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Schools

Hornets Relying on Pack Attack of Old and New

The Hinsdale South girls cross country team graduated four-time state qualifier Meagan DeSalvo but returns its No. 2-3-4 runners and has a small but solid group of promising freshmen.

HINSDALE SOUTH GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY PREVIEW

COACH: Gail Huster (6th season)

2010 RESULTS: Second at West Suburban Conference Gold Division Meet (38 points) and second overall; fifth at Lyons Township Regional (100 points); ninth at Lockport Sectional (219 points)

VARSITY RETURNEES:
Seniors Lena Biedrzycki, Karina Prado, Kaysaw Tuy and Allie Thiel; and junior Anisha Chinwalla

VARSITY NEWCOMERS:
Junior Holly Johnson; and freshmen Megan Bruckhauser, Sarah Leganski and Erika Thiel

OUTLOOK:
Fourth-year varsity runners and senior captains Biedrcyzki and Allie Thiel are setting a strong tone for a group that also has a trio of freshmen among its top eight.

However, the Hornets say goodbye to Meagan DeSalvo, who was a four-time state qualifier, the Gold Meet champion as a junior and senior and a four-time all-conference runner with top-16 finishers at the Gold Meet.

Janeen Bonner returns as assistant coach and former Hinsdale South runner Kim Johnson is a volunteer assistant coach. The season began Saturday with the 31st annual Hornet-Red Devil Invitational at Katherine Legge Memorial Park.

“Lena and Allie have been good senior leaders already. They’ve tried to get the kids organized. They like to do things together that are fun,” Huster said. “I’ve told them (as a team) we don’t have a Meghan DeSalvo anymore. I’ve preached a whole lot about pack running and I think they’re going to buy into that.”

Over the years, Biedrzycki and Allie Thiel actually have often finished close to each other in races. Last season, they generally were the No. 3-4 team finishers behind DeSalvo and Chinwalla, who had a great debut cross country season after making breakthroughs in track.

At the 2010 Gold Meet, Biedrzycki (7th) and Thiel (8th) moved into the top 10 after Thiel (12th) and Biedrzycki (13th) both were all-conference for the first time in 2009. Prado, the Hornets’ No. 5 runner, was 18th last year, two spots and 20 seconds from the last all-conference spot.

Chinwalla was an impressive fourth at the Gold Meet behind DeSalvo and two Downers Grove South underclassmen. Chinwalla later was 28th at sectionals, 10 places from the last individual state berth for the seven fastest individuals in the race not among the five advancing teams.

However, Chinwalla broke her right ankle over winter break, missed most of the indoor track season and then needed the surgical pins removed in the spring. She’s now training consistently but conservatively with bike and pool workouts in place of some runs.
 
“She’s playing catch-up, but she’s willing to do it,” Huster said. “She works hard and wants to be back where she was. She’s not afraid of trying to do it. I have to hold her back some times.”

Holly Johnson was an all-conference eighth in last year’s sophomore Gold Meet race.

Among newcomers, Leganski, a graduate of Cass Junior High, has been running with the leaders and Gower Middle School graduates Bruckhauser and Erika Thiel, Allie’s sister, aren’t that far behind, either.

On Saturday, Hinsdale South finished 16th with 332 points. Biedrzycki (27th, 19:45.34) earned an individual medal with a top-40 finish, followed by Allie Thiel (52nd, 20:48.68), Chinwalla (85th, 21:52.47), Johnson (124th, 23:05.01) and Prado (138th, 23:36.32). Leganski was second in the frosh-soph race (19:23.08) with the 22nd-fastest girls time at the meet.

In the Gold, the Hornets would like to make a run at defending champion Downers Grove South, which only beat Hinsdale South by 11 points at last year’s Gold Meet.

"I’m still shooting for the top of the conference. We don’t have a Meghan, but we have a group of kids that if they can group up far enough to run well, I don’t put anything past us,” Huster said.

QUOTABLE:
"The whole group has been really wonderful. We’re not big in size, in numbers, but they’ve been very positive and very willing to work,” Huster said. “Their strength is going to come by running together. They’ve been learning that already in that they feel much better when they run with other people."

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