IHSA State Finals - Friday, May 22nd & Saturday, May 23rd Charleston, Illinois brought some interesting weather. Early in the day for Kennedy’s 100mH Prelims, the weather was nice. Kennedy’s race was called to the tent and the coaches all watched from the stands above. Heat 4 Lane 6, gun goes off and Kennedy qualifies on to finals with a new Personal Best time of 14.65 and is seeded 7th overall. Next up on Friday is the 300mH Kennedy’s favorite event, at this point the weather decides to change, and rain comes in. Kennedy’s event gets called to the tent. She is in heat 1 lane 5. Gun goes off and we watch from above as she takes commanding lead and wins her heat, qualifying for finals with a new personal best time of 43.34 and new Illinois #6 time and is seeded 2nd going into finals for Saturday. Saturday brings great weather, and great racing in all events. 1st up was the 100mH Finals for Kennedy - she placed 7th overall with a time of 14.96. After that, she mentally gets ready for the 300mH finals. Now she is in lane 6. The gun goes off and everyone is running great. Kennedy runs a NEW Personal best time from the day before - 42.36 - New Illinois #3 and US #46 and placed 3rd. We are so proud of all that Kennedy has accomplished in her career as a Hornet. Way to go Kennedy!
Week of May 11th
IHSA Sectional meet - Wednesday, May 13th @ Shepard Our Sectional was once again one of the toughest 3A sectionals in the state, but our girls came out strong. We ended our season with 2 Relay PR’s, 10 Individual PR’s, and one State Qualifier / Sectional Champion in two events. Other than the night being a little cooler than we would have liked, it was a great end to a season where the girls worked so hard. Some highlights are listed below: ● 4x200m Relay - 7th - 1:48.11 (Lewis-Savage-Hardy-Womack) ● 4x400m Relay - 9th - 4:11.30 (Lewis-Savage-Herbert-Ruff) ● Fr. Mimi Womack - 3rd - 200m Dash - 26.26 ● Senior Kennedy Ruff - 1st Place - Qualifies for State Meet ○ 100mH - 14.83 ○ 300mH - 44.36
Week of May 4th
This week we entered the championship season with the WSC Gold Conference meet on Thursday, April 7th. We traveled to Downers Grove South high school. This was week #15 in a very long season and the team has been working hard since January 20th and Thursday would be the day to put everything together and give everything they had as for some it would be their last major event of the 2026 season. We had good weather to start off our week, some really good practices and despite some small injuries our team was ready to go on Thursday. When we arrived at DGS unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans. The winds picked up, the clouds got a little darker, a lightning delay put field events on pause for a bit and just when we were ready to get back out and get things started the skies opened up and the downpour began. Our team along with Willowbrook piled into the small shed to shelter from the rain which only lasted for a short time and we all enjoyed the rainbow once the rain ended.
After the rain the winds seemed to be more calm and the rest of the evening was cool and a great night for a championship meet. Both the Varsity and FS levels did great. We ended the night with 3rd place on Varsity and 2nd on FS. 5 Relay PRs, 14 Individual PRs, and 3 All Conference Individuals. Highlights from the meet are listed below.
All Conference Athletes: ● Senior Kennedy Ruff ○ 1st Place - 100mH - 15.16 ○ 1st Place - 400m Dash - 58.12 ● Senior Maeve Savage ○ 2nd Place - High Jump - 1.47m ● Junior Emma Glashin ○ 2nd Place - Pole Vault - 2.29m
This week we were blessed with some nice weather for our home invite and for celebrating our seniors for Senior Night. We welcomed Morton, OPRF, Trinity, Warren, West Chicago, and York to our track. Other than it being a little bit windy, It was a great evening for our Hornets - especially starting the day by celebrating our six seniors - Anna, Audrey (Tree), Janelle, Kennedy, Maeve, and Emilija. We placed 3rd overall and ended the night with 1 relay PR and 16 individual PRs, it was a great evening.
Hosting our home invite is always a busy experience and even with some last minute changes, this small and mighty team did great! I am happy with the way our “family” stepped up and filled in when called upon. We also welcomed thirteen 7th and 8th graders from our feeder schools who competed in an open 100m dash and an open 800m run. It was a great experience for the girls to see what a high school track meet was like. And in our 4th annual senior night tradition the teams joined us in ending the night with the TuTu 4x100m relay. Always a fun way to end the night celebrating our seniors. Some individual highlights from the night are shown below:
* = a PR jump or time
● 4x800m Relay - 3rd place - 11:07* (Frankel-Pendon-Herbert-Koehler) ● 100mH - K. Ruff - 1st - 14.82* / E. Glasin - 3rd - 17.31* ● 100m Dash - S. Herbert - 1st - 12.89* / 12.94* - 4th ● 300mH - K. Ruff - 1st - 44.91 ● 1600m Run - A. Koepfle - 6th - 6:10* ● 200mDash - M. Womack - 4th - 27.08* ● High Jump - M. Savage - 2nd Place - 1.55m* ● Long Jump - E. Sinkevicius - 2nd Place - 5.03m ● Shot Put - A. Rios-Tejeda - 6th - 9.10m* ● Discus - A. Rios-Tejeda - 6th - 24.49m* ● Pole Vault - E. Glashin - 3rd - 2.59m
Week of April 13th
As I sit down to write this week's wrap up I am so incredibly proud of our small and mighty team. I know that is a phrase (small and mighty) that I use often, but it is true. We may not have as many numbers as the other schools we go against in our invites - but that doesn't stop their drive and motivation to give it their all.
On Wednesday, the team traveled to Leyden. Things were a little hectic at the start due to the threat of upcoming storms the host school decided to combine the 4x800m Relay and the 3200m run. Combining these two events meant that the time between events would move even quicker than usual. The team did great. We ended the night with 4-3rd place finishes, 6-2nd place finishes, and 6-1st place finishes. We also had 9- individual PRs and 2 Relay PRs. Overall, the team scored 151 points to take 1st place in the 7 team Invite. ● 4x800m Relay - 2nd Place - 11:09 (Frankel-Pendon-Herbert-Koehler) ● 4x100m Relay - 1st Place - 51.65 (Lewis-Hardy-Johnson-Womack) ● 3200m Run - Koepfle - 4th - 13:09 ● 100mH - Glashin - 2nd - 17.71 ● 100m Dash - Lewis - 1st - 12.90 / Herbert - 3rd - 13.36 ● 400m Dash - Herbert - 2nd - 1:01.5 ● 1600m Run - Koehler - 3rd - 6:03 ● 200m Dash - Womack - 2nd - 27.56 ● High Jump - Savage - 1st - 1.47 ● LJ/TJ - Sinkevicius - 1st - 5.11 / 10.27 ● Discus - Lu - 4th - 24.05
Then the very next day we headed North to Hinsdale Central for the 8 team-FS/Varsity Invite. We knew running back to back like this would be tough for some of our athletes - and again our athletes competed with all their might and had another great day. We ended the night with 5-3rd place finishes, 3-2nd place finishes, 3-1st place finishes, 1 new meet record set (300mH 44.05 - Senior Kennedy Ruff), our first distance runner to break 6:00 in the mile (Junior-Emma Koehler 5:57), 19-individual PRs, and 5 relay PRs. One thing that we loved seeing was the way the team came together to motivate, encourage, and cheer each other on throughout the night. It was a fabulous two days.
● 4x200m Relay - 2nd Place - 1:151.12 (Hardy-Savage-Satterfield-Womack) ● 400m Run - 4th - Herbert - 1:01.4 ● 300mH - 1st - New Meet Record - Ruff - 44.05 ● HJ - Fresh/Soph - Spruill - 2nd - 1.37 ● Pole Vault - 6th - Galshin - 2.59
Week of April 6th A lot has happened since the indoor conference. On March 28th two of our athletes competed at the Indoor Championships at Gately. A HUGE congratulations goes out to Senior Kennedy Ruff and Freshman Sky Herbert - (400m Dash - 28th in the 400 - 1.00.5) for competing there and both earning PR's. Kennedy also placed 6th in the 60mH (9.00) and won the 400m Dash (55.72) breaking her own school record from last year.
This week started off our outdoor season with a triangular at home and then a quad at Glenbard South. The Quad at Glenbard South was more of a relay style meet with some unique events in a unique order - which definitely presented some challenges with timing between events. With only four schools and one heat of almost everything the meet moved very quickly. It was a great meet for our athletes to do events they usually do not get to do and run relays with teammates they usually do not get the chance to race with. Overall, it was a great night.
Even though the meet was not scored - there were some highlights from some unique races on Friday night:
● Distance medley ○ 400, 400, 800, 800 (Lewis, Ruff, Herbert, Koehler) - 7:28 ● Sprint Medley ○ 100, 100, 200, 200 (Lewis, Savage, Hardy, Womack) - 1:25.9 ● April Hardy - PR in High Jump - 1.47 ● Maeve Savage - 1st ever high jump - 1.47
The team looks forward to our regular competitive season of invites so that we can continue to track our progress and improve and continue our push toward Charleston in May.
Week of March 16th
Friday was a great day for our track team. I am so proud of everyone and the way they came together for both the Varsity and Fresh/Soph levels. Thank you to everyone who was there to watch the excitement in person and for all others who followed along online - we definitely felt your support! WSC Conference is the culmination of our indoor season and this team did it perfectly. Yes we ended the day in 3rd place for the Varsity and F/S levels, but more importantly we ended the night with 5-1st place finishes on Varsity, 1-2nd place finish on Varsity, 3-3rd place finishes on Varsity, and 4-2nd place finishes on F/S, along with 19 Individual PR's, 2 Relay team PR’s, and a new school record! This is what really matters. The team persevered through our long indoor season and those who have been there with us each day worked hard and trusted the process and it showed yesterday. As I have stated many times before I am so proud of this small and mighty team. Some highlights are listed below: ** - PR Field Events: ● High Jump Varsity - 2nd place - A. Hardy - 1.40m ○ F/S - 2nd - K. Spruill - 1.30m ● Long Jump Varsity - S. Herbert - 5th - 4.58m / R. Tolentino - 6th - 4.53m ○ F/S - 4th - J. Pokusa 4.23m* ● Triple Jump Varsity - 6th - R. Tolentino - 9.22m ● Shot Put Varsity - 7th - A. RiosTejeda - 8.80m* ○ F/S - Z. Gobubovic - 2nd - 8.61m ● Pole Vault Varsity - 1st Place - E. Glashin - 8’7”*
Running Events: ● 4x800m Relay - 6th Place - 11:09* ○ (Frankel-Pendon-Herbert-Koehler) ● 300m Varsity - 1st Place - K. Ruff - 41.14* - NEW SCHOOL RECORD - she broke her own record from last year! ○ F/S - 2nd - O. Luckey - 49.07 / J. Pokusa - 50.26* ● 3200m Run Varsity - 5th - A. Koepfle - 12:57* ● 55mH Varsity - 1st K. Ruff - 8.50* /5th - E. Glashin - 9.41* ○ F/S - S. Aydoner - 4th - 11.09* ● 55m Dash Varsity - J. Lewis - 3rd - 7.55 ○ F/S - 5th - J. Johnson - 8.23* ● 800m Run F/S - L. Wang - 4th - 2:58* ● 4x160m Relay Varsity - 3rd - 1:30.05* (Lewis-Womack-Hardy-Satterfield) ○ F/S - 1:35.3 - 2nd (Spruill-Luckey-Johnson-Fnu) ● 400m Dash Varsity - 1st K. Ruff - 1:00 / S. Herbert 1:03* - 3rd ● 1600m Run - All Runners PR’d ○ Koepfle - 6:07 / Koehler - 6:14 / Wang - 6:54 ● 200m Dash Varsity - 5th - M. Womack - 28.25* ○ F/S - J. Johnson - 4th - 30.41* ● 4x400m Relay - Varsity - 1st Place - 4:20.7 (Lewis/Frankel/Herbert/Ruff) ○ F/S - 5:07.2 (Pokusa/Aydoner/Pahomovs/Luckey)
Week of March 9th
This was a busy week for the Hornets. On Wednesday we hosted our final indoor track meet of the season and hosted Andrew, Marist and Oak Forest. It was a good meet for us to allow us to run some more girls in events that we normally do not get a chance to, especially with a two level meet coming up and Conference in a week. Since our home meets are hand timed - it is hard to identify PR’s at our meets - but the season results document has everything listed.
Then on Saturday we traveled to Morton West for the seven team Varsity/JV Invite. The team did great. We ended the day with 21 individual PR’s and 3 Relay PR’s AND both levels (Varsity and JV) were CHAMPIONS! In the six years that I have been coaching and attending this meet we have never brought home TWO plaques - it was a very exciting day for the team. The most exciting part for us coaches was seeing the team come together as a family - cheering and motivating each other, getting each other together at the right moment to warm up and prepare for their events. Their hard work and dedication paid off. It was a great day! Some highlights are listed below:
Field Events: (* = PR) ● High Jump ○A. Hardy - 1st Place Varsity - 1.52 ○K. Spruill - 1st Place JV - 1.37* ●Long Jump ○J. Pokusa - 1st JV - 4.06 / S Pahomovs - 2nd JV - 3.70 ○R. Tolentino - 4.65* - 4th Varsity / S. Herbert - 4.53 - 5th ●Pole Vault - Emma Glashin - 2nd - Varsity - 2.59*
Running Events: (* = PR) ●4x800m Relay - 3rd - 11:20* (Frankel - Pendon - Herbert - Koehler) ●300m Dash ○Varsity - K. Ruff - 1st - 41.66* ○JV - J. Pokusa - 51.09* ●3200m Run - A. Koepfle - 13:31 - 1st Place ●55mH ○Varsity - K. Ruff - 8.65* - 1st / E. Glashin - 9.71* - 3rd ○JV - S. Aydoner - 11.15* - 2nd ●55mDash ○Varsity - J. Lewis - 7.52* - 1st / M. Womack - 7.73* - 3rd ○JV - J. Johnson - 8.24* - 1st / Te. Jones - 8.49 - 2nd ●4x160m Relays Both Levels 1st Place ○V - 1:31.06 (Lewis-Womack-Hardy-Satterfield) ○JV- 1:37.26 (Jones-Johnson-Spruill-Fnu) ●400m Dash ○Varsity - K. Ruff - 1:01 - 1st / S. Herbert - 1:05* - 4th ●1600m Run ○Varsity - E. Koehler 6:27* - 5th ○JV - R. Wirth - 7:29 - 5th ●200m Dash ○Varsity - J. Lewis - 27.40* - 1st / Womack - 28.54 - 2nd ○JV - Johnson - 31.09* - 2nd / Te. Jones - 31.42 - 3rd ●1600m Relay Teams - Both Levels 3rd Place ○Varsity - 4:58* (Frankel -Pendon-Hilsen-Glashin)
Week of March 2nd
This week was a busy week for our team, Wednesday night was a small triangular meet - this gave us the opportunity to run / jump athletes in multiple events and get FAT times on girls. Which also allowed girls to see how they have been improving since January. All their hard work is paying off. During our invites we are usually limited to the number of entries, so a meet like this is really nice for everyone. The team placed first out of the three teams. Thursday night was great - a new meet for us, a 200 meter track, and new competition. A 200m track means 60m dash and 60mH and our girls adjusted well. The highlight of the night was our winning 4x400m relay team. It was an exciting end to the meet.The team placed 3rd and missed 2nd place by one point. Some other highlights are listed below:
Reavis Invite - 5 Individual PR’s ● Senior Kennedy Ruff - 1st Place 60m Hurdles - 9.17 ○ 1st Place - 400m Dash - 58.8 ● Senior Janelle Lewis - 2nd Place 60m Dash - 8.24 ● Freshman - April Hardy - 3rd - 200m Dash - 29.04 ○ 3rd - High Jump - 1.42m ● Freshman - Sky Herbert - 4th 60m Dash - 8.39 ● Sophomore Alysia Lu - 5th Shot Put - 9.60m
Week of February 16th
Our trip to Willowbrook turned out to be a very great day. As I said to the team before we got off the bus on our return to Hinsdale South, I am so very proud of our small and mighty team. We were definitely one of the smaller schools in the 11 team invitational and due to illnesses and some athletes still not able to return from injury, we did not have a full line up on either level. This team never let that slow them down and it showed in the final result. On the varsity side we tied for 2nd place and on JV we placed 7th. Overall we had 11 PR's for the day as well. On the Varsity side we had 2 first place finishes, 3 second place finishes, 2 third place finishes, and 1 fourth place finish.
On the JV side we had 1 second place finish, and 2 fourth place finishes.
Some individual highlights are below:
● Senior Kennedy Ruff - 2nd place in 55mH with an 8.84 and new Illinois #3 ○Also 1st in 300m Dash - 42.02 ○1st in 400m Dash - 1:01.07 ● Senior Janelle Lewis - 2nd in 55m Dash - 7.67 ○5th in 200m Dash - 28.29 ● Freshman Sky Herbert - 3rd in 55m Dash - 7.79 ○4th in 400m Dash - 1;06.2 ○2nd in LJ - 4.78m ● 4x160m Relay Team Placed 3rd ○(J. Lewis - M. Womack - A. Hardy - K. Spruill) ● Freshman Safia Aydoner placed 4th in JV 55mH - 11.58 ● Sophomore Jessica Pokusa placed 2nd in LJ - with a PR jump of 4.03m
Week of February 9th
This week the team traveled to Addison Trail to compete against Addison Trail, Fenton, and Trinity. The Hornets placed 1st over Fenton 68 to 64. We saw some really nice improvements over our home meet from Saturday and it was our first chance at FAT timing and learning how to "check in" with hip numbers. Overall, it was a great day. Some highlights are below: The Hornets had: 6 - 1st place finishers 4 - 2nd place finishers 3 - 3rd place finishers 6 - Field event PR's 2 - Running Event PR's (which is hard to do when our first meet was hand timed)
Some outstanding achievements were: ● Senior Kennedy Ruff - 1st place in 55m Hurdles, 300m Dash, and 200m Dash ● Senior Audrey Koepfle 1st in 3200m Run and 2nd in 1600m Run ● Senior Janelle Lewis 1st in 55m Dash and 3rd in 200m Dash ● Hinsdale South 1st, 2nd, 3rd in 55m Dash ○Janelle Lewis, Fr. Mimi Womack, Fr. Rachel Tolentino ● Shot Put (1st and 2nd Place) ○Abi Rios-Tejeda and Zaga Golubovic
Week of February 2nd
We had a great week of practice which ended with our first home meet on Saturday, February 7th. It was a GREAT day. We began our season on January 20th with our largest group of freshmen - 18 athletes. Which means that our first home meet was a learning experience. We competed against Andrew, Benet, and St. Francis, and the Hornets placed 2nd overall. There were some nice surprises especially from our very young group of athletes. We are really looking forward to seeing how this team improves in the coming weeks. Some highlights are listed below:
● 4x800m Relay - 2nd Place (Frankel/Wirth/Wang/Herbert) - 12:14 ● 55mH - K. Ruff (1st Place) - 8.63 ○S. Aydoner - (3rd Place) - 11:00 ● 55m Dash ○J. Lewis - (2nd) - 7.47 ○M. Womack (3rd) - 7.53 ○S Herbert / R. Tolentino - (4th) 7.80 ● 4x160m Relay - 1st Place - All Freshman team ○R. Tolentino / M. Womack / S. Aydoner / N. Fnu ● 400m Dash ○K. Ruff - 1:01 - 1st Place ○J. Lewis - 1:07 - 2nd Place ● 1600m Run ○Koepfle - 6:22 ● 200m Dash ○J. Lewis - 1st Place - 29.4 ○O. Luckey - 4th Place - 31.4 ● 1600m Relay - 3rd Place - 5:06 ○J. Pokusa / S. Aydoner / L. Garcia / K. Ruff
● Long Jump ○S. Herbert - 1st Place - 4.46m ● Shot Put ○Z. Golubovic - 8.47m - 2nd Place ○A. Rios-Tejeda - 7.81m - 3rd Place