It's a big Rush to Charleston
15 area athletes qualify for state
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| Princeton's Sarah Maynard gets cleared for landing after taking off in the long jump during Saturday's 1A sectional competition in Chillicothe. She placed second in both the long and triple jumps. |
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CHILLICOTHE — Kendall Rush had two instructions Saturday, run fast and drive fast. She didn’t have to be told to jump far.
The Hall senior won the long jump, set a state-leading triple jump and ran the anchor leg on the Lady Red Devils runner-up 4x400 relay to qualify for state meet in three events.
Then she hopped in her dad’s car and made it back to Spring Valley for the Hall graduation.
“I barely made it in time. They wanted us there by 6:15 and I made it by 6:25,” she said.
It certainly proved well worth the wait for area athletes looking to qualify for the IHSA 1A girls’ state track and field finals. Fifteen area athletes advanced to the state meet in Charleston during Saturday’s Chillicothe Sectional competition, which was postponed the night before due to heavy rains
Princeton qualified four athletes in five events and placed second as a team behind Eureka 111 to 63.6. State qualifiers for the Tigresses include sectional champion Alyssa Donner (pole vault) and second-place finishers Sarah Maynard (long jump, triple jump), Sarah Schlund (shot put) and freshman C.J. Rhodes (1600).
Hall placed fifth as a team, picking a second-place finish from sophomore Brigitte Klein in the discus.
Bureau Valley’s Melanie Thompson captured the sectional crown in the shot put and will be joined at state by the Storm’s second-place 4x200 relay of Amber Day, Aubrey Franklin, Kim Sanden and Natalie Foster.
Rush went 17-10 1/4 in the long jump to edge out Princeton’s Maynard by five inches. It was more than a foot longer than she’s done all season in an event she’s been harping to compete in.
“I think she proved something to Gary, even without him being here, she still proved it,” assistant coach Nick Hanck said of head coach Gary Vicini, who was away at his daughter Kate’s graduation from nearby Bradley University.
Then the two Bureau County rivals went head-to-head again in the triple jump with Rush’s first-place effort of 37-2 1/2 leading all of the sectional competitors across the state by two inches. She only made jump in the triple jump and did not return, focusing on the upcoming 4x400.
“I did OK. I wished I could have gone farther in the triple, but I didn’t want to jump finals because I had the 4x4 left to run,” she said. “I went further than I jumped last year in sectionals, but I only jumped one time.”
Hanck, who will replaced retiring Vicini next season as head coach, said he made some adjustments with Rush’s jumps this week.
“I noticed a few things on our second and third phases that we could improve on. We worked on that a lot. She was jumping really good in practice,” Hanck said. “I kind of wanted her to maybe get a little farther today, but 37’s fine. I’m happy with that.”
The 4x400 was the most nerve-wrecking event, Rush said, because they switched up the order of runners. Assistant coaches Janet Nagel and Hanck, filling in for Vicini, switched Rush to No. 4 and freshman Liz Mosbach to No. 2. Chelsea Wallaert and Hillary Klein remained at No. 1 and 3, respectively.
“The wind was picking up and we didn’t know if we’d get time, so we were trying to get second,” Rush said.
The Lady Devils got their second place and still ran a qualifying time of four minutes and 14.14 seconds. Eureka was first in 4:13.
Donner, who won this year’s state indoor pole vault crown, topped all the sectionals with a vault of 10-3 on Saturday. She climbed the ladder at 9-3, 9-9, 10-3 and then tried 10-10, “but by then I was out of gas. Oh well, I’ll get it at state.”
All it took for BV’s Thompson and PHS’ Schlund was one throw to qualify in the shot put. As on cue, as PHS weight coach Curtis Odell noted, the second measuring stripe was qualifying, Schlund’s first toss hit the line for a throw of 36-4 1/2 and brought a quick smile to her face.
“It was definitely a relief,” Schlund said. “I’m usually the kind of a person that comes in nervous and worried about ‘am I going to make it, am I going to make it.’ My mom told me I seemed more confident today, and that was a really a good point. I talked to coach Thursday, if you can get it done the first throw, that’s good, then you can work on a better seed down at state.”
Thompson followed by punching her ticket to Charleston with a first toss of 36-8 1/4, which stood up through finals for first place. With the pressure off, Thompson said, “I can relax and go all out.”
Maynard nailed down her berth in the triple jump with a jump of 34-3 1/2, again second only to Rush on Saturday. PHS coach Pat Hodge said her steps were off some, because she ran the 4x200 before she had any jump.
“I’m sure (the 4x200) tired her out, but she was able to qualify and that’s the main thing,” Hodge said.
Rhodes was a pleasant surprise, became just the second freshmen to qualify for state in the 1600 and the first since Justine Kinsman in 2002.
“We weren’t even looking at that,” Hodge said.
Bureau Valley’s Franklin was heavily favored in the 100 hurdles, but from her trademark upright start, she was disqualified for a gun jump. After much consolation from her teammates and family, Franklin regained her focus to help the Storm’s 4x200 qualify with a second-place time of 1:51.42.
“It was disappointing to see Aubrey false start in the high hurdles, but she came back and ran a super leg on the 4x200,” BV coach Dale Donner said. “It was nice to see her bounce back so quickly. We had confidence that she could shake it off, and she performed at her usual level.”
Hall’s Klein took second with a throw of 115-2 and was one of three discus throwers to hit qualifying mark. St. Bede’s MacDavitt went 5-1 to qualifying with a third-place effort in the high jump.
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