Red Devils hold off York for Silver crown

By Dave Owen
Staff writer
Published: 10/18/06

Lauren Zumbach set the pace in the Hinsdale Central girls cross-country team's dash to the WSC Silver title last Saturday in Western Springs.

But further back in the field, it was Heather Stevens that proved to be the difference-maker in the meet.

With the Red Devils and York tied at 44 based on the places of their first five runners, the title came down to the sixth-runner tiebreaker. Stevens' 18th-place time of 18:54 was two places and 20 seconds ahead of York's No. 6, providing the difference for Hinsdale Central.

York actually had three of the top-five individual finishers, but Red Devil depth paid off.

Zumbach (fourth, 17:39), Elaine Kuckertz (sixth, 17:45), Roey Hines (eighth, 17:54), Gina Kapusta (12th, 18:03) and Emily Cleary (14th, 18:09) offset the Dukes' upper dominance, and York's Nos. 4 and 5 runners placed 17th and 19th, respectively.

Drama aside, coach Mark McCabe was more focused on the Red Devils' fortunes down the road (starting Saturday with regionals at Katherine Legge Memorial Park in Hinsdale).

"Even if we had been second we still would have tied for the conference championship because we won the dual meet," McCabe said. "But conference is our second most important goal of the season. The most important goal is state, regardless of how it had shaken out here."

McCabe was most pleased by the close time gap between the Red Devils' entire lineup.

"I thought Gina (Kapusta) ran an outstanding race today," McCabe said, "but it's hard to pick one (girl) because they all ran well. We had a 29-second split from one to five, and we put six (runners) ahead of York's fifth, which is just what we needed to do."

Oak Park placed third with 91 points.

Hinsdale Central
boys cross country

Thomas Fielder hopes to journey far into the cross-country postseason.

It would be a nice change from the trip he took in Saturday's WSC Silver conference meet.

"I lost my momentum as soon as a kid tripped me right at the beginning," said Fielder, who overcame the adversity to still finish a solid 13th (15:44). "It made it a lot worse that he didn't even apologize or anything.

"I couldn't get in a pack. People that I had beaten during the year I wasn't even near them -- I could never get up there."

The good news for Fielder is that the mishap occurred at conference, not at the more-critical Hinsdale Central regional this Saturday at Katherine Legge Memorial Park.

"I want to get to sectionals," he said. "I've worked so hard the whole year and (sectionals) would make it worth it. But right now I'm bummed out."

The Red Devils finished fourth as a team (101 points), while champion York (20) had seven of the meet's top-eight individual finishers.

Following Fielder for Hinsdale Central were Pete Richard (16th, 15:55), Jeremy Klein (21st, 16:09), Dave Callicutt (24th, 16:15) and Sam Mortimer (27th, 16:30). Tim Filarski placed 30th and Nick Mortimer was 33rd.

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