Sports

Steman Surges to First Downstate Trip for Girls XC Since 2007

ETHS senior Kyla Steman became the first ETHS girl to qualify for the Illinois High School Association state finals since 2007 Saturday at the Lake Park Sectional qualifying meet.

Not many girls in the state of Illinois have cut their cross country times almost two minutes from the start of the fall season.

And Kyla Steman isn’t finished dropping times just yet.

The Evanston senior continued her strong surge in the postseason and became the first ETHS girl to qualify for the Illinois High School Association state finals since 2007 Saturday at the Lake Park Sectional qualifying meet.

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Steman claimed one of seven individual qualifying berths available to individual runners whose teams did not advance. She placed 20th overall with a personal best time of 18 minutes, 12 seconds over a soggy 3 mile course in Roselle and will move on to the IHSA state finals next Saturday at 1 p.m.

Steman’s sterling individual effort tempered the disappointment for the Wildkits after they didn’t qualify as a team. Evanston placed ninth overall with 237 points, but only trailed fifth place Loyola Academy --- the final team qualifier --- by 32 points.

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Also advancing as teams were Glenbard West (30), New Trier (76), Oak Park-River Forest (141) and Maine South (188).

Steman joined a select group of Evanston runners who will make the trip Downstate. Since 2000, the only individual Wildkit qualifiers have been Natalie Fenn in 2004 and both Alexandra Locke and Hannah Kaplan in 2007. ETHS also advanced a full team in 2005.

Saturday, meet officials totaled the team scores first and ETHS head coach Zachary Herrmann spent most of that time checking and rechecking with other coaches to figure out whether Steman’s season would continue for another week.

“I had a pretty good feeling I had made it because I knew there weren’t that many girls ahead of me,” Steman said after landing the sixth fastest individual spot, two seconds ahead of Hannah Morrison of Lake Park . “But coach wouldn’t tell me. He made me come up and check it with him.

“It still hasn’t really sunk in yet. But it was a really good race for me, and I was really focused. I’ve been thinking about going Downstate since my freshman year, but it didn’t become a reality for me until the race started. I just tried to keep myself grounded mentally. Coach always gives us a plan, so I knew what I had to do.”

“Kyla is a senior captain and it’s just so great to have her going Downstate,” Herrmann said. “She’s been so consistent, she’s stayed focused and determined and she’s continued to chisel off time all year. She had a breakthrough race at the conference meet (8th in 18:23 in the CSL South division) and she had another PR at the sectional.

“She runs with such resolve and she was determined not to let anything get in her way to reach her goal. For her to go from about 20 minutes in her first meet to the low 18s now is fantastic. We knew she was capable of great things, and we knew she was on the right track after she ran such a fantastic 5K down at Disney World. She’s really come alive the last couple of weeks.”

Herrmann pointed out that the strategy of maintaining contact with other schools familiar to the Wildkit girls paid off, at least for Steman.

“I was pretty confident that we could have one or two athletes make it even if we didn’t make it as a team,” he said. “This year the sectional was far more competitive than last year, when 18:46 qualified. This year you had to run half a minute faster, and on a slower course, so we weren’t taking anything for granted.

“Kyla did exactly what she needed to do. Her strategy was to stick with the New Trier pack, because she’s been near or with them all season. She tried to hang with them and the Loyola and St. Ignatius girls, too. When you’re that far up in the pack it helps when you can recognize the girls you’re running with.”

Freshman Emma Dwierdzynski was Evanston’s next best finisher --- 30th in 18:39 --- followed by Gabi Dinsmore, 49th in 19:14; Cami Zecker, 66th in 19:33; Lydia Hoopingarner, 72nd in 19:38; Sophie Hawkins, 87th in 20:02; and Hunter Wortmann, 122nd in 24:42. Steman and Hoopingarner are the only seniors in Evanston’s top seven.

“Our 9th place finish doesn’t really capture how close the sectional meet was,” Herrmann pointed out. “Overall this year’s team is the fastest we’ve had in a long time --- including the 2005 team that went to State --- and we were only 32 points away from qualifying. Last year we were 142 points away.

“Sure, I know Kyla would love to be in Peoria as a part of a team. But this is an incredibly significant moment for the entire team. This means that we belong down there, and Kyla has set a great model for us.”

“There’s been a really big culture change in the program over the last couple of years,” Steman added. “The whole team has been a lot more focused. Now we don’t just take the sport seriously, we’re taking ourselves more seriously, too.

“I’m going to try to break 18 minutes down in Peoria, and I’m really not worrying about my place too much. I really don’t know what to expect, but everyone keeps telling me this will just be the icing on the cake.”

“We modified our training this year to longer threshold workouts, and we did some pretty intense workouts even through the regional. And Kyla has responded to the training really well,” her coach said.  “She’s run on that course in Peoria before, and at the state meet you have to get out quick in that first 400 meters. Now she’ll be able to focus on her goal of breaking 18 minutes.

“I always talk to the girls about racing like you belong up front, because based on the training they’ve done, I knew that they could be up front. And Kyla is one girl who has really started to believe she belongs up there.”  


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