By Michael Newman

DyeStat Illinois Editor

[email protected]

3A Girls – Judy Pendergast, Naperville North

One of the things that I decided when I started to doing the year end awards was that I would not penalize an athlete if they were injured and were having a great season that would merit consideration for Athlete of the Year. This is the case for Naperville North’s Judy Pendergast.

The 2015 3A State Cross Country champion started out her track season later than normal due to a prolonged cross country season. In her first race at the Batavia Distance Madness Meet in March, she admitted rustiness but still ran a state leading 4:49 for 1600. The following week at the DuPage Valley Conference Meet, she lapped the field on her way to running the fastest indoor time ever by an Illinois High School female athlete (10:11). The time was the fastest in the nation indoors. She surpassed that at the Sue Pariseau Invitational at Glenbard West on April 23 when she ran the third fastest 3200 ever outdoors in 10:07. She crossed the finish line while the capacity crowd at the meet gave her a standing ovation. You do not see that many high school athletes receive that.

Just before the DuPage Outdoor Conference Meet, she suffered a foot injury that held her out of that meet. She tried to run the following week at the IHSA 3A Sectional in Ottawa. She led for most of the race but you could see that the injury was effecting her. She qualified for the state meet but left the track in tears. Just before the 3200 finals in Charleston the following week, she scratched from the race. “It was a tough moment but she did not have anything else to prove,” her coach Dan Iverson said.

You can’t take anything away from Michaela Hackbarth (Downers Grove South HS) who won her second straight 3A state championship in the 800 Meter Run. Kelly O’Brien (Palatine HS) finished off the season winning the 1600 Meter Run and then ran the third fastest 1600/mile in state history at the Brooks PR Invitational in June. The future of Girls Distance running in Illinois should be Lindsey Payne (Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn) as she finished second behind Pendergast in Peoria last November and followed that up by winning the 3200 at state in Charleston.

We saw more and more great performances in Illinois distance running this season led by Pendergast. In a few years, we may think the times that Pendergast ran were good but not great because there is a group of premiere Illinois distance runners that could touch those times that people thought around a year ago were untouchable. This award goes to Judy Pendergast not only because of the mind boggling races she had this track season, but also opening the door for other runners showing that it was possible to reach those times.

Congratulations to Judy Pendergast of Naperville North High School in Naperville as the 2016 DyeStat Illinois 3A Girls Distance Athlete of the Year.

2A Girls – Maryjeanne Gilbert, Peoria Notre Dame

The past two seasons, Maryjeanne Gilbert has been the dominant 2A Girls runner in the state easily winning the 3200 Meter Run as well as three 2A state cross country championships. The only thing that was missing was a state championship in the 1600 Meter Run. She did not over exert herself in the 3200 Meter Run this year running a “controlled” 10:47 to win the state championship by fifteen seconds ahead of Grace McLaughlin (Boylan Catholic HS, Rockford). She was saving all of her energy for later in the meet and the 1600. She took out the pace hard in that race daring anyone to go with her.  Herrin’s Kara Martin chased after her the final 600 meters of the race, but the margin that Gilbert had built up was too great. Gilbert crossed the finish line with a 4:53.68 personal best to win the state championship that had in the past eluded her.

Three days after the state meet at the Peoria Journal Star Honor Roll Meet, Gilbert lowered her personal best by 11 seconds as she ran 10:23.21 to win the 3200 Meter Run by almost two minutes. Let us not forget that she finished second indoors this season in New York City in the New Balance Indoor Nationals in the 5000 Meter Run. No one else in Class 2A can match that resume.

The one athlete to watch in the next two years in Class 2A is Rachel Hickey (LaSalle-Peru HS). She got close to two time 2A state champion in the 800 Meter Run Karina Liz (Aurora Central Catholic HS) at the Palatine Distance Night Meet on April 23. That gave her the confidence down the stretch defeating Liz on her home track in the 2A sectional meet, and then the following week when she captured the 2A state championship in the 800 Meter Run. Hickey followed that up ten days later at the Festival of Miles finishing fourth in the 800 achieving a new personal best (2:14.12).

Congratulations to Maryjeanne Gilbert of Notre Dame High School in Peoria as the 2016 DyeStat Illinois 2A Girls Distance Athlete of the Year.

1A Girls – Anna Sophia Keller, Effingham St. Anthony

There was really no debate for the AOY in 1A Girls Distance. It was all Anna Sophia Keller again. The junior went undefeated on the track this season in all three distance events in 2016. Her most impressive performance was her double win at the Illinois Top Times Championships in March when she ran a personal best 2:15.98 to win the 800 and then came back one hour later to run a personal best 4:52.15 to win the 1600 Meter Run. Keller completed her second “Distance Triple Crown” in a Row winning the state cross country title along with the 3200 and 1600. She has one more year of high school competition to go. It will be fun to watch her senior year of running.

Acknowledgements have to also go out to Arielle Summit (Urbana University HS). She qualified for three events for the 1A state meet. Her biggest performance was winning the 1A 800 Meter Run with close to a five second personal best (2:12.29).

Congratulations to Anna Sophia Keller of St. Anthony High School in Effingham as the 2016 DyeStat Illinois 1A Girls Distance Athlete of the Year.