Glenbard West varsity girls rally in team circle just before the opening gun and start of their 2014 season and state title defense (T. Jones)
The mega hyped Hinsdale Hornet-Devil Invitational lived up to the billing and churned out some great performances.
Meet Highlights-
- Despite the pre-meet hype it was no contest for defending state champion #2 Hinsdale Central 39, #1 Naperville Neuqua Valley 53. Both squads packed up early in the first mile each with five runners in the top 20. Hinsdale Central used a 23-second scoring spread to turn back the pre-season favorite Wildcats. Neuqua Valley head coach Paul Vandersteen was not upset though with his team's performance. "I am extremely pleased with our effort today," he said. #18 Naperville Central 111 took a surprising third; #5 New Trier 139, #8 Naperville North 143 round out the top 5 squads.
- Graham Brown (Sr., Palatine) returned in fine form to win his first HC title in 14:55. Brown laid in the cut for the opening mile that went through a shaded portion of the course in 5:03. Brown took charge just before the second mile and passed in 10:14. It was curtains after that with Ben Casey (Sr., Highland Park) 15:01, Blake Evertson (So., Hinsdale Central) 15:04, Chris Brenk (Jr., Hinsdale Central) 15:07, and Matt O'Brien (Sr., Hinsdale Central) 15:07 round out top 5 scorers.
- Defending state champion #1 Glenbard West felt absolutely no resistance from the strong field as the Hilltoppers tallied 36 points. Junior Lindsay Graham led the way for her team with a second place finish in 17:03. Freshman Lindsey Payne stepped up big in her first varsity race for third. The three remaining Hilltoppers finished in the top 15 to finish off the competition. #6 Hinsdale Central got their season off to a great start on the strength of sophomore Alexa Haff meet record 16:53. Haff and Graham (not Mimi Smith of New Trier as reported earlier) traded blows for the first two miles as they did last year in 5:36 and 11:25. Haff pulled away with 600m to go for the comfy win. Kelly O'Brien (Jr., Palatine) took 4th behind Payne and Lisa Luczak (Sr., Glenbard West) held off Anne Zaher (Jr., Hinsdale Central) for 5th... defending meet champion #5 Palatine took third with 103 pts, #18 Minooka 124, #7 Naperville Central 125 close out the top 5 teams.