St. Charles North freshman Audrey Ernst and East Aurora’s boys cross country team snuck up on the fields in a manner of speaking at Tuesday’s Elgin Classic, and in the process left everyone in their dust.

In her first varsity meet, Ernst not only won, but was ahead by so much she could have taken a break for some water along the 3-mile Lords Park course if she wanted, finishing in 18:02.4 — a full 27.3 seconds ahead of Streamwood runner-up Gabby Juarez. Ernst led her team to an easy team title.

“This is my first race,” Ernst said. “I didn’t really know what to expect. I know all these girls out here are super. So I’m really excited for the rest of the season.

“I haven’t really run the 3-mile course. In middle school we ran 2 miles.”

Streamwood’s Juarez had run 21-minutes plus last year while she suffered from anemia, but now healthy, she ran 18:29.7 or almost a full minute ahead of teammate Sam Harding, who was second. Teammate Addie Kelly took fifth (19:52.4)

Still, she admitted to being caught off guard by Ernst, who had competed in the Junior Nationals triathlon during the summer.

“I thought she was one of those girls who just takes it out fast and then just kind of dies at the end,” Juarez said. “But she really surprised me.”

The win by the freshman failed to surprise North coach Shari Hayes.

“She’s been running with us since she was in fifth grade,” Hayes said. “She’s a world class triathlete. She got second in the world for 15-19-year-olds in July.”

The Stars also had a fourth from Madison Kaufmann (19:43.9), a sixth from Allie Chen (12:01.9), a seventh from Nina Olshever (20:12.4) and a 10th from Ally Suyak (20:31) to complete their scoring with 28 points to the Sabres’ 56. Bartlett took third with 89, led by Jessalynn Wittmayer in eighth (20:22.0). Harvest Christian’s Valerie Richter finished ninth (20:30.7).

In the boys race, East Aurora swept five of the top six places and came away with the title with 19 points to beat Dundee-Crown’s 83. Tomcats junior David Galvan won in 16:15.4, and only Glenbard North runnerup Joey Campagna (16:20.0) prevented an East sweep of the top five.

East senior Felipe Nino took third (16:23.3), senior Christian Castro was fourth (16:23.4), junior Ruben Nino fifth (16:27.6) and junior Jose Alvarado placed sixth (16:29.4). The Tomcats achieved a 14-second split.

“That’s the beauty of our group — all five of them could be No. 1,” coach Shane Gillespie said. “There’s no egos in it. They’re all about team.”

To say the Tomcats surprised with the ease of their win was putting it mildly.

“They’ve grown into it,” he said. “As sophomores, (the juniors) all had nice track seasons. They were running 10:20 2 miles and nobody noticed because the were doing it at the sophomore level.

“We were kind of plugging along in the Upstate Eight, but we’ve got some lofty goals this year.”

Dundee-Crown was led by Alex Clark in 10th in 16:44.6. Elgin senior Logan Jostes took eighth (16:41.9), and Bartlett’s Justin Isla placed sninth (16:42.9). St. Charles North, third with 85 points, had a seventh from Carter Stibgen (16:38.3).