STORY: DGN at Silver Meet (varsity)

The vast improvement by Downers Grove North junior Mary Laffey this girls cross country season resulted in finishing last in her race Saturday, Oct. 17.
For the first time, Laffey earned a spot in the varsity lineup for the West Suburban Conference Silver Division Meet.
“Well, you know you see those girls in the back and you always feel bad for them,” Laffey said. “I said, ‘You know what? I’m a girl in the back but I’m going to look strong. I’m going to look confident. I’m not going to give up because I started this. I’m going to finish this.’ ”
Laffey responded with a personal-record time and embodies the spirit of the Trojans headed into the postseason.
Downers North, which finished sixth (111 points) at Camera Park in Glendale Heights, has been hampered by injuries but still hopes be peaking by sectionals and return to the Class 3A state meet as a team.
Junior Emma Moravec finished eighth (17:19.6 for 2.88 miles) and earned all-conference honors with a top-16 finish for the second year in a row.
Seniors Katelyn Bonfield (18:09.6) and Grace Maletich (18:12.8) were 22nd and 24th, juniors Gina Kowalewicz (18:23.4) and Zoe Covey (18:31.4) were 27th and 30th, followed by sophomore Claire Kovarik (38th, 19:44.3) and Laffey (39th, 20:25.9) in the race’s final two places.
The Trojans finished just one point behind fifth-place Oak Park-River Forest (110), whose top five finished 16-18-19-23-34. Glenbard West (34) won its fifth straight outright or shared Silver title.
This marked the first year in which regular-season dual results did not factor into the final overall standings. 
“I thought overall they ran halfway decent,” Downers North coach Tim McDonald said of his team. “We’re in a situation right now where we don’t have anybody to make up (for subpar individual races). We have five kids (scoring) and all five kids have to run like they’re capable of. Not necessarily great, just as they’re capable and that didn’t happen today.”
Laffey competed for the varsity as the Trojans await the return of injured senior state returnee Angela Budach and with two sophomore hopefuls for varsity, Grace Puc and Katie Cantlin, out for the season with injuries.
Otherwise, Laffey would have competed in the junior varsity race Saturday. Now she may very well compete at the 3A Plainfield South Regional at Hammel Woods in Shorewood at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24. The Trojans only need to finish among the top six of nine teams to advance to the Hinsdale Central Sectional Saturday, Oct. 31.
Already competing varsity in the state’s toughest conference should help if Laffey competes again with the varsity.
“I always wanted to be on varsity and I am now and I’m really excited about what I’m about to do,” Laffey said.
“(This race) definitely put me in a lot of perspective. And I didn’t really focus on my place. I just focused on my time. I PRed so it was really nice. And I loved being pushed that hard. This was going to be my last race before I was moved to varsity so I said, ‘You know, I’m still going to run my best.’ ”
Moravec also gained confidence as she held her own against several other all-state candidates.
Moravec was 10th at last year’s Silver Meet after being 18th as a freshman, 7.8 seconds from 16th.  
“You know, honestly, I was really nervous,” Moravec said. “I just wanted to go into today and run the best race that I had all year and I think I did that.”
Moravec has been working on getting out stronger and remaining in contact with the leaders. After feeling that she went out too hard when she first tried the strategy at the Palatine Invite Sept. 26, Moravec was 11th at the mile Saturday (5:46) and ninth a tight pack of fifth through 10th at 2.0 miles (12:00).
Perhaps she was most pleased with having enough energy down the final straightaway to pass and finish ahead of York’s Sarah May (17:19.7) by .1. Moravec was 1.5 seconds from seventh.
“I’ve been working on finding the right pace to go and I just stuck with that group and I think it paid off,” Moravec said. “I think everything went really well. Just all season we’ve been working really hard and now is the time that it starts showing.”
Bonfield and Maletich, in her fourth varsity Silver Meet, finished closer together but with Maletich behind Bonfield instead of in front like most races this season. The continued progress of Bonfield from early season shin splints will be a key factor in the team’s sectional chances.
Maletich was 17th at the Silver Meet last year, 1.79 seconds from 16th, after two 14th-place finishes. Bonfield was 20th in 2014 after being sixth in 2012 and 11th in 2013.
On Saturday, Maletich and Bonfield were 20th and 22nd in 6:00 at the mile and 24th and 25th in 12:05 at 2.0 miles.
“Overall, we’re pretty happy with (this race). It’s been a great week of training. We’ve had two really good workouts,” Maletich said.
“It wasn’t my best performance, probably the worst, but overall I think the team did really well. I know Emma did great. (McDonald) told me to forget the race. You can learn something from every race so I did learn some things but just going into next week, just train hard and I can’t have that kind of race again.”