Girls track and field: Glenbard East too much for Upstate Eight
Lauren Huber illuminated the incongruity of a sport, arguably, like no other at the Upstate Eight Conference girls track and field championship Thursday evening at Fenton.
Huber, a Glenbard East senior who has committed to Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington to play basketball, was runner-up to two-event Streamwood champion Aariana Hurston-el in the shot put.
But Huber later claimed individual titles in such disparate events as the 800-meter run and 300 hurdles to lead the unrelenting Rams to a 187-121 victory over South Elgin in Bensenville.
"As far as we know, it's a first (in program history)," Glenbard East coach Molly Gstalter said.
"I am going to be playing basketball," Huber said. "I don't know how I am going to stay away from running. (Gstalter) is nice enough to let me do different events to see if the heptathlon is something I would be interested in doing in college."
Huber had one central aim.
"I was trying to score the most points for the team," said Huber, the last link to the Rams' Class 3A state runner-up 3,200 relay quartet three years ago.
Huber captured the metric half-mile in two minutes, 24.83 seconds and came back minutes later to win the intermediate hurdles in 46.96.
The Rams swept the three jumps as junior Keeli Dunaway had few peers in either the long or triple jumps with triumphs at 15 feet, 7 inches and 34-5.5, respectively.
Josie Andrews' 4-10 clearance in the high jump completed the Rams' unanswered run.
"We came out on top, and I'm really proud of all of us," Andrews said.
The Rams' 400 and 800 sprint relays also sped to championships.
West Chicago (97) was third, followed by Fenton (73), Bartlett (64.5), Glenbard South (46.5), Elgin (37), Larkin (26), Streamwood (23) and East Aurora (21).
West Chicago has its two most promising freshmen in decades.
Moments after West Chicago ninth-grader Adeline Draper swept aside the field in the 100 hurdles (16.41), classmate Kali Waller announced her presence in the 100 dash.
Waller left few doubts in the first of three sprint titles between 100 and 400 meters with a superlative 12.73 time.
"I thought I would have to work my way to the top," Waller said. "The 100 is my main event. I pushed hard and made sure I had good form. I just wanted it more."
Amy Winter snared the lone Glenbard South title in the pole vault: the host Bison avoided a championship shutout when its 1,600 relay captured the final event.
Naomi Ruff was the true workhorse, in terms of meters run, for South Elgin.
Ruff astounded the league by giving the Storm 3,200 relay team a lead never to be lost with her scintillating opening leg.
The junior was only getting loose as she added the distance plumb of the metric 2-mile and open mile in respective times of 11:20.27 and 5:14.94.
"I think of it as one thing at a time," Ruff said. "I try to help my team in the four-by-eight and do my best in the thirty-two. The mile felt pretty good. I was happy with that."
Bartlett three-time cross country state qualifier Camille Buchanan was runner-up in the 800.
"This is my last track season," said Buchanan, an Arizona State triathlete recruit. "Hopefully it's going to be really good for me the next few weeks."