Girls track: Olivia Pastovich, Cora Heller help Kaneland win Interstate 8 Meet

Editor’s note: On Saturday morning, an error in the scoring was reported that affected the final standings. Due to an error in the shot put, Sycamore finished with 100 points to take second, beating out third-place Plano with 96. The story as it appears in Saturday’s paper appears below and does not reflect the scoring change.

SYCAMORE – Kaneland girls track and field coach Andrew Franklin said having depth to score in the back end of events helped the Knights claim the Interstate 8 Conference Meet title Friday in Sycamore.

Of course, having a pair of multi-event winners and winning five events didn’t hurt.

Olivia Pastovich won both hurdles events, Cora Heller won the pole vault and long jump, and the Knights finished with 122 points to beat Plano (103) and Sycamore (96) for the league crown.

“Looking at the seeds and how everything was falling in place, we were going to be in a real close race with Kaneland and we fell to third. It wasn’t our night. Things didn’t fall quite the way we wanted. ... We had a lot of great things happen, we just didn’t have enough to get over the hump.”

—  Joe McCormick, Sycamore girls track coach

For Heller, the wins came competing in three events at the same time. She cleared 3.35 meters in the pole vault at the same time the discus (fifth, 29.08) was take place on the other side of campus – not to mention posting a 4.75 leap in the long jump.

“She’s amazing,” Franklin said. “I should start calling her the juggler. She had to do all three events at the same time. She had to run off to the discus to take care of that business. Then go warm up for the pole vault. It’s almost 400 meters away, and she had to run and do her thing. I’m incredibly proud of her, and she does it calmly and professionally. Like a little miniature business person.”

Franklin said he liked the depth his team showed in winning the meet. But for Plano and their surprise second-place finish, the sprinters shouldered the load for the team.

Armoney Clay, who won four events last year, won the 100 (12.89) and was on the winning 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams. But teammate Favour Amakari stunned her in the 200, finishing with a personal best of 26.72 seconds, just ahead of her fellow senior Clay (26.8).

“We push each other,” Amakari said. “We compete against each other. It felt really good [to beat her].”

Amakari, Clay, Eloina Montesinos and Alexa Sobieszscyk won the 4x100 in 49.98, while Amakari, Clay, Sasha Helfgott-Waters and Kaylee Klatt finished in 1:51 to win the 4x200.

Clay still said she was proud of the day and the ability to call herself a seven-time I-8 champ.

“I really wanted the four wins like I did last year,” Clay said. “But it’s OK. I pushed my teammate. We pushed each other. She got the win, I got second. It’s OK.”

Plano coach Rick Ponx said the sprinters were the backbone of the team, as they have been all year.

“It felt great,” Ponx said. “I knew it was going to be a tough match for us and Sycamore. We’ve gone against them two other times this year, and they’ve beat us both times. ... We squeezed as much out of this team as we could.”

Sycamore’s top showing came in the long jump, with not only Karissa Clawson leaping 1.55 to win the title, but Olivia Kirby setting a personal best of 1.5 meters to take second.

Coach Joe McCormick said there were other great performances as well, such as Malerie Morey clearing 3.05 in the pole vault and freshman Layla Janisch setting a personal record in 2:31.07 in the 800.

But overall, he said it just wasn’t the Spartans’ night.

“Looking at the seeds and how everything was falling in place, we were going to be in a real close race with Kaneland, and we fell to third,” McCormick said. “It wasn’t our night. Things didn’t fall quite the way we wanted. ... We had a lot of great things happen, we just didn’t have enough to get over the hump.”

Pastovich won both hurdles races, finishing the 100 in 17.76 and the 300 in 50.6. Franklin said she was assertive in the victories, and that was good to see, as was the win for sophomore Kennedi Reed in the triple jump (10.23).

Pastovich said she was thrilled with the team showing and her performance on the day. She said the biggest challenge was overcoming the windy conditions.

“The wind on this back stretch, oof, it was major coming in,” Pastovich said. “It’s definitely a mental challenge. But you work through it, you have people supporting you left and right, and it’s definitely something I’m thankful for getting first.”

Morris was fourth (65), Ottawa fifth (53) and La Salle-Peru and Sandwich tied for sixth with 48 points. Rochelle was eighth with 23 points.

For Sandwich, freshman Sunny Weber won the 1,600 with a personal best of 4:59.18, and was on the first-place 4x800 relay with Joanna Rivera, Erin Lissman and Emily Urbanski. The team is all sophomores and freshmen, and finished in 10:20.84, almost 25 seconds ahead of the runners-up.

The 4x400 team didn’t run as a late scratch, and they were expected to compete for a title.

Weber said she decided to push for a PR. She ended up beating it.

“It felt good during the race,” Weber said. “I didn’t have any gains or anything, my legs weren’t tired. They felt fresh. ... I was going to be fine getting 5 minutes flat. When I heard my first lap was 1:15, I decided I may as well go for it and try to get a new PR. I struggled with my second and third lap, so I just pushed through them and when I hit my fourth lap, I really went for it.”

Claire Allen won both throws for the Indians, reaching 13.17 in the shot put and going 42.29 in the discus.

Morris had a pair of first-place finishes. Katie Eisenbeis, Danica Martin, Makensi Martin and Ava Conley went 4:24.62 to win the 4x400, while Joy Dudley won the 3,200 in 11:56.44.

Shaylen Quinn had Ottawa’s lone win, finishing the 400 in 1:02.54, edging out Miah Eugenia Buckley of La Salle-Peru (1:02.68) and Conley (1:03.53) in a thrilling finish. All three set personal records.