Girls track & field: Morris 4x200 ‘beat the odds,’ heading to state

PRINCETON - Morris coach Ryan Battersby tried to sugarcoat it when he saw his team’s lane assignment for the 4x200 relay for Thursday’s Class 2A Princeton Sectional.

He thought running in the first lane may prove difficult, but he didn’t want to relay his concern to his runners.

“I feel like they beat the odds of being in the inside lane,” Battersby said. “I tried to spin it into a positive for them, like we’re better chasing people. We came here and didn’t realize it was a six-lane track. We thought we’d be somewhere between (lanes) three and six.

“Be honest with you, they went out there and ran and did well.”

He needed not worry.

All Morris did was advance in the 4x200 with a second-place time of 1:50.45 ran by Gisselle Reyes, Ava Conley, Mackenzie Edgar and Ella McDaniel. They edged Galesburg, which took third in 1:50.70, for the final qualifying spot.

“Gisselle got us off to a great start,” Battersby said. “Ava kept it going. Felt good with Mackenzie. She like held it for us and then it got to Ella, who felt we were in a good spot and we’\re going to get.

Morris also placed third in the 4x100 (51.65), third in the 4x400 (4:16.03) and fourth in the 4x800 (10:55.82).

“They ran very well in the 4x1. We were a little disappointed they got third, but there’s nothing they could do. The other teams were just faster,” Battersby said

Also for Morris, Leah Ortiz placed fourth in the 3,200 (12:53.68).

Coal City cousins Ella and Evelyn Wills will represent the Coalers in three events.

Ella Wills was runner-up in the triple jump at 10.63, and made the qualifying standard in the long jump with a third-place jump of 5.10.

Evelyn Wills tied for second place in the high jump at 1.49.

“I’m so excited for state. the competition was fierce in high jump but the weather affected a lot of the competitors,” Evelyn Willis said. “It was a great experience to compete against talented people and I wish the others the best of luck at state.”