Sophomore Heather Stevens and her Hinsdale Central girls cross country teammates felt the challenge of their dual meet with York Oct. 5 even before plowing through a weathered Katherine Legge Memorial Park course.

"We were kind of anxious about it because York was undefeated and so were we. It was a big race and we were kind of going into it more like a Saturday (invite) than anything else. We were all telling each other during the day, 'We're so nervous.' It was nerve-wracking, but I'm glad it's over."

Stevens wasn't happy with her time, but her determination with teammate Gina Kapusta was one of the factors that gave the No. 1-ranked Red Devils a 27-29 victory, the regular-season West Suburban Conference Silver Division title with a 6-0 record, and an advantage going into the Silver Meet Saturday, Oct. 14, at Lyons Township's south campus. The Red Devils also beat Downers Grove North 17-42 in the meet.

The Red Devils' Lauren Zumbach (18 minutes, 2 seconds for 2.95 miles) finished second to York senior Laurie Dalrymple (17:59), a 2006 state track qualifier in the 3,200-meter run.

Sophomores Elaine Kuckertz (18:13) and Roey Hines (18:18) were fourth and fifth, and junior Emily Cleary (18:41) took eighth. Meanwhile, Stevens (10th, 19:11) and Kapusta (11th, 19:15) beat the corresponding No. 5 (13th, 19:19) and No. 6 (14th, 19:33) runners for No. 4-ranked York (5-1 in Silver). Kapusta, nursing an Achilles injury, twice fell at the creek that flows through the course.

"In the last 200 meters, I kept hearing all of these York girls yelling for their teammate. That really made me push up," Stevens said. "It wasn't a good race (for me), but I'm just happy I didn't let that girl pass me at the end."

The overall Silver title is a 50-50 combination of regular-season and conference-meet standings. Last year, the Red Devils won their second straight outright overall title, the only two in program history, by going 6-0 in duals and beating the Dukes at the Silver Meet on a sixth-runner tiebreaker.

"Conference dual meets are always important to us because winning the conference is our second most important goal of the season," Hinsdale Central coach Mark McCabe said. "Our goal was to put six ahead of their fourth, but we put six ahead of their fifth. That was the goal, to win, whether it was by one or 10 points, and they executed their plan very well."

© Copyright 2006 Sun-Times News Group