DGN story at York Invite

Sophomore Zayna Jan may be one of the younger regulars in the Downers Grove girls indoor track team’s varsity lineup, but she’s become used to it since last season.

“It’s really good because I don’t think I would push myself as much if I were on (junior varsity) or sophomore,” Jan said. “I wouldn’t feel as much pressure, but I think the pressure’s good from the varsity team to make you run faster for sure.”

Jan and her teammates finished with quite a performance at the six-team York Invitational Feb. 28. Junior Stephanie Urbancik and Meghan Bonfield, Jan and senior Barbara Armstrong won the 1,600-meter relay in a season-best time of 4:10.62 fully automatic time to beat second-place Lyons Township by 5.06 seconds.

Urbancik (2:21.22) and Bonfield (2:22.79) also finished 1-2 in the 800. As a team, the Trojans (89 points) finished second to LT (150) and five points ahead of third-place Prospect (84), followed by York (75), Hersey (58) and New Trier (35).

“I think we were really surprised by today’s performances because a lot of people got personal records,” Bonfield said. “It gives the team more confidence to show what we’re really made of and what we have for the future.”

The 1,600 relay’s winning time is within range of the indoor school record time of 4:08.14 with Armstrong at the 2011 Illinois Top Times Classic in Bloomington, the final meet of the indoor season.

Urbancik put the Trojans in command early with a 1:00.6 on the opening leg, her first sub-1:02 split on the relay this season, followed by Armstrong (1:02.0), Bonfield (1:02.6) and Jan (1:05.4).

“We were expecting just to run around where we have been, but then we saw that (4:10.62) and we were happy,” Urbancik said. “I think it’s good because nobody was near us really the whole race so when we have competition, I think we’ll do even better.”

Rebecca Ridderhoff is the one senior returnee from last year’s 1,600 relay state lineup, but Urbancik and Bonfield also return and are veterans of the all-state sixth-place 3,200 relay as well. As a freshman, Urbancik helped the 3,200 relay win the 2010 Class 3A state title.

“I used to be scared running (on varsity as a freshman). Now that I’ve gotten to know them, it was a lot better. They’re really great,” Jan said. “If you ever have a bad time, they’ll never be hard on you or anything. They’ll just tell you that you can only get better. They just tell you, ‘Run with us, just try to stay with us,’ and that used to always keep me up. Even in cross country, Stephanie would always be next to me and she’d always be like, ‘Come on.’ “

Urbancik and Bonfield set the tone for a great invite with their 1-2 finish in a strong 800 field that included Prospect’s seniors Lauren Poplawski and Brooke Wolfe and LT’s Kate Heinz.

At last year’s state meet, Poplawski and Wolfe were part of the Knights’ third-place all-state 3,200 relay, Poplawski also was an all-state sixth in the 800 at state last year (2:13.17) and Wolfe qualified in the 1,600. Heinz was part of the LT’s 12th-place 3,200 relay and state-qualifying 1,600 relay.

At the invite, Bonfield held off Wolfe by .59 for second with Heinz (2:29.85) and Poplawski (2:30.10) fourth and fifth.

“We were a little bit intimidated going in because Prospect had two really good girls. We just made sure to get out hard, and we both felt good the whole race,” Urbancik said.

The 800 relay of Rachel Schuetz, Sophie Temple-Wood, Armstrong and Mary Rounce (1:52.16) finished second to LT by .47. Taking third were Grace Maletich (11:47.60) in a strong 3,200, Jessica Ridderhoff (16-1 in long jump), Schuetz (200 in 28.40) and the 3,200 relay (Kaitlyn Bonfield, Jan, Michaela Nicholson, Alana Osterling in 10:03.47).

Rebecca Ridderhoff was fourth in the 55 hurdles (9.65) and the 400 (1:04.93) and Armstrong (300 in 45.89) and Schuetz (45.93) were fourth and fifth in the 300. Rounce (200 in 28.49) and Kaitlyn Bonfield (1,600 in 5:29.77) also were fourth, Evangeline Tuohy (31-7) and Megan Sybeldon (30-10 1/4) were fifth and sixth in triple jump and Alize Chester (31-2 1/2 in shot), Grace Marek (4-6 in high jump), Temple-Wood (15-0 in long jump) and Rounce (8.02 in 55) were sixth.

The sophomores, who finished fourth (54 points), received victories from high jumper Peyton Winters (4-8) on a tiebreaker for fewer misses and the 3,200 relay of Rachel Krusenoski, Fiona Kelly, Jenna Murphy and Maci Schaub (10:25.90).

”I don’t think all of us ran together as a unit before but we’re all pretty good friends and we’ve all ran races at least once with each other,” Kelly said. “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we just know how to race.”

Krusenoski and Murphy are sophomores and Kelly and Schaub freshmen. The 3,200 relay, which beat LT by 4.09 seconds, got an early boost from Krusenoski opening with a team-best 2:34.6 split.

“It’s good for our beginning of our season but we wish to improve, of course, get that time down a lot. We’re excited for outdoors to get our time down a lot,” Krusenoski said.

”We’ve been training really hard for our (3,200 relay). We’ve done a lot of speed training and a lot of endurance training to get ready for that (3,200 relay) because it is a really fast race.”

Megan Scantlen was third in long jump (13-9) and sixth in triple jump (28-9), Schaub (1:09.34) and Giselle Downs (1:15.38) finished third and fifth in the 400. The 800 relay (Hannah Henry, Angela Budach, Aysia James, Mercedes Gonzalez in 2:00.65) and 1,600 relay (Henry, Arianna Calleja, James, Shannon Koegel in 4:41.86) both finished third. Henry was fourth in the 300 (46.95) and Alexandra Hohnsen (800 in 2:44.8) and Budach (200 in 31.04) were sixth.

Kelly and Krusenoski came back to run in the 1,600 and Kelly placed sixth (5:47.51).

”I’ve been fighting an injury lately with my arch in my left foot so it was really more the fact that I could do two races in one meet,” Krusenoski said. “I definitely finished and that was good. It wasn’t my best time but I’m looking to improve on that.”

Downers North finished behind LT (178), New Trier (103) and Prospect (80) and ahead of York (50) and Hersey (28).

Krusenoski competed with the varsity in track last year, running a 5:23 in the 1,600, and has been on the varsity cross country the past two falls. She is hoping that new orthodics will help overcome her tendency to pronate when she runs. Another year of high-school track experience also should help.

”I think one of the best things about this year is we’re really focusing on core training and cross training and making sure everything’s really strong to prevent injuries. The program and (Downers North head coach Tim McDonald) is doing a really good job of making sure that we strengthen everything,” Krusenoski said.

”I think that all of the training and work ethic I’ve learned (from last year has helped). I remember freshman year I used to get so worried for races and I was just meeting everyone (on the team). I think the team really gives you a lot of strength and almost confidence to do well in your races.”

Kelly is among this year’s lineup of talented freshmen. She competed in track as a fifth- and sixth-grader at St. Joseph School but didn’t at Herrick Middle School.

“My dad and brother are both runners so it’s kind of a family thing. They kind of pushed me and they’re like. ‘Oh, you’re good at this so why don’t you just try it?’ And I did summer running (with the program),” Kelly said.

”We’ve been practicing really hard so it kind shows that practice pays off in the long run with our win in the (3,200 relay). It’s been going pretty well (for me), but I’ve been practicing really hard also. Kind of the two just work together. It’s like icing on the cake to practice really hard and then win.”