In the long run, Glenbard South wins again
As a Glenbard South freshman Caroline Arlasky thought she was a sprinter.
As a senior Arlasky will go to the state track and field meet in the sport's longest race, the 3,200 meters.
"I didn't think I could run distance," she said after Friday night's Class 2A Glenbard South sectional. "I said, Oh, that's too far. Then my friend kind of made me do cross country and ever since then I've loved it."
Arlasky got out to a big lead so quickly, it seemed she had been given a 50-meter head start.
"I knew I had a pretty good head start when I went out there, but I was just hoping I could keep my pace," Arlasky said. "I didn't really get the time that I wanted, but I'm glad to get some points for my team and help us get our sixth sectional championship in a row."
Glenbard South won its sixth straight sectional by scoring 122 points to edge Trinity (114) and Montini (111). Timothy Christian took fourth with 51.
"It makes me really happy, honestly, because we lot a lot of good people last year, so I didn't know how we were going to do," Arlasky said. "A lot of girls stepped it up this year, and it felt really good."
"It's a nice thing," Raiders coach Mark Tacchi added about No. 6. "The kids obviously as a team outperformed the other teams. But at the end of the night, trying to get those qualifiers down, I get a little greedy. I think any coach gets a little greedy. Our (1,600 relay) didn't make it, so that was a little disappointing."
Arlasky still will have plenty of company in Charleston.
Mercedes Whitaker placed second in the discus and shot put, and the 400, 800 and 3,200 relay teams all qualified by placing second. Kate Rumel won the pole vault, with teammate Libby Kohout second. Becca Sippel earned a spot by winning the 1,600.
"She's just a tough kid," Tacchi said of Sippel.
Like Arlasky, Sippel started as a sprinter her freshman season before Tacchi convinced both to switch.
"I said, girls, it's not that I don't want you or don't think you can help us, it's that I think you can help our distance," Tacchi said. "That was freshman year. They've gone on to be all-staters in cross (country), and hopefully they have a shot at it next weekend in Charleston to do the same thing in track. We're excited for those two girls. Four-year seniors. It's hard to say goodbye to those kids."
Montini got the running finals started with a big win in the 3,200-meter relay. Madeline Jamrozek, Jenna Wiedacher, Emma Makowski and Gianna Salzbrunn won in 9:38.89 to qualify for next weekend's state meet at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
"This has been something that we have been working for, for literally the four years that I've been here. I'm a senior," Jamrozek said. "It's kind of all coming together now, which is really exciting based on all the hard work we've been doing since the summer."
Jamrozek also qualified on the winning 400 relay and won the open 400.
This will be Jamrozek's third year going downstate.
"My sophomore year I thought it was going to be this whole different thing and I had to prepare so much for it," she said. "Last year and this year I really realized that you're constantly preparing for it every single day, every single week. It's constant preparation and by the time you get there you're ready."
Salzbrunn qualified in four events, adding the 1,600 relay, long jump and 300 hurdles to the 3,200 relay.
Timothy Christian had its best showing in the 800 relay. Olivia Hoekstra, Zoe Stanton, Hannah Slager and Hannah Bosman won in 1:47.81 despite entering the race with the fourth-best seed time.
"That's a team that we actually threw together in the middle of the season this year," Trojans coach Kevin Hackert said, agreeing the victory was a shocker. "We got a hurdler (Slager) in there that was never on the sprint relay, we've got a miler (Bosman), a half-miler (Stanton) that's never been on sprints. But we decided to look at where our best athletes could meet, and it seemed to be the 4x2. So they've really only run that race three times together now."
Bosman also took second in the triple jump.
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