Girls track: WW South takes title at Prospect relays
They were sprinting to a record-setting pace at the 15th annual Prospect girls track relays Friday in Mount Prospect.
In the opening race of the 21-event relays, Wheeling and Warren both easily topped the meet record of 1:51.56 set by Minooka in 2015 the 800 sprint medley. Wheeling's Alexis Knight held off Warren's Janii Jenkins at the wire to bring home the title in a time of 1:49.49.
"As soon as I saw her a second gear clicked in," said Knight, who ran with Kiannah Hayes, Dania Vargas and Nicole Nguyen.
"It was automatic. It was like, you have to go. It was like a flight instinct. That's what pushed me forward."
Warren finished with a time of 1:49.66 with Jada Vaughn, Kayleigh Glickley and Jataia Harris joining Jenkins.
Wheaton Warrenville South broke a meet record by eight seconds in the 1,600 sprint medley. Carlin Wach, Katherine Weber, Samantha Poglitsch and Laurel Moneysmith had a time of 4:16.30.
The Tigers also broke the record in the 6,400 relay with a time of 20:57.03. Poglitsch, Kaitlyn Nenninger, Sarah Kulkarni and Moneysmith shaved three seconds off the record.
"It is pretty exciting," Moneysmith said. "That doesn't happen very often. It was fun to run in a relay. It is a lot more team to be part of a relay like that."
Wheaton Warrenville South won the meet with 119 points. Prospect was second with 112 points, followed by Minooka's 97.
"It was a great night tonight," WWS coach Rob Harvey said. "These meets are fun because these meets have different events than we are used to. We can put kids in different things and balance some things."
Wheeling also just missed a meet record in the 800 relay. The Wildcat crew of Nguyen, Nosa Igiehon, Kiannah Hayes and Knight finished in 1:46.42, just missing the meet record by 2/100ths of a second.
Nguyen and Knight were also tops in the long Jump as Wheeling won the event with a total of 49 feet, .3 inches. Nguyen went 17-09 while Knight was at 17-07 for the Wildcats.
"I didn't do as well as I wanted," Nguyen said, "I usually do long jump first. We ran a race and I was a little rocky and that. But I won, so that is OK."
Despite the wins, Wheeling finished fifth in the meet with 62.50 points.
"With a fun relay meet like this and our program like ours with smaller numbers, you have to pick and choose what you load up," Wheeling coach Tim Nowicki said.
Warren's Annika Bynum set a meet record with her 5-05 high jump.
"It was crazy," Bynum said. "I was getting to the point that I was so excited that I had to chill for a second. I had to take a breath and talk myself through it. I had to go through the motions in my head and then it just happened."
In other relays that are familiar to track aficionados Warren, with a quartet of Vaughn, Glickley, Harris and Ambers Jones won the 400 with a time of 50.71. They edged Wheaton Warrenville South, which finished in 50.78.
Belvidere won the 3,200 relay in 9:58.29. Libertyville, with Annalese Chudy, Sydney Donovan, Payton Golwas and Brielle Rochester, was second in 10:05.38.
Wheaton Warrenville South had a pair of wins and a pair of second places finishes by individuals to help the Tigers along in team scoring events.
Emily Whiteside's throw of 112-09 led the way in the discus while Samantha Poglitsch ran a 1,600 leg of the 6,400 Relay in 5:07.62. Claire Haas ran 47.23 in the 300 hurdles to have the top time and a 16.21 in the 100 hurdles to finish second.
Warren coach Ryan Dunn, whose team finished fourth with 72 points, said he liked to be able to compete this year.
"We saw some personal records today and some fun competitive relays," Dunn said. "It was encouraging to see the fun stuff in week one of the outdoor season. A year ago, we didn't have a week one."