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25th annual Wheaton
North Classic Recap
Saturday, October 4, 2008
RESULTS -
PHOTOS
On Saturday the Lady Devils travelled
to Northside Park in Wheaton to compete in the 25th
annual Wheaton North Classic. It is a Flight Meet where
each of the seven varsity runners competes in separate
races and their individual places are combined to total
the team score. It is a meet which emphasizes depth and
overall program strength even more than a traditional
meet format. There are Junior/Senior, Sophomore and
Freshman Open Races in addition to the Varsity races.
For the second year in a row, the weather was close to
ideal. The 3.075 mile course was a bit soft and muddy in
spots (not lightening fast as it often is), but was
still in good shape.
We were fortunate to defend our title from 2007 and
placed 1st in the 31 team field with 23 points. The race
featured 10 of the top 15 and 15 of the top 25 ranked
teams in the state. Naperville North placed second with
31 points and was followed by LT (45), Lockport (48) and
St. Charles East (60). Grace Klein started things off in
the 7th flight by placing first overall with a time of
19:22, four seconds ahead of the second place finisher.
It was an impressive debut Varsity race for Grace.
Lauren Zumbach made it two-in-a-row as she won the sixth
flight in 19:01, a whopping 23 seconds ahead of the
second place finisher. Lauren earned our Athlete of the
Meet honors for her race. Graylin Harrison continued her
string of excellent races with a second place finish in
the fifth flight in 18:50, just three seconds behind the
flight winner. Niamh McCarthy continued the string of
fine performances by placing fifth in the fourth flight
in 19:03. Katie Kummerer finished a close second in the
third flight in 18:51, and Heather Stevens placed fourth
in a very competitive second flight in 18:39. Elaine
Kuckertz wrapped up the HC effort by placing eighth in
the championship flight (in as competitive of a field as
we’ve ever seen at this meet) in 18:13. It was an
outstanding overall Varsity effort and a positive
checkpoint for us as we move toward the Conference and
State Series races.
In the Junior/Senior Open races, Grace Hucek, Hailey
Krzyston and Colleen Leahy placed 1-2-6 overall in times
of 19:06, 19:24 and 19:52. Kelsey Chetosky and Victoria
Glatz followed and gave us the “unofficial team
championship”. Kelsey and Victoria also broke 20:00 for
the first time for their 3 mile equivalent times. Other
especially good races were run by Marina Rostein,
Victoria Andros, Sylvia Sieczka, Nicole Cimo and Cydney
Stein. In the Sophomore Open, Rita Kuckertz led the way
in sixth place in 19:55. Rita was followed by Allison
Sulouff and Maddie Pound, who had another fine race.
Other notable efforts in the Sophomore and Freshman Open
races were turned in by Gina Stella, Megan Hannemann,
Juliana Valcarenghi and Sam Gianakas.
As coaches, we are very proud of the girls and the
progress they are making. I had the pleasure of
attending the wedding on Saturday evening of Katherine
Gehlmann (now Conner), a 2001 HC alum and cross country
runner from our 2000 team that place 7th in the State
Meet. As I said to our alums in my weekly e-mail to them
this week, “Katherine exemplifies all that our program
tries to be about. That is, take a little talent, a lot
of dedication, a love for running and a big dose of
enthusiasm and see how far it takes you.” She, like so
many of our alums, is an inspiration to all of the girls
that continue to follow in her footsteps (both literally
and figuratively J ).
This week we have our final Conference dual meet with LT
at KLM on Thursday afternoon. Saturday there is no meet,
but there are practices scheduled for both Saturday
morning and Monday, Columbus Day. We will have a F/S
race on Thursday, followed by a combined Varsity/JV
race. The first race goes off at 4:30 or slightly
thereafter. Come out and support the Lady Devils on
Thursday!
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