Girls track and field: Booth wins three events, qualifies for state in four to lead York to sectional title

It was an unorthodox feeling to end the meet for Jillian Booth.

With two sectional titles under her belt, the York junior was looking for her third in the 200-meter dash, while simultaneously icing the sectional team title with a win.

But when the gun went off for her race, a second one went off shortly after. And then, she was told they had to wait to race until after the 4x400.

“That delay definitely played a little mind game on me,” Booth said. “But my coach came over and told me to stay in the mindset that we’re still doing it and we’ll push through it no matter what happens, and that really helped me.”

The delay proved to not put a damper on her performance, as Booth secured her third title and fourth qualification for the girls track and field state meet with a time of 25.34 to lead the Dukes to the team title at the Class 3A Wheaton-Warrenville South Sectional.

Booth also collected wins in the 100-meter dash (11.99 seconds) and 4x200 (1:41.65) and anchored the 4x100 team to a second-place finish in 48.36 to advance to the state meet, which will take place at Eastern Illinois University starting May 22.

And for Booth’s first meet where she ran in four events all season, it was an awesome, but sort of surprising, feeling.

“I’ve been laying back on running four events until this meet, and it’s really paid off,” Booth said. “I didn’t know how this was going to go, but it’s a pretty amazing feeling.”

Karlin Janowski added a win in the 3,200 in 10:32.99, Sophia Galiano-Sanchez won the 800 in 2:15.84 and the 4x400 team ended off the meet with a win in 4:01.09 to clinch the team title with 115.5 points. In total, the Dukes had 14 state-qualifying performances on the night.

“I’m really proud of this team as a whole, I had no idea we could win out the meet,” Booth said. “I’m super proud of everyone who competed in this meet, and it’s an awesome feeling that was sort of unexpected.”

Geneva took a second-place finish in the meet, finishing with 89 points. The Vikings were led by junior Alyssa Flotte, who won the 300 hurdles in 46.59 and adding second-place finishes in the 100 hurdles (14.94) and 4x400 (4:01.48) to qualify across three events.

“This whole season I’ve been working really hard for this,” Flotte said. ”The four-by-four at the end was amazing, not only because I was running that for myself and my team, but it helped bring the alternates down to state too."

The Vikings also had Isabella Sida win the shot put with a throw of 56.64 meters, with the team finishing with nine state-qualifying performances. Sofia Borter and Taylor Peahl also finished the meet qualifying for state in multiple events.

“It was great getting to just leave it all out on the track and showing everyone what myself and this Geneva team can do,” Flotte said. “We’ve got a lot of up and coming athletes that came together and performed well with each other.”

Batavia rounded out the top three, finishing with 86 points. Junior Abby Wirth joined Booth as the only athlete to win multiple sectional titles across multiple individual events, winning both the long jump (5.51 meters) and triple jump (11.88 meters).

“It just feels so great,” Wirth said. “Having been out for a month with a quad injury and coming back and really focus on myself back into it and put myself back out there just feels awesome.”

She also secured a third event at the state meet at the end, helping the 4x400 team qualify with a third-place finish in 4:02.65. The qualification was also the third for teammate Elizabeth Wende, who had second-place finishes in both the 100 (12.30) and 400 (58.27).

“The 400 is always something that’s looked down upon, but when you’re out there, you’re doing it for your team,” Wirth said. “It really makes it feel so much better. It feels like you’re leaving it all out there, and of course for my team I’d do that.”

Ingrid Wit also added a win in the shot put, clearing 11.61 meters, while Avery Hacker qualified in the 1,600 and 3,200 to round out the Bulldogs’ qualifiers.

The 1,600 finished with the most runners qualifying for state, with eight runners punching their ticket in the event. Glenbard West’s Alexa Novak led the bunch in the event, running a 4:57.59 in the win.

“I just told myself before the race that I needed to match (Janowski’s) move,” Novak said. “As soon as I saw her come out from behind, I matched it and took the lead. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.”

Novak also secured a sectional title in the 4x800, breaking the stadium record in the process in 9:12.83. It was one of two stadium records broken on the day, with West Aurora’s 4x100 team breaking the mark with a 47.71 for the sectional title.

“This was the first time we put together that 4x800 team, so we knew that we had a really good chance of seeding high at state,” Novak said. “We just all ran our best and still shook out the lactic acid, and I think we could definitely go faster at state.”