Cross-Country Varsity Teams Place Second At LT Invitational

As nearly 1,300 high-school runners swarmed the fields behinds LTHS South Campus on Saturday morning and starting pistols sounded over the din of excited fan-chatter, one goal stood above all others for Lions runners and coaches: a victory plaque from their signature home meet.

Unfortunately, for the varsity teams, it didn't quite happen. LT varsity boys fell to second behind Sandburg High, which placed five racers in the top 12, while the Lions varsity girls couldn't overcome the power of Valparaiso High and its five top-11 runners.

That's still second out of 11 teams for the boys—respectable, right? Not respectable enough, said boys head coach Mike Danner. "We have a lot of work to do as far as getting mentally prepared for the races," Danner said after the meet.

And second of 10 teams for girls? Just passable, apparently. "[LT girls] were very excited; they went out way too fast," said girls head coach Julie Metz. "We have some things we need to work on in practice. They really need to go with our strategy. We've worked on pack running—we really didn't pack it up as much as we needed to."

Still, there were plenty of bright spots for LT on the mild, windy Saturday morning. Most notably, star runner Sam Telfer ran the flat, three-mile, three-loop course in 15:06.12 to claim first place in the boys varsity race, eking out Maine South rival Dave Eckhart (15:10.29) by four seconds. Fellow Lion Mike Kokoris added a top-10 finish, ending in ninth with 15:52.21.

"I wanted to get to the front 'cause I wanted to run fast, so I had to dictate the pace," said Telfer, who led the race from the starting gun and never trailed. "I knew I had to, that if I was going to go for under 15 [minutes] it'd have to be my doing. I didn't break 15, but I think I paced pretty well."

"I gotta get out faster, be up with Telfer a bit more," admitted Kokoris, who said he'd expected a better finish. "I gotta stay competitive through [the first] two miles, not just rely on my speed in the last mile."

The girls varsity race was taken by Katelyn Devries of Valparaiso High, in her second win of the year, running at 18:00.41, who said the flat course was easy, since she is used to training on hills. "I use turns to push myself [here] where I usually use hills," she said.

LT varsity girls top-10 finishers were Lisa Gordon (fourth, 18:53.94) and Alex Daemicke (seventh, 19:04.63.)

"It's the beginning of the season, so… every team is figuring it out right now," said Gordon of the meet. "We all trained super hard coming into the year, and we're all ahead of where we were at this point last year."

The LT girls JV team had major success as well, winning the first race of the day by placing a perfect score of 15—five racers in the top five spots. While a JV race has no limit on number of participants, and 2/5 of the JV runners were Lions, this was still an extremely impressive showing. (The JV boys placed only two runners in the top 10, and finished second behind Sandburg High.)

"We really talked to the JV [girls] about setting the tone for this meet, since they have the first race, not only for the girls but the boys and for the day," said coach Metz. "And I believe they really did that, coming out one-two-three-four-five."

Lions sophomore boys finished third behind Sandburg High and Maine South, and didn't place a single runner in the top 10; the girls did better, with Haley Prokaski winning the sophomore race and the team placing second (again behind Sandburg.)

Both freshmen team won their respective two mile races; the boys placed four top-10 runners, the girls placed five.

All top-10 finishers (award-winners) and the top three teams from each division are below:

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VARSITY BOYS

1. Sam Telfer, Lyons Township—15:06.12
2. Dave Eckhart, Maine South—15:10.29
3. Derek Hevel, Sandburg—15:32.19
4. Mike Tortorelli Sandburg—15:34.32
5. Dan Caddigan, Brother Rice*—15:37.87
6. Troy Cunningham, Conant—15:49.85
7. Jeff Lester, Downers Grove South—15:50.60
8. Jon-Carlo Vaccaro, Maine South—15:51.39
9. Mike Kokoris, Lyons Township—15:52.21
10. Pat Niyork, Willowbrook—15:53.19

1. Sandburg—40 (3-4-10-11-12)
2. Lyons Township—59 (1-8-14-16-20)
3. Maine South—82 (2-7-17-19-37)

*Caddigan scored no points as Brother Rice had too few varsity runners to compete.

JV BOYS

1. Tom Condreva, Brother Rice—16:26.28
2. Chris Pilipiszyn, Lyons Township—16:31.33
3. Scott Corsey, Brother Rice—16:43.02
4. Joe Slinkman, Lyons Township—16:48.75
5. Steve Sarver, Conant—16:48.75
6. Mike Von Borstel, Sandburg—16:55.69
7. Ryan Kelch, Downers Grove South—16:56.51
8. Danny DeWolf, Sandburg—17:07.08
9. Dominic Lifonti, Sandburg—17:08.70
10. Mark Oscai, Sandburg—17:13.82

1. Sandburg—44 (6, 8, 9, 10, 11)
2. Lyons Township—45 (2, 4, 12, 13, 14)
3. Brother Rice—79 (1, 3, 23, 25, 27)

SOPHOMORE BOYS

1. Pat McMahon, Sandburg—16:00.80
2. Pat Maguire, Brother Rice—16.06.80
3. Kevin Doaln, Maine South—16:45.40
4. Aaron Graves, Sandburg—16:51.50
5. Pat Letz, Sandburg—16:52.90
6. Ethan Dee, Sandburg—16:53.40
7. Michael Stefik, Sandburg—17:00.00
8. Matt Sawyers, Sandburg—17:04.30
9. Patrick Flinn, Maine South—17:05.50
10. Kevin Maigler, Maine South—17:11.30

1. Sandburg—23 (1, 4, 5, 6, 7)
2. Maine South—58 (3, 9, 10, 16, 20)
3. Lyons Township—82 (11, 14, 17, 19, 22)

FRESHMAN BOYS

(Note: Freshmen only ran two miles.)

1. Jack Carpenter, Maine South—10:30.33
2. Ed McCarter, Lyons Township—10:31.98
3. Kyle Haberkorn, Marist—11:09.68
4. Dominic Zona, Lyons Township—11:10.25
5. Will Unseth, Willowbrook—11:19.69
6. Luke Haberkorn, Marist—11:22.31
7. Nicholas Layden, Lyons Township—11:24.18
8. Daniel Lupano, Lyons Township—11:25.95
9. Jimmy Sweeney, Maine South—11:27.66
10. Terry Gruns, Stagg—11:30.29*

*Gruns scored no points as Stagg had too few freshman runners to compete.

1. Lyons Township—31 (2, 4, 7, 8, 10)
2. Maine South—65 (1, 9, 13, 19, 23)
3. Willowbrook—116 (5, 16, 20, 32, 43)

VARSITY GIRLS

1. Katelyn Devries, Valparaiso—18:00.41
2. Molly Krawczykowski, Willowbrook—18:23.57
3. Tiffany Fortney, Valparaiso—18:53.00
4. Lisa Gordon, Lyons Township—18:53.94
5. Erica Wirsing, Valparaiso—18:56.06
6. Dana Martin, Marist—19:03.41
7. Alex Daemicke, Lyons Township—19:04.63
8. Patricia Joll, Valparaiso—19:05.67
9. Maggie O'Loughlin, Marist—19:06.80
10. Kasey Zaremba, Lincoln Way East—19:09.87

1. Valparaiso—28 (1, 3, 5, 8, 11)
2. Lyons Township—56 (4, 7, 12, 15, 18)
3. Lincoln Way East—108 (10, 13, 21, 31, 33)

JV GIRLS

1. Anna Rogers, Lyons Township—20:07.24
2. Rugile Kaladyte, Lyons Township—20:17.24
3. Tess Saibert, Lyons Township—20:39.39
4. Loren Oboikovitz, Lyons Township—20:41.32
5. Kimberly Sipek, Lyons Township—20:44.17
6. Kelly Patton, Mother McAuley—21:00.34
7. Paige Oboikovitz, Lyons Township—21:06.75
8. Colleen Hogan, Sandburg—21:10.60
9. Nina Strolia, Sandburg—21:11.41
10. Emily Owens, Valparaiso—21:13.12

1. Lyons Township—15 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
2. Mother McAuley—76 (6, 11, 16, 21, 22)
3. Valparaiso—81 (10, 14, 18, 19, 20)

SOPHOMORE GIRLS

1. Haley Prokaski, Lyons Township—19:20.35
2. Amber Boyce, Sandburg—19:50.33
3. Jacquelyn Schirmacher, Sandburg—20:06.13
4. Maggie Sobolewski, Sandburg—20:13.04
5. Caylin Alex, Sandburg—20:28.09
6. Rachel Walsh, Lyons Township—20:40.47
7. Katelyn VanBuskirk, Marist—20:45.83
8. Kendal Grigoletti, Lincoln Way West—20:51.28
9. Nikki Jarrell, Lincoln Way East—20:56.67
10. Kelly Quattrocchi, Marist—21:03.11

1. Sandburg—31 (2, 3, 4, 5, 17)
2. Lyons Township—50 (1, 6, 13, 14, 16)
3. Mother McAuley—96 (11, 15, 18, 23, 29)

FRESHMAN GIRLS

(Note: Freshmen only ran two miles.)

1. Sarah Drew, Lyons Township—12:43.29
2. Dayna Larson, Lyons Township—12:56.17
3. Michaela Gazdich, Valparaiso—12:56.51
4. Linda Hucko, Lyons Township—13:19:47
5. Kendall Nepote, Lincoln Way East*—13:21.72
6. Anne Marie Leonard, Marist—13:27.21
7. Anna Conboy, Lincoln Way East*—13:28.40
8. Lexy Rudofski, Lyons Township—13:28.93
9. Brigid King, Lyons Township—13:33.89
10. Julie Yaeger, Marist—13:37.18

*Nepote and Conboy scored no points as Lincoln Way East had too few freshman runners to compete.

1. Lyons Township—20 (1, 2, 4, 6, 7)
2. Mother McAuley—67 (9, 12, 14, 15, 17)
3. Valparaiso—77 (3, 13, 16, 21, 24)