Girls track and field: Barrington’s balance on display at Palatine invite

Despite not having a team title award to compete for, it was Debbie Revolta's Barrington unit that greeted victory the most as it won 9 of the 19 events on the menu at the Palatine girls track invite Saturday afternoon.

Barrington did so in a dominant fashion showing both proficiency and prowess in both facets: the track where it triumphed five times and the field where it took the top spot four more times.

The Fillies got things rolling with relay gold in both the 4x100 (49.89) and 4x200 (1:45.34) relays.

Next, came the first of a trio of individual solo race wins featuring a pair from freshman Lana McKendree in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.29 followed by a 200 meter victory in a time of 25.02.

McKendree came out in attack mode in both of her golden moments.

"I just tried to get my first three steps out and clear the hurdles. I hit a couple of hurdles trying to get over but I just kept pumping my arms," McKendree said of her first win.

In her second, she sought to break the 25 second barrier falling just two-tenths of a second over.

"I was so close, but I just wanted to go attack the curve," McKendree said. "I was pretty happy with my result."

After sophomore Ella McGee won the 300 hurdle race (47.34), her fellow sophomore teammate Grace Nimbley took home the high jump crown clearing 5-02.25.

She gave credit to her positive mental approach for her success.

"I just visualize what I'm supposed to do like the lead and the steps like going up before you go over. It's very important."

Nimbey's sophomore squadmate Mack Stockton (99-09) captured the discus followed by freshman Mia Wiatr's win in the long jump (16-00.25) and senior Yane Jansen-Van Rensburg's triumph in the pole vault (10-11.75) in the meet's final event.

In addition to their win in the 4x400 relay, Elk Grove senior A'naiah Johnson (31-08) took home gold in the shot put.

Johnson, who will be studying radiology at Southern Illinois-Carbondale this fall, credits a through cerebral approach outside of the processes of the actual throw itself.

"I just focus my mind and I pray for God to give me the strength to be strong and then I focus on the little things-the pressure points, my feet. I let my body do the work."

Cary-Grove sophomore Maggie Jablonski's 800 victory with a time of 2:29.70 highlighted the fact that in 9 of the 15 individual events either a freshman or sophomore took home the gold.

"I usually just have my warmup lap and then my warmup drills to ensure that I'll be warm," Jablonski said.