IHSA Girls State Track & Field Championships - Friday 2A Preliminary Highlights

By Michael Newman [email protected]

Charleston, Ill – Kankakee and their strength in the sprints put themselves into position t win a state championship qualifying nine to Saturday’s finals. Their quality still might have an edge over Normal University who leads all teams with 12 qualifiers. Geneseo, with eight qualifiers, is also within reach of a state trophy.

Even though St. Viator only has five qualifiers advancing to Saturday’s final, Emmi Scales could be one of the reasons why the Lions bring home a state trophy. Scales had the best times in three events. The junior ran a 14.11 wind legal time in leading the field in the 100 Meter Hurdles. She came back to run a leading 12.00 in the 100 Meter Dash. Scales also won her heat in the 300 Meter Hurdles with her time of 44.48 the fastest by one. Mary Grace Hegberg will race tomorrow in the 3200 Meter Run after qualifying Friday morning in the 1600 Meter Run.

Kankakee led the way qualifying five athletes in the 100, 200, and 400. Naomi Bey-Osborne was the top qualifier in the 200 Meter Dash with her teammate Neveah Lowe close behind. Lowe also qualified in the 100 Meter Dash. Bey-Osborne and Aniya Lewis were third and fourth in the 400 Meter Dash qualifying. Mia Rodriguez of Marian Catholic led all qualifiers in the 400 Meter Dash (58.05).

Kankakee qualified in three relays. Three teams were under 49-seconds in the 4x100m Relay led by Kankakee (48.49) and followed by Peoria Richwoods (48.84) and Mt. Vernon (48.99).

The Kays had a bigger advantage in the 4x200m Relay running 1:41.65 as the top relay qualifier. They are more than two seconds ahead of Galesburg (1:44.08), Peoria Richwoods (1:44.67), and Normal University (1:44.82).

Kankakee had the fifth fastest time in the 4x400m Relay. Lincoln led all qualifiers in that relay (4:02.88) with Peoria Notre Dame (4:03.32) the next qualifying team.

Winds that in the morning were close to 20 mph somewhat made a difference in the distance events.

Becca Heitzig of Lincoln and Colleen Zeibert of Rochester set up a showdown between last year’s third and fourth place finishers for Saturday’s 800 Meter Run by winning their respective heats. Zeibert led the way with the top qualifying time (2:16.16) by winning the first heat. Heitzig followed by easily winning Heat #2 in 2:17.59. The two runners are four seconds ahead of the rest of the field. The final qualifying time in the event was 2:29.58.

Tatum David of Richland County led all qualifiers in the 1600 Meter Run pushing the pace from the beginning of Heat 1 and going on to run 4:54.83. The junior was the only runner under 5-minutes in the preliminary. Heat 2 was a replay of last year’s final between Ava Parekh of Latin School and Elia Ton-That of Northside. The two runners came down the final 100-meters together. Last year it was ton-That that made the final move. In Friday’s preliminary, it was Parekh’s turn Parekh ran 5:01.77 to edge Ton-That by .08 seconds (5:01.85). Mary Grace Hegberg of St. Viator finished third (5:04.22) also qualifying.

Lakes Community led all qualifiers in the 4x800m Relay with a 9:51.83 time to win the first heat in this relay. Mt. Zion had the second fastest time (9:54.79) finishing just ahead of Northside Prep (9:55.22).

Hana Ling of Payton Prep was a surprise leader after the preliminaries of the Long Jump. Her best jump of 17-8.25 was less than an inch ahead of Annie Wirth of Geneseo (17-7.25). Wirth also led a field of 15 athletes qualify in the High Jump. All cleared 4-11.75 to make it to Saturday’s finals.

Reese McCuan of Lincoln led all qualifiers in the Triple Jump with a best of 36-8.25. Alice Sotelo of Sterling is the next closest with a 36-6.25 effort.

Madelyn Bishop of Rockford Boylan put a personal best of 43-1 to lead all qualifiers after the preliminaries in the Shot Put. Madison Swope of Carbondale also had a personal best of 42-6.75 in second less than a foot behind. Claire Allen of Sandwich led all qualifiers after the preliminary round of the Discus with a 130-7.75 throw. Desire Poole of East St. Louis-Senior is a foot behind in second (129-5.5).