High school girls track insider: Harvard's Sophie Stricker Athlete of the Week

Athlete of the Week

Sophie Stricker

Harvard, jr.

Stricker won the 200 and 400 meters at the McHenry County Girls Track and Field Meet to score all of her team’s 20 points.

Stricker finished second in the 200 and third in the 400 as a sophomore. She won the 400 in 1:00.04, her best time this season, then came back and won the 200 in 26.85, one-hundredth of a second ahead of Huntley freshman Cassidy Lackovic.

Northwest Herald Power Rankings

1. Cary-Grove: The Trojans won their seventh consecutive county championship with 153 points, but they were pushed hard by Huntley (146 1/2).

2. Huntley: Delaney Lyman was nagged by an upper arm injury and no-heighted in the pole vault. If she took one of the top two spots, the Red Raiders might have ended C-G's string.

3. Crystal Lake South: Kianna Clark, Cecilia John and Kiley Britten had some big performances for the Gators, who were third in the county meet.

4. Jacobs: The Golden Eagles were fourth in the county meet with Lauren Van Vlierbergen's 1,600 victory and 800 runner-up finish leading them.

5. McHenry: The Warriors won the 4x800 relay at the county meet and finished fifth without injured distance runner Lauren Opatrny.

Noteworthy

Unretired: It was only a matter of time before some area coach asked former Dundee-Crown coach Tom Smith to help out with another track or cross country program. Cary-Grove coach Mark Anderson was that person.

Anderson spoke with Smith, who had more than 30 years at D-C, this winter about helping with the Trojans’ distance runners.

“I’m drinking from the fountain of knowledge every day with Tom Smith,” Anderson said.

Injury update: McHenry's Lauren Opatrny, who finished fifth in the Class 3A 1,600 last year at state, has been out for almost three weeks with a bulging disk in her lower back. Warriors coach Kyle Owens said Opatrny has been biking and swimming for her training.

“She was cleared to run and we’ve been easing back into her normal training regimen,” Owens said. “She ran the [1,600] the other day and set 5:30 as her goal. She ran it in 5:28.”

Opatrny plans on trying to run an aggressive race at Saturday’s Palatine Relays in the 3,200. Opatrny is signed with Iowa for cross country and track.

Injury update II: Cary-Grove senior Olivia Roehri, who will throw at NCAA Division I Missouri State, has battled back issues this season and has not thrown the discus or shot put. Roehri's points were missed in the field events at the county meet, as she could have added two top-three finishes in the throws.

“It’s hard to say [when she’ll return],” Anderson said. “She is doing better, but we don’t want to have her messed up for her college career. We hope she is able to throw at the sectional meet.”

This Week’s Top Meets

Fox Valley Conference Meet

4:30 p.m. Thursday, at Hampshire

Cary-Grove will go after its seventh consecutive conference meet championship and may get another strong challenge from Huntley.

Big Northern Conference Meet

4 p.m. Thursday, at Marengo

Harvard, Johnsburg, Marengo and Richmond-Burton will be the local teams competing.