Girls track and field: Foster leads Schaumburg to second at own invitational
For the 12-team field that converged at Schaumburg High School Saturday for the annual Mike Rebeck girls track and field invite, they needed to deal with a nearly 30-degree drop in temperature which left temperatures in the mid-40s for the meet's 9 a.m. start.
When it was over early Saturday afternoon, the sun had broken through and shone the brightest for Chicago St. Ignatius as it took top team honors with 126 points placing them over 20 ahead of the host Saxons (105.33).
Rockton Hononegah (91), St. Francis (63) and Rolling Meadows (59) rounded out the top five.
Senior Maliyah Miller led the way for St. Ignatius with wins in the 100 (12.36), 200 (25.47) and 400 (57.50). The Wolfpack also got wins from seniors Megan Winters (17.37) in the 100 hurdles and Annika Swan (2:14.41) in the 800.
Schaumburg sophomore Nadia Foster showed her prowess in taking both the long jump (17-11.75) and triple jump (34-11) despite the crisp morning temperatures.
"It's definitely hard. The weather's not the greatest. You have to bundle up," Foster said. "I can push through and make sure to have a positive mindset (believing) I can push through and do this."
The host school also took the 4x100 relay with a time of 50.37 seconds.
Hononegah senior Jordan Dimke had wins on both the track (300 hurdles, 48.96) and field (high jump, 5-02) while St. Francis triumphed in both the 4x800 (9:36.82) and 4x400 (4:10.00) relays.
The Spartans also had victories in the 1,600 by senior Margaret Andrzejewski (5:12.23) and freshman Abby Yarusso (11:35.43) in the 3,200.
Yarusso, a member of St. Francis' Clasa 2A cross country runner-up squad, lauded her teammates for her competitive edge.
"They're all so great and they help me every day at practice so when I get to a race it helps me feel like I'm competing again," Yarusso said.
Meadows scored field triumphs courtesy of junior Patrycja Lewicki (11-00) in the pole vault and senior Dalia Grandberry in the shot put as the Eastern Illinois basketball recruit posted a heave of 32-01.
Dundee-Crown sophomore Clara Meier took the title in the discus with a throw of 105-04 to round the list of winners.