Fall sports season concluded; minimal changes for winter teams

By Bob Balgemann

REPORTER

Postseason competition in girls swimming and diving, and in boys and girls cross country, has wrapped up this abbreviated fall season involving six teams at Harlem.

Meanwhile, the upcoming winter season will continue to be a busy collection of teams with only wrestling, a “high-risk” activity, moving from winter to summer. That season will run from April 19 to June 26, 2021.

Concerning his wrestling team’s season moving to summer, head coach Sam Enderle said, “Everything being considering, moving wrestling to the new summer season this year is the best case scenario for us. Our traditional winter season would have been pushed to at least December, or after the Christmas break. We have been limited to ‘no contact’ conditioning drills during our offseason contact days, putting us that much further behind in starting our season.

“We probably would have been limited to a handful of conference dual meets and no state tournament. We would have to move the season and with football already moved to the new spring season in February, that wasn’t an option. Too many of our wrestlers play football.

“Right now an April start looks really good, compared to the other options we had. Now we need to get that positive momentum of effective therapeutics and vaccines to get us going in the right direction.”

Girls’ swimming

In the postseason for fall teams, Harlem’s girls swimming and diving team competed in the Byron sectional, with both the boys and girls cross country teams being at the Guilford regional. There was no state swim meet; qualifying cross country teams moved on to four sectionals around the state, which concluded that season. Neither Harlem team advanced beyond the regional.

Harlem finished sixth in the 9-team Byron regional. The host Lady Tigers were the champion, amassing 215 points to 153 for Boylan Catholic, 142 for Hononegah and 140 for Rockford Auburn. The Lady Huskies scored 58 points.

There were a number of Top 10 finishes for Harlem, led by freshman Zoe Shields with a fourth in the 500-yard freestyle event, clocked at 5:36.50. Senior Taylor Hargraves was sixth in 100-yard butterfly, in 1:04.81. Another senior, Laura Schuman, took seventh in the 200-yard individual medley (IM), checking in at 2:24.09.

Eighth-place finishes were recorded by Shields in the 50-yard freestyle race, in 25.67 seconds, as well as in the 100-yard freestyle, at 57.14 seconds. Schuman swam eighth in the 100-yard backstroke, timed at 1:07.97. Shields’ times in the 50 and 100 free were along among her best of the season.

Freshman Madilyn Rich was ninth in diving, with 222.90 points, while classmate Olivia Hall was 12th, with 124.05 points.

Others taking places for the Lady Huskies were Hargraves, 11th in the 200-yard IM; Schuman, 13th in the 100-yard freestyle; senior Trinity Eissens, 13th in the 100-yard butterfly; senior Haylee McGuire, 15th in the 200-yard freestyle; senior Arianna Kerchmar, 16th in the 200-yard free; sophomore Julie Edwards, 16th in the 500-yard freestyle; and junior Emma Rich, 17th in the 50-yard freestyle.

Cross country

Harlem’s boys cross country team was eighth at the Guilford regional, which was won by Algonquin Jacobs (49 points), followed by Huntley (76) and DeKalb (76), tied for second.

Senior Aiden Gruner came in seventh to lead the Huskies, with a time of 16:30.60. He was followed by junior Aktanay Kwazdran in 31th place, timed at 17:27.38. Harlem then bunched four runners paced by junior Julian Logo, 51st place, in 18:08.04; senior Carter Moski, 52nd, in 18:08.61; junior Jack Seymour, 55th, in 18:42.22; and junior Adam Gault, 59th, in 19:09.04.

For the girls, Harlem was eighth in the Guilford regional that was won by Huntley, followed by Hononegah and Jacobs.

Senior Miranda Marocco was first for the Lady Huskies, finishing in 29th place with a time of 21:00.36. They also bunched their runners as sophomore Hailey Ferguson was 41st in 22:17.52; junior Karissa Hernandez, 42nd, in 22:26.36; sophomore Ella Shaw, 46th, in 23:03.46; sophomore Abigail MacGregor, 47th, in 23:11.50; and junior Aaliyah Haun, 48th, in 23:16.14.

A total of 60 runners competed in each of the boys and girls events.

IHSA decision

There was concern that boys and girls basketball being elevated from “medium risk” to “high risk” by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Oct. 27 had put their season in jeopardy. But on Oct. 28, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) decided to hold the boys and season during the winter, as planned, with some minimal changes.

Basketball games will begin being played on Nov. 30, with a maximum of 31 contests allowed. The IHSA board decided to follow the guidance of the IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) and will be up to individual schools whether they also follow those guidelines.

According to the mitigation plan, masks will be worn by all players, coaches and officials during play.

The board released the following statement regarding the basketball action:

“The Illinois High School Association Board of Directors made the decision today (Oct. 28) to continue with the IHSA basketball season in 2020-21. In August, the board slated basketball to take place from November to February, based on the Illinois Department of Public Helath (IDPH) assigning a medium risk factor to the sport.

“The IHSA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee offered additional mitigations, such as masks during play and social distancing on benches, that the SMAC believed would allow basketball to be played safely.

“The high school basketball season was potentially put on hold Oct. 27, when Gov. Pritzker announced that IDPH had changed basketball’s risk level from medium risk to high risk.

“After diligent discussion, the (IHSA) board has made the decision today to following the recommendation of the SMAC as it relates to basketball. The board remains considerate of rising COVID-19 cases in Illinois, and understands the importance of adhering to safety guidelines for the good of all citizens.

“However, the board has not been presented any casual evidence that rising COVID-19 cases make basketball more dangerous to play by the IDPH, or any other health organization, nationally or internationally. On the contrary, the IHSA has been looking to bordering states who have sponsored both medium risk and high risk sports in the fall, that have noted a low incident rate of COVID-19 spread.”

In addition to boys and girls basketball, here’s the rest of the winter sports lineup: Boys swimming and diving, boys and girls bowling, and competitive cheerleading and competitive dance.

Winter season play will be from Nov. 16, 2020, to Feb. 13, 2021.