Girls track: Neuqua Valley, WW South together again
Neuqua Valley and Wheaton Warrenville South are finding it hard to avoid each other around girls track meets this spring. It happened again Friday night.
The Wildcats and Tigers, with one event left at the Neuqua Valley Invitational, found themselves separated by just ¼ point.
Neuqua Valley won the 1,600-meter relay to pass the Tigers for second place, finishing with 95 points. WW South finished third with 86¼ points. Powerful Minooka won the title with 115½ points.
"This is awesome competition," Neuqua Valley coach Gretchen Parejko said. "Wheaton Warrenville South (coach Rob Harvey) and I always laugh, we're at so many meets and we're always in the hunt together. And Minooka is so strong in the distance races, we can't touch them. But just a wonderful group of people."
"Minooka is a great team," Harvey added. "They are loaded in everything. And Neuqua Valley, we've been battling them all year. We tied at indoor (DuPage Valley Conference), they beat us by a couple of points last week at Wheaton North. You have great teams here. Oswego East was a trophy team (tying for third at state) last year."
The Wildcats were in position to place second because of performances like they had in the 400 dash, where MiKenna Robinson and Lizzie McCadd placed 1-2. Robinson and McCadd also ran the 1,600 relay along with Corinna Pena and Maggie Bender.
"They did a great job up there," Parejko said. "A wonderful job."
They weren't alone. Glynis Padilla won the high jump.
"They really are coming together very strong as a team," Parejko said. "It's nice to see that they don't just depend on one group of people or one person."
The Tigers are similar like that. They had their a few champions also despite, like other teams, sitting some of their top athletes due to the chilly temperatures.
Claire Haas won the 300 low hurdles almost two seconds faster than her previous personal best. Alexis Correa, Emily Gilligan, Mykaila Gentry-Humphrey and Isabella Hennage combined to win the 800 relay.
"We're a team of no superstars, and that's a team," Harvey said. "Different people step up every week. When I try to highlight somebody, it's like I'm forgetting three or four other people that stepped up too."
Waubonsie Valley placed fourth with 75 points, Benet was fifth at 52 and Oswego East took sixth at 48. Metea Valley placed eighth with 41½ but state-champion thrower Courtney Morgan did not compete.
Waubonsie Valley's Rikki Stevenson won the 100 dash in 12.76 seconds and ran on the winning 400 relay team. The Warriors' Brooklyne Wilson won the shot put and placed second in the discus, and Cami Robinson won the triple jump.
Benet's Ali Munson won the pole vault at 12 feet, 6 inches.