Seventh heaven for Lake Central

Updated: October 15, 2011 10:44PM

CROWN POINT — Lake Central’s team bus needed a jump start after the Crown Point Cross Country Regional, but coach Amy Nimetz’s runners didn’t need a boost.

The Indians had more energy than the Energizer Bunny — placing five runners in the top 14 — to capture the regional title at Lemon Lake Saturday.

The crown was the team’s seventh in the last eight years — but first since 2009 — and the 12th overall.

Shelby Carroll placed fourth, freshman Megan Zajac took sixth, Tatiana Lazic was ninth, while Amanda Onest, and freshman Tara Zlotkowski, placed 11th and 14th, respectively.

The Indians scored 43 points to beat defending champion Crown Point (57). Munster (117), Hobart (136) and the 59ers (143) finished among the top five teams and earned trips to semistate.

Andrean’s Becca Conley was the medalist (19:05), finishing 11 seconds ahead of Griffith’s Taylor Austin, who was second (19:16), while Crown Point’s Lauren McCarroll (19:23) was third.

“I’m so happy and so proud of the girls,” Nimetz said. “We had a rough time at DAC a couple of weeks ago, but I think the whole experience was a wakeup call we needed.”

After LC placed seven runners in the top 12 at the Gavit Sectional Tuesday, they all believed they could step up and win regional.

“We talked to them about running to their potential, and that’s what they did today. We told the girls (Friday) that every runner counts and it was all a matter of believing in each other and believing in yourself.”

Carroll, who was disappointed about finishing fourth, because she wanted to win the race, was thrilled with the team’s finish.

“We went into this race thinking it would be hard, but we knew we could do it,” Carroll said. “I guess it’s a surprise after the way we ran at the DAC (fifth), but it was just a matter of us getting down to the nitty-gritty. We went in with no excuses, with the idea of leaving everything we had on the course.”

Calumet’s Andrea DeGard became only the second runner in the history of Calumet’s program to qualify for semistate.

“My goal was to make it to semistate,” said DeGard, who finished 12th. “I couldn’t have asked for a better year so far. For me, making it to semistate is like making it to state.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.