Burlington Central, Cary-Grove have high state hopes
Two programs with long-standing traditions of bringing home medals from the IHSA girls track and field state finals hope to continue leaving Charleston with hardware this weekend when the state finals commence for three classes at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Field.
And while Burlington Central’s contingent in the Class 2A meet is smaller than in years past, Rockets’ coach Vince Neil is confident that all four of his girls could qualify for Saturday’s finals and possibly bring home a medal.
“We don’t have the amount of qualifiers we’ve had in years past,” Neil said, “but what we do have we think has a pretty good shot of getting to Saturday.”
The Rockets’ highest seeded runner is senior Alexa Tovsen in the 300-meter low hurdles. Tovsen’s 46.11 sectional time was the sixth best in the state with Chicago Lindblom’s Shamier Little’s 44.82 the best. BC also has a shot with junior Kayla Wolf in the open 800. She finished 10th at state last year and is the only Rocket of the four in Charleston this weekend who made it to Saturday a year ago. Her 2:19.43 at sectional is about the middle of the pack, with East Peoria senior Emma Preston running a 2:16.57 to lead the way, but Neil is expecting a faster Wolf on the blue tartan of EIU.
Another Rocket hopeful is senior Autumn Conn in the pole vault. She went 10 feet, 9 inches at sectionals but may have to increase that by up to a foot to medal this weekend. The state’s best sectional vault was 13 feet by Bloomington Central Catholic’s Sarah Bell, a full 12 inches better than No. 2 seed Chelsea Bingham of Effingham.
Central junior Brenda Thasavong also qualified in the high jump at 4-10. Molly McGraw of Bloomington Central Catholic and Petersburg Porta’s Stacey Sinclair had the state’s best sectional jump at 5-6.
“Wolf will run faster, Conn has gone 12 feet before, we expect Tovsen to do well, and Brenda can go at least 5-1, which should put her the finals,” said Neil. “Our goal is to put everything out there (today). These are good kids who work hard and I think they’re going to do well down there.”
Hampshire will be represented in the Class 2A meet by junior Ashley Fouch, whose 25.96 sectional time in the 200 makes her the No. 8 seed. The Whip-Purs also qualified their 800 relay team.
In Class 3A, Cary-Grove coach Mark Anderson is also hopeful his state competitors can continue the Trojans’ tradition of winning medals at state. And while C-G might not have a state championship threat as it did last year when Carly Loeffel won the gold medal in the high jump, the Trojans do have a shot at bringing home some hardware again.
“The tradition we’ve built is one the girls are proud of and they want to continue it this weekend,” Anderson said.
Cary-Grove’s best medal shots would appear to be senior Kathie Wollney in the low hurdles and senior Sarah Ryan in the 100 and 200. Wollney had the state’s fourth fastest sectional time in the hurdles at 44.48. The event looks to ultra competitive with a 42.18 by Evanston’s Margaret Bamgbose the fastest sectional time. Ryan ran a 12.32 in the 100 and a 25.40 in the 200. She’ll need to cut a half second to second off each of those times to contend for the title.
The Trojans also qualified their 3,200, 800, 1.600 and 400 relay teams as well as junior Joslyn Nicholson in the triple jump.
“We had a terrible handoff at sectionals in the 4 x 1,” Anderson said. “Hopefully we can fix that and cut our time.”
Other are participants in the Class 3A finals include second-seeded senior Allie Virgilio of Jacobs in the triple jump. She went 39-1¼ at sectionals, with T.F. North junior Chardae Greenlee putting up the best sectional leap at 39-11½.
Also in the Class 3A finals are Crystal Lake South’s Lexi Dahl (pole vault), Huntley’s Delaney Lyman (pole vault), Huntley’s Omo Taeumah (high jump), Bartlett’s Katherine Lauesen (shot put), CL South’s Nikayla Dahl (discus), Huntley’s Macy Tramblay (high hurdles), Jacobs’ Lauren Van Vlierbergen (800), South Elgin’s Jordan Tuin (800), Bartlett’s Megan Seidl (400), Huntley’s Anthonia Moore (400), Jacobs’ Kayla Giuliano (400) and Huntley’s 1,600 relay team.