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Peoria Notre Dame Invitational Recap
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Photos
Full
Results
One of the highlights of our regular season each year
is the trip to the Peoria Notre Dame Invitational. It is
a chance for the girls to run on the 3.0 mile state meet
course and experience Detweiler Park, some for the first
time this year and up to the seventh time for the
seniors who have competed each year in both this meet
and the State Meet. The 5am bus time is also quite an
experience! We like to think of this course as our “home
away from home”. The meet this year, as usual, boasted
the best field of any girls meet in the state outside of
the actual State Meet. It featured 8 of the top 20 teams
in the state, including #1 ranked Naperville North. The
weather was warm and mostly sunny, with temperatures
ranging from the lower to upper 70’s depending on the
race. The course was dry on the surface but soft
underneath from the rain which fell all week across the
state.
The varsity girls ran a strong and aggressive and race
and we won the meet for the first time ever. We ended up
with 93 points in the 44 team field, ahead of Sandburg
(158), Lincoln-Way East (174), Naperville North (183)
and a surprising Batavia team (196). We had a 29 second
split from our 1st to 5th runner and 53 seconds from
1-6. Lauren Zumbach led the way for the Lady Devils,
finishing in 8th place overall in a loaded individual
field. Lauren was closely followed by Elaine Kuckertz in
11th place and Gina Kapusta in 20th. Emily Cleary and
Roey Hines, in only her first race of the year, were
right behind in 29th and 30th. Heather Stevens was our
6th runner in 45th place and finished ahead of the #4
runner from every team in the race but one. Every one of
the girls ran a focused and controlled race. As hard as
it was to pick just one Athlete of the Meet, Gina
Kapusta took the trophy home for the weekend! As we like
to say, no one needs to be Superwoman, we just need each
of us to run our race and be the best we can be. The
results will then take care of themselves.
The F/S girls finished in 5th place out of 25 teams in a
close team race, with the top 5 teams all finishing
within 31 points of each other. Running with a strong
but less-than-full-strength lineup, this meet gives us
great confidence for the rest of the season. Katie
Kummerer led the way again, finishing 4th overall in the
300+ runner field in 19:33, a time that would have been
better than the time for the 5th runner for all but 2
teams in the Varsity race. Katie was followed by the
pack of Niamh McCarthy, Victoria Glatz, Hailey Krzyston,
and Catherine Bruns, who was also the F/S Athlete of the
Meet. Another group with Maddie Metcalf and Colleen
Leahy followed close behind. The F/S girls continue to
learn how to race and we look forward to further big
improvements as the season progresses.
There was a large (308 runner) JV race which was for
individuals only with no team scoring. Emily Kane and
Grace Pedersen led the way for the Devils, running tough
races in the heat to finish 8th and 9th overall. Emily
was our Athlete of the Meet. Margaret Cavenagh was next
in 30th place and Allie Emery followed in 72nd place.
The JV is gearing up for the Conference season, which
opened last week with victories over Oak Park and
Proviso West.
We have a bye in the Conference this week so will have a
regular practice on Thursday instead of a meet. On
Saturday the Varsity and 7-8 of the F/S and JV girls
will travel to Culver, Indiana to run in the Culver
Academy Invitational, a meet that features the Top 4
teams from last year’s Indiana State Meet. The girls are
excited for the 4K (2.5 Miles) race and we took a trip
to Culver this summer to get a preview of the course. It
will be a great opportunity to compete against more of
the best competition around, this time from
out-of-state. The Varsity race will be our first race on
Saturday at 10:35am EST. (9:35am our time) For
directions, contact Coach McCabe or wait for the meet
information sheet to come home on Friday. Thanks for all
of your tremendous support. We really appreciate it. Go,
Red Devils!
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