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Summer is in full swing, but it’s not too late to look back at what was an extremely successful spring sports season at Lyons Township High School. Here are some of the highlights:
Softball ends regional drought
Winning a regional title is a nice accomplishment in its own right. To do so against a defending state champion after a prolonged drought is even better, and that’s what Lyons Township’s softball team did this spring. The Lions hadn’t won a regional title since 2012 but they knocked off defending champ Marist 5-1 in the regional final hosted by LT. Lauren Engels had a two-run single in the first and another RBI later in the game, Delanie Cruz hit a solo home run late in the game for an exclamation point, and pitcher Sapphire Munoz didn’t allow a walk as she earned the win.
Quotable: “It feels awesome. We worked as a team,” Munoz said after the regional win. “We hit the ball, we pitched, defense was solid – everything was just perfect.”
Dave Steuart finds success at state gymnastics
Senior gymnast Dave Steuart had never recorded a horizontal bar score in the eights prior to heading to the state meet this spring. Some intense preparation before state led Steuart to an 8.25 score in the prelims and an 8.6 in the finals as he finished in a tie for fifth and earned all-state honors in the process.
Quotable: “I was so happy to just get into finals. To get a medal out of it means a lot,” Steuart said. “I put a lot of work into this. I put in a lot of hours over the summer. It’s all paid off. It just kind of goes to show if you work hard enough for something you’re going to get it.”
Vanessa Flaherty finishes strong in track and field
Vanessa Flaherty wasn’t happy with how her state cross country meet went as a sophomore. She dedicated herself to becoming an elite 800-meter runner in track and capped her Lyons Township career this spring with a second straight all-state finish in the 800 at the state meet. She placed eighth in the event this season after taking seventh last year, becoming only the fourth LT athlete to earn multiple individual all-state finishes.
The 4x400 relay of sophomore Sonia Slusarczyk, junior Maggie Caplice, sophomore Tara Schwarz and senior Luci Lussier also was all-state with a ninth-place time of 4:03.09.
Quotable: “I decided that I wanted to be the best 800 [meter] runner on the team,” Flaherty said. “I decided I wanted to be the fastest.”
Volleyball back to state
LT’s boys volleyball team fell against Hinsdale Central in a sectional championship match in 2015 to fall just short of making the state finals. This season it was the reverse. The Lions knocked off the rival Red Devils 34-32, 25-17 in the sectional final to move on to state for the first time since 2005. LT’s season and the high school careers of seniors Sam Bugaieski, Mike Catrambone, Nick Cooper, Connor Hankins, Elijah Medlock and Matt Miller came to an end in a 25-16, 25-23 loss against Sandburg.
Quotable: “We had a lot of fun, we found a lot of success throughout the year and played in some very intense matches that people didn’t necessarily think we would be in and we came out on top several times,” Medlock said. “So I’m ultimately looking back on this season as a success and the result of this [Sandburg] game doesn’t change that.”
Three all-state finishes for boys track
The final race of the final meet of the season was nothing but a success for Andrew Best, Vince Zona and Lyons Township’s boys track team. Best and Zona ran the third and fourth legs, respectively, of the 4x400-meter relay behind Antwan Thigpen and Jakob Mogorovic, and the quartet took fifth at the Class 3A state meet May 28 for LT’s best finish in the event since 1976.
Best and Zona were joined by Connor Madell and Dan Palmer on the all-state 4x800 relay (sixth), and sophomore Danny Kilrea was an all-state eighth in the 3,200 run for the Lions’ third all-state showing.
Quotable: “We didn’t have the outcome we’d hoped for in the 4x800,” Zona said. “We wanted to get after it [in the 4x400 relay]. We definitely did that, a season best, the fastest we’ve done in a while.”
Boys water polo back to state
In search of their second straight state title and third since 2012, the Lions lost 13-7 against host Stevenson in a state semifinal May 19. George Lundgren scored three times, Victor Perez scored twice and Sam Szczepaniak and Ryan Hammond scored one goal each. Nick Rosenberger made 13 saves in net for LT, which finished the season with a 30-3 record.