St. Peter track finishes successful season at state meet

St. Peter seventh-graders Mary Tork and Josh Caceres wrapped up the track and field team's season competing at the IESA Class A State Track and Field meet.

Almost 2,300 student athletes from around the state made the journey to the Eastside Centre in East Peoria for the huge event.

In Friday's competition, Josh Caceres competed in the fast heat of the 400-meter dash with a strong showing finishing 10th overall.

After a long wait, Mary Tork finally took the field for the high jump competition at 5:30 p.m., being seeded in the most competitive final flight. As her flight began jumping, the skies opened up with pouring rain leaving most of the All State medals to the earlier flights that jumped in more ideal conditions. Tork finished a respectable 14th place in her first state appearance.

On Saturday, Caceres was back at it again. He started the morning with high jump but his strongest event of the day was the 200-meter dash. Going into the event he was seeded 32nd out of 42 competitors. After a fast start he nearly won his heat, he set a personal best time and finished in 14th, well ahead of his seeding.

The state meet ended the season for the St. Peter team. It was truly a season to remember. The sixth- and seventh-grade boys placed third at IESA Sectionals, the first top three trophy in many years for the Rockets.

Three school records were broken including the boys 400-meter dash by Josh Caceres, the girls high jump by Mary Tork and the girls 4x200-meter dash by the team of Sophie Walz, Mary Tork, Kaitlin Zucco and Isabelle Koester. With only three eighth-graders leaving the team, 2017 has the potential to be a banner year for the St. Peter Rockets.