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25th Culver Academies
Invitational Recap
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Photos
Full
Results
The Lady Devils took another road trip this weekend
when we traveled to Culver, Indiana on Saturday. It was
another 5am departure but the trip and the meet were
well worth it. We had traveled to Culver this summer to
become familiar with the surroundings and to run over
the course, so we knew what to expect on race day. There
were a few differences from the typical Illinois girls
meet. Like all Indiana girls meets, the race distance
was 4 kilometers, or 2.5 miles. There were only girls 2
races, the Girls Varsity (called the Varsity Girls Open,
for large schools) and the Girls Reserve (an open race
for both F/S and JV runners). Outside of the Indiana
State Meet, this is Indiana’s most competitive girls
meet of the year and this year featured the #1,2,3,4 and
6th ranked teams in the state. Westfield, the team
ranked first in Indiana, is also ranked #1 in the
Midwest and #6 in the nation. Last week the Lady Devils
earned their first national ranking, at #5 in the
Midwest and #21 in the country. One of the things we
pride ourselves on is our tough meet schedule, and we
felt that facing some formidable out-of-state
competition would be another step in helping us to be
the best we can be.
The Varsity girls placed 2nd of 30 teams in the race
with 102 points, behind Westfield (66) and ahead of
Carmel, Northridge, and Lawrence North. The competition
on the lakeside course was hot and fast, just as we had
expected. Roey Hines led the way for the Red Devils,
placing 11th overall in 15:03. She was followed closely
by a pack of Emily Cleary, Lauren Zumbach, Elaine
Kuckertz, and Heather Stevens, who all finished between
15:14 and 15:21. Gina Kapusta, who had been battling a
virus all week long, followed in 15:38. We had a 1-5
split of only 18 seconds and 35 seconds from 1-6. All of
the girls ran well and Roey and Heather had particularly
outstanding races and Heather will take home the trophy
as the Athlete of the Meet. We were all flying over the
last 800 meters and felt that we ran out of room at the
end of the race. We’re not quite used to the 4k distance
and all of the girls felt like next time they would
better distribute their energies over the course of the
race. Next year will be ready for that challenge. It was
great fun to travel and compete in Indiana. The Culver
athletes and coaches, the Westfield girls and all of the
competitors were extremely friendly and hospitable. We
are looking forward to making this meet a permanent
fixture on our schedule.
We had seven girls compete in the Reserve race and
placed 3rd in the 30 team field behind Carmel and
Westfield. Niamh McCarthy (listed as Catherine Bruns in
the results) led the way, finishing 9th in the 401
runner field in 16:26 and was our Athlete of the Meet in
this race. Niamh was followed closely by Emily Kane, who
finished 12th in 16:31. Jenny Laser was next in her
comeback race and was followed by Hailey Krzyston,
Victoria Glatz, Margaret Cavenagh and Grace Pedersen,
still suffering from some breathing difficulties in the
extremely humid conditions.
We have our two most competitive weekday Conference
meets coming up in the next 2 weeks. This Thursday we
will face LT and Glenbard West at LT’s South Campus. The
first race will be the F/S at 4:45, followed by a
combined (though scored separately) Varsity and JV race
at approximately 5:15-5:20. We are currently 2-0 in the
Conference at all levels. Please come out and support us
on Thursday afternoon. On Saturday we will travel to the
Wheaton North Invitational. This year we will compete
only in the Frosh, Soph and Jr/Sr Open races and not the
Varsity Championship flights. Check for directions to
these meets elsewhere on this site.
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