Tess Meyer, a high school fisherman at Lions Township School, may have started as a pitcher, but she easily prefers to wear fishing gear.
“Constipation sounded more fun,” Meyer said. “I grew up with three older brothers so I loved being dirty. When I was in the dirt blocking balls, oh my gosh, I loved it. It’s my favorite thing, framing and blocking.”
The third-year rookie continues to shine for Lions in many ways. In the West Suburban Conference silver event on May 4, Meyer was 2 to 3 with a home run and 4 runs as the Lions won 21-6 at Glenbard West in five runs.
Makenna Kotor (doubles, 4 RBIs) and Analie Tumminaro (2 RBIs) each have three games for the Lions (11-1, 4-1 at WSC Silver). Emily Joseph (2 RBIs), throwers Lily Hanfin and Peyton O’Flaherty won by two strokes each.
Meyer (.361, 2 HR, 13 RBIs) joins Kotor (.467, 15 RBIs), Joseph (.439, 4 HR, 15 RBI) and Ava Paganis (.351, 2 HR, 13 RBIs) among the offensive leaders .
“Mentally I think I’m a lot more confident [as a junior]Mayer said. Communication is perhaps the most important part of the field. When I was on the team for the first time, I was nervous about it but I didn’t have much of an ability to use my voice.”
Mayer credits LTHS coach Nicole Baloch with helping with the transition to fishing squash. With two freshman taps in the fourth year, Lyons was given a veteran battery.
“I know just how you feel,” Meyer said. “I know when you need a break or I need to talk to her and calm her down. It’s a really strong relationship.”
“It’s literally a brick wall,” Baloch said of Meyer. “Her arm. We know she has a good chance of sending off (runners). We all know Lily throws a great ball. It’s a big, massive difference to have a catcher like that to block that notch. [They] They kind of build that trust and relationship together.”
LHS Baseball
The Lions (14-8, 9-6 at WSC Silver) defeated Oak Park and River Forest 9-3 on May 4 while losing to Husky 9-6 on May 7 and 5-3 on May 2.
Jack McNamara was 3 for 3 with two doubles and 2 RBI in a LTHS win and hit .485 with 31 RBI. Troy Stockenberg (2 vs. 2, double, walk 2), James Georgelos (2 RBIs) and Charlie Brin (double) also contributed. Pitcher Nate Anderson (7 hits, walk) moved to 4-0 by allowing only six hits in his full match win.
Cooper Ohlson (2 doubles) and Charlie Greifenkamp got two hits on May 7 and Frederick Ragsdahl III and Greifenkamp had two RBIs each.
Jack Fools hit his third home on May 2 en route to a 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Stukenberg was also 2 for 3 and Ohlson tripled.
LTHS Girls Track and Field
By hundreds of a second, young Emma Kwak changed decades of LTHS history at the outdoor West Suburban Conference-Silver Championships on May 6.
Kwak became the first Black Conference champion in the 100 since 1986 with a win (12.76) by 0.05 seconds. The Lions team ranked fourth in the overall standings with 83 points.
“I was ranked second, so I knew I had a chance [to win]Kwak said. “When I was about to finish, I saw [second-place] A girl in my side vision, so I couldn’t figure it out, but then I won.”
Kwak also led in the 400th relay winner with Ava Coleman, Nora Gannon and Becky Phillips (season best 50.32) – right after the 3200 relay Scarlett Listina, Anna Bilsma, Christina Findley and Katherine Somerfield (9:32.30) won by 6.71sec.
“We were ranked fourth, so it was really exciting,” Gannon said. “We were all very close when we looked at the seeds, so I feel like we were hesitating if we could really do that.”
Phillips (400 in 1:00.48), Somerfield (1600 in 5:46.54), the 800 relay (1:49.39) and the 1600 relay (4:07.77) came in second.
The Lions competed at the IHSA Hinsdale Central Sectional on May 13.
LTHS water polo
Lyons Township High School boys’ (25-2) and girls (26-2-1) teams are the top seed in their IHSA divisions, which are hosted at LTHS.
The Sector Finals are held with a berth down the state on the line on May 14 at 10 a.m. (boys) and 11:15 a.m. (girls).
On May 7, the girls captured the WSC Invite Championship with a 12-7 victory over defending champion York in Western Springs. LTHS previously defeated York 18-15 on April 7.
“We wanted to replay our last game against York and come out better and stronger,” said LTHS Team Principal Sophia Hannon. “We had a plan and we executed it well.”
The new player and main scorer, Maya Malagan, scored eight goals with the first-seeded Lions team, which advanced 4-0 and lost six consecutive goals to advance 11-3 in the third half.
LTHS’s Evi Reinisch and Emilia Malajanan also scored. Hanun and Ava Wright each had assists, Nuvale Roberto and Maya Malagan one each. And goalkeeper Alison Schroeder saved 11 passes, including one from the penalty kick.
Hana and Roberto are key players on the Lions and among only four on the team.
“It doesn’t really matter because we have amazing juniors, amazing sophomores and amazing freshmen who advanced this year. Having such a diverse group of ages on the team was really nice,” Hannon said.
The LTHS seed boys lost to York 8-7 in the WSC Invite Final in York.
The Lions scored from seniors AJ Vitek (4 goals) and Jack Bradbury (3 goals) with the help of Bradbury, Sean Gripp, Jimmy Pollan, Brendan Wilton and Luke Jackson. The cute goalkeeper Charlie Fleck had 12 saves.
The Dukes (23-7) scored the green goal 59.42 seconds from the end and blocked the equalizing attempt with the lions 32 seconds before the end of the match. All-state goalkeeper Jack Schroeder (15 stops) stopped a half-pool shot just before the bell.
The Lions, who lost 4-0, previously beat York 8-7 on March 26 in the York Championship final and 8-4 in the LT Championship final on April 9.
“There is a lot to learn, when you play a good team,” LTHS coach Doug Eichstedt said. “We had a short period where we were stopping well and we couldn’t convert it. They have a great goalkeeper. But for sure we had chances. We just have to be better.”
LTHS Boys Volleyball
The Lions (19-8, 1-4 in the WSC silver) extended their winning streak to four by defeating St. Francis 23-25, 25-21, 25-22 on May 5 and Lake Park 25-19, 25-22 on May 4 .
LTHS Lacrosse
The LTHS Boys (9-7, 3-2 at WSC) defeated Donners Grove South 8-4 and lost to Glenbard West 14-3 last week.
The girls (6-8, 2-2) beat Glenbard West 12-3 on May 3.
