YHS Sports Roundup: Yorkville’s 4 x 800 Relay Wins State Title

After being so close to a championship in cross country last fall, and in the 4 x 800-meter relay at the state finals in track a year ago, Yorkville’s Bri Stuepfert, Leena Palmer, Ali Hester and Esther Bell were committed to winning Saturday in Charleston.

The four became champions, winning the relay with in 9 minutes 17.32 seconds, which also established a Class 2A record.

The Lady Foxes even got a little revenge on a couple of schools. Peoria Notre Dame, which finished in second place with a 9:28.66, beat the Lady Foxes for the cross country title last fall. Hampshire, which won the 4 x 800 last year while setting a record time, took third place in a 9:34.10.

“When you break a state record and win, it speaks for itself,” Yorkville coach Ben Draper said. “They executed their race plan and really had one of the most dominating races this weekend other than the Woodstock runner [Kayla Beattie who won the 1,600 and 3,200 convincingly]."

"Their [time] would’ve been third or fourth in Class 3A, so they were right up there with the big schools and have the fifth best time in the state over the course of the season and the 26th best time in the nation. That’s impressive.”

Draper was ecstatic not only with the physical aspect of how the girls ran, but also their mental approach.

“Rock Island had a good first leg and the first exchange is always the most difficult and Bri ended up biding her time with a girl from Peoria Notre Dame,” he said. “Bri and Leena matched up well with the girls from Notre Dame and with Hester we figured if we were in the top five we’d be good, but we were already in second so we felt very good.

"Ali then took it out with a pretty hard first lap and just kept extending it and we had a 25-meter lead when she handed to Esther who ran a 2:14.9 by herself.”

After coming so close before, the girls got their hard-earned championship.

“They were hungry for it and really wanted it this year,” Draper said. “They were just very good.”

Hester and Bell also sacrificed personal goals of competing in the individual 3,200 by putting forth so much effort to win the 4 x 800 relay.

“It was a pretty selfless act to sacrifice personal accolades for the team,” Draper said. “Ali was able to come back and take fifth in the 1,600 (5:10.24) but she had 3 1/2 hours to rest.”

Stuepfert also ran in the 4 x 400 relay with freshmen Hunter Rennels, Tracy Krukowski and Kelsey Leedy. The team posted a 4:15.64 in Friday’s preliminaries. Sophomore Casey Kramer ran a 5:31.94 in the preliminaries of the 1,600.

Softball: Lady Foxes get historic win No. 20

Yorkville softball coach Kathi Dockstader had guided the Lady Foxes for more than a decade. Last Saturday, her team did something it had never done before during her tenure – win 20 games in a season.

The Lady Foxes won their sixth straight game, beating Plainfield South 6-3, to finish the regular season at 20-10.

Yorkville has won 10 of its last 12 games and heads into Tuesday’s Yorkville regional semifinal against the winner of Monday’s game between Aurora Central and Illinois Math & Science Academy, with plenty of momentum.

“We were 8-8 at one time and then May came around,” Dockstader said. “We’ve found consistency. We can always have more, but the girls are comfortable with each other, playing with intensity each game and we’re having different hitters come through.”

The Lady Foxes opened the week with a 4-2 win over St. Francis on Monday and then the balanced attack came forward. Wednesday Stephanie Miller had the game-winning RBI and Corrine Rowe doubled and drove in two runs in a 6-5 victory against Streator.

Thursday it was Cacey Maciejewski's and Rachael Owens’ turn to do the damage at the plate as each had two hits and Maciejewski also drove in two runs in a 10-0 win against Dixon. Saturday it was two other players who came through as Devin Turner homered and drove in three runs and Megan Kuhn tripled. 

The Lady Foxes pounded out 32 base hits in the four games last week.

“We’re hitting the ball hard even for outs so we’re making good contact,” Dockstader said. “The best thing team wise that we’re seeing now is a reduction in errors. They’ve been very limited and with the exception of Dixon we only had one error in each of the games last week so that’s good.”

If the Lady Foxes win Tuesday they’ll play for their second straight regional title at home Saturday at 11 a.m.

Hernandez, Pickering advance to state in boys tennis

Yorkville's outstanding boys tennis season will continue for one more weekend, at least for No. 1 doubles teams Ricky Hernandez and Jason Pickering, as the two advanced out of last weekend's Oswego sectional.

After a first round bye, the duo won 6-2, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-0, before losing 1-6, 0-6 and 2-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6-8).

Hernandez and Pickering will compete in the IHSA state finals beginning Thursday at Hersey in Arlington Heights.

Baseball: YHS honors seniors, wins four straight, heads to state playoffs

Jordan Gingrich has spent most of the season as Yorkville’s bullpen catcher.

On May 16 he was given an opportunity. It wasn’t to catch, but this time he was the other side of the battery.

Gingrich helped the Foxes get out of a tight spot in the fourth inning and ended up tossing three scoreless innings of relief to help Yorkville beat Sandwich, 6-3, in a non-conference game.

“He’s worked his butt off and we’ve been trying to find out how to get him into a game and we gave him an opportunity,” Yorkville coach Scott Luken said. “It was the first time he’s pitched all season and he did a great job.”

Jacob Mathre went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs to lead the Foxes.

It was a little too close for comfort Tuesday as the Foxes needed eight innings to beat guest Metea Valley, 2-1.

Derek Piszcezk, who isn’t accustomed to striking out many hitters, fanned a season-best eight while walking just one and yielding a single earned run in six innings.

“The Metea kids are all young with four sophomores in the starting lineup,” Luken said. “They were real aggressive and hit some long foul balls and Derek did a nice job of mixing it up.”

Josh A. Cooper singled and doubled and Ryan May went 2-for-3 with an RBI to pace the Foxes.

Yorkville honored its seven seniors Thursday for Senior Night and then went out and hammered the Illinois Math & Science Academy, 13-0 in five innings.

All seven seniors started for the Foxes, including Cory Westphall, who received his first start in the outfield of the spring. Generally a pitcher for the Foxes, Westphall jumped on the opportunity to play a different position, going 2-for-3 with four RBIs. Ryan Hacker also had a strong day at the plate, going 2-for-2 with two runs.

The Foxes were pursuing their fifth straight victory on Saturday at Oswego, but dropped a 9-2 decision.

“We gave up six unearned runs with four errors,” Luken said. “One bad inning but otherwise we played OK.”

Yorkville (17-15) has a final tune-up for the postseason on Monday against Wheaton St. Francis. A victory would ensure the team’s first winning season since 2002. The No. 11 seeded Foxes will face No. 6 seed Tinley Park at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Tinley Park regional.

“We added the game on Monday so we weren’t sitting around waiting,” Luken said. “We’re going to have a couple days to wait to play anyway.”

Boys track: Runners - one thrower – shine in Rochelle Sectional

The Yorkville boys track and field team finished in fifth place Thursday in the Rochelle Sectional with 45 points. Kaneland won the sectional with 90.

Yorkville’s 4 x 800-meter relay team of Scott King, Kyle Dhuse, Chris Kellogg and Jake Callahan won. They also posted the best qualifying time for state (7 minutes 58.94 seconds).

“It’s a little misleading because some of the teams that are ahead of us did only what they needed to do to get into the finals,” Yorkville coach Ben Draper said. “Belvidere will probably be the state champ. They ran an 8:04 with essentially a B team.

"Still, it was a pretty special effort there. We were in the lead by 40 meters and we told Jake to shut it down, because we were [qualified] and going to be fine so he cruised the last 300 meters.”

Kellogg also advanced in the 1,600 with a 4:30.06.

“He had a tough time being consistent early in the season, but we saw the talent there,” Draper said. “He’s really put it together lately and practiced really well and now we’re seeing it pay off. He’s very confident and now ... he’s started running very well so it’s nice to see him get another accolade.”

Eric Baker (9:46.06) and Zak Arcara (9:53.02) finished first and second respectively in the 3,200.

“I’m pretty excited for both those guys to get this experience as sophomores,” Draper said.

Also advancing is senior Matt Anzelc in the shot put with a throw of 48 feet 3 inches.

“He had a rough conference meet which was uncharacteristic for him and then the sectional didn’t start well for him,” Draper said. “I watched his last throw and he was a little bummed because he thought that since he tied for second with a kid that he wouldn’t advance because his second throw wasn’t as good, so it was a huge relief for him to know he advanced.”

In addition to the athletes who advanced, Draper was pleased with the team as a whole as many athletes finished their season with excellent results in the sectional even though they didn’t necessarily qualify for state.

“We ran an awesome meet and beat some teams that we lost to before,” he said. “Some guys just missed and there were a lot of personal records too. Everyone’s goal is to make state so, obviously, there’s going to be disappointment, but you can’t be disappointed when you did your best.”

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