Lincoln Girls Track and Field team earns 5th Place finish at State
Sophomore Becca Heitzig crowned State Champion in 800m

 

[May 23, 2022] 

Saturday was a phenomenal day for the 2022 Lady Railers Track and Field team as four outstanding LCHS athletes participated in the IHSA Class 2A Girls State Track and Field Championships at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.

Reese McCuan, Becca Heitzig, Alyssa Company and Mallory Short not only medaled in their events but they also brought home the school’s best finish ever at State in Track and Field competition. These four girls combined to finish in 5th place as a team. What a remarkable feat!

Sophomore Becca Heitzig blew the competition away as she ran the 800m in 2:09.99 and finished in first place by several seconds. Her run was incredibly impressive and she left the spectators in the stands in awe. Immediately following her record-setting run, two of the girls who finished behind her were quick to tell her, “You’re amazing.”

She is no. 1 and she gives all the glory to God ~ she is State Champion Becca Heitzig!

Not only did Heitzig set a new PR with her run on Saturday but she set a new IHSA State Record for Class 2A. The track announcer made that information known while Heitzig was busy fielding questions from the media on the infield.

In the Prelims on Friday, Heitzig had finished second with a time of 2:17.59. With her first place finish, Heitzig becomes just the second girls track and field athlete to be crowned a state champion at LCHS.

Senior Reese McCuan earned a second place in the Triple Jump earlier in the day. McCuan’s jump measuring 11.30m was a new PR. She was beat out by Alice Sotelo of Sterling High School, who jumped 11.36m in her final jump. In the triple jump, the athlete only gets three chances on the day of the Finals. McCuan was understandably disappointed when she scratched on her third jump, knowing that Sotelo had taken over the lead. McCuan had jumped 11.18 in the Prelims on Friday to earn a no. 1 ranking going into the Finals on Saturday.

By the time early evening was approaching, the rain was really beginning to come down. The last event of the day was the 4x400 Relay and the relay team of Mallory Short, Reese McCuan, Alyssa Company and Becca Heitzig was ready to run. These four girls had finished on top during Friday’s Prelims with a time of 4:02.88. On Saturday night, they were even faster, but so was the team from Kankakee. The Lincoln girls finished in second place with a time of 3:58.96. The Kankakee team edged the Lady Railers with a time of 3:57.93. Still the Lincoln girls broke a school record that had been in existence since 1991. Heitzig’s mom, Kim, was on that 1991 relay team that held the previous record of 4:01.90.

So on a day that featured weather delays due to rain and lightning and the rearrangement of events that without a doubt had to be stressful on all the athletes, these girls prevailed and ended their day wet, but with smiles. Their hard work, dedication and resilience had all paid off. The girls also mentioned how they gather in prayer before running.

Heitzig was the first to recognize a higher power as she spoke immediately after her 800m win.

“Number one, I’ve got God on my side right now and I could not have done anything without Him,” began Heitzig, who had to stop and listen when the announcer said her name over the stadium's speaker. It was at that very moment she learned she was the new State record holder. “State record, what? I didn’t know that,” she said.

Freshman Mallory Short gets a hug from Coach Johnie Meisner.

“I also give credit to my coaches and my teammates who pushed me at every practice and helped me prepare for this moment,” Heitzig continued. “I would not have been able to do anything without preparation.”

While Heitzig had a goal of winning State, the idea of setting a new State record had not entered her mind. Heitzig said of the moment, “This is just so overwhelmingly amazing. It hasn’t even sunk in yet, but I feel awesome because that’s a goal (state champion) I’ve been working for and I finally got it.”

After the relay team set the new school record and finished in 2nd place, the four members of the team were excited to talk, with the adrenaline still flowing as fast the raindrops were falling.

With four excited girls talking at once, this was what was said:

“I don’t think whenever I run, so I just kind of went.”

“The nerves kick in and you just go.”

“Yea, like no thought.”

“The main goal was first place would be awesome, but we got our school record.”

When the girls mentioned the school record, Heitzig said of her mom, “She didn’t think that we were gonna make that at all.”

Reese McCuan earned a silver medal in the triple jump.

"We also love the idea of faith before we run,” the girls all said. “We always say a prayer before we run. We just cheer each other on no matter where we are on the track. We all put in lots of hard work this season. Lots of practice and lots of teamwork and all pushing each other really helped.”

The girls also noted their track season was plagued with injuries and they barely got to practice together. You could not tell that by their record-setting performance Saturday.

“It’s crazy how much we’ve improved because at the beginning of the season our best time was 4:12,” said McCuan. “The fact that we PR’d every race is insane. As a team, every race we improved. Every race we got better and better.”

The younger girls all said they will miss McCuan next year.

The girls also said the rain helped on Saturday.

“We love to run in the rain,” they all chimed in together. “The rain kind of helped. We’ve practiced in the rain and you just get used to it and we just push through it.”

“We love good ole Midwestern weather,” said McCuan. “it doesn’t know what it wants”

These girls, though, they knew what they wanted Saturday and they went out and got it.

The fantastic four sharing a hug in the rain atop the podium at the end of the day.

The remarkable run by the thrown together relay team will continue for a few years yet, as McCuan is the only senior who will be lost to graduation. Heitzig and Company are sophomores and Short is just a freshman. There is plenty of time left for these girls to continue shattering records.

Congratulations, ladies!!

The entire girls track team, many of whom showed up in support of the state qualifiers on Saturday, are listed below, as provided by Coach Gayal Rademaker:

AnnaLisa Alley
Reagon Bell
Allysa Buffington
Leslie Campbell
Allysa Company
Kaylee Crawford
Faith Dunham
Jazlyn Franz
Becca Heitzig
Haven Henry
Makayla Koehne
Reese McCuan
Lexi Perkins
Addison Rawlins
Avery Rawlins
Alexis Rehmann
Hadley Rutledge
Mallory Short
Allison Turner
Oliviah Wilkerson

Coach Rademaker is also assisted by Johnie Meisner and Blake Jones.

Coach Meisner was so proud of the girls after the meet Saturday night, he hugged each one.

Finally here is Becca Heitzig’s State Championship run showing just how impressive she was:

1. Becca Heitzig ~ Lincoln 2:09.99
2. Colleen Zeibert ~ Rochester 2:13.83
3. Isabella Orozco ~ Aurora Central Catholic 2:16.24
4. Ashleigh Anderson ~ Mount Zion 2:16.72

[See more results on Tuesday]

[Teena Lowery]

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