Wind cannot stop Prospect from winning own Girls Invitational

Double win by Daria Tersina in the sprints leads the way for Knights

By Michael Newman

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Mount Prospect – Wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour slowed down the distance races. It helped the straightaway sprint events. It did not stop host Prospect from winning their own invitational Saturday afternoon.

The Knights scored in 13 of the 18 scored events to win the team title with 116 points. New Trier (89.5 points), Wheaton-Warrenville South (83.5 points), Barrington (82 points), and Glenbrook South (79 points) were closely bunched together in the top five.

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Prospect picked up a pair of wins from their star sprinter Daria Tersina. The junior used a strong wind at her back to run 12.40 to win the 100 Meter Dash. Tersina came back to run in the 200 Meter Dash and would receive stiff competition from New Trier’s Bridget Vitu. Earlier in the meet, Vitu stormed away the field to run 59.73 to win the 400 Meter Dash. The two runners came off the curve together. Tersina pulled away in the final 40-meters to win in a state leading 25.38. Vitu’s time of 25.61 is currently IL #3.Tersina also finished third in the Long Jump.

Prospect’s other win came on the final event of the meet when Audrey Ginsberg, Hailey Erickson, Cameron Kalaway, and Elena Barbaric ran 4:07.99 (currently IL #4) to win the 1600 Meter Relay by more than 10 seconds.

Two other athletes were multiple event winners in this meet both happening in field events. Julia Reglewski of Grayslake Central won both weight events that are both currently ranked #2 in the state. Reglewski achieved a personal best of 47’ 7.25” (US #9) in winning the Shot Put. Her second win came when she threw 144’ 3” in winning the Discus.

The horizontal jump pits run West to East at Prospect’s track facility. The wind gusting from the south did not seem to bother Glenbrook South’s Sydney Willits in winning both horizontal jump events. Willits jumped 18’ 10.5” (IL #5) to win the Long Jump. The senior came back to jump 37’1.75” (IL #7) in winning the Triple Jump.

Willits was also a part of Glenbrook South’s winning 800 Meter Relay. The Titans had a commanding lead after the first exchange and then rolled to the second fastest time in the state (1:45.11) to win by five seconds ahead of Loyola Academy (1:50.44).

A windy meet for the distance events means more strategy in how you will race it instead of bolting to the lead early only to fall apart at the end. The times were not out of this world in the four distance races but left fans talking about each race.

The most dramatic race came in the 3200 Meter Relay. Prospect and New Trier were the top seeds in the race, and it showed through the first three legs as the two squads battled for the lead with most of the other teams seemingly battling for third. That was not the case for Grayslake Central’s Bella Domier when she received the baton for the final 800-meters being close to 50 meters behind the two front running teams.

Within the first 350-meters of her leg, Domier made up the defect aiming for the lead. She took the lead with 300-meters left and pulled away for the win (9:52.07) ahead of Prospect’s 9:58.95. Domier’s anchor split was a sizzling 2:17. Grayslake Central’s time is currently ranked fifth in the state and is second in Class 2A.

The race with the most “name” recognition was in the 800 Meter Run led by defending Class 1A State Champion Marianne Mihas. The senior had the lead after the first 100-meters of the race and never looked back. She passed the first lap in 66-seconds with Audrey Ginsberg of Prospect and Samantha Poglitsch of Wheaton-Warrenville South another two seconds back. The two runners worked together to try to catch Mihas, but that margin of two seconds stayed the same. Mihas crossed the with the win in 2:16.10 (IL #2). Poglitsch passed Ginsberg in the final 100-meters to finish second in 2:18.66 (IL #5) with Ginsberg running 2:19.56 to finish third (IL #6).

Batavia’s Lauren Hunecke had a personal best of 12:29.41 from her sophomore year in 2019. Hunecke was impressive in her win the 3200 Meter run in this meet. She had the lead passing 1600-meters in 5:41. She maintained that pace in the second half of the race while the rest of the race field were feeling the wind. Hunecke’s winning time was 11:25.01 finishing eight seconds ahead of second-place Hailey Erickson of Prospect (11:33.83).

The first lap of the final section of the 1600 Meter Run was timed in 83 seconds with none of the runners on the track willing to push the pace. Morgan Mackie of Loyola Academy followed by Bea Parr of Latin School pulled away from the pack. Mackie went on to push the pace to the finish running 5:12.35 for the win with Parr running 5:19.52 for second. Mackie followed that opening 83 second lap by running the following three laps in 79, 77, and 72 seconds.