Bruner, Gollwitzer impress for West Aurora

Updated: August 27, 2011 7:08PM

With about 200 meters to go in Saturday’s Aurora City cross country meet, Ashley Bruner looked sideways to size up her competition, and was surprised by what she saw.

While she figured she would see someone wearing a West Aurora uniform, it wasn’t Rachel Cavender, who she finished as runner-up to her a year ago. Instead, it was Blackhawk freshman Miranda Gollwitzer, who was running her first-ever high school race.

As the pair picked up the pace, Bruner had a little more left in her legs and was able to pull away late to win the race by four seconds, covering the 3.1-mile course at Marmion in a time of 19 minutes, 35 seconds.

“I had no idea (Gollwitzer) was here this year, I was only counting on the returning people,” Bruner said. “She was a great competitor, and when she kicked I tried really hard to go with her.”

Gollwitzer had run alone or shared the lead all day, but was running the longest race of her career. In the end her legs didn’t have enough spring in them for a final surge.

“I though ‘I’m dead, oh my gosh I just can’t do it’,” Gollwitzer said. “But it is the first race and I’m new and wasn’t sure what to expect. It was exciting and I’m glad I did well in my first race.”

Kristina Chapman (Waubonsie Valley), Natalie Runkle (IMSA) and Cavender rounded out the top-five in the race, with West Aurora scoring 42 points to take the team title by eight points over Waubonsie. Aurora Central (89 points) was third while Aurora Christian (92), Rosary (107), IMSA (141) and East Aurora (141) completing the team scoring.

In the boys’ race, West Aurora junior Omar Gomez took control late in the race to win in 16:26 and propel the Blackhawks to the team title with 32 points. Teammate Josh Robinson was second in 16:42, with Will Graft of Marmion, Matt Meyers of Aurora Central and John Graft of Marmion representing the top five finishers.

Marmion finished second with 47 points, Waubonsie Valley (66 points) was third, and Aurora Central (86), Aurora Christian (143), East Aurora (176) and IMSA (194) placed fourth through seventh.

“I didn’t think I was going to win, there are so many other experienced people on the other teams,” Gomez said. “(I pulled away) around two miles, I just kept going at my pace.”

Gomez and Robinson finished ninth and tenth, respectively, in last year’s race and were part of four Blackhawks in the top 10.

“I started out a little fast and maybe could have done better, but at least one of my guys passed me,” Robinson said. “We were running together and I started cramping up so I told him to go, I didn’t want to slow him down.”

The Blackhawks bested Marmion for the third straight year in a matchup of two teams that advanced to last year’s state meet (where Marmion placed third in Class 2A) and have aspriations of doing the same this fall.

“I’m glad Omar was tough enough to stick it out and take the win,” said West coach Matt Sinnott. “We wanted to have fun and establish where we were at three miles, to race hard and finish as close together as possible.”

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