2006 ETHS Spring Sports Wrap-up

By Paul Harris-Hertel

The 2006 spring sports season will most be remembered around Evanston for the ETHS girls track team winning a fourth straight state championship. However, the accomplishments of the other teams should not be forgotten. While some struggled all season long and others faced tough season-ending losses, each team competed hard, and the coaches had good things to say about their team's characters.

Despite a fourth-place finish in conference and a second-place finish at sectionals, the girls track team came in first when it mattered most, winning their fourth consecutive state championship. Led by senior Shalina Clarke, who won four individual events at the state meet, the girls track team joined the 1952-1956 boys swimming teams as the only four-time defending state champs in school history. For Coach Fenton Gunter, the state's reigning Track and Field Coach of the Year, it will not be easy to replace the five seniors who have won state titles every year of their high school career, but he doesn't seem worried by the task.

"[We'll replace the seniors] the same way it's been done for the past 30 years," Gunter said. "One group leaves and another one comes in."

Returning All-Staters Brittany Tolar, Leah Schenkier and Adrienne Slaughter all give Gunter good reason to believe that next year's team should once again have success at the state meet.

The boys track team also had a good season, one in which they finished in first place at the CSL Invitational and in second at the sectional meet. The boys were 14th at the state finals, finishing with 15 points, most of which they got from their senior-laden relay teams. The 4x400 meter team won third, the 4x100 team got sixth, and the 4x200 team finished eighth. Senior Charles Smith also got eighth in the 400 meter dash.

Another ETHS team that made a good showing in state finals play was the girls lacrosse team, which finished sixth in state. Led by senior Jesse Cleveland, who scored 80 goals, and junior All-American goalie Colleen Speth, the girls finished with a 19-6 record. They also traveled to Missouri and Indiana for tournaments against some of the Midwest's top teams and went undefeated in tournament play.

"[The tournaments] gave us a chance to compete against some very good programs in the region," said Coach Dale Leibforth. "[The success] is a step forward for our program."

Leibforth also coached four of his seniors in the Senior All-Star Game at Evanston: Cleveland, Sarah Marder-Eppstein, Sara Pike, and Tess Rielley.

"All the girls played well and had fun, and it was nice to coach them for one last time," Leibforth said.

Next season also projects to be a good one for girls lacrosse, as All-Staters Speth and Jessica Chukwu lead the 11 returning players.

Evanston boys lacrosse ended their season with an 8-8 record and a loss in the second round of the playoffs to Lake Forest. Despite the graduation of 11 seniors, Coach

Dave Allen said he's excited about next year's team.

"We'll have 13 or 14 players back, and a lot of juniors got playing time this year, so we've been able to see what they can do," Allen stated.

The boys water polo team went 15-7 and won the CSL Tournament. Coach Kevin Auger considered the season especially successful because the team was picked to have a down year after losing several players from the 2005 team that finished third in the state. All but three players are returning, and while Auger thinks they will step up and build on this season, he cautioned it will not be easy to replace what the graduating seniors brought to the team.

"We have a good young nucleus returning, and the young guys got a lot of good experience this year," the coach stated. "But Tim Fodor provided stalwart defense, Tim Silkaitis was our top scorer, and Tommy Doyle was our best playmaker and an all-around [contributor]. We'll need guys to step up in all of those areas next year."

The girls water polo team went 15-15 and ended the year with a 9-8 overtime loss in the sectionals to Latin, a team they had beaten during the regular season.

"It was a tough season and we didn't achieve what I expected," said Coach Brett Hatcher, "but I was proud of how the girls battled all season long."

Hatcher admitted he is losing a strong class, but added that he expects to see a lot of improvement from the returning players, especially this year's sophomore class.
with them at first, but we battled back and made it close. That made it especially hard, that we worked so hard to come from behind but couldn't win."

The boys volleyball team also suffered a disappointing season-ending loss, falling in the playoffs to rival New Trier despite holding a 10-point lead in the deciding third game. Coach Chris Livatino described this year as "a roller-coaster season," although the Wildkits found some consistency towards the end of the year, putting together an 11-match winning streak. The team graduates six seniors, including team MVP Nick Sims, who will play at Rutgers, and Alex Fisher, who will play club volleyball at Cornell. The team will miss players who are not only talented, but also intelligent. Three of the seniors were in the top five of their class academically.

Despite these losses, next year's team will not lack for experience. Rising senior Justin Perkins, who has started since his sophomore year and who Livatino predicts will be one of the top players in the state, leads six returning members of this year's team.

While he enjoyed being at the helm of what he called "a very intelligent and coachable team," Livatino is stuck with memories of the season-ending loss to New Trier.

"It was disappointing for a number of reasons," he explained. "First off, we've never gone winless against New Trier in a season since I've been here. Second, we were so close to finishing [the match] off and we'd played so well up to that point.

"It's also disappointing to go out like that in my final time coaching here," added Livatino, who will take over as athletic director at ETHS next year. "But if there was anything good from the loss, it was that we didn't give it away. New Trier just played unbelievable volleyball."

The baseball team suffered a setback when they lost top pitcher Evan Hipp to injury in March, but Coach Ed Toledo was impressed with the way his team responded.

"The kids did a great job stepping up and they really worked hard and improved throughout the season," said Toledo.

The team loses senior pitchers Hipp and Mike Norkett, but Toledo remains excited about the staff's future since three sophomore pitchers got a good deal of experience on the mound this season. Second baseman Dan Esrig, third baseman Rob Fiffer, and catcher Aiden Lucas also graduate, and Toledo says they will be hard to replace.

"The seniors on this team provided great leadership," explained the coach. "[Junior] Mike Locher got playing time at the middle infield positions, so he'll most likely replace Esrig. We're not sure how we're going to replace [Fiffer and Lucas], but if the young guys coming up work anywhere close to as hard as those guys did, we should be all right."

The baseball team's season ended with a 3-1 loss in the regional finals to Loyola.

The girls soccer team ended their season with a 5-0 loss to eventual state champ New Trier in the sectionals. The girls finished with a 13-9-3 record after rebounding from a tough start that saw them lose four of their first six games. In the second half of the season, the team won seven of eight games and went 4-1 in conference play. Most of the team will return next year, as Emily Roth, Amy Head, and Raquel Rattray are the only three graduating players.

Girls badminton had a 5-6 record in dual matches and finished fifth in conference, but did get third in sectionals. Coach Karilyn Joyce said it was a tough season, not only because of the loss of five seniors from last year's team, but also because the absence of a freshman coach forced her to take more players on the varsity than she is used to.

"Usually I have 12 players on varsity at the most," Joyce said, "but this year there were 15. Taking on those extra players made coaching more difficult. But the girls did well, considering [the situation]."

Next year's team will be young, as two singles players and one doubles team are graduating. But Joyce feels that the experience the young players gained by playing this year on varsity will help them next season.

The boys gymnastics team struggled all season long, failing to win any dual meets and finishing seventh out of eight teams at the conference meet. For Coach Chester Jones, it was his first losing season in his 15 years at ETHS.

"We had talent, but we didn't have the commitment to the team from some of the people," Jones explained. "We lost some meets by just a few points that we should have won."

Jones has only one varsity team member graduating and hopes that the memories of this past season will fuel the returning gymnasts to work harder and improve. He is encouraged by the fact that some team members are coming to camp during this summer.

"You need to have that edge and keep it all season long," said Jones. "A lot of guys don't do anything in the off-season and don't start working out until gymnastics season comes around. We can't spend half of next season getting in shape like we did this year."

Boys tennis went 4-2 in dual meets and finished third at the CSL Conference Tournament. Despite the graduation of five seniors, the future of the team looks good. Four sophomores saw extensive playing time with the varsity squad and that experience should pay off for them next season.

The softball team had a down year, going 4-21 during the regular season and losing in the regionals 15-1 to Lane Tech.

Evanston Girls' Track Day

Head Coach Fenton Gunter, the 2006 Illinois State Track and Field Coach of the Year, has led his team to seven state titles since 1991.

Lt. Governor Pat Quinn declared June 12, 2006, Evanston Township High School Girls' Track and Field Day throughout the State of Illinois, to honor the ETHS Girls' Varsity Track and Field Team's fourth straight Class AA State title.

Quinn was joined by team members and their coaches at a special ceremony to announce the declaration in the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago.

Senior Shalina Clarke led the team's effort in the Class AA State track meet with four individual victories, tying a state record and scoring 40 of the Wildkits' 91 total points.
Teammates Demeca Hill, Adrienne Slaughter, Jonkea Butler Stewart and Brittany Tolar won State championships in both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays.

Middle-Schoolers Meet and Compete at Ron Risch Invitational

By Paul Harris-Hertel

Left Robert Torrey (3rd), Joey Pedtke (2nd) and Max Behles (1st) in the eighth grade boys 1600 meter run.

Last Saturday's warm and breezy weather was perfect for the 31st Annual District 65 Ron Risch Track and Field Meet. Hundreds of boys and girls from Evanston and Skokie schools ran, jumped, and threw during the elementary and middle school meets at Evanston Township High School.

The grade-school meet, made up of fourth- and fifth-graders from 18 public and private schools began at 7:30 with the fifth grade boys and girls 1600-meter run, roughly equivalent to the mile. To save time, the boys and girls ran together during the 1600, though they only competed against members of their own gender. Following the fourth graders' completion of the 1600 were the boys and girls 100, 200, 400, and 800-meter runs. The field events (high jump, long jump, and softball throw) began at roughly 10 a.m. and the meet concluded with the relays. The 400 and 800-meter relays were both coed, with two boys and two girls per team.

Medals were given out to the top five finishers in each event, although not all events had as many as five participants. Willard and Walker Schools tied for most medal winners with 26, while Lincolnwood had the most first place finishers with five.

The junior high school meet began around 11 a.m. In addition to all of the events of the grade school meet, the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade athletes competed in the 60-yard hurdles and the shot put. Haven won 49 medals, including 12 first place medals, to finish 18 ahead of Chute, the next closest team.

The meet is named after Ron Risch, who taught physical education for 25 years in District 65 schools, including Dawes, Washington, and Chute, until his retirement in 1993. Risch also coached soccer at Kendall College in Evanston and was an assistant girls track and field coach at ETHS from 1979-1993. A girls track state championship in 1991 and an award for Illinois Track and Field Coach of the Year in the 1988-89 season highlighted his coaching tenure at ETHS. Risch helped create the "Junior Olympics" Track and Field Meet, which was first held in 1976 at Dyche Stadium.

Risch passed away on January 6, 1994. In 1995, the "Junior Olympics" Meet was renamed the Ron Risch Invitational Track & Field Meet in his honor.

Fourth-grade boys 50 yard dash winners. Left, Fifth place, Aaron Rousc, Willard, Fourth place, Daniel Antman, Oakton, Third place, Nolan Jackson-Daniel, Walker, Second place, Gus Sleps, Lincolnwood and First place, Charlie Cunningham, Dewey.