Wheaton Warrenville South Fails to Defend DVC Girls Track Title

Wheaton Warrenville South had its eyes on three consecutive DuPage Valley Conference girls track and field titles on Thursday evening at Glenbard North.

The Tigers were looking to defend their outdoor title from a year ago—the first in program history—with their indoor championship secured in March.

But they were unable to overcome five combined individual titles by West Aurora underclassmen Emma Spagnola and Anita Saffa.

West Aurora, with eight indivdual and relay victories, totaled 125 points to the Tigers' 113 to win its second league title in the last three years.

"There's always next year for our team," Wheaton Warrenville South standout Hope Schmelzle said.

Schmelzle had her squad looking good on the opening race of the finals--the 3,200-meter relay—when the Tigers' middle-distance leader took the baton from to turn in a powerhouse anchor leg.

Schmelzle passed two runners to give WW South the victory.

"It was a very good race," leadoff leg Amy Yong said of the Tigers' 9-minute, 31.7-second time. "We definitely want to pick it up for next week (the Class 3A Glenbard North sectional)."

Schmelzle ended her night with narrow losses to Glenbard East junior all-stater Lindsay Rakosnik, who won the open 800 meters and overcame Schmelzle in the final meters of the event-closing 1,600 relay.

"Going into (the open 800), I wasn't sure how I was feeling," said Schmelzle. "I wanted to do the best I could—just give it the best I could."

also began the individual finals in impressive fashion for Wheaton Warrenville South.

The sophomore was never headed in the 3,200 run, leading a 1-3 Wheaton Warrenville South finish (Lauren Mordini was third) to give the Tigers 16 critical points.

"I didn't run as low as I did at Batavia," Kightlinger said after traversing the eight laps in 11:3.08 seconds.

Kightlinger and Kiple were later hoping to negate the sprinting brilliance of West Aurora in the 1,600 run, but Rakosnik and teammate Maggie Angst swept the event to deny the Tigers a possible inroad.

"The mile didn't go as planned," said Kightlinger.

Kightlinger and Kiple finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Maggie Dansdill was the Tigers' most productive sprinter, finishing runner-up at 200 meters, third in the 100 dash and adding the critical leg of their second-place 800 relay quartet.

In the field, Wheaton Warrenville South was paced by Emily Schwartz, the sole athlete to clear 11 feet in the pole vault.

"There is always room to improve," Schwartz said.

Desirae Ranberg hurled the discus 107-feet-plus to finish runner-up for the Tigers.

Wheaton North finished seventh with 42 points behind Shenelle Burnett and Kelly O'Connor.

The former was runner-up in both the 100 and 300 hurdles to West Aurora freshman sensation Spagnola.

"There's no race without  (quality) competition," Burnett said of Spagnola. "I think I got (personal records) in both races today."

O'Connor was third in the long jump and also placed in triple jump; the junior anchored the Falcons' 800 relay to another placing mark.

"To do them all together (i.e., the four events in succession when also factoring in the 400 relay) is very hard," O'Connor said. "It's very tiring."

Raven Kelly snared the Falcons' other runner-up performance with her 37-8 effort in the shot put.