Blackhawks finish in top half of DVC
Rob Harvey was smiling like a proud parent Friday night.
The Wheaton Warrenville South girls track and field coach had plenty of reasons to be in high spirits, but what had him beaming most was the Tigers' first DuPage Valley Conference indoor track and field title since 1996.
The host Tigers finished with 99.5 points, comfortably ahead of Naperville North (88), which saw its three-year streak of DVC indoor championships come to a close.
Harvey avoided giving a big pre-meet motivation speech, and it paid great dividends.
"Sometimes as head coach you give a big rah-rah speech and it gets in the way," he said. "So I just shut up and all I had to do was get them in the field house."
Once in the field house the Tigers took care of business.
Senior Allie Winberg won shot put, senior Alicia Zimmerman won pole vault and the relay team of sophomores Caitlin Schwark, Colleen Gibbons, Madeline Coutre and junior Emily Shire captured the 3,200 relay.
"The abilities they have, they can do what they want to do," Harvey said. "The fun part is seeing this team come together. The trophies and medals are external things, but the internal things of coming together and knowing what they want, you just have to get out of their way and let it happen."
In addition, the Tigers received second-place finishes from Kelsey Novotny in high jump, Elise Anderson in the 3,200, Schwark in the 400 dash and Gibbons in the 1,600.
Naperville North's Kamaria Huggins won the 55 dash and 200 dash, but the biggest surprise for the Huskies might've been sophomore Jamie Schertz winning the 3,200, primarily because she hadn't run it before.
"I didn't know until last week that I was going to run it here," Schertz said. "I went in strong and tried to stay with the pack for the first mile. I felt pretty strong at the mile mark and it was great to get ahead and stay that way."
Schertz also finished in second in the 800 and third in the 400.
The Huskies' 1,600 relay team took second, and Shelly Dulman finished third in pole vault.
West Aurora coach Teresa Towles was hoping to finish in the top half of the league, so she was very pleased with the 68 points the Blackhawks collected for third place.
"We finished in first and second in the high jump, which was real good," she said. "And Markesha (Davis) was good in the 55 and 200."
Davis finished second in the 55 dash and 200 dash while Charlotte Smith won the high jump. Sophomore Shanice Andrews took top honors in the long jump and 55 hurdles for the Blackhawks.
Freshmen Carson Jones and Christina Rina made quite an impression to lead Glenbard North to fourth place. Jones won the 400 dash and finished third in the 55 dash, while Rini won the triple jump and finished second in the 55 hurdles.
"I got my PR (on triple jump), so I was happy about that," Rini said. "It feels good to not just be put out there to compete but to be able to contribute."
The relay teams of Wheaton North helped the Falcons in taking fifth place (50). The Falcons won the 1,600 and finished second in the 800 and 3,200 relays. They also received a first-place finish from freshman Alexa Reinecke in the 800 and second in the long jump from senior Ester Bethany.
One of West Chicago's lone highlights was sophomore Annette Eichenberger winning the 1,600. She also finished third in the 800.
"I really didn't know if I was going to win," she said. "I was just able to pass her and pull it out."
Naperville Central and Glenbard East didn't win any events, but Kristen Reschke finished second in triple jump for the Redhawks and Jackie Cudia and Danielle Quas both earned third place in the long jump and 55 hurdles, respectively, for the Rams.