Girls track: DuPage County athletes cross first hurdle
CHARLESTON - Halle Bieber and Karyn Best lived up to their end of the bargain on the opening day of the girls track and field state finals Friday at Eastern Illinois University.
Bieber and Best were the respective state champions in the Class 3A and 2A 300-meter hurdles last spring.
Friday at O'Brien Stadium, Bieber added to her impressive resume by winning both preliminary heats of the 100 hurdles and the 300 hurdles. Best also easily advanced in both hurdles events.
But the two had decidedly ambivalent reactions to extending their seasons to the final day.
"Definitely not happy," said Best, who qualified in respective times of 15.15 and 44.54 seconds. "I messed up in both races."
But Bieber won her two preliminaries in 14.46 and 44.93.
"We worked a lot on the 100 hurdles this year," Bieber said. "A couple of weeks ago, I was still working on my 100 hurdles - trying to work on my steps."
Naperville North has yet to taste defeat in a team competition this season. The Huskies, third last year, are poised for another trophy run.
Senior sprinter Allison Grady anchored the 1,600 relay to the first prelim championship in program history after earlier qualifying for a second straight year in the 800 relay in the same slot.
"We felt really strong today," said Grady, who was augmented by Halle Bieber, Annie Bieber, Saffilla Allie and Claire Hill in the two events. "We had to get in that mindset that it was (to qualify) in both today."
The Huskies' 3:55.26 time in the longer relay was the best of the day. Naperville North will also have its distance mavens on full display Saturday.
Indiana-bound senior Sarah Schmitt clocked the third-fastest 1,600 run in 4:51.82 for the Huskies.
Schmitt and Alex Morris are also seeded second and fourth in the 3,200 run, which does not have a preliminary.
"The biggest challenge is going to be physical, but you can't focus on that," Schmitt said of her Saturday schedule. "I signed up for (the 3,200) - and that's what I'm doing."
But Glenbard West sophomore Katelynne Hart could personally impact the team title in a significant fashion.
Hart is a prohibitive favorite in the 3,200 run after the defending state champion ran the fastest time - 9:52.02 - any 16-year-old girl has in the history of the nation earlier this season.
Hart, who powered the Hilltoppers' state championship last year by also winning the 1,600, was a few steps slower - 4:50.46 to 4:51.79 - than Evanston North Carolina-bound senior Enyaeva Michelin in the opposite 1,600 heat.
"I just tried to get out of the pack," Hart said of her strategy. "There was some congestion in the first 100 (meters). It is a little bit different between the prelims and the finals."
Neuqua Valley has two special athletes in MiKenna Robinson and Riley Ammenhauser.
The latter is a leading favorite in the 800 after winning her heat in 2:14.07.
Ammenhauser is one of four local athletes in the top five in the triple jump after the freshman continued her remarkable streak of breaking 40 feet (by a quarter-inch) to take the first-day lead.
"My strategy was to win my heat so that I would automatically qualify," said Robinson, who also is a finalist in the 200 dash.
The 3,200 relay approximates a neighborhood get-together as Hinsdale Central, Downers South, Glenbard East, Naperville North, Benet and York are top contenders.
"The relays are great as you have the teammates to support you," Glenbard East Wisconsin-bound senior Cailyn Biegalski said.