Rockets snare Big Northern Conference meet
The Burlington Central girls track team couldn't have asked for a better start to the Big Northern Conference meet Thursday.
The Rockets won the first two events, the 4x800-meter and 4x100 relays, and dominated the field en route to capturing the team title.
"It really sets the tone when your team gets off to an awesome start," Central's Maggie Gannon said. "It was vital as far as affecting the other girls. It just lit a fire under everyone."
Central finished with 130 points, well ahead of Marengo (69). Richmond-Burton (66.5), Byron (59) and Winnebago (50) rounded out the top five. Hampshire was ninth with 33 points.
The Rockets led at every exchange of the 4x800 relay as Katie Puccio, Hannah Williams, Markelle Turk and Gannon finished in 9:53.36, nearly 6 seconds ahead of Winnebago. In the 4x100 relay, Alexa Tovsen barely trailed Marengo's Lauren Hunt on the final handoff before beating Hunt to the finish line in 51.28 seconds. Jordan Maisto, Cailie Thommes and Vanessa Perez joined Tovsen on the relay team.
The victories gave the Rockets 20 early points.
"We talked about it back in January and made it one of seasonal goals," Central coach Aaron Wichman said of the conference title. "The girls bought into working hard. A lot of our workouts are pretty tough."
Gannon also continued her dominance in the 800 and 1,600 runs. The junior broke her own conference record she set last year in both events. Gannon took control in the 800 with about 200 meters to go to finish in 2:17.84, beating her mark of 2:21.42 from last year. She won the 1,600 with a run of 5:17.90, more than 7 seconds better than her time of 5:35.99 last year.
Gannon also anchored the 4x400 relay team of Perez, Puccio and Meghann Thommes that won the final event of the meet in 4:12.18.
"To be a four-time conference winner in a varsity meet is quite an accomplishment," Wichman said. "Even more impressive was the way that she did it. The times that she ran in the events she ran. You just don't see that a lot."
Tovsen, a freshman, became an individual conference champion in the 400 dash thanks to a late kick to pass Hampshire's Tiffany Phu in the final 20 meters to win in 1:01.00. Tovsen also finished second in the 200 and third in the 100.
"I really wanted that first place," Tovsen said of the 400. "I saw her ahead of me and tried to go after her."
Perez added to the Rockets' titles with a first-place finish in the 300 hurdles (46.31). She also took second in the 100 hurdles.
Phu's second-place finish in the 400 (1:01.56) was Hampshire's best. The Whip-Purs took third in the 4x800 relay with a team of Phu, Autumn Chomenko, Elizabeth Sicheri and Cassandra Kruse. Holly Plichta also was third in the 3,200 (12:01.97).
"We ran a lot of (personal bests)," Whip-Purs coach Patti Nihells said. "A few disappointments as far as the throwers. We should have been able to get more points. As far as the runners on the track I was very pleased."