Crystal Lake South takes first girls track setional title
A great fitting pair of Schuhs helped Crystal Lake South run away with the first girls track sectional title in school history Saturday.
Twin sisters Aimee and Kellie Schuh individually provided the Gators with 36 of their 98 points and sophomore Kristina Aubert provided 20 more by sweeping the 3,200 and 1,600 races to lead the Gators to a 34-point margin over Huntley at the Class AA Huntley sectional.
"Once again the girls did so well," CL South coach Christy Tenopir said. "We asked them to do better than they were seeded and they did as well if not better."
Aimee Schuh won the 110-meter low hurdles (15.22) and the long jump (16 feet, 7½ inches), while Kellie placed second in the 300 intermediate hurdles (45.08) and second in the pole vault (10-6) behind Sarah Ross of Jacobs (11-06).
Aimee was also a member of CL South's qualifying relays at 800 meters (1:46.22) and 1,600 (4:00.64). Kellie ran the third leg of the 1,600.
The afternoon was gratifying for Aimee Schuh, who fractured a bone in her foot last year in the same meet. The senior nipped Freeport junior Suporia Dickens in the 100 hurdles, 15.22 seconds to 15.69.
"I was very, very nervous," Aimee Schuh said of the race. "I know Suporia is really fast. I knew she was the main competition. I'm so happy. It's just an amazing way to end my senior year. After state, we're done with school."
Jacobs' Ross was one of the sectional's biggest winners. The senior won the pole vault by clearing 11-6 on her first attempt, she won the 100 dash in 12.72 seconds, a shade faster than Huntley's Coryn Marzejon (12.73), and she finished second in the 200 (25.48) to Freeport's Kiara Pearson (25.46) in the closest finish of the day.
"I definitely wanted to qualify in four events," Ross said. "Getting first in three of them was just extra."
Ross and her Jacobs 400 relay teammates, Krystal Grady, Katt Fossander and Ali Durkin, were ecstatic to win the sectional with a new personal record of 49.96 seconds, bettering the quartet's previous best of 50.89.
"We worked on our handoffs all week," Ross said. "That's where that second came off."
Huntley's Marzejon and Amy Fanella were also three-event qualifiers.
Marzejon won the 400 (58.90) and took second in the 100 (12.73). Rather than run the 200, she helped Huntley 1,600-meter relay teammates Emily Konior, Fanella and Denita Brown advance to state in a qualifying time of 4:05.26.
Fanella also qualified in the 300 hurdles (46.50) and the triple jump (35-9). Huntley's Krissy Bergquist made it to state in the triple jump with a successful final attempt of 35-7¼.
"That was scary," Bergquist said. "I knew I had one more chance and I was like, 'I don't care! I'm doing it!' "
Prairie Ridge senior Danielle Lebreck, a three-time state qualifier previously, won the 800 meter race (2:18.30) and qualified in the 1,600 (5:17.40). Lebreck edged Cary-Grove's Madeline Aufmann (2:18.62) for the sectional title in the 800.
Cary-Grove also qualified sophomore Kelly McCoy in the high jump (5-05).