Hinsdale Central senior Gina Kapusta had a little unfinished business as she approached the chute at the West Suburban Conference Silver Division Meet Saturday at Lyons Township.

"I hate being passed at the end," Kapusta said. "When you work that hard to be ahead the whole time just to get passed at the end is not something I want to have happen."

With her little surge in the final 10 meters, Kapusta zipped past Proviso West's Michelle Teague after being passed a few meters earlier. And Kapusta's 12th-place finish ended up being the final reason the Red Devils won the meet on a sixth-runner tiebreaker and secured an outright overall title for the third straight year.

Sophomore Lauren Zumbach (4th, 17 minutes, 39.94 seconds for 2.98 miles), Elaine Kuckertz (6th, 17:45.83) and Roey Hines (8th,17:54.71), Kapusta (18:03.89) and junior Emily Cleary (14th, 18:09.44) earned all-conference honors with top-16 finishes, and sophomore Heather Stevens was 18th (18:34.54).

The overall Silver title is a 50-50 combination of regular-season and Silver Meet standings. The Red Devils and York tied for first with 44 points Saturday, but the Red Devils easily won the sixth-runner tiebreaker since York's No. 6 finisher was 20th (18:54.49). In fact, Stevens beat York's No. 5 finisher (18:45.70) as she did as the Red Devils' No. 6 finisher in their 27-29 dual victory over York Oct. 5 at Katherine Legge Memorial Park with the regular-season title on the line.

Hinsdale Central coach Mark McCabe, about 30 meters from the finish, had the Red Devils losing to York by one point Saturday because he was unaware that Kapusta had passed Teague.

"I'm like, 'Well, I beat her,' " Kapusta said. "It was really funny. We thought we had lost, and then we were like, 'Aw.' And then we won and we're like, 'Oh.' "

"Two years in a row to win on a sixth-runner tiebreaker? I don't know what the odds are of that," McCabe said. "But I said to the girls whether we won or lost, in the big picture it wasn't a huge thing, but at the same time our No. 2 goal of the year is always to win the conference meet and I just told them good teams find a way to win."

The Red Devils have won five straight overall titles -- the only conference titles in program history -- but they shared the 2002 and 2003 crowns with York. Kapusta has been an all-conference finisher for all three outright champions.

"I think this is really special to me because it's my senior year," Kapusta said. "It's my last conference meet with this team. It's my last everything with this team so I just take everything to heart."

Kapusta and the Red Devils now have their sights on the state series, especially as they enter the Hinsdale Central Regional at Saturday, Oct. 21, at KLM still ranked No. 1 by the Illinois Cross Country Coaches and Illinois Prep Top Times newsletter.

The Red Devils were fourth at state last year. Kuckertz, the only runner in Saturday's lineup who hasn't competed at a state cross country meet, continued her vast improvement from getting fifth in last year's sophomore Silver Meet.

"We might not have liked it to be not quite as close, but we're really happy with how the team did," Zumbach said. "Everyone had great races, and our split was like 29 seconds. We were all very close with each other so that was probably one of the best parts."

* Timothy Christian senior Alexis Euwema of Oak Brook was second (19:12 for 3.0 miles) and sophomore Leah Bosman of Oak Brook was 12th (20:24) at the Private School League Meet Saturday in Aurora. Euwema had three seconds and one third in her four PSL races. The Trojans were third (79 points).

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