Glenbard South's Everhart ready to shine

Prior to this year, Glenbard South's Becca Everhart had a hard time cracking the varsity hurdles lineup because the Raiders tended to boast an overabundance of talent in those girls track events.

But with last year's state champion Katelyn Hill graduated along with another talented hurdler, Everhart has gotten her chance this spring. On Saturday she took full advantage of the opportunity at the Metro Suburban Conference meet. She outkicked a Fenton hurdler late to win the 300 hurdles in 50.36 and added a second-place finish in the 100 hurdles.

"My goal overall was to focus on each individual hurdle," said Everhart, who also helped the Raiders win the 400 relay and take second in the 1,600 relay while defending the school's team conference crown. "I was looking at the heat sheet and I knew that they were all pretty darn close around me. All of the times were within a second so I knew it would be close."

Everhart caught the Fenton hurdler with a strong charge at the end, and when the Bison runner stumbled on the final hurdle, Annabelle Englehardt of Aurora Central Catholic took second in 51.72. It was Englehardt who edged Everhart 17.57 to 17.97 for the title in the 100 hurdles.

"I'm excited. All throughout high school I've been JV because we had, well, Katelyn Hill, and someone else who was always better than me," Everhart said. "I'm a senior now, so I had to do this. It feels good."

A lot of Raiders felt good as the team piled up 190 points to top the seven-team conference field. Fenton and ACC tied for second at 106, with Riverside-Brookfield (47) and IC Catholic Prep (40) rounding out the top five.

"Becca wins the 300 hurdles, she runs a great time in the 4x4, and our distance kids did outstanding," Glenbard South coach Mark Tacchi said. "Our 4x8 was kind of thrown together with just one regular on that one and they won. Between our field events and our runners, it's a balanced team."

The Raiders went 1-2 in the pole vault where Kate Rumel cleared 10-0 for the MSC title. They also went 1-2 in the shot put when Tai Johnson unleashed a surprising 33-7 to take first.

"It's good. Yeah, it's cool," said Johnson, who has battled injuries and illness much of her first three seasons but who was ready to go for the conference meet, which was postponed a day by Friday's rainstorms. "I came in thinking maybe 33 or 32 feet … I was ready for yesterday. Then I just had to prepare myself for today. Go off to the side and just tell myself, yeah I can do it."

Johnson's teammate Mercedes Whitaker was second in the shot but took first in the discus with a throw of 104-09. Jenna Brambora won the triple jump, Becca Sippel the 3,200 run and Glenbard South also took first in three relay events before ACC clipped them to win the day's final event, the 1,600 relay.

In that exciting finish the Chargers' Karina Liz, who had earlier won the open 400 and 800, came from behind to catch the Raiders' TeJanae Tate to give ACC the win with a time of 4:13.44. Also on the winning team were Therese Hein, Abby Fioresi and Irene Crown.

"It was exciting. I just got the baton, I saw the girl in front of me and knew I had to go and get her," Liz said. "I really wanted to get that conference title for the team. This is actually the first time we had all four of these girls together in a relay, (and) whenever I see someone in front of me I just have this urge to catch them."

Fenton sprinter Emelia Burris remained unbeaten in conference this year after winning both the long jump and the 100. ICCP's Kiersten King won the 200 with a clocking of 27.01.