The do-it-alls

The revolutionary nature of girls track and field has reached to new heights locally in recent years.

Even with the premature departure of Casey Short -- who elected to rejoin the Naperville Central soccer team for her senior year -- and the graduation of fellow Class AA two-event state champion Elge Staisiunaite, few coaches can recall a period of such rich diversity in the sport.

"We are in such a hotbed of talent right here with the western suburbs and the Fox Valley," Wheaton Warrenville South coach Rob Harvey said. "You put any athlete in any event around here and they're going to compete."

The elite level for state track has three traditional powers in terms of enrichment, ingenuity and innovation.

The success of East St. Louis, Morgan Park and Evanston is undeniable, but challenges are rapidly encroaching.

Barrington ended the four-year state championship reign by Evanston last spring at Eastern Illinois' O'Brien Stadium in Charleston, and the Fillies are poised for another state knockout in coming weeks.

The Fillies' suburban brethren to the south have taken notice, and further claims to state legitimacy by local powers are being heard.

It is fueled by trends once reserved for high school icons such as Jackie Joyner, Alex Anderson and Shalina Clarke.

"You used to see it with the East. St. Louises, the Morgan Parks, the Evanstons," said Naperville Central coach Mike Stine, where the three immortals forged their respective identities. "I think we're more aware of it because we have more of them in our back yard right now."

Harvey referred to them as "the prototypical athletes"; other coaches employ such words as "anomalies."

But there is one source of commonality that has sparked the sport in local circles: the ascension of an athlete who defies classification.

The 'anomalies'

Waubonsie Valley junior Shakeia Pinnick and Benet sophomore McKinzie Schulz are cases in point, and not simply because they secured national age-group championships last summer.

Two weeks ago at the Glenbard East Invitational, Schulz competed in the following four events: the 800 run, the 300 hurdles, the 1,600 and anchored the Redwings' 1,600 relay.

"I knew I was going to do that (sequence) at some meet," said Schulz, who is internationally ranked in the 2,000-meter steeplechase after winning the American title for 15- and 16-year-olds. "It really wasn't that bad. It's an interesting combination of events."

"(Schulz) came up to me before the meet and her response was, 'If I don't do (the sequence) now, when am I going to do it?' " Benet coach Scott Brooks said. "There isn't anything, maybe outside of the shot (put), that (Schulz) couldn't do well in."

The Redwings' Kelsey Ontko approximates the time-honored tradition of combining sprinting and jumping, and the senior is a top threat in the long jump and 100 meters.

"Ontko is in such good shape," Brooks said. "Yeah, Kelsey is very talented, but that kid has worked 12 months a year to be that good of a sprinter. I have to plead with her not to have two workouts a day."

Pinnick, on the other hand, is the epitome of the all-around athlete whose versatility is at the core of the transcending current generation of stars.

"(Pinnick) is just ridiculous," Brooks said. "I don't know if I've ever seen a kid in the area that good."

"Think about it," Harvey said. "If they put (Pinnick) in seven events (at the state meet), I wouldn't be surprised to see her score in every one: the 100, the 100 hurdles, the 200, the 300 hurdles, the 800, the long jump and the high jump. It's a good thing for us (other coaches) that (Waubonsie Valley coach Jim Braun) can only run her in four events."

Waubonsie Valley senior Toni Ogundare can make similar arguments to be thought of in the same vein; the Illinois-Chicago bound runner won the 800 meters at indoor state and is also a top threat in such disparate events as the high jump and the 1,600 meters.

"I think all of these kids are phenomenally talented athletes," Brooks said. "For Ogundare to be one of the best milers and high jumpers in the state shows that.

"It's getting to the point where you have to get that good to compete athletically in the state."

Why now?

Theories abound for the emergence of athletes who compete in unconventional sequences of events.

"We're getting better coaching, and that allows the athletes to have a greater range of events," Braun said. "I don't think I will ever see someone with a greater range than (Pinnick) has. 'Keia is special."

"Athletes are athletes, and they can do anything they want (on the track or in the field)," Harvey said. "There are a lot of different factors (for the trend): the environment and the expectation level are very important."

"A lot of it is kids making themselves marketable to colleges," Glenbard South coach Mark Tacchi said. "We really have our share of great track in this area. Short could have done anything. Pick your poison with (Pinnick). We don't see her very often, but we all know when she is around."

In an era where specialization and the attendant demise of the multiple-sport athlete have invoked dismay, track and field continues its dual role of individual expression within a team concept.

"The other kids want to get where these kids are," Harvey said. "But they don't always know what it takes to get there."

As an equally compelling corollary and model, there has been a fundamental shift in emphasis, according to two area coaches.

Being creative

Naperville North coach Chuck Hoff has had a stable of talented and diverse athletes in recent years, and the biggest change has been in identifying the featured race for nurturing talent and expanding horizons.

"More than any other time, coaches are being more creative," Hoff said. "All the programs are starting to catch up with the idea of your mid-level sprinters becoming 800 runners. It used to be the 400. I think that is what is happening more: you are stretching the sprinters more. It's easier than having a distance runner run faster."

"I absolutely agree (with Hoff)," Brooks said. "That's really what the 800 has turned into -- a controlled sprint. You're seeing that at the highest levels, at the Olympics, and it's filtering down to high schools. If you train for the 800, you train for both ends of the spectrum."

Harvey, however, is not necessarily sold on the concept.

"I don't know if we've come that far yet," he said. "We have always focused our program on the 400 and gone up and down from there."

It is an enduring element of sport that its essential characteristics are immune from time, and competition endures.

"The sectional around here is always about making the time (the state-qualifying distances and heights for automatic inclusion regardless of finish)," Brooks said.

Last year at the West Aurora sectional, there were 38 individuals or relay squads who met the state standards in their respective events.

The combined 74 state qualifiers from West Aurora dwarfed the other 15 Class AA sectionals.

"It's pretty much like running the state meet at our sectional," Neuqua Valley coach Gretchen Parejko said. "It makes you better as a team."

As if the field were not deep enough at Waubonsie Valley next Friday, Glenbard South and Wheaton Warrenville South have been added to the mix.

"I would rather be in a very tough sectional," Harvey said. "Track sectionals are all about running the time. Our kids welcome the challenge."