STORY: DGN at Palatine Invitational (varsity)

In her last race at the Palatine Invitational, Downers Grove North senior Grace Maletich finally left with a good feeling Saturday, Sept. 26.
The annual trip to Deer Grove East Forest Preserve generally has been a rough one for her and the Trojans in recent years, but they were determined that things would be different this time.
“I feel like in years past this course has kind of been in our heads and just that it’s super hard and we’ve never raced here,” Maletich said. “I feel like now we’ve tried to get out of that (mindset) and I think that worked today. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than it’s been.”
The Trojans were 16th (398 points) with a depleted lineup and against a strong field that included nine top-25 ranked Class 3A or 2A teams by DyeStatIL and four out-of-state teams from Kentucky and Alabama.
Junior Emma Moravec was 37th (18:32.4 for 3.0 miles) and Maletich (49th, 18:43.4) finished among the top 50, followed by seniors Kaitlyn Bonfield (84th, 19:22.1) and Angela Budach (112th, 19:52.5), junior Zoe Covey (121st, 20:06.1), sophomore Claire Kovarik (140th, 20:22.6) and junior Gina Kowalewicz (155th, 20:40.9).
At the invite in 2014, Maletich was the team’s No. 3 finisher in 59th (19:06), 23 seconds slower than Saturday.
“Individually, it was probably the best race that I’ve had this season,” Maletich said. “It was a slower start to the season than I would have liked personally, but it’s slowly getting there. Each week has been a drop in time. Today was pretty good. I’m happy with it.”
Using a new training strategy this season, the Trojans collectively didn’t run as well in Peoria at the Richard Spring Invite Sept. 19 as in 2014, but they continue to see progress.
Saturday was far from perfect but the overall mood certainly was better than last year, even though the team finished eighth (282 points). Last year’s team ran great at the Richard Spring Invite, perhaps its best race of the season, but struggled to replicate that synergy the rest of the way. At the same point this year, the team feels itself steadily improving.
“It was better than (2014). Better than years past, definitely. Definitely,” Maletich said of the Palatine Invite.
“Teamwise, (Peoria) was a step forward for us but today I felt was kind of like a step backward. It wasn’t horrible, but I don’t think everybody did what they were capable of.”
Moravec, Maletich and Bonfield ran in last year’s varsity race. Moravec also ran faster Saturday. Bonfield was 24 seconds slower but has been working her way back from cross training to prevent her recurring shin splints from escalating.
“Overall, I thought the race was kind of the same. Nothing tremendously different from last week (at the Richard Spring Invite),” Downers North coach Tim McDonald said. “We just have to keep grinding and put ourselves in a position to have a strong end to our season.”
Moravec saw benefits from a new strategy by trying to get out with the leaders at the outset. She was 13th at the mile in 5:39.
Her finishing time was 4.2 seconds from 30th place for the last individual medal. It also was about 14 seconds better than her team-best 18:46 for 41st at the 2014 invite.
While Moravec said she wasn’t thrilled with her overall time, she plans on trying the same strategy at the St. Charles North Invitational Oct. 3.
“I really wanted to start the race and go out with the front group and hold on for as long as I could. And I accomplished that, I think,” Moravec said.
“I definitely think that it was a good learning experience. I think that going out in front is what I need to do if I’m going to improve my time and get where I want to go.”
Experience has been a double-edged sword for Covey this season. 2014 marked her cross country debut and she continued to improve dramatically each week as she gained confidence and racing savvy.
In 2014, Covey was fourth in the Palatine Invite’s frosh-soph race, but that was only 2.5 miles. This season, she has higher expectations and is refining and tweaking her strategy to achieve her best.
Covey usually goes out hard, as she did Saturday, but she went out perhaps too hard to keep up with girls that she usually paces off early.
“My first mile was probably faster than it should have been but I think I was also trying to be aggressive this race and assert where I needed to be,” Covey said.
Earlier in the season she was having trouble finishing strong. Peoria gave her confidence in that regard and she built upon that Saturday.
“I think I probably should have kicked faster and earlier but I’m pretty happy that I didn’t let anyone pass me in the finishing chute because that happened to me last year and I was pretty upset about it,” Covey said.
“I do think I’m more confident (this season). It’s hard because I’m not new to the sport anymore so I don’t improve quite as fast. I almost know too much. I’m not as ignorant about it. Now I think I know what I can do versus not knowing that I can do something so I just kind of do it.”
A four-year varsity runner, Maletich has been gaining confidence as well. This season’s different schedule of workouts has translated in a different arc of improvement.
That was hard to accept at the outset, when finishes weren’t as fast as 2014 but races like Saturday have helped Maletich and her teammates see that they’re headed in the right direction.
“Mentally, it’s a little harder because in years past I’ve been used to running faster at certain meets (like Peoria) so it’s harder to compare times to years past and see how much slower it is,” Maletich said.
“But whereas other years it’s kind of leveled off at this point and kind of stayed at the same point, not it’s dropping every meet so that’s kind of nice, too. It’s just been different.”
Maletich also should benefit as Bonfield and Budach continue improving and able to run near her in races. Budach has been battling tendinitis and iron issues in her blood.