Hopeful organizers move forward with plans; new contests added for students who missed out on state meet
By Dee Longfellow
For The Elmhurst Independent
Dan Dziubski, Naperville 10K Relay Race Director, recently contacted the Inde-pendent with an update on the 10K Relay to benefit the Joe Newton Scholarship Award.
“What a crazy time it is right now,” Dziubski said. “We are still moving forward with planning the race in hopes that the shelter-in-place order is lifted by July 11. As you probably know, the IHSA cancelled all high school sporting events including state meets.
“With this sad news, we have added three additional events to this year’s race. We want to give the high school track athletes a chance to get on the track one last time with their teammates. I want to make it a memorable night for them, especially the sen-iors.”
Race night is scheduled for Saturday, July 11 under the lights at North Central Col-lege’s stadium in Naperville. Dziubski said there was some flexibility, so the race may be able to be postponed if neces-sary, but he is hopeful that will not be necessary.
“The original two-person 25×400 relay will still be the main event for the age group-ers and Elite athletes,” he said. “We did add an open 1,600-meter run, 4×800, and distance medley relay (1,200-400-800-1,600) for the high school athletes. Registrations are already coming in and it is shaping up to be a state meet quality field of run-ners.”
Last year’s results
Last year the event was able to net $2,050 for the Newton Scholarship.
In last year’s race, High School results include three York duos that placed third, fourth and fifth, respectively. They are Ethan Kern and Colin Hill (28:52), Michael Moriarty and Daniel Klysh, (29:00) and Max Lupo and Sam Ayers, (29:07). York students Anthony Angel and Matteo Mancuso came in 18th place with 35:27.
In the overall results, Kern and Hill placed ninth, Mori-arty and Klysh finished 10th and Lupo and Ayers placed 11th. Angel and Mancuso came in 40th overall.
Sponsors sought
“Due to the current situation and economy, this year is proving to be quite a chal-lenge, in particularly with our sponsorships,” Dziubski said. “I know it’s a tough time for all, but perhaps there is a business out there with con-nections to Mr. Newton who might be interested in being a sponsor.”
If there are any local busi-nesses that would like to learn about sponsorship op-portunities at the event, please contact Dziubski at [email protected].
Or for more information, visit endureitsports.com/10krelay.
