The Naperville North senior runs US #1 10:11.56 in epic race

By Michael Newman

mike@dyestat.com

Naperville, Ill --- It took 16 laps at North Central College’s Res-Rec Center for Judy Pendergast (Naperville North HS) to lap almost the entire field in the Girls 3200 Meter Run at the DuPage Valley Girl Conference Meet for a second time. It only took her almost nine laps to lap the entire field once.

She could not be running that fast. While a good field was running fast times (Naperville Central’s Alana Austin ran a top 25 11:19 time), they looked like they were struggling as Pendergast took off from the start. The defending 3A state champion in this event has a graceful stride. Compare it to a rock skipping across a placid lake barely making a ripple on the surface, the same can be said about her stride with one foot barely touching the track pushing forward down the track.

Pendergast looked effortless as she crossed the finish line in 10:11.56 setting a meet record. Her time was four seconds faster than Kayla Beattie ran at the Illinois Prep Top Times Championships five years ago. Her time is the best this year nationally in this event. If you want to include the 2 Mile times that were run last weekend in New York at the New Balance Indoor Nationals, it would be the second fastest time nationally. She stood ten feet behind the finish line waiting for the next runner to come across. And then she just sat down just trying to get off of her feet... What looked so easy had zapped her of any energy she had left.

“I was actually feeling pretty good the first mile of the race. I did not know how I would feel tonight especially since I have never raced a 2 mile that fast before,” Pendergast said. “I was just focused on hitting those times.”

The plan for this race according her coach Dan Iverson was to go through the 1600 in the range of 5:03 to 5:05 and see what happened after that. She ran the first 400 in 73.1 and settled into 76 second 400’s after that.

“Judy has been very consistent about hitting splits. She was running 76 and 77’s like they were clockwork today,” Iverson said. “She is very strong. She is probably stronger now than she was during last cross country season. I think she ran a very solid steady race today. What she did last week (4:49.30 1600) and today is very indicative of what she has been doing in her workouts.”

One of the workouts that she ran that showed that she was ready for the past two meets was a tempo run on a flat two mile loop that Iverson has used in past season’s workouts. She ran a 4 mile tempo run the Monday before the Batavia Distance Madness Meet. She ran 6:00, 5:45, 5:38, 5:38. She covered the final three miles in 17:01, the final two miles in 11:16.

“I don’t have a lot of reference from previous athletes obviously for something like this,” Iverson added. “It looked like a tempo run. I was thinking how fast I could run when I was running in high school. That has been my only frame of reference to see what she could do. I was doing that kind of workout when I was running a 4:40 mile and I could break 10 in the 2 mile.”

It is the last indoor race we will see from Pendergast in her high school career. Her focus now turns to the outdoors where bigger goals await. According to Iverson, we will not see her race a lot during April. By the time we get to May, she will be a fixture on the track looking to help her team to a possible state trophy.

“I was aiming for 10:10 to 10:15 today. I was hoping for that time but I wasn’t sure how running 4:49 would differ this week in the 2 mile,” Pendergast concluded. “It was good when I crossed the line and I heard 10:11. I was really happy with that.”

(Watch the full interview with Judy Pendergast here)

The outdoor all-time state record also belongs to Beattie when she ran 9:56.96 at the 2011 IHSA State Meet. That might not be the record for that much longer especially the pace that Pendergast has set for herself.

Pendergast Race Splits

73,1, 2:29.6 (76.5), 3:46.1 (76.5), 5:02.3 (76.2), 6:18.5 (76.3), 7:36.4 (77.9), 8:54.3 (77.9), 10:11.56 (77.3)

~~~

There was a conference meet going on after what Pendergast ran. Neuqua Valley, in their first season in the DuPage Valley Conference, won the team championship with 109 points. Naperville Central was next with 82 points three points ahead of cross town rival Naperville North. The Lady Wildcats used their depth and only three event wins to clinch the crown. Kenna Lonergan won the High Jump clearing 5-3. Samara Miller was pushed by teammate Tashee Hargrave in the 400 Meter Dash before winning it in 57.08. Hargrave was half a second behind in second place (57.58). A strong 56.9 opening leg by Hargrave made Neuqua Valley untouchable in the 1600 Meter Relay. Along with Miller, Lizzy McCadd, and Mikenna Robinson, Neuqua Valley ran 3:59.87 to win the race by nearly fourteen seconds ahead of Metea Valley.

The big performance of the night in the field events came in the Shot Put. Courtney Morgan (Metea Valley HS, Aurora) threw 48-4 ¼ to establish the best put in 3A this season and the second best overall in the state. She won by over ten feet ahead of Grace Merritt. (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville). Allison Wahrman (Glenbard North HS, Carol Stream) was the only double winner in the field events. She jumped 18-0 to win the Long Jump, then came back to jump 38-1 ¾ to win the Triple Jump. Micah Brady (Wheaton North HS) was the other field event winner clearing 10-0 to win the Pole Vault.

There was also excitement on the track. Nicki Cast (Metea Valley HS, Aurora) repassed MiKenna Robinson (Neuqua Valley HS, Naperville) in the final 50 meters to win the 800 Meter Run by a tenth of a second (2:20.08 – 2:20.18). The same formula was used by Allison McGrath (Wheaton-Warrenville South HS) in the 1600 Meter Run. She caught and passed Sarah Schmidt (Naperville North HS) in the final ten meters to win the race by 29 hundredths of a second (5:11.05 – 5:11.34). There was not any drama in the 3200 Meter Relay. A strong second leg by Emory Griffin broke the race wide open for Naperville North as they ran 9:37.51 to win the race by five seconds over Neuqua Valley (9:42.94).

Freshman Halle Beiber (Naperville North HS) showed her dominance in the 55 Meter Hurdles running 8.58 for the win by three tenths ahead of Kenna Lonergan. D’Jenne Eharevba (Naperville Central HS) was the only double winner on the track. She ran 7.21 to win the 55 Meter Dash. She came back later in the evening to set a new meet record in the 200 Meter Dash (25.39) ahead of Samara Miller (26.09). Egharevba led off Naperville Central’s 800 Meter Relay that got edged out at the line by Waubonsie Valley by five hundredths of a second (1:47.98 – 1:48.03).

Waubonsie Valley’s Dajour Miles was entered in three events but was scratched Thursday just before the start of the meet. The freshman, who has the fastest time in the state in the 400 this indoor season, was not in attendance at the meet.