Fall Varsity Team Summaries 2016

On Saturday, we had our official last event of the Fall Season -- the State Cross Country Meet. So here is an overview of our Varsity team accomplishments from a busy fall.

This fall North Shore athletic teams competed in and hosted over 250 athletic events. At the Varsity level alone we participated in or hosted over 115 contests. In Head to head competitions, our Varsity Fall teams were 57 – 34 – 2 – a winning percentage of over 60%. In conference our Varsity teams were slightly better winning 25 of 39 contests a winning percentage of 64%. We had 32 students named to all-conference teams, 2 ISL Athletes of the Year – Katie Glew ’17 and Xas Morgan ’20 – and two coaching staffs named ISL Coaching Staffs of the year – Field Hockey and Volleyball.

Here are team-by-team Varsity seasonal highlights.  

Girls Cross Country and Boys Cross Country competed in 14 meets this fall. The girls highlights were their highest finish ever in the IHSA Regional of 2^nd and 12^th place finish in the Sectional. For the second year in a row Katie Glew’17 won the Independent School League meet, won the Regional, qualified for the Girls State Cross Country Meet, and then at the State Meet finished 20^th and was acknowledged for the 2^nd time as all state.

The Boys Cross Country Team finished 5^th as a team in the Independent School League, 4^th in the IHSA Regional and 15^th in the Sectional. Tommy McHugh’17 became the first North Shore boy in 10 years to qualify for the Boys State Cross Country Meet – the last person being Shaun Teamer ’07 whose youngest brother Destin ‘17 was also on the team this year. At the state meet Tommy finished 40^th the highest spot by a boy ever and ran the fastest time for 3 miles by a North Shore boy ever.

The Field Hockey team had arguably their strongest season in 20 years. 16-5 overall for the season, they won the Independent School League for the 3^rd year in a row and the 8^th time in nine years. Due to that performance, Hannah Fortier ’17, Jessica Hourihane ’18, Allie Charnas ’20, Xas Morgan ’20,  Julia Fortier ’20 and Abby Renaud ’18 were named to the all-conference team. Xas Morgan was also named ISL Player of the year and our Coaching Staff of Alyssa Dudzick, Mullery Doar ’06, Rachel Cahan ’04, Madeline Tank ’11, and Julia Price ‘10 were named ISL Coaches of the Year. But that was only the start. Raider Field Hockey won their first elite 8 game since 1996 and advanced to the state finals taking eventual State Champ Lake Forest High School to Overetime and then falling to Glenbard West in the 3^rd place game. For that, we earned our first state trophy in 20 years. With a huge group of returners, this team has an exciting future.

For the second year in a row, the Football team played in the Great 8 conference – an 8 Man football conference based in Wisconsin. The team started the season 3-0 and then lost the next 3 games as injuries took a toll on our team. Six players did earn all-conference recognition: Bernie Sander 17,  Jack Mangel ’18, Briggs Wright ’17, Thomas McDowell  ’18, Pierce Hourihane ’17, Evan Airey ’17. This was our 98^th year of football at North Shore.

For the 10^th year in a row, the North Shore Varsity Golf team were champions (or co-champions) of the ISL. This year they lost to Latin during the regular season by 4 strokes then came back in the conference tournament to win by 8 strokes solidifying another title. Four players earned all-conference designation Peter Miles ’18, Will Dart ’18, Ethan Cantor ’18 and Will Madigan ’17. Peter Miles then advanced to the State Tournament for the first time. Only losing 1 senior from our top golfers, this team who was 7-5 in the regular season also has a promising future.

The Boys varsity soccer team was expecting a re-building year after losing the strongest soccer senior class we have ever had to graduation. But this young team proved that they could compete well going 9-7-2 for the season including 3-2-1 in conference. They were the Notre Dame College Prep Tournament champions and in the post season went to Double Overtime in an emotional loss to Sullivan High School in the Regional final. Four players were recognized as all-conference:  Kevin Terhaerdt ’17, Andrew Conlon ’17,  Brad O’Connor ’18, and Andrew Potter ’17.

Girls Tennis had one of its strongest seasons in recent years going 8-6 overall and 4-2 in conference. They finished 3^rd in the Independent School League and had 7 players get All-Conference recognition: Alex Arenson ’19,  Alex Gold  ’18, Lauren Kaplinsky ’17, Claudia Hayward ’18,  Edith Edwards-Mizel ’20, Meredith McCabe ’19,

Rachel Schapiro ’18.

Varsity Volleyball also had one of their best seasons in years. They were 14-8 overall on the season with 5 of those 8 losses going to 3 games. They were 2-5 in conference and 3-1 in the conference tournament. For their strong improvement, the Coaching Staff of Kelly Dietz, Jen Pfannerstill, Jordan Holod, and Froy Reyes were voted ISL Coaches of the Year by the Independent School League. Also three athletes, Kali Pfannerstill ’20, Caroline Rice ’19, Anna Roszak ’19 were named to the All –Conference team. The Volleyball team will lose no starters to graduation this year, so next year could be even better. Sadly, Head Coach Kelly Dietz after 6 years of leading the team will be moving to California. Thank you Coach Dietz!

Our Varsity team accomplishments are a tribute to the hard work of our players, coaches and support staff.