Girls track and field: Huntley wins three state titles, finishes as Class 3A team runner-up

Among Huntley’ s amazing accomplishments at Saturday’s girls track and field state meet was something that had never happened before.

The Red Raiders took both the Class 3A 4x100- and 4x200-meter relays, their first state titles in state races, as all previous titles had occurred in field events.

It was a banner day again for Huntley, which added Dominique Johnson’s second straight triple jump title, Sophie Amin’s 100 high hurdles runner-up finish, along with Johnson’s long jump third and Sienna Robertson’s discus fifth.

They were all significant performances, but all the defending team state champions could do for the last four events was watch and hope they had enough points and Prospect and Whitney Young tried to chase down the team trophy at Eastern Illinois University’s O’Brien Stadium.

Finally, in the last race, Prospect’s 4x400 team took fourth and passed the Raiders for the title. Prospect finished with 53, Huntley with 50 and Whitney Young with 49.

“I’m super happy. Any time you can come out and perform and put up 50 points at the state meet, you have to be incredibly happy,” Raiders coach Jason Monson said. “We competed against the best teams in the state and you tip you hat to the ones that got you and I’m incredibly proud of the way our girls performed all weekend.”

The 4x100 was thrilling as Amin, Emmy Byers, K’Leigh Saenz and Vicky Evtimov ran 46.60, dropping .35 from their qualifying time on Friday, to win. Evtimov passed Whitney Young’s anchor runner to get that win.

“I trust my anchor with my life,” said Saenz, who hands off to Evtimov for in both the 4x100 and 4x200. “Amazing. She always does it. She always comes out and executes. I couldn’t ask for a better anchor or better teammate.

“It was amazing. We had really big goals coming into it and we had the utmost confidence that those two things were absolutely achievable. It was nice to go out there and achieve those goals.”

Evtimov rarely received a 4x100 handoff when she was not in first place this season.

“That was so scary,” said Evtimov, who will run at NCAA Division I Milwaukee. “It’s who could keep calm and stick with their form and finish off the race. I think I did that pretty well. I was really, really excited. That was a fun race, running with someone next to me.”

The 4x200 team of Johnson, Byers, Saenz and Evtimov knocked 1.02 off its qualifying time with a 1:38.14 for the win.

“We were on Cloud 9,” Evtimov said. “In this one, we didn’t have the best handoffs (yesterday). We were a little flimsy. But today we dropped a second. That was cleaned up. I feel amazing.”

Johnson had a secure lead coming out of Friday’s preliminaries to successfully defend her triple jump title and passed on her three final attempts.

“If I wanted to jump, (jumps coach Jennifer) Garza would have let me jump,” Johnson said. “I wanted to save as much as I could and really get a win for the 4x200. I wanted to save as much energy as I could and put everything into that. I didn’t want to waste my energy on a jump.”

Amin ran her career-best 14.13 for second in the high hurdles, taking second to Conant sophomore Daisha Brunson (13.81). Amin’s time was her career-best by .21.

“I really focused on taking care of myself,” Amin said of the 80-degree-plus heat. “I drank a lot of water, I really focused on fueling myself since it’s really hot.

“Daisha’s amazing competition. I was really excited to run next to her. Over the summer and at (Illinois Top Times Indoor Classic) I have. I see her only a few times, so I was excited.”

It wasn’t pretty, but Batavia did what it came out to do.

The Bulldogs in Class 3A, along with Rosary and St. Francis in Class 2A, finished the season with three top nine all-state finishes.

The quartet of Izzy Taylor, Madison Wilson, Mariah Wilson and Elizabeth Wende had two of the three medals for Batavia. They finished the 4x100-meter relay with a sixth-place finish in 47.55 seconds. A few hours later, the Bulldogs stepped onto the podium again, this time after an eighth-place finish in the 4x200 in 1:41.07.

The team said that after missing out on the finals last year, it was a relief to know that their hard work to get back on the podium at the state meet paid off.

“It was great to finally make it to finals this year,” Mariah Wilson said. “And we got to give it all we got for some of our last years. I’m really proud of us, because we all did this.”

Taylor and Wende each got their third all-state honor of the day along with Kate Solano and Leah Zimberoff in the 4x400, but it didn’t come without some drama. With the team in fourth place heading around the final corner, a runner from Kenwood fell in front of Wende, and she wasn’t able to avoid the fallen runner and took a stumble. She did manage to pick herself up and finish the race, as the Bulldogs finished eighth in 3:57.86 for their third medal of the day.

Wende, a sophomore, said that the fall is something that the three returners in the event can use for motivation heading into next season.

“I’m going to try my hardest to go out as far as possible from anyone next year,” Wende said. “That way I don’t have to worry about tripping over someone again. It’s really going to motivate me.”

The end of the 4x400 also marked the end for Taylor, who finished her career with six all-state medals after getting three both this year and in 2022. The senior said that she’s had an amazing time over her four years with the Bulldogs.

“I got to run with my favorite people every day and I made a lot of friends,” Taylor said. “The medals were pretty cool too.”

After running the fastest preliminary time Friday, the St. Francis 4x800 relay team of Allie Sheldon, Elena Mamminga, Margaret Andrzejewski and Erin Hinsdale came together to run a Class 2A state record-time of 9:12.80, barely beating out Morton at the line.

With a team of three freshmen and one sophomore in Andrzejewski, the team said they hadn’t really thought about winning state until around two weeks ago.

“I was just like ‘Wait, we can win state,’” Andrzejewski said.

Hinsdale, who ran a 2:15 final leg in the win, said that when she got the baton at the same time as Morton’s Taygen Beyer, she just wanted to do what was needed to win.

“I wasn’t even thinking about my 800 race,” Hinsdale said. “I’m just so excited because it’s my first year and these girls are just the most amazing people to run with.”

Hinsdale later added another all-state medal to her first-year collection after taking second in the 800 in 2:14.83. St. Francis’ Abigael Sheldon also had an all-state performance in the discus throw after finishing sixth with a throw of 36.36 meters (116 feet, 6 inches).

Rosary also found its way to the podium in the 4x800 after coming in at a season-best time of 9:44.58. Vivian Wyller, who was a part of that team, also medaled in the 1,600 after finishing in fifth place in a new personal record of 5:09.08. Wyller said that capping off her senior season with two state medals was definitely something special.

“We knew we had a good chance in the 4x8 coming into this, but just having a team effort is so different because we all put in something, which was awesome,” Wyller said. “And then in the 1,600, it’s my favorite event, so I knew that I wanted to end on a good note, so it was very rewarding.”

Katie Kostro had Rosary’s third all-state finish on the day after tying for ninth-place in the high jump by clearing 1.5 meters (4-11).

St. Charles North finished the day with two all-state performers. After ending the prelims of the shot put in 12th place, Tosin Oshin tossed a personal-best 11.92 meters (39-1.25) for a seventh-place finish in the event.

The North Stars also had their 4x800 team take final spot on the podium after running 9:24.24 for ninth place. After the race, the team was ecstatic about how they exceeded expectations throughout the year.

“At this time of the year, we didn’t even think that we could even make state in the 4x800,” Julia Rodney said. “But after Reagan Sipla joined the team at the beginning of outdoor, we just came together as a team.”

St. Charles East’s Marley Andelman ended off her time with the Saints with a bang. After earning a sixth place finish in the 4x800 last year, Andelman got a sixth-place finish of her own after dropping a personal-best time of 2:14.15 in the 800.

The time also secured the school record in the event for the senior, who will begin competing triathlons at TCU next year. Andelman said that getting a medal to end off her high school career was definitely special.

“The ladies in the field are so special, so to just be here was a feat in its self,” Andelman said. “Honestly I just wanted to race as hard as I can knowing it’s my last time crossing the finish line, and just standing on that podium with the medal, it was amazing.”

Geneva triple jumper Reilly Day ended the meet with a seventh-place finish after jumping for 11.56 meters (37-11.25). Day, who didn’t compete in track last year, said that getting an all-state medal was something she couldn’t have guessed coming into the weekend.

“I just needed to believe in myself,” Day said. “I knew I could jump better than anyone else here, so I just trusted that I knew what I could do and gave it my all.”

Kaneland’s lone representative on the day came from senior pole vaulter Cora Heller, finished with a ninth-place finish in the event after jumping 3.40 meters (11-1.75).

Heller, who is committed to jump at St. Augustine next year, said that despite not having her best jump on the day, she was still extremely pleased to be walking away with an all-state medal.

“We’ve had a rough season with so many meets being canceled in pole vault while also not having a coach, so to end it off here, it’s been a successful meet,” Heller said.