THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008
Maine South Dominates Field In Record-Setting Sectional
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Sports
In high school sports, coaches typically understate their team's achievements, and sports writers (like this one) often overstate them.
A good example of this is the interaction between this writer and Maine South girls track coach Jeff Downing, regarding the Hawks performance at the York IHSA sectional last Friday.
Downing said, "Yes, we ran well."
Here is my journalistic view of the same event:
Maine South's Lady Hawks put on one of their best-all-time performances in girls track last week. They set five school records, scored 120 points to dominate a 20-team field at the York sectional, qualified individuals and relay teams to the state finals in 11 of the 18 events, won three of the four relays and qualified athletes in all four for state, and won their first sectional in 35 years.
In the same sectional, Leyden finished second with 88 points and qualified athletes in seven events, Maine West finished fifth and qualified one runner in one event, Maine East qualified two athletes in four events, and Elk Grove qualified one athlete for state.
But I digress.
Maine South wrote the story of this sectional.
Hawks won five events, and finished second in five others.
"I knew we would be challenged by Leyden and Lane Tech, and we focused on beating them in each event," Downing said. "I was confident we would get a number of athletes through to state, but it was surprisingly gratifying to see how much success we actually had."
Here are the new school records:
* The pole vault, where Erin Mulligan leaped 9-9.
* The two-mile relay, where South placed second to York in a time of 9:55.20, a new school standard set by Colleen Gavin, Stephanie Hejza, Thea Cudnowski, and Kristen Zillmer.
* The 400 relay, where the Hawks were winners in 48.60, a new school mark by Monica Janecek, Lauren Alpert, Noel Tazioli, and Caitlin Eskew.
* The 800 relay, where Kristin Kelly, Veronica Sklarzewski, Tazioli, and Eskew set a new school record of 1:45.70.
* The 1600 relay, where the winning Hawk time of 4:04.70 was not a record but was the best school time in the event since 1974, by Kelly, Tazioli, Alpert, and Zillmer.
Other Hawk qualifiers were Alpert in the long jump with a leap of 16-4, Sklarzewski in the high jump with a height of 4-10, Sklarzewski in the triple jump in 34-3, Eskew in the 100 meters in 12.3 seconds (ties school record), Alpert in the 400 meters in 58.70, and Eskew winning the 200 meters in 25.10.
Leyden's Lady Eagles weren't too shabby, either.
They won four events and were runners-up three times.
Claudia Susul won the long-jump with a leap of 16-8, Cheryl Robaczewski won the discus with a heave of 105-9, Jaime Johnson was second in the two-mile run in a time of 11:13 (one second behind the winner), Emilita Stanil was second in the high hurdles in 16.7 seconds, Marta Korpacz won the 800 meters in 2:20, Bridget Sanchez won the 400 meters in 58.10, and the Eagle mile relay group finished two seconds behind Maine South.
Maine West's lone qualifier was Liz Meier, second in the mile run in 5:22.80. Maine East's Shaneese Nelson made it in two events, finishing second in the shot put (34-7), and the discus (104-10), and Megan O'Grady also qualified twice, in the 800 meters (2nd in 2:20.40), and winning the mile run in 5:20.90.
Elk Grove will be represented at state by Gina Erbacci, who finished third in the two-mile run but exceeded the state-qualifying standard with a time of 11:13.