Girls track and field: South Elgin takes Larkin Invite

A month ago, Tushebra Crump stepped in to lead the South Elgin girls track and field team, as head coach Jorie Bartholomew went on maternity leave. Crump's message was simple.

"I told them from Day One we're going to be working hard," she said. "A lot of you are right there at the cusp of making it downstate and I'm going to push you, and I need you to come with me."

Her charges are responding, as South Elgin cruised to the title of the Larkin Royal Invite Tuesday with 174 points. The Storm racked up 9 first-place finishes, but also got enough critical second- (3) and third-place finishes (5) to prevail.

Host Larkin was second in team standings with 122 points, while Elgin was third (101).

South Elgin was led by senior Bridgette Williams, who won both the shot put (34 feet, 10-¼ inches) and discus (95-4½). She also anchored the 400-meter relay that won in 52.05 seconds.

"Crumpy came in and kept the same intensity that Coach B had," Williams said. "She definitely prepared us these past couple of weeks in practice to win this meet. We came to do business."

South Elgin also won the 800 relay (1:56.9) and 1,600 relay (4:24.78), while Lorraine Toussaint took the 400 dash in 1:02.9. Other individual winners for the Storm included Emalee Smith in the triple jump (31-11½); Sam Czuprynski in the 800 (2:30.4) and Jasmin Duncan in the 100 hurdles (17.31).

Fittingly, Larkin was led on Senior Night by senior Izzy Orozco, who won the 300 hurdles in 50.86. She also took third in the 100 hurdles (19.5) and ran the lead leg in the 800 relay that took second in 2:01.4.

But Larkin got 7 runner-up finishes, which speaks to the program depth that's growing under coach Brandie Burgess.

"We were struggling for numbers at the beginning of the season, and getting the girls to stick with the program can be a hard sell," she said. "For the second year in a row, we're 40 girls strong heading into the end of the season."

Two of Elgin's 3 first-place finishes came from freshman distance runner Kasey Moreno, who led off the meet by winning the 3,200 in 13.28.9. Much later, she paced teammate Anali Cisneros most of the way in the 1,600 before winning in 5:49.9. Cisneros was the runner-up in 5:52.5.

Another solid all-around performance came from St. Edward's Bella Uscila, who won the 100 (12.66), 200 (26.78) and the long jump (15-10½). What's her secret?

"That's my coach, and that's my dad," she said, gesturing in their direction. "They're definitely the ones that help me do this, but honestly, I just go all out."

Sophie Danner paced Westminster Christian by taking second in the 300 hurdles (53.92).