Charles East for the best squad in the area.
The North Stars fell one place shy in qualifying their team to the 2014 state finals.
“I think last year we could have got out of any other sectional,” Hayes said. “We’re going to have to do something amazing. All the teams (who qualified out of the sectional, Naperville North, Naperville Central, Wheaton Warrenville South, Batavia and Geneva) are ranked ahead of us (in the preseason polls).”
Qualifying as a team is the central mission for Ernst this fall.
“One of my main goals is to get the whole team to qualify for state,” Ernst said. “We’re going to work hard to make it to state.”
Ernst will be augmented in North Stars’ lineup by Madison Kaufmann, Allie Chen, Ally Suyak, Katie Francissen, Nina Olshever and Alyssa Isbrandt.
As a testament to her abilities, Hayes has had to alter the training regimen of her underclass star.
“I don’t have any girls fast enough for her to run with,” Hayes said. “She is training with the boys.”
Kevin McGavin is a freelance writer for The Courier-News.
