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IESA began the state series in track
and field for boys in 1932. This will be the 73rd year for the boys.
IESA began the state series for girls in 1972. This will be the 33rd
year for the girls. A total of 219 member schools entered the 2005
Class AA state series, and 95 percent of the schools entering
athletes in the qualifying sectionals advanced at least one
qualifier to the state final meet.
Competition for both girls and boys
will be in 14 events for seventh graders and 14 events for eighth
graders. There will be a grand total of 56 events. Preliminaries and
finals are conducted on the same day in the respective field events,
which are conducted over the two days. In the 100-meter dash and
hurdles, preliminaries and semifinals will be on Friday and the
finals on Saturday. Timed finals are the format in all other running
events each day. The best times from all the heats or sections in a
respective running event determine final places in that event.
Twelve field events will be
contested Friday, beginning at 1 p.m. The running events get under
way Friday at 3 p.m. Competition Saturday begins at 9 a.m. in eight
field events, the finals in the 100 and hurdles, and the remainder
of the running events. The complete time schedule for the weekend,
and the heats, sections and flights for the different events, are
available at www.iesa.org. From
the home page, click on "Track and Field" in the box at the top of
the page, then click on
"Class AA Schedule" and
"Class AA State Qualifiers." [Or, click on the links for Class
AA in the previous sentence. To download Adobe Reader for the PDF
schedule file, click here.]
Single-session tickets will be on
sale at the stadium each day. Tickets are priced at $5 for adults
and $2 for students K-8 and seniors.
Nine schools will have more than 30
athletes competing this weekend. Mahomet-Seymour leads the way with
41. Next is Shorewood Troy with 38. The others are Cahokia Wirth,
36; Antioch, 34; Dunlap, 33; East St. Louis Lincoln, 33; Frankford
Hickory Creek, 33; Arlington Heights South, 31; and Chatham
Glenwood, 31.
Several communities with multiple
member schools are sending large contingents to the meet. Joining
East St. Louis Lincoln with its 33 competitors is East St. Louis
Younge with 26. Joining Frankfort Hickory Creek with its 33
competitors is Frankfort Summit Hill with 23. Galesburg Churchill is
bringing 25 athletes and Galesburg Lombard 16. There will be 58
athletes from Normal, with Chiddix bringing 11; Kingsley, 25; and
Parkside, 22. There will be 103 Springfield athletes, with Franklin
at 21; Grant, 23; Jefferson, 11; Lincoln, 10; St. Agnes, 21; and
Washington, 17.
Meet referee will be Jay Marshall of
Richmond. The head field event referee is Jerry Catton of Henry.
Girls' starter is John Halterman of Montgomery. Boys' starter will
be Carroll Hickenbottom of Dallas City.
Here is a look at each of the four
meets within the state final:
7AA girls
On paper Cahokia Wirth and East St.
Louis Lincoln are the favorites to claim the Class 7A girls' team
title, but the race for the first-place team trophy is really wide
open. Eureka could be the sleeper. No one team has an abundance of
qualifiers.
Cahokia Wirth's three relays all
qualified as the No. 1 seed in the respective events. Wirth also
qualified seven individuals, including Rontacial Rogers, the No. 3
seed in the 100-meter dash, and teammate Monet Bullard, the No. 5
seed in the 100.
East St. Louis Lincoln is led by
Jasmine Redd, No. 1 seed in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of
15.6. Teammate Rochelle Goree is No. 2 seed in the 200-meter dash at
26.9. And Timeka Watkins is No. 2 seed in the 100 at 12.6 and No. 14
seed in the 200 at 28.2.
The only double No. 1 seed is
Chelsey Robinson of East St. Louis Clark. She is the leader in the
100 at 12.5 and the 200 at 26.5. Another threat for a double is
Precious Lessen of Freeport in the high jump and shot put. Lessen
leads the qualifiers in the shot put with a sectional best toss of
30-5. She is the No. 2 seed in the high jump at 4-10, and seven
qualifiers in the event cleared that height or better in the
sectional.
In the pole vault, where 29 girls
have qualified for the meet, Chelsea Eversole of Pana JHS is the No.
1 seed at 7-8. Right behind at 7-6 is Ashley Beck of Farmington
Central. The 7AA girls' record is 9-3. In the long jump, Lauren
Hollinshead of Williamsville went 16-8 in the sectional for the No.
1 seed. Demi Vanderwal, who led Springfield St. Agnes to the 7A
state basketball tournament title in December, went 16-3 in the
sectional for the No. 2 seed. The 7AA state record is 17-4.
In the distance events, Amanda
Duvendack of Germantown Hills is the No. 1 seed in the 800-meter run
at 2:25.2 and the No. 5 seed in the 1,600-meter run at 5:44.0.
Top-seeded in the 1,600 is Rylie Sullivan of Chatham Glenwood. Megan
Petty of Shorewood Troy is the No. 3 seed in both events, posting a
2:32.0 in the 800 in the sectional and a 5:41.8 in the 1,600.
8AA girls
Nine of last year's 11 individual
champions in the 7AA meet return this year in their respective
events, and five of them are the No. 1 seed. Defending champion
Cahokia Wirth has qualified seven individuals and all three relays
and is the team to beat.
Wirth's 4x100 and 4x400 relays are
No. 2-seeded, while the 4x200 relay posted the No. 18 seed in the
sectional.
The seventh-grade champions from
last year returning as the No. 1 seed in their events this year are
Megan Emmons of Green Valley Midwest Central in the pole vault at
8-6; Diane Defoe of Chatham Glenwood in the high jump at 5-2, along
with Wauconda's Lauren Mead; Brittany Smith of Oak Park Julian in
the shot put at 35-8; Jen Guy of Normal Parkside in the 400-meter
dash at 58.6; and Stephanie Brown of Downs Tri-Valley in the
800-meter run at 2:23.9. Julian's Smith is the No. 3 seed in the
discus at 99-4.
Glenwood's Defoe also won the
100-meter hurdles in 7AA last year and returns as the No. 3 seed at
16.2. The leader is Jeree Dewalt of East St. Louis Lincoln at 15.8.
Abbie Wooten of Paris Mayo won the 7AA discus last year and returns
in 2005 as the No. 17 seed at 88-3. She won the discus last year
with a toss of 95-6. The top seed this year is Keri Leach of
Stanford Olympia at 100-8.
[to top of second column in this article] |
 Adele-Marie Buis of River Forest
Roosevelt won the long jump last year in 7AA at 15-5 and returns
this year at 14-6 as the No. 28 seed in 8AA. Alyssa Carlson of
Ottawa Shepherd won the 7AA 200-meter dash last year and is the No.
7 seed this year at 26.9.
In the distance events, Tri-Valley's
Stephanie Brown and Tara Clemens of Bloomington JHS are on a
collision course in the 800 and 1,600-meter runs. Brown is
top-seeded in the 800 at 2:23.9 and Clemens is No. 2 seed at 2:25.6.
In the 1,600, Clemens is top-seeded at 5:16.0 and Brown is No. 3
seed at 5:26.0. Second-seeded in the 1,600 is Shelbie Pettie of
Sherrard JHS at 5:24.8, and she is No. 4 seed in the 800 at 2:27.4.
7AA boys
Defending team champion East St.
Louis Lincoln is the odds-on favorite to win its third straight 7AA
boys' team title and the fifth in the last six years. The Tigers
rolled up 77 points to take the 2004 crown and could surpass that
total this year, based on sectional qualifying. The Class 7AA team
scoring record is 92 points by the Tigers in 2001. Points are
awarded for the first eight places in each event on the following
basis: 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.
East St. Louis Lincoln has 11
individual events qualifiers and two relays, and most of them are
the top-seeded entries in the event. The 4x100-meter relay and the
4x400-meter relay are both seeded No. 1. The 4x100 relay posted a
sectional time of 48.3, almost two seconds ahead of No. 2 seed
Rantoul Eater at 50.1. The Tigers' 4x400 relay blasted to a 3:58.8
in the sectional to earn the No. 1 seed over No. 2 seed East St.
Louis Younge at 4:01.7.
East St. Louis Lincoln has the top
two seeds in the long jump in Keith Kimbrow at 19-0 and Rodney Craig
at 18-9. Kimbrow is the No. 1 seed in the 110 hurdles at 14.6, and
teammate Kenneth McCaster is seeded No. 9 at 17.4. Kimbrow is seeded
No. 1 in the 200-meter dash in 23.3, and Craig is No. 2 at 24.7.
Craig is the No. 4 seed in the 100, and teammate Vinson Artebridge
is No. 3 seed at 11.6. Travis Mullin of Normal Kingsley is the No. 1
seed in the 100 at 11.2.
There are 21 pole vaulters, and the
sectional leader is Jesse Pence of Chillicothe at 10-10. The 7AA
boys' record is 10-9. Kyle Briney of Rushville went 9-3 in the
sectional and is the No. 2 seed.
Marcus Popenfoose of Huntley and
James Dambacher of Auburn are expected to battle for the discus and
shot put titles. Popenfoose is the No. 1 seed in the discus at
129-11 and Dambacher is No. 3 at 123-8. The 7AA record is 144-11.
Dambacher is the No. 1 seed in the shot put at 43-5 and Poppenfoose
is No. 3 at 39-8. The 7AA record is 50-11.
Blue Mound Meridian's Trent Swigert
is top-seeded in the 1,600-meter run by seven seconds. Swigert ran
5:02.0 in the sectional. Andrew Glick of Pekin Edison went 5:09.0.
Tom Pacey of Paxton-Buckley-Loda is No. 3 seed at 5:09.5. In the
800-meter run, Pacey is No. 2 seed at 2:16.0 behind Seth Bowman of
Sullivan at 2:15.2. Glick is No. 17 seed at 2:24.6.
8AA boys
Defending team champion Bloomington
Junior High will be hard-pressed to hold off East St. Louis Lincoln
in the chase for the 8AA boys' team championship. Bloomington JHS
won the 2004 8AA team title with 59 points, and East St. Louis
Lincoln finished third with 31 points.
East St. Louis Lincoln has qualified
10 individuals and two relays in the 8AA meet. On paper, the Tigers
seem headed to scoring 77 points, based on their seed positions
following the sectionals. Bloomington Junior High qualified
individuals and no relays.
The 4x200 and 4x400-meter relays
from East St. Louis Lincoln both qualified as No. 2 seed. In the
4x200, Lincoln posted a 1:40.3 behind leading Dunlap at 1:40.2. In
the 4x400, the Tigers posted a 3:48.6 behind the sizzling 3:46.4
from Cahokia Wirth. The No. 3 seed in the 4x400 is Blue Mound
Meridian at 3:49.0.
East St. Louis Lincoln's strength in
the individual events is in the short races. Last year's 7AA
110-meter hurdle champion Kraig Appleton is the No. 1 seed in that
event at 14.6. Teammate Roderick Oliver is No. 2 at 14.9. Oliver is
the No. 4 seed in the 400-meter run at 54.3, and teammate Gregory
Edwards, last year's 7AA winner, is No. 2 at 53.2. Edwards is
top-seeded in the 100-meter dash at 11.0, and he won the 7AA title
in the event last year. Teammate Tommie Hopkins is No. 4 seed at
11.5. Appleton is the No. 1 seed in the 200-meter dash at 23.1.
Walter Fisher of Bolingbrook Brooks won the 7AA 200 last year and
comes into the 8AA event as the No. 7 seed from the sectional at
24.6.
Other champions from last year's 7AA
meet qualifying for 8AA competition this year are T.J. Bouillon of
Carlinville in the pole vault as the No. 3 seed at 11-0; Jacob
Waltrip of Jacksonville Turner in the high jump as the No. 15 seed
at 5-5; Zachary Ochs of Mahomet-Seymour in the shot put as the No. 2
seed at 47-10; Derrick Diggins of Galesburg Lombard as the No. 1
seed in the long jump at 20-9; Kentaries Little of East St. Louis
Clark in the discus as the No. 6 seed at 142-1; Josh Roig of
Bloomington Junior High as the No. 5 seed in the 800-meter run in
2:11.8; and Kevin Clark of Arlington Heights South as the No. 7 seed
in the 1,600-meter run at 4:53.0.
In the distance races, Parker
Thompson of Tremont has a chance for a double. He is the leading
qualifier in both the 800-meter run and the 1,600-meter run.
Thompson went 2:09.7 in the 800 and 4:48.0 in the 1,600 in the
sectional. He will face stiff challenges in both races. In the 800,
the top eight qualifiers are within three seconds of one another. In
the 1,600 the top five are a mere 4.5 seconds apart.
Records in the 8AA pole vault,
110-meter hurdles and 100-meter dash could fall over the weekend.
The pole vault record is 12-2, and top-seeded Alex Freshour of
Stanford Olympia went 12-7 in the sectional. The hurdle record is
14.74 in fully automatic time, and last year's 7AA champion Kraig
Appleton of East St. Louis Lincoln went 14.6 in the sectional. Last
year's 7AA champion in the 100, Gregory Edwards of East St. Louis
Lincoln, posted an 11.0 in the sectional, and Pekin Broadmoor's
Billy Ashby went 11.2 for the No. 2 seed in the event. The 100 8AA
record is 11.41 and the all-time boys' mark is 11.0.
The complete time schedule for the
state meet is available at
www.iesa.org.
[IESA
news release] |
