Daily Archives: October 31, 2012

Hinsdale South survives R-B scare

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Hinsdale South rallies to beat Riverside-Brookfield

BY Michael Wojtychiw                                                                                  October 25, 2012

Coming into the postseason, Hinsdale South was looking to forget about last season’s early exit in the regional final. The Hornets avoided the same result of last season with a late come-from-behind 25-27, 25-10, 25-23 victory in the Class 4A Argo Regional final.

With Hinsdale South leading 24-21 in Game 1, Riverside-Brookfield scored six of the next seven points to take the game 27-25. The Bulldogs forced Hinsdale South (30-7) into three errors in that final run before Emma Schander finished the set with a kill.

“We just need to put our head in the game,’’ Hinsdale South’s Colleen Lyons said. “We let that get away from us. We need to be better mentally.’’

The Hornets used a 14-2 run to break Game 2 wide open. Lyons had three kills in the run, while Rachel Kent, Jessica Brezwyn and Jackie Adelphia each had two.

Game 3 was a back-and-forth affair until two controversial calls gave the Hornets a six-point lead, but the Bulldogs came back from a 22-16 deficit to take a 23-22 lead. The Hornets regained their composure this time, however, by creating a Riverside-Brookfield error and then Adelphia putting away the game winner.

Brezwyn had a match-high 19 kills, while Lyons added 14. Allie Shumowsky had seven kills for the Bulldogs (25-12).

Link to story: http://bit.ly/RuMTlE

Elmwood Park makes history

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Wojcik at home winning regional

BY MICHAEL WOJTYCHIW                                                                   October 25, 2012

 

ELMWOOD PARK — For years, the cross country teams at Elmwood Park always had wanted to do what other schools had the chance to: the opportunity to host a postseason meet.

On Saturday that opportunity finally arose and the Tigers took full advantage, as the boys won the Class 2A regional meet and the girls finished third.

“Winning while hosting was fantastic,” Elmwood Park coach John Kingsmill said. “Because it was essentially a home meet, a lot of parents were able to attend, as were alumni. It was a community effort to make this happen.”

In previous years, Kingsmill said they had not been able to host for reasons such as lack of support staff and location, amongst other reasons. But this year that all changed. When the IHSA threatened to cancel the regional because nobody stepped up to host, Elmwood Park got the event it always had wanted.

“It was great because right after that was decided, both Lake View and St. Patrick both came to us and helped us with getting all the tags and pinning them to all the runners,” Kingsmill said.

For junior captain Juan Amadore, it meant a little more though.

“It was a great privilege,” he said. “It’s always great to race in front of your fans, it gives you a bigger drive. We know the course and that helped a long ways in winning,

“We have to give it up for coach. Because of him all these people (alumni, parents, neighbors) came out. They all love him and would do anything for him. It really wasn’t a shock so many people came.”

What made the win more sweet for the boys was that their squad does not feature any seniors.

“Normally you want to go with the experienced ones, because they’ve developed physically and are at peak shape,” Kingsmill said. “This year, the strength of the boys team is our youth.”

Amadore, who has been in the program for three years but is in his first year on the varsity, was honored when he was named a captain by Kingsmill earlier this season.

“I always try to encourage them and tell them the be ready for the race,” Amadore said. “It’s a big responsibility to represent the school and we always need to be mentally ready.”

The Tigers will have to be mentally ready when they compete for the sectional crown Saturday. One of their opponents will be Jones Prep of the Chicago Public League. Jones, a small school in the South Loop, is ranked No. 16 in the country and the top 2A school in the state.

“We’ve already made a listing of who the runners are going to be, how they’ve done against each other in previous meets and who they have to watch for next weekend,” Kingsmill said.

The Tigers boys team had three runners finish in the top five, including Ricky Wojcik, who won with a time of 16 minutes, 12 seconds. Rocco Lepore (16:49) and Lucas Kieffer (16:56) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

The girls team grabbed third behind Resurrection and Trinity. Bridget Ziegler finished second in 19:38, just three seconds behind champion Elizabeth Molina of Lake View. Kelly Scanlon’s time of 20:08 gave her a fifth-place finish.

Link to story: http://bit.ly/Ttksqe

Leyden freshmen twins succeeding at varsity level

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Szelazek twins fit in as freshmen

BY MICHAEL WOJTYCHIW                                                             October 25, 2012

CHICAGO — For most high school athletes, the goal is to be good enough to make varsity.

But to make varsity with your twin? Not many things better than that.

That’s the case for twins Mati and Misia Szelazek, freshmen cross country runners at Leyden this fall.

“It’s fun having him there,’’ said Misia. “He’s always supportive of me in my events. He’s competitive, but that’s what keeps me going.’’

For some freshmen, the pressure of making varsity in the first year can be too much to bear and might be a struggle to handle it. It was different for the Szelazeks, however. Misia was on the girls varsity team from the first day of the season, while Mati was elevated to the boys varsity for the first home meet, against Downers South on Sept. 10.

“The coaches put me in the meet because another runner was absent and I have been running on varsity since then,’’ said Mati. “I did feel pressure because I was just thrown in there.’’

Both seem to put pressure on themselves, though. Whether it be Mati feeling he let his team down because his time, as the sixth runner, couldn’t break the tie with Elmwood Park and give the Lions a win. Or it’s Misia feeling the expectations of having to succeed as the only freshman on the roster from the start of the season.

It wasn’t always that way though. Both Szelazeks started running cross country in fifth grade. At first they didn’t enjoy much success, which Misia admits now led to some tears. But it didn’t keep them from becoming their best.

“We always loved running and we were good at most other sports, so we knew if we worked at it, we could make it this far,” Misia said. “Going to the Leyden camps since fifth grade helped too. The people knew us here, we knew the coaches already, so it wasn’t as hard of a transition.’’

While Mati agrees with his sister, he’s also found another thing that has helped ease the transition: his teammates.

“The older members are more calm and composed so I don’t feel rushed,” he said. “They’re there to cheer you on. ‘Good job’ is the best advice you can get from anybody.’’

The Szelazeks and the rest of the Eagles will run at the Niles West sectional on Saturday.

Link to story: http://bit.ly/Su2unK

Local individuals advance to state

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Trinity, Elmwood Park individuals qualify for state

BY MICHAEL WOJTYCHIW                                                                       October 28, 2012

BENSENVILLE — A week after scoring a perfect 15 in the regional, the St. Viator girls cross country team was out to prove it wasn’t a fluke.

The Lions did just that Saturday as they won the Class 2A Fenton Sectional title with a meet-low 22 points. Jones was the team runner-up with 58 points.

St. Viator senior Hanna Winter set a course and Fenton Sectional record, finishing in 18 minutes, 6.04 seconds, which was nearly 11.5 seconds faster than her teammate and runner-up Meghan Carroll (18:17.63). Julia Heller (Jones, 19:15.58), Sarah Curci (U-High, 19:33.56) and Shannon Cooney (St. Viator (19:41.81) rounded out the top five.

“I really wasn’t expecting this. I was just hoping to run well,’’ Winter said. “I didn’t run as well as I had hoped last week, so it was good to get this. I had no idea about the record until everybody started yelling it at the end. That’s pretty cool.”

Mather (85 points), U-High (174 points) and Fenton (180 points) rounded out the top five teams and qualified for the state meet.

Dominique LoVerde (St. Viator, 19:53.28), Jennifer Geary (Jones, 19:59.31), Katie Malek (St. Viator, 20:02.06), Julia Muller (Jones, 20:02.57) and Daisy Mora (Jones, 20:04.32) also finished in the top 10.

Trinity finished the meet in sixth place with 184 points, missing out of the team’s first trip to state by four points. The Blazers, however, will send two runners, Emily Doyle (20:25.02, 14th place) and Erin Nelson (20:58.08, 24th place) to the state meet on Nov. 3. Both runners are freshmen and they will be the first two Trinity runners to ever compete in the cross country state meet.

Elmwood Park finished one spot behind Trinity with 200 points. Senior Bre Ziegler, who finished in 15th place with a time of 20:27.59, will be the lone Elmwood Park representative at state.

Link to story: http://bit.ly/TVrBBU

Foreman wins conference title

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Foreman beats Taft, clinches Big Shoulders crown

By MICHAEL WOJTYCHIW                                                                                   10/18/2012

Foreman got all it needed on a quarterback option keeper in the second quarter, as it held on to defeat Taft 7-6 and clinch the Big Shoulders title Thursday at Hanson Stadium.  The conference title marks the first for the Hornets since 2008.

After a sloppy first quarter that saw interceptions on back-to-back plays and a third turnover just two plays later, the Hornets (7-1, 6-0) were able to get momentum off of a recovered Taft fumble. On a third-and-6 play, Foreman quarterback Perrin Groves kept the ball instead of optioning it to his running back and ran 64 yards down the left side to give the Hornets a 7-0 lead at halftime.

“The blocking by the team was really good,’’ Groves said. “They did all the work, I just ran for the score.’’

Midway through the third quarter the Eagles (7-1, 5-1) had first-and-goal from the Foreman 3-yard line, but a sack and two incomplete passes ruined any chance they had to score.

On the next possession for Taft, Javier Chavez’s five-yard run capped a 15-play drive that cut the deficit to 7-6. The Eagles would try a two-point conversion and fail. Chavez finished with 18 carries for 98 yards.

“We played through some adversity with the wind, high snaps, the rain,’’ Foreman coach Peter Grazzini said. “We tried to simulate that in practice but you can never do it like the real thing.’’

Dione Kidd led Foreman with 45 yards rushing on 18 carries.

The conference title clinches a playoff berth for Foreman, its second in a row. Taft now awaits its fate as its playoff bid depends on the Steinmetz result against Amundsen on Friday. If Steinmetz wins and doesn’t allow any points, the Silver Streaks will make the playoffs. A loss or win in which Amundsen scores any points sends Taft back to the state playoffs.

Link to story: http://bit.ly/Q5tZEO