St. Charles North boys cross country coach Kevin Harrington’s emphasis during practice this week on results, rather than times, paid off at Saturday‘s St. Charles North Invite held at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles.

Led by junior Sam Hill’s first-place finish in 15:02.55, the North Stars won the boys varsity race with 46 points. St. Charles North’s top five runs finished no lower than 18th.

“Our focus this week was racing, not time, so they really worked on racing,” Harrington said. “And it was very successful for them because they’re usually staring at their watches and you try to get them not to do that. But they just raced today, which was good.”

Senior Matthew Russell (15:28.22) finished seventh, followed by junior Christian Enger (ninth, 15:32.44), junior Logan Hitchings (11th, 15:36.84) and senior Lucas Reed (18th, 15:51.44).

“But the real story was our pack. It was our 3, 4 and 5. They just stayed together the whole time and moved up,” Harrington said. “Hitchings was our fourth today, and he’s just a guy that always does the work, and we’re nowhere without him.”

Hill switched up his game plan, too.

“I knew coming to this race, I was going to have some really good competition, so I changed my race strategy,” Hill said. “Instead of going out really fast from the start, I let a kid lead it out until like a mile or two and I made a move and then just no one came with me.”

Addison Trail junior Nathan Gundersen set a personal-best time of 15:10.63 to take second.

Paced by Henry Miller’s fourth-place finish, Hinsdale Central took second, tallying 66 points.

“I had hope to be higher,” Miller said. “But the course is pretty hilly, so I was a little bit off my race.”

Fourth-place Wheaton Warrenville South rounded out the top five in the 19-team field.

Glenbard West also focused on running as a pack to win the girls varsity race, scoring 37 points. Led by second-place finisher Alexa Novak, the Hilltoppers’ top five runners all came in no lower than 12th.

“We always try to work on our packed running after Alexa, who obviously is one of the top runners in the state, and we’re just trying to stay within 60 seconds of her,” Glenbard West coach Paul Hass said. “We maybe didn’t accomplish that today, but I thought the 2-4 runners were solid. They were really close to each other. I thought we ran a really solid race to go five in the top 12.”

“I was planning on getting at least second place going into it,” Novak said. “But I knew that it was a hard course, so I didn’t really have a time goal.”

Three Hilltoppers finished ninth or better: Shayne Dietzen (sixth, 18:04.84), Lauren Bennett (eighth, 18:36.58) and Alyssa Novak (ninth, 18:37.99). Maya Slowikowski, Glenbard West’s fifth runner, crossed the finish line in 12th place in 19:10.61.

St. Charles North sophomore Kara Glenn, who won the girls race with a time of 16:56.68, pulled out in front early.

“I took (the lead) a little bit out of the gate,” Glenn said. “I just wanted to make sure I got it on to that first turn before everyone else did, so the pack didn’t get backed up.”

Glenn’s first-place finish, and junior teammate Gwen Hobson crossing the finish line third (17:44.98) helped the North Stars capture third place (92).

Two freshmen, Luna Pozos (fourth, 17:47.46) and Irma Jimenez (fifth, 17:58.61) led South Elgin to second place (69).

Cary-Grove (102) took fourth place, and Lyons finished fifth (149). Thirteen teams competed in the girls varsity race.