Graham finishes it off for Conant

BLOOMINGTON -- A few words of advice to anyone following the Conant girls track team this spring:

Don't get in the way of senior Toni Graham.

It seems that when the Alabama-bound sprinter decides that she is going to do something to help the Cougars' sprint relay teams, she will do it.

Take, for example, her effort as the anchor leg of the Cougars' 800-meter relay on Saturday at the Illinois Prep Top Times Invitational at the Shirk Center on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.

Graham and the Cougars found themselves in last place as the final baton pass took place.

By the time Graham received the baton from Destiny Arps, she was in sixth place and was all the way over in Lane 6, leaving her with a daunting task.

"I knew my teammates had worked really hard and I had to give everything I had to get us back into the race," Graham said.

When Graham hit the halfway point of the leg, she had already moved into third place and had set her sights on Bolingbrook and Proviso East. By the final turn, not only had Graham passed Bolingbrook, but she had reeled in the anchor leg from Proviso East, as well.

When she crossed the finish line, the capacity crowd was roaring. The Cougar let loose a cougar-like roar, celebrating the amazing comeback that gave Conant the event win.

Combine her winning effort in the 55-meter dash and the 200-meter dash and it made Graham the easy choice as female athlete of the meet.

"This award means to me that I have great potential, and I want to go out and accomplish so much more this year," Graham said. "We don't set goals as a team so much because we don't want to set limitations. Instead, we want to just go out and run and win our heats."

In the 200, Graham cruised through heat No. 2 in 24.94, then had to wait out the final heat. When Olivia Allen of Lake Zurich crossed the line in 25.00, just ahead of Waubonsie senior Shakiea Pinnick (25.42), Graham had her third title of the meet.

Pinnick was super in winning the 400 in 56.35, as she was more than a second better than the rest of the field.

In her first race of the day, Pinnick captured the 55 hurdles by edging out Natalie Tartar of Batavia, 8.13 to 8.20.

Pinnick's teammate Toni Ogundare joined her in the winners circle, taking the 800 title in a great race over McKinzie Schulz of Benet. Ogundare pulled away in the final lap, winning in 2:14.04.

Lake Park junior Lindsey Flanagan took the suspense out of the 3,200 run halfway through the race, showing that she is a serious contender for the outdoor state crown.

Flanagan led the race early, then drafted off Nicole Benson from Limestone before taking the lead back with a mile to go. The race strategy turned out to work just fine for Flanagan, which was somewhat of a surprise considering it is the first year she has competed in the 3,200.

"With the success I had in cross country running three miles, I thought I would run the 2-mile this year," Flanagan said. "I was able to go out, run my race and get my PR. Now I am so excited to get outdoors and race."

A record-setting performances on the girls side had to wait until the end of the meet to take place.

St. Charles East's Dayna White, Arielle Parker, Amy Holmstrom and Lizzy Hynes took control of the distance medley relay early and never looked back in setting the only meet record of the day on the girls side.

Their time of 12:45.45 was more than seven seconds faster than the previous mark set by Wheaton North in 2006.