MINOOKA – Lincoln-Way East showed why it is one of the top ranked girls track and field teams in Class 3A, as the Griffins qualified seven athletes in 10 individual events and three relay teams to state out of the Minooka Sectional on Wednesday afternoon.
The IHSA state meet will take place June 12 at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
The Griffins also took home the sectional team title, as they scored 126 points, to defeat defending state champion from 2019, Homewood-Flossmoor (117).
Minooka was third (62), followed by Lincoln-Way West in fifth, Lincoln-Way Central in seventh, with Joliet Central placing 10th and Joliet West 11th in the 15 team meet.
“I’m really proud of these kids and what they have accomplished so far this season,” East coach Brian Evans said. “With the shortened season, it has been so meaningful the past two weeks to hold up team championship trophies, because it’s across all 18 event,s and all of our kids realize how important they are.”
East was led by Mariam Azeez, as the junior qualified in four events. She won the 100 meters (12.05), the 200 (24.67) and the long jump (18 feet, 11 3/4 inches). She also placed second as a member of the 4x100 relay.
“This is exciting, and I’m so proud that we won as a team,” Azeez said. “It will be exciting to go back to state, because I was there as a freshman but missed last year because of the shutdown, and I’m so happy that my teammates will be going as well.”
Perhaps the race of the day came from Katie Sciarini. The senior ran a rerun of the 300 hurdles by herself after being interfered with during the original race, in which she finished third. In the rerun, Sciarini ran only 0.014 seconds slower than event winner and teammate Sophia Barnard and qualified for state.
“I was so disappointed after the original race and then had to refocus when I had the chance to rerun the race,” Sciarini said. “It was difficult by yourself, but everyone cheering really helped, and I was totally surprised by my time.”
Also qualifying for East were Ali VanDyke and Kailey Bell in the pole vault, Jamie Sierocki in the shot put and Kate Gugerjan in the 1,600. Barnard also qualified in the 100 hurdles. The three relays were the 4x100, 4x400 and 4x800.
Minooka won the 4x800 relay and qualified Kendal Franklin in the high jump, Jocelyn Host in the 3,200, Ava Bezaire in the pole vault and Cassie Fuhrman in the 800 and as a member of the 4x800 team.
“It’s a surreal feeling because I never thought as a freshman I would get to state, especially not running track last year,” Fuhrman said. “I’m so happy our relay made it. That means a lot to me to have those teammates make it also.”
“All we ask of our kids is to put themselves in the mix and see what happens,” Indians coach Kevin Gummerson said. “We had a lot of success today across the board, and our kids responded. It’s a goal of our program to get qualifiers to the state finals.”
Other local qualifiers were Marla Hayes from Lincoln-Way Central in the discus and Lincoln-Way West’s Larissa Eick in the high jump.