Huntley's Amy Fanella keeps things low-key
Huntley junior Amy Fanella laughs in the face of pressure.
The outgoing 17-year old from Lake in the Hills says getting too wound up doesn't help her perform in her track and field events, so she prefers to keep things on the lighter side. That is precisely how Fanella intends to handle her third trip to the girls state meet at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Stadium, where preliminaries take place today in Class 3A and 2A.
"It's better to joke about things than to be all serious because when you get serious you get nervous," Fanella said. "I try to keep it loose, but when it's actually time to compete I'm always, like, freaking out."
Fanella qualified in four events for the Class 3A meet: the triple jump, 100-meter high hurdles, 300-meter low hurdles and the 1,600-meter relay.
A caravan of nine Red Raiders made the trip to Charleston, including two relay teams and an alternate. The alternate may come into play if Fanella bows out of the relay, which she said will depend on how she feels when she runs this morning.
Her best events are the 300 hurdles and the triple jump. Fanella has set the goal of making it to the finals for the first time in one of her top events, particularly the 300 hurdles. That is the event she has focused on since her freshman season and has qualified for the state meet in for three straight seasons.
Her sectional time in the 300 hurdles was 45.92, which places her 11th on the list of state qualifiers.
However, that event was run into the teeth of a 30 mph wind at the sectional. If Fanella runs like she did at the McHenry County meet in late April, she would likely realize her goal of making it to the Saturday finals. Fanella set the McHenry County meet record in 45.40, a time that would rank her No. 6 among state qualifiers.
Her winning leap of 36 feet, 10 inches at the Huntley sectional is the fourth best among state qualifiers, and her 100 hurdles time of 15.29 ranks her 12th.
In order to compete for a position in the finals this season, the year-round athlete underwent speed training at Going Vertical in Huntley last summer, which was only the start of a busy year of athletics. Fanella also competed in summer volleyball with her team and played defensive middle back on the Huntley volleyball team last fall. During the winter she played volleyball in the Sky-High club program.
"I love sports and my parents like me to be in sports," said Fanella, who competed in gymnastics until eighth grade. "When gymnastics was done I tried a lot of different things. I tried track and I liked it. As a freshman I ended up going to state in the 300 hurdles, so I thought I would keep with it."
Last year Fanella qualified in three events: 300 hurdles, triple jump and the 1,600 relay. She said her first two trips to O'Brien Stadium should help alleviate the nerves many athletes experience when they walk into the EIU football facility for the first time.
"My freshman year I was extremely nervous because it was like, 'Wow, this is really big.' I wasn't down there to go to the finals. I was just down there for the experience, but I was still really nervous. Then my sophomore year I was just happy that I was going down.
"This year I'm getting really anxious because it's serious and I'm focused. I have a bunch of mixed feelings. I feel that being down there before will make it easier for me because I know what I have to do. I know where I have to go to warm up, I know where I have to check in, I know how it all goes. I'm not going to be trying to figure out what I'm doing.
"I know what I have to do. Now it's just a matter of doing it."
Other area qualifiers: Becca Cronin (Bartlett) in the 300 hurdles. Cronin's time of 45.34 was the fifth best time in at sectionals statewide; triple jumpers Cronin, Fatima Diabate (Elgin), Katie Cutinello and Megan McGlone (Streamwood); 100 High hurdlers Ali Durkin (Jacobs) and Kelly McCoy (Cary-Grove); Alyssa Schneider (Bartlett) and Marianne Collard (CL South) in the 1,600 run. Schneider, a sophomore, has the sixth-best time among state qualifiers, 5:10.74; High jumper Kelly McCoy (Cary-Grove) cleared 5-3 at the sectional. The top height statewide was 5-6; 800 runners Brittney Whitehead (Larkin) and Lindsay Young (Cary-Grove). Young rebounded from an injury as a sophomore to qualify for state as a junior; sophomore Carly Loeffel (Cary-Grove), senior Denita Brown (Huntley) and junior Christina Holec (Dundee-Crown) in the 400-meter dash; Alexis Wells of Crystal Lake South is a double qualifier in the 100 and 200; long jumper Asia Bowman (Cary-Grove); discus thrower Courtney Wilkerson (Huntley); Crystal Lake South will compete in the 3,200-meter relay and Huntley will run in the 1,600-meter relay.