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Lake Park Invitational Recap
Saturday, September 9, 2006
Photos
Full
Results
We competed on Saturday at the Lake Park
Invitational, our third year at this meet. After a hot
and humid week, weather conditions turned out to be
quite nice, with temperatures in the middle 60’s, clouds
and a cool breeze. The course was hard and dry and
somewhat slow, with uneven footing in spots. The varsity
course measured out at 2.95 miles and the F/S and JV at
1.95 miles. From now on, all levels will race 3 miles in
all races for the rest of the season. As always, the
competition at Lake Park featured some of the best teams
in the state.
At the varsity level, we try to work on different
aspects of our race plans and strategies each time we
compete and today was no exception. Different girls
worked on different things and we took another step
forward as a team. In the 19 team field
 we
finished with 67 points, one point behind Naperville
North, currently the #1 ranked team in the state. Lake
Park was a close 3rd with 70 points, followed by
Prospect with 180. Lauren Zumbach led the way for the
Lady Devils, finishing 2nd overall to Amber Stack of
Wheeling, last year’s 4th place finisher at the State
Meet. Look for a small feature on Lauren in this
Friday’s Sun-Times. Elaine Kuckertz followed closely in
4th place. Elaine continues to improve each week and
gain more and more confidence regarding what she is
capable of doing. Elaine took home the award as the
Athlete of the Meet. She’s on fire! Gina Kapusta was our
third finisher in 14th place. Gina is a consistent and
focused racer and a great competitor. She gave herself a
great 18th birthday present! Heather Stevens was 17th
and we were very pleased with her improvement from the
first meet. Heather executed her game plan perfectly.
Grace Hucek was our fifth finisher in 30th. Grace was
bothered by an inflamed tendon in her lower leg and was
very dissatisfied with her race. We think it was a
testament to her mental toughness that she “gutted it
out” and scored for the team. After a few days in the
pool to let things settle down, she’ll be back at full
strength. Emily Cleary was forced to drop out at the 2
mile mark because of illness while running in the Top 10
but looks to be feeling better already. We competed
without Roey Hines and Jenny Laser who had minor
ailments but should be at full strength for Peoria this
coming weekend. The varsity is focused and committed to
working on all of “the little things” that will help
them be the best they can be.
The F/S girls were 4th out of 22 teams behind Lake Park,
Naperville North and DGN. We have many new girls in the
F/S lineup who are just learning how to race and are
progressing nicely. They will see huge improvements
throughout the season as they gain confidence and
experience. Katie Kummerer led the way again for the
F/S, finishing in 7th place overall. Our next 8
finishers all were within 30 seconds of each other
between 18th and 40th place. In order they were Hailey
Krzyston, Holly Larsen, Olivia Trilla, Victoria Glatz,
Jane Chapman, Catherine Bruns, Niamh McCarthy, and
Colleen Leahy. Hailey was the Athlete of the Meet. The
F/S are ready for the first Conference meet this
Thursday!
At the JV level, we finished in 3rd place with 95
points, behind Naperville North and DGN and ahead of
Prospect. Grace Pedersen led the way with an excellent
race, finishing 5th overall. Emily Kane and Margaret
Cavenagh were not far behind in 9th and 11th and Allie
Emery and Lisa Kapusta rounded out the scoring for us in
40th and 52nd place. This was a first for Lisa, as she
was a Top 5 scorer for the first time. It was another
great 18th birthday present!
This Thursday we have our first Conference meet, a
triangular with Oak Park and Proviso West at KLM. The
F/S race is scheduled to go off at 4:30, followed by the
varsity and then JV. On Saturday morning we travel to
the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational on the state meet
course in Peoria. Our bus will leave at 5am and the F/S,
Varsity and JV races will go off at 9:00, 9:40 and
10:20am respectively. This is the best girls meet in the
state each year outside of the state series. It gives us
a chance to race on the state meet course early in the
season, a course we like to consider our “home away from
home”. The meet will feature over 40 teams, including 4
of the teams currently ranked in the Top 10 in the
state, including Naperville North, Hinsdale Central,
Palatine and Lincoln-Way East. Drive down and support
the Lady Devils!! |
