Suburban Life

Red Devils step into state berth

By Jason Rossi
Staff writer
Published: 11/1/06

Happy birthday indeed.

Hinsdale Central girls cross-country coach Mark McCabe celebrated his birthday Saturday, and his team gave him one heck of a present.

The Red Devils placed their five scoring runners in the top 30 at Saturday's Lockport sectional at Dellwood Park and made the day a dual celebration: McCabe's birthday and a sectional title.

The Red Devils tallied 88 points and unseated Naperville North as sectional champion. The Huskies finished second with 101 points.

"We came in knowing we certainly were one of the favorites, and we knew if everyone ran their race today we'd be in good shape," McCabe said. "We always say no one needs to be Superwomen, we just need everybody to run a good race, and if we do that good things will happen, and it happened today. We had girls step up today."

Sophomore Rosemary Hines crossed the finish line in eighth place with a time of 19:44 to lead the Hinsdale Central contingent on what was a sloppy 5K course.

A solid pack of Red Devils followed Hines through the chute. Gina Kapusta finished 12th with a time of 20 minutes flat and junior Emily Cleary crossed the line four spots back in 20:04.

For Cleary, it was an exorcism of sorts.

"My freshman year we ran our regional here and I actually passed out that race and didn't get to finish, so it was exciting coming back today and having a good race," she said. "It definitely boosted my confidence.

"I think I prepared myself better mentally. I tried to have a good attitude about it because (what happened my freshman year) was one thing that was hard to get over."

Sophomore Elaine Kuckertz, who finished with a 26th-place time of 20:25, was followed shortly after by sophomore Lauren Zumbach (30th, 20:37).

"Lauren Zumbach is usually one of our top runners. She had some allergy problems today and was fifth today, but other girls stepped up today and slid in there," McCabe said. "The bigger the meet the more important that is because in a bigger field our strong pack is going to get the job done.

"It's hard to pick out just one (performance) because there were so many great efforts."

Senior Jennifer Laser (47th, 20:56) and sophomore Heather Stephens (49th, 20:59) bested two-thirds of the field but did not count toward the Red Devils' winning score.

The Red Devils will head into Saturday's state meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria looking to best the fourth-place finish they had there last season.

"This had kind of been building," McCabe said. "We were seventh (in 2004) and last year we were fourth at state. It's kind of been happening gradually, but I think this is one of the best team's we've had.

"The hay's in the barn, the training is done, so it's time to fine tune, rest up and get ready."

* Unfortunately for Hinsdale Central junior Thomas Fielder, his season came to an end at Saturday's Lockport sectional.

The lone representative from Hinsdale Central's boys team finished 38th with a time of 17:30, which was 30 seconds away from the final individual qualifying spot taken by Brother Rice's Rich Eber (19th, 17:01).

©2006 Liberty Suburban Chicago Newspapers.