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Peoria Woodruff
Invitational Recap
RESULTS -
PHOTOS
The Lady Devils travelled to Peoria
this past weekend for the Peoria Woodruff Invitational.
This was our first trip to this meet, as we have
typically competed in the Peoria Notre Dame
Invitational, which takes place this coming weekend.
Both are outstanding meets. We made the switch for a
number of reasons, the primary one being that the
Woodruff meet has become the more competitive of the
two, featuring a greater number of the top teams in the
state. This switch fits with our desire to have the
toughest schedule possible and to compete in the best
meet in the state each weekend we race. We feel that
this is the best way to prepare ourselves for the meets
that matter most. After heavy rains last week and a
forecast that called for more of the same, there were
doubts as to whether or not the races could be held. As
it turned out, the rains held off until the last race on
the schedule, the Open Boys, and the meet went off as
planned. Course conditions were wet, extremely muddy and
very slow and it was extremely humid. It was cross
country at its best!
The meet featured the top three ranked girls teams in
the ICCCP State Coaches Poll, as well as six of the top
ten. The Lady Devils finished second in the 36 team
field, as Geneva won the meet with 37 points to our 108.
Lockport (153), Naperville North (165) and Westfield
(IN) (207) rounded out the top five teams. Elaine
Kuckertz led the Devils with her 4th place finish, just
seven seconds behind race winner Kelly Whitley of
Geneva, last years’ runner-up in the State Meet. Heather
Stevens continued her fine 2008 season with an 8th place
finish in this highly competitive field and Niamh
McCarthy had a truly breakthrough race, finishing 13th
overall. Niamh’s race was another great example of years
of hard work and dedication paying off in a big way.
Katie Kummerer placed 31st as our 4th runner and Lauren
Zumbach ran a solid race as our 5th scorer in 52nd
place. Grace Hucek and Hailey Krzyston rounded out the
varsity scoring in 56th and 70th places. Roey Hines is
still on the mend, but is making great strides in her
training and recovery. Times were virtually meaningless
on this messy day, and our girls competed well in the
sloppy conditions.
The Open Race is not team scored, but we always score
the meet anyway. We placed a close 2nd to Naperville
North in the huge field, 47-51, and Naperville Central
finished 3rd with 79 points. The Lady Devils swept the
top three places with Grace Klein (running her first 3
mile race), Graylin Harrison (running her first cross
country race) and Colleen Leahy (leading and pushing the
pace most of the way) leading the Red Devil charge.
Kelsey Chetosky and Victoria Glatz worked together
throughout the race to finish 22nd and 23rd and
Catherine Bruns and Lauren Emery were the 6th and 7th
scorers for the team. The Varsity Athlete of the Meet
was Niamh McCarthy and the Open winner was Colleen
Leahy.
Our regular season trip to Peoria is of great benefit
for a number of reasons. First off, we get a chance to
race on the State Meet course and reacquaint ourselves
with Detweiler Park and the surrounding area. It also
gives us an early season checkpoint on our progress.
Lastly, it gives us the chance to race against many of
the other top teams in the state and to simulate State
Meet conditions. We were happy with our first trip to
the Peoria Woodruff Invitational and thankful to the
meet organizers for a very well run meet. This coming
week we will travel to Schiller Woods to race OPRF in
our first conference dual meet. Come out and support the
Lady Devils! |
