Homewood-Flossmoor sets new IHSA meet record in 4x100 Meter Relay prelims; Prospect, Homewood-Flossmoor set for showdown in team championship.

By Michael Newman

Charleston, Ill – Homewood-Flossmoor made a big statement in the final heat of the 4x100 Meter Relay Friday afternoon in the Class 3A prelims at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Field. Prospect’s quartet had just run a then a prelim leading time of 46.48 and were standing on the sideline collecting their gear to stop to watch the race. What they saw was that Homewood-Flossmoor’s quartet of London Willingham, Mariyah Robinson, London Jarrett, and Aniya Mullins ran a new state meet record time of 45.91 to become the first Illinois team to run under 46 seconds. Prospect just walked out of the stadium knowing that Saturday was another day.

Prospect put themselves in a good position to win back-to-back state titles advancing 11 qualifiers to Saturday’s finals to lead all qualifiers. Homewood-Flossmoor had some bumps in the road including not advancing their state leading 4x200 Meter Relay to the finals. The Vikings advanced nine qualifiers to the Saturday finals but just the one relay. Prospect advanced all four of their quartets. Whitney Young advanced eight but their 4x100 Meter Relay, There were several schools that qualified seven to Saturday including Plainfield North who advanced all four relays, Huntley with Dominique Johnsson leading both horizontal jumps, Lake Zurich, and St. Ignatius College Prep also qualifying seven.

Homewood-Flossmoor title hopes came to a giant pause in the final heat of the 4x200 Meter Relay where the opening handoff between Londan Willingham and Khloe Daniels was not completed as the Vikings did not finish the race. Homewood-Flossmoor will rely on Mariyah Robinson who qualified in all three sprint races including having the top time in the 400 Meter Dash. Prospect has some questions to answer as they will attempt to run to their fifth straight title in the 4x800 Meter Relay, The Knights did not run Mary Laba and Meg Peterson in their qualifying heat but advanced.

All three-distance events in the Class 3A prelims ran just two heats to qualify for the finals. 29 runners had a made it to state with one runner scratching out of their heat. IHSA Meet management before had run 14-15 in runners in each heat, so this was not unusual. The IHSA debated to run three heats as they have had in the past but decided to the two heats. It provided disastrous in the 800 Meter Run.

The first heat went out fast the leaders passing the first lap at 67 seconds with all 13 runners right together as they entered the back straight. Attempts to move towards the front as a lot of bumping occurred. Mai Forystek of Lincoln Way Central had her heels clipped as she lost balance and knocked into one of the event favorites Keira Jenke of Benet Academy crashed to the track forcing her out of the race ending her junior season. An emotional Natalie Nahs of Minooka won the first heat running a personal best of 2:13.85 to automatically make it to the finals. The sophomore disclosed after the race that she had lost her grandmother two days before and was running with a heavy heart.

There was a delay of about 10 minutes so that officials could attend to Jenke on the track. A few of those runners saw what happened and began thinking if it could happen during their race. “When I saw that there would be only two heats, I thought that would be crazy with so many good runners,” Lola Satre-Morales of Naperville Central said afterwards. “I was shaken during the delay, but I stuck to my plan and everything worked out okay. Satre-Morales had missed making it to the finals by spot last year. She made up for it running a personal best of 2:11.59 to win and pick up the auto qualifier.

15 runners in that second heat almost caused another accident. The list leader running into this meet Meg Peterson almost went down to the track when she was bumped. “I almost went down at around the same spot,” Peterson said after her race. “I kept my balance and was able to finish and qualify. That was the main thing that mattered. Peterson ran 2:14.11 to finish second with teammate Mary Laba running 2:14.16 to finish third.

Here are highlights of all events in the Friday afternoon Class 3A prelim session. The 3200 Meter Run will be run in a two-section timed final on Saturday.

Track Events

4x800 Meter Relay - Barrington used Mia Sirois on the second leg in the opening heat. Sirois put the Fillies back into contention with a strong 2:17 split. Scout Storms anchored her team to the win (9:19.00) finishing ahead of Glenbard West (9:22.15) and Chicago Lane (9:24.32). Five teams qualified out of that heat. St Charles North stormed away with a strong anchor leg from Julia Rodney to run a prelim leading 9:13.36 to win the second heat. Five of the top six prelim times came from that race with Plainfield North (9:14.95), Lincoln-Way Central (9:15.25), Lake Zurich (9:17.23), and Prospect (9:18.59) close behind. Wheaton-Warrenville South ran a season’s best of 9:28.81 but just missed qualifying by .37 hundredths of a second.

4x100 Meter Relay – Homewood-Flossmoor’s record run led all qualifiers to lead this event. Prospect ran 46.48 to win the fourth heat ahead of Belleville East (47.35) and O’Fallon (47.80). Plainfield North won the third heat (46.66). Kankakee (46.94) and Oak Park-River Forest (48.16) were the other heat winners.

100 Meter Hurdles – Daisha Brunson of Conant for the first time this year ran the 100 Meter Hurdles and the 100 Meter Dash. She did that double on Friday with plenty of success. Brunson, in the third heat, 14.12 into a headwind to lead all nine runners to the finals. Aisha Kazeem of Palatine ran 14.29 to finish second. Amy Carhee of Schaumburg ran 14.35 to win the fourth heat. Nkeoma Nwachukwu of Sandburg ran 4.40 to win the second heat just ahead of Kyla Motley of Shepard (14.53). Sophia Shapiro of Edwardsville (14.44) and Kyra Hayden of Lincoln-Way East (14.63) were the other heat winners.

100 Meter Dash – This is one of the fastest events in the history of the IHSA Girls State were the ninth fastest time was 11.85. Three runners ran under 12 seconds and did not qualify for the finals. Angelena Bullocks of Whitney Young was on Friday during the prelims leading the nine advancing runners as she had a time of 11.47 in the sixth and final section. Rayna Raglin of Alton ran 11.66 to win the fifth section. Mariya Robinson of Homewood-Flossmoor qualified for her first individual final running 11.67 to win the fifth heat. Daisha Brunson had only 10 minutes to recover for this race. She still made the finals running a personal best (11.73) to win the third heat. Kee’Lani Whitlock of Kenwood also ran a personal best of 11.79 to win the second heat. Samaya Butler-Batista of Jones College Prep was a surprise winner in the first heat (12.12). Aniya Mullins of Homewood-Flossmoor (11.77), Maliyah Miller of St. Ignatius College Prep (11.84), and Taylor McClain of Plainfield North (11.85) were the other time qualifiers.

4x200 Meter Relay – Plainfield North led all qualifiers running 1:37.79 to win the fourth heat. Prospect in the second heat ran 1:39.00 to win. Kankakee ran 1:39.30 to win the third heat. Belleville East (1:40.63) and Kenwood (1:40.46) were the other heat winners.

400 Meter Dash – The expected repeated showdown in this event between Mariyah Robinson and Alaina Steele of Lincoln-Way East should have the fans to their heats. The two had the top two times to win their respective heats. Robinson looked comfortable in running 55.29 to win the fifth heat. Steele in the fourth heat ran 55.56 for her win. Naomi Bey-Osborne of Kanakee ran 55/70 to win the third heat. Oak Park-River Forest’s Julia Brown (55.83) and Isabella Brauc (57.21) were the other heat winners.

300 Meter Hurdles – Defending champion in this event Aisha Kazeem of Palatine did what she needed to do to make the finals. The senior ran a state leading 42.65 to win the fourth heat. Sophia Shapiro of Edwardsville missed all her freshman season made her second finals of the meet. The sophomore ran 43.36 to win the third heat. Sophia Dalrymple of Wheaton North (43.56) and Tori-Robinson-Thomas of Proviso East (43.73) were the other heat winners.

1600 Meter Run – Ali Londrigan of Chatham-Glenwood ran a personal best of 4:52.49 to win the first hear ahead of Allison Shutler of St, Ignatius College Prep (4:53.70), Marie Czarniewski of Plainfield North, and Lily Baibak of Waubonsie Valley who were the only other qualifiers in that heat. Eight runners advanced out of the second heat led by defending 3200 Meter Run champion Mia Sirois of Barrington who won the race (4:52.76) ahead of Annika Swan of St. Ignatius College Prep (4:53.32), Maya Ledesma of Minooka (4:55.68), and Jane Lynch of Loyola Academy (4:56.83).

200 Meter Dash – Angelena Bullocks set the standard in this event running 23.73 to win the third heat. Heat winners Mariyah Robinson (23.80) and Daisha Brunson (23.93) were the only other runners to run under 24 seconds. Rayna Raglin (24.20) and Kee’Lani Whitlock (24.29) were the other heat winners.

4x400 Meter Relay – Belleville East ran a state leading time of 3:50.06 to win the third heat. Plainfield North (3:50.46), Prospect (3:51.48), Lincoln-Way-East (3:52.97), and Kankakee (3:54.46) were the heat winners. Homewood-Flossmoor ran 3:55.70 but missed the finals by 37 hundredths of a second.

Field Events

Long Jump – Dominque Johnson of Huntley had a great Friday in the jumps leading both events. Johnson jumped 19-2.75 to lead all athletes in the event ahead of Gabi Karvelis of Neuqua Valley (18-8) and Sophia Dalrymple (18-4.50).

Triple Jump – Johnson and Karvelis were 1-2 also in this event. Johnson’s jump of 40-1 is less than a foot ahead of Karvelis who jumped a personal best of 39-6.75 to place her in second. Courtney Burt of Whitney You had a best of 39-4.50 to place her in third.

Shot Put – Courtney Clabaugh of Yorkville achieved a season’s best of 42 to claim the lead in the prelims. Jaloni Wiley of Homewood-Flossmoor also had a season’s best of 41-7.75 to place her in second. Natassja Bowman is currently in third (41-2.50).

Discus – Freshman Arisa Bisofa of Lake Zurich threw a state leading 147-10 to lead after the prelims. Joi Story of Edwardsville (138-11) and Alice Kotelnikov of Lake Zurich (136-4) are second and third.

16 athletes advanced to the finals of the Pole Vault. 15 athletes advanced to the finals of the High Jump.