Girls track and field: Kazeem sprints past field at Palatine invite

While there was no official team scoring or team awards given out at the Palatine Invitational Saturday, the meet featured some top girls track and field athletes as they gear up for the second half of the 2024 season.

Downers Grove North's depth carried the Trojans to the unofficial title of the seven-team meet while Cary-Grove, Grant, Wheeling, and Libertyville turned in a lot of strong finishes across the board.

After taking second in the state in Class 3A in the 300-meter hurdles last year, Palatine junior Aisha Kazeem stormed to first place in the 100-meter dash in 12.65 seconds in her only event of the day. After taking sixth in the 100-meter hurdles last year, Kazeem hopes to win the state title in both the 300 and 100 hurdles in mid-May.

"That (300) is my best event and hopefully before state I can get a better time," said Kazeem. "The goal is first place too (in the 100 hurdles). I need to work hard, just run my race, and don't think about the people I'm competing against."

Grant's squad was really impressive with first-place finishes from Noelle Patrick in the 100 and 300 hurdles, freshman Lauryn Francis in the 200 and 400-meter runs, and Amelia Szopinski in the 1,600.

"They (Patrick and Francis) were both Illinois Top Times qualifiers, and Noelle was a state qualifier in the 100 hurdles last year," said Grant coach Greg Wodzien. "I think she (Francis) has a good shot at state in the 400 because she has run a 59.54 indoors and a 60.37 outdoors."

Cary-Grove's team of Olivia Parker, Fiyinfunoluwa Onafeko, Kate Aniolkowski, and Rebecca Dekett won both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. Kenna Kinsch also won the discus (30.67 meters) for the Trojans.

"I was really happy with them because the kid who was supposed to anchor the relays today (Sienna Heizer) was sick," said Cary-Grove coach Mark Anderson. "Dekett looked good as the anchor, and she held off a really fast Downers Grove North kid in the 4x200."

Wheeling's team of Hadara Toledo, Kate Ning, Esmerelda Jaimes, and Shelia Leon won the 4x400 while Jaimes, Ning, Julia Rako, and Karen Luna-Gutierrez won the 4x800. The Wildcats also got first-place finishes from Lindsay Kane (1.60 meters) in the high jump, and Katie Moser in both the long jump (4.89 meters) and triple jump (10.34 meters).

DGN's squad of Lucy Quinlan, Sadie Johanek, Olivia Warmke, and Ella Leathers won the 4x100 throwers relay. The Trojans also got a first from Layla Williams in the shot put (10.75 meters) while teammates Makenna Purgatorio and Giovanna Russotiesi (9' 0) tied for first in the pole vault.

"We competed and won last night at Glenbrook South," said DGN coach Matt Maletich. "So none of our top distance runners competed today, and mostly we were just using it as an open meet to get everyone involved because we have 140 kids."

Libertyville's Margo McGormley won the 800 in 2:34.39 to outdistance Szopinski by over two seconds. DGN's Allison Leach was second in the 100-dash while Parker was second in the 200-dash. Libertyville's Rosemary Inga placed second in the 400 while Palatine's Roxy Soto took second in the 1,600.