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2006 Hinsdale Central Girls Cross
Country in the News
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The Doing - Hinsdale edition — Sept. 7, 2006
Dominating Devils win invite for first time
BY BILL STONE
SPORTS WRITER
Hinsdale Central junior Emily Cleary waited a
long time for the cross country race she had
Saturday.
The Red Devils waited even longer for what she
helped them accomplish.
After having almost her entire 2005 season
wiped out by stress fractures, Cleary was back
near the front as the Red Devils won their
26th annual Hornet-Red Devil Invitational at
Katherine Legge Memorial Park for the first
time.
Sophomore Lauren Zumbach won the 3.0-mile race
in 18 minutes, 27. 7 seconds, and the Red
Devils (30 points) put five runners in the top
10 to easily outdistance second-place Palatine
(83 points), which won last year's invite. The
Red Devils are coming off finishing a
program-best fourth at state last year, just
eight points behind third-place Palatine for a
team trophy.
"Hopefully, my luck works out for me this
year," said Cleary, who was fourth in 18:49.1.
"I knew that one of our goals was winning, and
that was very positive and just worked out for
us. That was pretty awesome that was the first
time ever. (Palatine) beat us at state so it
was a good thing to beat them."
After Zumbach, an all-state 20th at the 2005
state meet, and Cleary, freshman Grace Hucek
(18:55.6) and sophomore Elaine Kuckertz
(18:56) were seventh and eighth in their
varsity debuts, senior Gina Kapusta (19:07.2)
was 10th and sophomore Heather Stevens
(19:30.4) was 18th.
"Our girls ran about as well as I had hoped
for the first meet. We look at that first meet
as a starting point, and we'll just take it
from there," Hinsdale Central coach Mark
McCabe said. "I mentioned (we'd never won our
invite this summer) once in passing, just so
it was in their heads. Otherwise, I never
talked about it. I don't like to talk about
those things, but I don't mind planting the
seed."
Cleary was an all-state 17th in 2004 but sat
out most of last season with a stress fracture
in her hip. She looked ready for the
postseason when she returned and won the
sophomore conference meet, but she felt pain
soon after the race and was diagnosed out for
good with a stress fracture in her foot.
"That was very disappointing. I took a lot of
time off (including track), and I just tried
to stay positive, and Coach McCabe really
helped me with that," Cleary said. "It was a
little disappointing last year, but going
through that made me a lot stronger. Mentally
I'm more tough. I'm ready to handle what comes
my way. That's the goal -- stay away from
injury."
Zumbach won by 13.4 seconds over Bloomington
junior Ashley Verplank, 31st at state in 2005,
by opening a gap near the halfway point. Last
season, Zumbach was third at the Hornet-Red
Devil in 18:37.2 and later ran a school-record
17:52 for KLM.
"(Winning is) really a confidence booster for
the rest of the year. It's a big meet and a
lot of great competition," Zumbach said. "I
think really everyone has reached kind of a
new level in our training. I think I've
improved a lot from last year, and I'm just
looking to keep improving."
The Red Devils excelled even minus two
returning state runners. Sophomore Roey Hines,
an all-state 24th in 2005, was a late scratch
because of illness, and senior Jenny Laser
rested a slight calf strain.
Copyright © 2006, The Doings
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