Girls track and field: Barrington retains MSL crown

The Mid-Suburban League girls track and field championships Friday evening at Fremd High School in Palatine saw an interesting subplot as it marked the second consecutive weekend that the divisional meet winners of two weeks previous, West champ Hoffman Estates and East winner Prospect, did battle.

Both were part of last week's 16-team field at the Conant Cougar Twilight Invite where the Knights captured top team honors and the Hawks finished fourth.

However on this night, the story had a twist - the challenge brought from reigning MSL titlist Barrington that made battle for top team honors quite interesting as the Fillies would not surrender their crown without a fight.

Thanks to its ability to post 12 top-three finishes, Barrington was able to retain the league title besting second-place Prospect by a 138-112 score at Hale Hildebrandt Field.

Wheeling (108 points), Palatine (97), and Hoffman (81) rounded out the top five.

"It was a true team effort," Barrington coach Jody Gitelis said. "The kids really came together to give their best effort today. The competition was awesome as always. I'm just really pleased with everybody and how they did."

After capturing the first event of the night, the 4×800 relay, the Fillies would get winning performances from freshman Kathleen Baker in the 400 meters (58.88) and a pair of firsts from junior Alyssa Norris in both the 1,600 (5:06.21) and 3,200 meter (11:02.92) races.

Norris spoke of her teammates' desire to repeat after having placed second to the Hawks in the MSL West meet.

"We knew we had to go out and run our best, jump our best, and throw our best," she said.

In finishing second, Prospect captured two of three relay races - the 4×100 (50.09) and the 4×200 (1:45.03) prior to garnering its lone individual triumph when freshman Audrey Ginsberg won the 800-meter race with a time of 2:16.09. The Knights totaled eight top 3 placings.

Wheeling's third-place finish was bolstered by senior Nicole Nguyen's three wins in the 100 (12.55) and 200 (25.91) meter dashes plus a first-place effort in the long jump (17 feet, 9½ inches) while Palatine's Erin Oleksak scored a trio of firsts that lifted the Pirates to fourth on the night.

She won both the 100 (14.84) and 300 (45.79) meter hurdles in addition to the high jump (5-6).

The Marian University track and soccer recruit credited her performance to staying focused despite the arrival of intermittent rain.

"It was crazy because (in the high jump) I had been in a plateau," Oleksak said. "Then, I took that energy into (the 100) hurdles and won that and then went into the 300's and I was like OK just focus, and then voila! That was really exciting."