STORY: DGN at St. Charles North Invite (varsity)

Downers Grove North junior Zoe Covey has been working on stronger finishes to her cross country races.
With a different strategy from her coaches for the St. Charles North Invitational Saturday, Oct. 5, Covey crossed the finish line right behind junior teammate Gina Kowalewicz at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve.
“I think it worked out pretty well. We passed a couple of people together, which was really nice,” Covey said.
“It was really nice, kind of, to always kind of have a focal point to look at. If you do your job, they’re always going to be there for you to kind of rely on. Gina’s running. I’m running. You have to stay together and do our job.”
With some pack running, the Trojans enjoyed their best team performance of the season to finish sixth behind four state-ranked teams.
Junior Emma Moravec (18:45.8) and senior Grace Maletich (18:53.5) were 15th and 18th on this year’s new 3.0-mile course to earn top-25 medals.
Senior Kaitlyn Bonfield was 29th (19:28.1), followed by Kowalewicz (19:56.6) and Covey (19:56.8) in 50th and 51st, sophomore Claire Kovarik (86th, 20:50.5) and senior Fiona Kelly (94th, 21:09.4).
“I was very happy. I hope the girls are excited,” Downers North coach Tim McDonald said. “Five under 20:00 – I felt a lot better about that race. We’ll have to get a little faster but I thought, as a team, that was probably the best race we’ve had in a while in terms of all five kids kind of operating in a way that they were competitive.”
The Trojans (163 points) were 13 points behind fifth-place Metea Valley (150).
Batavia, ranked No. 3 in Class 3A by DyeStat Illinois, won with 69 points, followed by No. 5 Lyons Township (99), No. 14 Hinsdale Central (129) and No. 13 Geneva (137).
The pre-race plan was for Covey and Kowalewicz and Moravec and Maletich to run in pairs. The challenge was to maintain it through some tough terrain after a fairly smooth first mile along the open part of the preserve. No part of the course was re-used.
“I think we all braved through it and got out in one piece,” Kowalewicz said.
“The beginning didn’t feel as bad but after the mile, just the hills were so bad. And the rocks were kind of rough in the forest. It’s very, very rough. There’s rocks and mud and stuff like that, weird conditions.”
“It was really cross country,” Moravec said.
Maletich was to set the pace for the first mile before Moravec took over as the team’s frontrunner as usual.
At one mile, they were side by side in 16th and 17th place in 5:58.
“Grace stayed with me. I think we really pushed each other and it worked out well in the end,” Moravec said.
“I feel like that really helped because I think I have a better first mile,” Maletich said. “It was nice to have someone else with me the second mile to kind of work off of, and I think the same thing for Zoe and Gina. We all have different strengths so it was nice to push each other in spots.”
At the Palatine Invite Sept. 26, Moravec got out quickly with the frontrunners and eventually finished 37th. Maletich was 49th, 11 seconds behind.
“I think I went out a little too hard (at the Palatine Invite) and I think this week going out a little bit slower and trying to pick it up after that was a really good,” Moravec said. “I think I improved and I think the team as a whole improved a lot.”
“I think (the strategy) took a little bit of pressure off her and allowed her to just relax and race the race after the mile, and she brought Grace with her,” McDonald said.
Kowalewicz had been hampered by her compartment syndrome during the Palatine Invite and ended up 155th as the team’s No. 7 finisher.
She admitted going into Saturday’s race she wasn’t sure how the new strategy would work, especially because Covey is known for going out fast.
In this race, however, Kowalewicz was one second ahead of Covey at the mile (6:12 and 6:13) in 42nd and 46th place.
“Personally, I thought it was a little bit easier (than I thought) because I expected it to be like her all the way up with Grace and Emma and I would have to try and hang on the whole race,” Kowalewicz said. “I think we both tried to push ourselves a lot this race and I think we did our best and did our job for the most part.”
The final surge, with McDonald watching about 300 yards from the finish line, convinced Covey that the change worked to her benefit.
“I always kind of go out too fast and then I’m just exhausted the rest of the race. Having (Kowalewicz) there to kind of keep me in check from going too fast and then slowing down and then go fast again, just to keep a steady pace, was really helpful,” Covey said. “I felt so much better during the whole race and I had much more energy at the end.”
There are still some tweaks needed. McDonald said he is hopeful that Moravec and Maletich can continue to move up and finish higher – and bring Bonfield with them. Bonfield was 30th at the mile (6:09) and basically remained in that vicinity the rest of the race.
There also should be additional help when senior Angela Budach and sophomore Grace Puc return to the lineup.
“We’ve got to start looking at the teams in the sectional. If it’s going to come down most likely us and Benet (for the last qualifying spot), we’ve got to run a race that we can beat them at,” McDonald said.
“We can’t do that if we’re all dead tired at the end of the race so we tried to pull off a little bit in the beginning and see how it went. I think it went well and now we have something to work from.”