When all was said and done, some of the Lady Railers used their
preparation to turn the opportunity into their own ticket to this
weekend's Class AA state finals at Eastern Illinois University in
Charleston. For Lincoln, those tickets were issued to four familiar
Railer faces: Hilary Hobler, Kelsey Bunner, Bridgette Hyde and Kylie
Sparks. Hobler's preparation was rewarded with two tickets to state.
The Lady Railers' lone individual state qualifier and sectional
champion was Hilary Hobler. Hobler's best of six jumps measured out
to a personal best of 17 feet, 9.5 inches, which came on her third
jump of the night. The IHSA qualifying standard for the Class AA
state tournament is 17 feet, 3 inches. Hobler defeated her fellow
CS8 competitor Kirsten Daykin of Taylorville, whose best jump was 17
feet, 4 inches. Both Hobler and Daykin move on to the state meet. No
other girls were able to reach the IHSA qualifying standard at the
Mattoon Sectional. Statewide, a review of all 16 IHSA large-school
sectionals indicates that Hobler's jump will give her the 11th-best
jump in the state, based on sectional performances last weekend.
Hobler will participate Friday in the state preliminaries, where 12
individuals advance to the state finals on Saturday. The top nine
participants on Saturday earn medals.
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The Lady Railer 800-meter (4x200) relay team of Hyde, Sparks,
Bunner and Hobler also fought their way to a sectional championship
and a berth in the state finals. This in spite of some last-minute
strategy shenanigans from the Mahomet-Seymour team. Mahomet, seeded
fourth in the relay, decided to pull its two best runners from the
400-meter dash and instead "load up" the 800-meter relay team to try
to pull off a surprise victory. This loading-up strategy is
perfectly legal. The decision was made for "strategy reasons,"
according to the Mahomet coach, as quoted Saturday in the Champaign
News-Gazette. One of the inserted runners was Mahomet's best
200-meter runner and eventual 200-meter sectional champion, Hannah
Query. Query was placed in the relay anchor position during a
last-minute substitution before the meet began. The Mahomet strategy
almost paid off for them, except for one small detail they
overlooked -- the Lady Railer relay team refused to lose the event.
Bridgette Hyde once again started the Railers off quickly with an
effort that saw her put her team in a position to win. Kelsey Bunner
took the baton next and ran an excellent second leg of the relay,
putting the Railers at the front of the pack by the time she made
her handoff to Kylie Sparks. Sparks had her usual gutsy performance
and extended the lead a few meters more as she handed off to relay
anchor Hilary Hobler. From there the final battle of the relay was
on to determine if Mahomet's Query could outrun Hobler for the last
200 meters to the finish line. She couldn't. A last-second,
finish-line lean by Hobler was just enough to hold off Mahomet from
their "Friday surprise," with the Railers winning the event by a
clocked difference of only seven-hundredths of a second.
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The official, fully automated time for the Railer foursome was
1:47.81. Second-place Mahomet was clocked in by the camera at the
finish line at 1:47.88. An excited group of four Lady Railers met at
the finish line moments later to replay it all over again several
times for Coach Alexander. Moments later, cell phones and text
messages were zooming to various places to announce the news.
At the state finals on Friday, the 800 relay team will need to
place in the top nine teams order to keep advancing to Saturday.
In addition to these state-qualifying first-place finishes, both
Hobler and Hyde brought home additional individual medals, in the
100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash, respectively. Hobler finished
fifth in the 100-meter dash with a fully automated time of 13.08.
Hyde also finished fifth in the 200-meter dash with a fully
automated time of 27.77. The Railer 400-meter (4x100) relay team
consisting of Martin, Hyde, Bunner and Hobler medaled with a
third-place finish in 51.26.
Will the qualifying Railers be satisfied with making it to state
or will they choose to challenge the state's best? My guess? None of
these ladies are ready to settle … not yet. For Hyde and Sparks,
both seniors at LCHS, this is their last shot. Their competitive
attitudes and the "senior factor" will be sufficient motivation for
both of them. This will be their chance to ramp their performances
into some state medals. Hobler and Bunner are, well … just
competitors. From their junior high days at WL-B and C-EL,
respectively, when these two were opponents, to the last three years
as close teammates and friends, these two ladies also just refuse to
let people out-compete them. I have no doubt that this group will
compete at its highest level and give it all they have this weekend.
It is up to you, ladies. Keep movin' on up. You've already made
your families and your school proud. Don't be satisfied and don't
settle for less than your very best. Get after it!
GO, RAILERS!
[By RICK
L. HOBLER]
Respond to the writer at
rhobler@lccs.edu.
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