Cary-Grove's Loeffel easing her way back

Carly Loeffel realizes she has to be patience with her progress.

The Cary-Grove junior, who is still healing from a stress fracture in her tibia, claimed top honors in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 4 inches Thursday at the McHenry County Meet held at Crystal Lake Central.

The running events will take place Friday at 5 p.m. at CL Central.

"I realize the progress with my injury will be slow," said Loeffel. "I am not peaking yet and I am building up to the conference meet and the sectional meet. It has been a long season, but I feel awesome right now."

Cary-Grove, which leads after 6 events with 38 points, also got a second-place effort from Kelly McCoy in the long jump. Beth Somers (long jump) and Lizzy Dyrek (shot put) garnered third-place finishes.

Huntley's Amy Fanella claimed her second straight triple jump title with a leap of 36-1.

"I was happy I jumped 36 feet tonight and I was consistent with my jumps," said Fanella. "I want to get to 37 feet, but I was happy I got some points for my team."

Huntley, which is fourth with a score of 24 points, also got a first-place finish from Sarah Sheehan in the pole vault. Sheehan vaulted 9-6 to take top honors.

Crystal Lake South is right behind Huntley in fifth place with 16 points. The Gators' top finishers were Lexi Dahl (pole vault) and Kamile Udrenaite (discus), who each took third-place honors.

Jacobs was 10th with 7 points led by a third-place finish from Bethany Muscat in the high jump.