Capps, Grant hold off Lakes for invitational title
The Grant-Lakes rivalry continued to heat up Saturday morning at the 10th Annual J.T. Taylor Invitational for girls cross country.
The host Bulldogs received quite a challenge from the Eagles on the 3-mile Camp Henry Horner course in Fox Lake, but they were able to hold on for the championship by a 50-61 margin.
Grayslake North was a pretty close third with 76 points in the 10-team meet with Zion-Benton (110 points) finishing a distant fourth.
Warm running weather was once again the order of the day as Richmond-Burton senior Lindsey Wilkins rolled to the individual title in 18:36.
Grant junior Alexis Capps easily locked up runner-up honors with a time of 19:22 to outdistance Johnsburg's Nell Langner (19:40) in third, and Grayslake North's Kimmy Denikas (19:44) in fourth.
"We had to beat the Lakes girls because that was our toughest competition and I picked it up the last two miles," said Capps. "I'm happy with my place, but I think my time could have been better."
Grant's push to the team crown was also led by senior Kendra Kennedy in fifth, senior Alyssa Pasiewicz in 12th, sophomore Trisha Palmieri in 21st, and junior Audrey Carrothers in 22nd.
Before Saturday's meet, Lakes had finished ahead of Grant at the Lake County meet, but the Bulldogs posted a 26-30 dual-meet victory over the Eagles earlier this week.
"We knew it was going to be a battle with them and our girls just stepped up," said Grant coach Jeff Durlak. "Capps was strong and she really asserted herself in that second mile and ran a typical race for her."
The Eagles were led by senior Ariel Butzine in seventh, but they were without the services of injured No. 2-runner Katherine Schenck again.
Freshman Kathryn Dean was 10th for Lakes as she hopes to follow in the footsteps of her older sister Rachel who placed 14th in Class 2A last fall before graduating.
Other key contibutors for the Eagles Saturday were freshman Hannah Wittman in 14th, junior Erin McGill in 19th, and junior Emma Howard in 26th.
"We beat Grant at the Lake County meet by 30 points, but Our No. 2 runner was out with an injury today," said Lakes coach Keith West. "Ariel looked a little sluggish, but the girls are just tired and we'll start tapering for the conference meet pretty soon."
Besides the strong showing from Denikas, Grayslake North had a 15th from Marlee Lane, a 17th from Kaitlin Kearney, and a 24th from freshman Nina Saw.
"It's a really young team, but they're working really hard and it's showing," said Grayslake North coach Brandon Boyd. "She (Denikas) keeps wanting to break 19 minutes by the end of the season and I think she can do it."
Sixth-place Round Lake was led by junior Dana Aceves' 16th-place finish while sophomore Erika Garcia led Grayslake Central's squad in 18th.
Due to homecoming, Wauconda only had four runners competing in the varsity race, but senior Samantha Michelau did have a solid 20th-place showing for the Bulldogs.
"I think they did OK, and our second and third runners today are brand new to the team here," said Round Lake coach Kevin Brady. "We're going through some injury issues, but overall I think we'll have a faster team than we did last year."
Due to a lack of numbers, Grayslake Central only ran five runners in the varsity race.
"We graduated a ton of girls the last two years and for the most part they have not been replaced," said Grayslake Central coach Joel Peebles. "It's a rebuilding season, and we're going to try to get more to come out next year."