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Glenbard West girls track and field coach Kelly Hass laughs hysterically about being pregnant along with then Oak Park-River Forest coach Sarah McCabe during the 2005 Class 3A state meet.
“It was hot. It was really hot that day and we were both like, ‘Why are we doing this?’'’ Hass said. “And 18 years later, it turns out this is why.”
Their daughters, Glenbard West senior Carlin Hass and Hinsdale Central senior Catie McCabe, have become track standouts and good friends with their coaching families. Their fathers, Glenbard West girls cross country coach Paul Hass and Hinsdale Central girls cross country coach Mark McCabe, also are their coaches in track as assistants.
“We’ve known each other for years,” Carlin Hass said. “We mostly see each other at track meets. We see each other frequently because we’re both in the same conference [West Suburban Silver] and the same invitationals.”
Hass and McCabe often are in the same events, usually the 800-meter run and the 4x400 relay. They finished 1-2 in the 800 at Glenbard West’s Pariseau Invite on April 22 with McCabe winning in 2:18.34. As a sophomore, Hass fondly remembers her personal-best 2:19.79 for second to McCabe during the rain-soaked Silver Meet at Glenbard West.
They’ll compete together hopefully one final time at the Class 3A state meet.
“It’s fun to see her warming up and cooling down,” McCabe said. “I saw her at state last year so I’ll definitely see her again.”
As children, they began seeing each other for annual holiday dinners at the home of longtime Glenbard West girls cross country and track head coach Sue Pariseau, who was succeeded by the Hasses as head coaches upon Pariseau’s retirement in 2003.
“We’d always just play around in her basement when our parents were talking,” McCabe said.
As the youngest in their families, this ends an era for them – and their parents. McCabe will compete at Indiana and Hass will run club track at Illinois.
“I love having [my parents] around and as coaches,” Hass said. “I know they’ll be supporting me in every way and that’ll help me get through this weird transition.”
McCabe’s only coaches have been her parents. Sarah McCabe retired from coaching OPRF in 2010 and coached Catie at Westview Hills Middle School.
“It’ll be fine,” Catie McCabe said, laughing. “I really liked the coaches at Indiana. That’s one of the main reasons I liked the school so much.”
Stellar effort by Downers Grove South relay
Downers Grove South senior Shane Hosty is the lone returnee from last season’s 4x800 relay that finished third in 3A (7:48.83) with the second-fastest time in program history. On April 29, Hosty, seniors Jeffrey Spirek and Logan Rodi and junior Nick Sadeski were second at Prospect’s Wanner Invite (7:58.80) with the fifth-best outdoor time in the state. Hosty’s lifetime-best 1:57.2 anchor split moved the Mustangs from fourth.
“We’ve got to reload [for state], but we definitely have the talent to make it back,” Hosty said earlier this season. “Our team culture is being there for each other, always pushing each other. We’re not just running for ourselves. We’re running for our teammates.”
The Mustangs know about peaking at the right time. In cross country, they earned the last spot out of the toughest 3A sectional by 30 points. Spirek (65th) and Hosty (120th) were top-five finishers for the 16th-place Mustangs.
“In the winter, we work on our base and once we transfer to outdoors, we start to work on speed,” Hosty said. “That’s where you start to see our times keep dropping.”
Hinckley’s high hopes
In February, junior Haylie Hinckley became Wheaton Warrenville South’s first girls gymnastics state champion by landing jaw-dropping tumbling passes on floor exercise. Now she’s hitting new heights in high jump.
Hinckley won her school’s Tiger Invitational with a personal-best 5 feet, 5 inches that shares No. 9 in the state rankings.
More impressive? She’s only 5-4.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. This is scary.’ But I didn’t really think about it. I just jumped over it,” Hinckley said.
Previously, Hinckley never cleared higher than 5-2 once indoors. She cleared 5-4 on two attempts and 5-5 at the Tiger Invitational.
“I definitely sprinted a lot more,” Hinckley said. “[Jumps coach Kasey Gassensmith] told me not to think about it because once it gets higher, it gets scarier.”
The Tigers’ second-place 4x800 relay of seniors Payton Fleming and Kira Mothershed and sophomores Nicole Poglitsch and Frida Martinez (9:33.68) ran significantly under the 9:43.60 state-qualifying standard at the invitational.