Sports
Fisher Sets Course Record in York Girls Cross Country Victory
Emma Fisher, one of four returnees from the York girls cross country team's 2010 state lineup, ran a record time at East End Park as the Dukes defeated Lyons Township Thursday.
Junior Emma Fisher simply was supposed to place as well as she could for the state-ranked York girls cross country team in Thursday’s home dual against state-ranked Lyons Township.
“I said to her, ‘All you have to do is help your team win,’ ” York coach Annette Schulte said.
Fisher and her teammates did even better.
Fisher shattered the home course record to take first place and the Dukes placed four runners in the top eight to edge LT 27-29 and defeat Hinsdale Central 19-42 in West Suburban Conference Silver Division dual action at East End Park.
Fisher, who covered the 2.83 miles in 16:05, easily beat the previous course record of 16:29.4 set by Hinsdale Central’s Elaine Kuckertz in winning the 2007 WSC Silver Meet. Second-place Hinsdale Central junior Jill Hardies (16:13) also easily beat the previous best.
York senior Kayla Spencer (16:54) was an important third place, seniors Shari Lund (17:33) and Michelle Frigo (17:38) were seventh and eighth and senior Lizzy Field (18:08) used a strong kick to take 12th. The Dukes’ other finishers were sophomore Allison Smith (14th,18:10), seniors Caroline Hogan (15th, 18:12) and Ellie Skiles (17th, 18:47) and junior Kristen O’Malley (18th, 18:48).
York and Fisher opened the season Sept. 3 with victories at St. Charles East’s Leavey Invitational. The Dukes entered Thursday’s race ranked No. 4 in Class 3A by DyeStat Illinois with LT No. 21.
“(Fisher) looked good,” Schulte said. “She ran 17:22 at St. Charles. And that’s got hills and (our course is) flat and short. It’s about a minute shorter race. I told the girls, ‘This is the shortest race you’re going to run all year, you better make the most of it.’
“(I told Fisher beforehand), ‘Whatever call you want to make on how you race today is up to you, but the team to beat is LT.’ But I will tell you that (Hinsdale Central coach Mark McCabe) wanted to know what our course record was.”
Fisher, Spencer, Frigo and Lund return from last year’s state lineup that placed 12th (282 points), 22 points behind 10th-place Downers Grove North. Fisher was a team-best, all-state 24th and Spencer (51st), Frigo (109th) and Lund (126th) were the Dukes’ No. 2-4-5 finishers.
Before going after a fourth consecutive team trip to the 3A state meet and 21st state appearance in the last 22 seasons, the Dukes are trying to earn their third straight outright Silver title, a 50-50 combination of dual and Silver Meet standings.
Although the Dukes will see LT, No. 5 Lake Park and No. 7 Glenbard West among others Saturday at Detweiller Park, annual site of the state meet, for the Peoria Notre Dame Invite, Thursday’s result was more important to them.
“You’ve got to take care at conference at home first. Then the other races are good experience but they’re not the points (toward a Silver title),” Schulte said. “We’ve got great teams in our conference: Glenbard West, LT, Downers North. That’s good because that keeps (our athletes) sharp. You can’t be afraid of competition, and these girls aren’t. They’re really good, and good to coach.”
Fisher earned all-state honors last season with a top-25 state finish and missed all-state track honors in May by one place with a 10th-place finish in the 3,200-meter run. Hardies took second at state cross country last year but has been battling shin splints that have kept her from competing or finishing the Red Devils’ first two meets.
As impressive as Fisher was, arguably Spencer’s best race in a dual might have been the real difference. The Lions’ top-five finishers were 4-5-6-9-10 and they would have won a sixth-place tiebreaker with the Dukes since that finisher (11th) beat York’s fifth finisher.
“(Spencer) had to beat (LT’s Lisa Gordon, 6th place) and then those other two (LT) girls came up,” Schulte said. “Michelle, Kayla, Shari and Emma run four abreast every day in practice. On any given day, (one of them) will be ahead.”
The Dukes’ key now is finding a strong No. 5 team finisher. Sophomore Alyssa Adam had York’s fifth-fastest course time Thursday (18:06) to take second in the frosh-soph race. Other varsity candidates include senior Kailee Sweeney and junior Katherine Schlemmel, second and third in the junior varsity race, and York’s No. 2-6 finishers in the frosh-soph race, sophomores Kathryn Hagstrom and Caitlin Blum, and freshmen Dayle Mueller, Nicole Krammer and Madeline Fabry.
The Dukes’ split between their second and fifth-fastest races Thursday was 1:12. Schulte said if that split could be reduced to 30 seconds, the Dukes will become very competitive.
“We just need somebody (else) who can run mid-to-low 18:00s. We’re 30 or 40 seconds off with our fifth girl, but we’ve had enough girls that are running low 19:00s that maybe they can all push each other,” Schulte said. “And we’ve got a great group of freshman girls who have never really done more than 3.0 miles at a pop in workouts. Give them a month or two and you never know.”
At the Leavey Invite, York (86 points) won over No. 9 Barrington (93), No . 12 St. Charles East (121), No. 14 St. Charles North (144) and No. 24 Benet Academy (152).
Fisher (17:22.3) won by 7.1 seconds over St. Charles East senior Mallory Abel. Spencer (8th, 18:10.2) and Lund (9th, 18:24.2) also finished in the top 10, followed by Frigo (21st, 18:50.7), O’Malley (47th, 19:50.5), Hogan (60th, 20:06.2) and Skiles (62nd, 20:10.1).
Spencer, Lund and Frigo have run at state the past three seasons, and Field was part of the 2009 state lineup. O’Malley and Smith were 2010 state team alternates.
Spencer, Lund, Frigo, Hogan, senior Annie Hart and junior Alina Acosta are team captains for this year’s program of roughly 100 runners.
“Getting back to state as a team is an assumed goal,” Schulte said. “I’d like to see my seniors just have their best race ever at state. I’d like to see them all walk away with a smile on their face and feel like all of the mornings they came in and evenings they stayed late and all of the extra stuff that they did paid off.”
