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Benet runs away with invite title

Chiara Calicdan likes to see her opponents when she's sprinting, which must have made the straightaway of Wednesday's 200-meter dash dull considering how far out front she was.

There was nobody for her to see except the timers waiting at the finish line.

Calicdan placed first in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the Redwings easily won the Benet Midweek Invitational title with 177 points in Lisle.

“I felt good coming out of my blocks, and I love running my curves,” Calicdan said. “I felt good in curves, and came the straight, I was like, this is my last home meet, and I went for it.”

“She's been running pretty well lately,” Benet girls track coach Scott Brooks said. “The last couple of meets she's really dropped some time and run well.”

Rosary placed second with 103 points. St. Francis was sixth with 42, followed by Wheaton Academy's 23 points.

“It's pretty good,” Rosary coach Vic Mead said. “We had a little different lineups going on, because we do have Kane County (meet) on Friday night.”

That was a common theme among the coaches, who took advantage of the meet to try some new combinations.

“This time of year we've got to know what we need to do for conference,” Brooks said.

“I gave the freshmen and the sophomores a chance to be in a big varsity invite and see how it feels, and we did that,” St. Francis coach Scott Nelson added. “And those kids all ran PRs. I can't complain about that.

For instance, freshman Meghan McShea ran a 5:39 in the 1,600. “That's almost state qualifying,” Nelson said.

Rosary broke a school record in the 3,200 relay by 10 seconds.

“Three girls had PRs for the 800 (split) and one girl was right on it,” Mead said. “That's pretty exciting.”

In the 400 dash Courtney Cox won in 1:03.7 for Rosary.

“That's not normally her race. She's a 300 hurdler,” Mead said.

Benet placed first in 10 events, including Calicdan's twin wins. Darcy Cadman won the high jump, Tahler Bandarra took the shot put and discus, Anne Yahiro won the triple jump, Kaileen Healy the 800 run, Audrey Blazek the 1,600 run, Maddy Gilleran the 3,200 run and Anna Tessiatore the pole vault.

  Sophie Koslowski of Saint Francis in the triple jump during the Benet midweek girls track invite Wednesday. PAUL MICHNA/Pmichna@dailyherald.com
  Rachel Thomas of Wheaton Academy in the 4X200 during the Benet midweek girls track invite Wednesday. PAUL MICHNA/Pmichna@dailyherald.com
  Karen Thomas of Benet during the Benet midweek girls track invite Wednesday. This was the 100 HH. PAUL MICHNA/Pmichna@dailyherald.com
  Jenna DiValerio of Saint Francis during the Benet midweek girls track invite Wednesday. She was in the 3200 run. PAUL MICHNA/Pmichna@dailyherald.com