STORY: DGN at Fenton Earlybird Invite (varsity)

Junior frontrunner Emma Moravec is back for the Downers Grove North girls cross country team with high goals following a great track season.
She also is excited about what’s returning for the Trojans from their 2014 Class 3A state-qualifying lineup.
“Six of our top seven are back so we’re all really close,” said Moravec, who in May was second at state track in the 800-meter run and part of the fourth-place all-state 3,200 relay with senior Kaitlyn Bonfield.
“I’m going for all-state (top 25 at the Nov. 7 state meet). When you’re at state and to do so well, it feels so good and you want to do it again. We’ll just use (track) to motivate us.”
The Trojans have a lot to prove after their 22nd-place team finish among 25 qualifiers was far from their expectations and how they ran throughout the season and at the Marist Sectional, where they were a strong third.
Although the team would have liked to have run better at their first major invitational Sept. 5 at Fenton’s John Kurtz Earlybird Invite, the focus this season is to perform at their best throughout the postseason.
The Trojans finished fifth of 23 full teams at Fenton (146 points) behind Glenbrook South (96), Downers Grove South (99), Vernon Hills (108) and West Suburban Conference Silver Division rival Oak Park-River Forest (138).
Last year, Downers North won the invite team title with 61 points.
“Overall, I said to them, ‘Hey that’s where we’re starting. (But) no one really cares what you did at the Fenton Invite come the end of the year,’ ” Downers North coach Tim McDonald said. “This group, I like their spirit. I like their energy. They kind of now know where they’re at and I think their focus will be really, really good moving forward.”
Moravec was fourth on the 3.0-mile course (18:33.7). Senior Grace Maletich was 17th (19:24.7) and senior Angela Budach (19:47.2) and junior Gina Kowalewicz (41st, 20:07.5) also finished among the top 50, followed by junior Zoe Covey (54th, 20:16.7) and sophomores Grace Puc (59th, 20:24.1) and Claire Kovarik (63rd, 20:27.4).
This was the Trojans’ third meet this season following the season-opening EIU Showdown Aug. 26 at Greene Valley Forest Preserve and Silver triangular meet with Oak Park-River Forest and host York Sept. 1 in Elmhurst. This season, for the first time, Silver dual results are not counted toward determining the final overall Silver standings.
At the 2014 state meet, Maletich was 110th (18:16) with Moravec, usually the team’s top finisher, close behind in 124th (18:24). Bonfield (156th, 18:46), Budach (158th, 18:48) and Johnson (160th, 18:50) were four seconds apart as the team’s No. 3-4-5 finishers and Covey was its No. 6 finisher in 173rd (19:08).
Johnson has not competed this season after being hampered by injuries since track. Bonfield ran at the EIU Showdown but has since sat out of meets and several practices to be proactive about healing sore shins.
“They weren’t getting better and we don’t this tremendous amount of depth where we can afford to lose her,” McDonald said. “She could have run all week. I just don’t want shin pain to become shin problems.”
Moravec would have liked to do better Saturday after finishing third at the invite in 2014 in a similar time of 18:33.0. The only runners to beat her Saturday were Prospect junior Brooke Wilson (17:27.1), Elk Grove junior Emily Stegmeier (18:02.7) and Vernon Hills senior Vivian Overbeck (18:13.7).
Wilson, second at the 2014 invite (18:22.1) went on to be an all-state 24th and second in the 3,200 and sixth in the 1,600 at the state track meet.
McDonald said one reason for Moravec’s time Saturday was not getting enough sleep as she gets used to her new class schedule in the often-tough junior year.
One additional challenge in the race for Moravec was that she ended up 20 seconds behind Overbeck and also 5.3 seconds ahead of fifth-place Conant junior Sydney Davis (18:39.7), the only other runner to break 18:44.
“I think I could have done better, but it was a good start for a first invite,” Moravec said.
“There wasn’t really anyone near me in front or behind so just mentally staying in the race and not just letting it go. I think (the race) went pretty well. I think if there had been someone with me I maybe could have sprinted faster at the end but overall it was fine.”
Collectively, the Trojans went out well but then found themselves in a tough spot going into the final mile. In retrospect, McDonald said the team had a hard practice Thursday, which may have been exacerbated by hot and humid conditions – and racing in those kind of conditions that Tuesday at LT.
“We looked a little flat (overall Saturday) so from the standpoint of coaching you look at what we did and we did some sprints Thursday that we probably shouldn’t do that close to a meet,” McDonald said.
“We kind of had a collective team second-mile letdown (Saturday). Almost across the board, every kid was faster in the third mile than their second mile.”
There still were several encouraging races, particularly from the lineup’s varsity newcomers. Kowalewicz and Covey improved from last year’s junior varsity race at the invite, when they finished 27th (21:20.6) and 13th (20:37.8), respectively.
For Kowalewicz, that was a 1:13 improvement and 21 seconds for Covey.

“I thought Gina ran very, very well. She’s certainly been kind of a bright spot for us. “(Puc and Kovarik) kind of were calm, they went after it, they did exactly what they were capable of doing,” McDonald said.
“We have four (currently running) that have a proven track record and we’ve got to find that fifth kid that can kind of close the door quickly and between Gina and Grace and Claire, those kids are right there.”
At her 2014 Kurtz Invite, Puc was 46th in the JV race (22:58.4) – a 2:34 difference from Saturday.
Puc said she was informed she would be joining the varsity before and after the race at York.
“Yeah, I was really nervous. I saw myself down the line running varsity, but I didn’t expect it to come this quickly,” Puc said. “I felt like I was not ready but after I felt pretty good about it.”
Puc said she was calmed by having Kovarik also in the race and McDonald discussing with them at practice Friday the course layout and what he expected them to do.
Throughout the race, Puc was ahead of Kovarik but they always maintained a close distance. By the end of the race, Puc saw herself closing on Covey.
“I feel like since I was so nervous for the first one now I’ve got the nerves over with. Now I’m a little used to it and I can prepare a little better and focus on running faster and faster each race,” Puc said.
“(McDonald) told me I should have been a little further up, but I think that maybe we both kind of over anticipated where I would have been. I think we were happy with the race at the end.”

35th annual Fenton John Kurtz Earlybird Invitational
Saturday, Sept. 5

Varsity girls
Top six teams: 1. Glenbrook South 96, 2. Downers Grove South 99, 3. Vernon Hills 108, 4. Oak Park-River Forest 138, 5. DOWNERS GROVE NORTH 146, 6. Prospect 188
Downers North finishers: 4. Emma Moravec 18:33.7, 17. Grace Maletich 19:24.7, 30. Angela Budach 19:47.2, 41. Gina Kowalewicz 20:07.5, 54. Zoe Covey 20:16.7, 59. Grace Puc 20:24.1, 63. Claire Kovarik 20:27.4

Frosh-soph girls
Top five teams: 1. Prospect 34, 2. Downers Grove South 66, 3. Rockton Hononegah 102, 4. Oak Park-River Forest 112, 5. Glenbard East 148, 11. DOWNERS GROVE NORTH 256
Downers North top-seven finishers: 38. Katie Cantlin 21:57.8, 50. Madison Venckus 22.28.0, 60. Emma Panico 22:49.9, 64. Annie Panico 22:58.8, 72. Kristina Barsketis 23:08.8, 92. Lindsay Pluister 23:58.3, 101. Maggie Langland 24:13.6

Open girls
No team scores
Downers North top-eight finishers: 11. Fiona Kelly 21:41.3, 14. Hannah Thomas 21:50.4, 17. Maci Schaub 22:04.8, 20. Meghan Kelly 22:17.3, 21. Mary Laffey 22:19.3, 22. Emma Rotz 22:24.7, 40. Brigid Miller 23:15.8, 54. Arianna Calleja 23:40.5

Complete Earlybird Invitational girls and boys race results at this link: http://racingexpectations.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Fenton-35th-Earlybird-Invitational-Results-Packet-09-05-2015.pdf