Glenbard South pitches in, gets the job done
Kim Iacobazzi knew she had close company. She just needed to stay ahead of the chase.
The Glenbard South senior held off Elmwood Park's Kathy Plata and teammate Kasia Gniatczyk to win the 400-meter dash at Friday night's Class 2A Glenbard South sectional, just like her team held off St. Francis and Riverside-Brookfield to win the team title.
"I knew it was tough," Iacobazzi said. "I just tried hard. I felt like there was someone on my back, but you know, you always feel like that when you're running."
A couple of events later, in the 1,600 relay, Iacobazzi became the chaser. Running the anchor leg, she very nearly caught Riverside-Brookfield from behind, finishing in 4:08.60 to the Bulldogs' 4:08.53.
"She knew she had to get it down," Raiders coach Mark Tacchi said of Iacobazzi's effort in the 1,600 relay with Gniatczyk, Val Wass and Sarah Engelhardt. "We had two kids in that relay who weren't here tonight. We ran a better time even without those two kids. Those subs got the job done, but Kim got the job done. She ran a 57-some split. She's a senior. She'd better get it done."
The Raiders got the job done as a team, finishing with 101 points. St. Francis took second with 82, and R-B scored 73 points to edge Rosary's 69. Montini took fifth at 49.5.
"We had to have some kids step into some spots," Tacchi said. "We had some illness and some injury. Anytime you do that you don't know what's going to happen, but we got all our relays in, which is kind of a miracle. We had our fifth and sixth kids in a lot of those relays."
The Raiders also had a double state qualifier in junior Karen Lipa, who placed third in the 3,200, then came back to take second in the 1,600 behind St. Francis' Kelly McShea.
"I'm ecstatic," Lipa said. "Running the 2-mile and the mile together is hard, and I did what I came to do. I wanted to qualify in both and I did. I'm just so excited right now."
"Our distance kids really helped us a whole lot tonight," Tacchi added.
Lipa fell to sixth place at one point in the 1,600 before turning on the jets.
"I've found that when I go out too fast at the very beginning I end up dying toward the end, and I really wanted to feel strong the whole race. I said these girls can go out as fast as they want, I'm going to stay here, go at my own pace. And it worked," she said.
There was no catching McShea, however, who finished in 5:12.04, winning by more than 12 seconds. It was no surprise to Spartans coach Scott Nelson.
"That's the big event that we've been aiming for," he said. "We've been training for that."
Sarah Torres also helped the Spartans' cause by winning the triple jump with a leap of 34 feet, 4 inches, then placing second in the 300 hurdles.
In the sprints nobody was faster than Rosary's Anna Deufel. She won the 100 in 12.51, holding off the Raiders' Ashley Ellis and Iacobazzi. She won the 200 in 25.93, just better than IMSA's Amber Farrell.
"I love running when it's really close like that. It's a lot of fun," Deufel said. "You just push through it. Quick feet. Lean at the end."
Deufel also led the 400 relay to a first-place finish and the 800 relay to second. All in all it was a busy night.
"Oh, I am tired," Deufel said, adding there were no plans to set her alarm clock Saturday morning. "No way."