Photo: Wheaton-Warrenville South won the Bud Swanson 3200 Meter Relay Thursday. The event is named after the legendary Hall of Fame Coach from Glenbard North who succumbed to sarcoma, a rare type of cancer in 2003 (Mike Newman Photo)

Bieber sets meet record with IL #1 300m Hurdles win; Naperville North edges Lake Park for team title

By Michael Newman

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Wheaton – It was an unlikely triple win from Allyson Serbick that jumped into the spotlight during Thursday night’s DuPage Valley Conference Girls Championships at Wheaton-Warrenville South’s Red Grange Field. The senior from Wheaton North even surprised herself in winning the three sprint events in this meet.

“I did not think I would win in all three events,” Serbick said. “Maybe one, but not three.”

There was doubt that the meet would go off considering unstable weather conditions were in the area causing the meet to delay its start by 30 minutes. Once the meet went off, the conditions were favorable for great races. Serbick showed that.

She got off to a great start holding on for the win (12.48). It was the first time that Serbick had run under 12.5 in this event. It was just an impression of things to come.

Serbick had never broken 60-seconds in the open 400 Meter Dash. But there she was coming off the final turn in contention for the lead with Naperville Central’s Naomi Egharevba. She pulled away from Egharevba in the final 100-meters for her second win of the night going under 60-seconds in the process (59.61).

She had the momentum entering the blocks for her section of the 200 Meter Dash. When she came off the curve, Serbick had company. With her was Allison Grady of Naperville North and MiKenna Robinson of Neuqua Valley. There was no separating the three coming towards the finish line. It was something in the air that this was Serbick’s night. One little surge at the finish got the third win of the night for her.

“What could I do,” Robinson said afterwards talking to her coach. “I just ran a personal best.”

So, did Serbick. The last race in the conference meet for this senior netted her the win by just five hundredths of a second ahead of Robinson and 13 hundredths ahead of Grady. Serbick’s time was 25.45. She had never run under 26-seconds in her life at that distance.

Yes, it was something in the air.

“After I won the 400, I was just on a runner’s high,” Serbick said. “I think that is what pushed me in the 200. I was exhausted, but I found some way to push through that.”

Halle Bieber of Naperville North has run with the target on her back being the defending 3A state champion in the 300 Meter Hurdles. The wind was at her back in the 100 Meter Hurdles as she won her first race of the night (15.13) ahead of the Lake Park duo of Allison Mack and Adelyn Granskog.

There was no wind as Bieber stepped into the blocks for the start of the 300 Hurdles. There was no competition either. That is the level that this junior is at right now. Bieber had made up the stagger by the time she entered the curve. It was just a matter of how fast she would run. Bieber won by three seconds ahead of Wheaton-Warrenville South’s Claire Haas. The time for Bieber (43.85) set a new meet and stadium record. It is also the fastest time in the state for that event as of May 3.

“I was very excited about the weather before the 300 Hurdles,” Bieber said. “I just took advantage of that and put my best effort out there tonight.”

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Bieber was one of the reasons why Naperville North won the team title in the final season of the configuration of this conference. It was close as the Lady Huskies scored 129 points for the championship just ahead of a strong Lake Park squad (124 points). Naperville North showed its strength again in the distance events winning two of the three individual races. Alex Morris broke away from the pack during the third lap of the 3200 Meter Run. She ran a season’s best (10:45.23) in winning the race by 11 seconds ahead of Neuqua Valley’s Corinna Pena who ran under 11-minutes for the first time (10:56.81). Sarah Schmitt won the 1600 Meter Run after anchoring her team in the 3200 Meter Relay. Her 71 second first 400-meters was enough to secure the win as she cruised to the win just getting under five-minutes (4:59.96). Samantha Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South charged by Pena in the final 200-meters to finish second (5:09.27).

It was close enter the final straight of the 800 Meter Run as MiKenna Robinson and Naperville North’s Claire Hill ran side-by side. It was a final surge in the final 20-meters that gave Robinson the win (2:16.08) ahead of Hill (2:16.36).

Naperville North’s other win came when their team in the 800 Meter Relay won the event (1:44.81) ahead of Waubonsie Valley (1:46.01).

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Lake Park had the depth to challenge the Huskies for the title getting that close. They did pick up two individual wins to supplement that depth. Stephanie Montenegro achieved a personal best (41-11.75) to win the Shot Put with a three-foot margin ahead of Naperville North’s Sarah Wastek. Kelly Zehnder achieved a personal best clearing 11-6 to win the Pole Vault. Neuqua Valley’s Riley Ammenhauser was the meet’s third double winner. The freshman achieved that in the horizontal jumps as she jumped 18-2.75 to win the Long Jump and 39-0 to win the Triple Jump. Glenbard North’s Jasmine Stokes threw 128-9 to win the Discus two feet ahead of Montenegro.

The rest of the competition in the High Jump only cleared 5-0. It was Tikia Harris of Naperville Central that was ahead of the rest as she cleared a personal best of 5-5 to win the event.

The night on the track started in the 3200 Meter Relay as Kaitlyn Nenninger took the lead in the final 100-meters to give Wheaton-Warrenville South the win (9:36.67) ahead of Naperville Central (9:39.06). Waubonsie Valley captured the win in the 400 Meter Relay (49.57) ahead of Wheaton-Warrenville South (49.85) and Wheaton North (49.90). The closing race of the night was a slam dunk for Glenbard North as they charged to the lead never giving it up. Their winning time of 4:01.80 was almost five seconds ahead of second-place Wheaton-Warrenville South.

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