It was all smiles for the champion Katelyn Lehnen dominated classy fields all day in the sprints
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RESULTS I VIDEOS l PHOTOS
Bloomington HS; Bloomington-
At first glance of the Bloomington High School stadium brought a tremendous amount of energy into what was already hyped as the "junior high state meet." Fueled by the efforts of Doug Roberts and Todd Lowder along with Adkins Timing, everything was put into motion.
The Katelyn Lehnen show was put on full display-
The theme of the meet was "how many records would Katelyn Lehnen break?" The superstar eighth-grader in the making from Glenwood Middle School has turned a majority of this sport's talking heads during the regular season. Lehnen has run some national elite times for her grade and most notably was the blazing indoor 300m time of 41.00 from the CYUP Misfits Invite.
Coming in would be a worthy opponent from the Chicago area named Kaylah Parks, a seventh-grade member of the famed Aurora Flyers. Parks notched the 7.80 for 60m during the indoor season. It was a time that would have ranked #2 among the high schoolers. So potentially we could see history in the making here.
The first event on the track between the young titans was the 100m. The weather was nice and warm around 80F with a slight tailwind to boot (but no wind-gauge for an official and accurate assessment).
When the gun sounded, Parks bolted ahead from lane one with a step on the field. Lehnen appeared to be tardy from her blocks as she popped right up without a drive phase which put her at a disadvantage. However, her powerful legs from 40m to the finish line destroyed the entire field. The final result was an all-time best 12.09. Parks, on an island, took second in 12.40.
The IESA does not recognize marks outside of their state championship for records. But they stated to the meet organizers that participants must represent their schools until after the official season is over. The season is considered over on May 23- one day after the invite. Perhaps, the association will do the right thing and add all of the performances to its database.
Several hours later Lehnen teamed up with her Titan mates in the 4x100 relay. With Lehnen on the anchor, it was a wrap and the winning time of 50.24 was the second-fastest time ever ran in a championship format.
Lehnen surprisingly returned in the 400m. The thought process was that she was going to scratch the event and proceed relatively fresh for another match-up against Parks. Instead, it was Lehnen breaking stagger before the middle of the backstretch and streaming home for the win in 57.90. It was a great win over Sophia Yaklich of Bloomington Corpus Cristi by almost two seconds but the damage appeared to be done. Lehnen was a bit wobbly afterward and her parents and/or coaches pulled her from the 200. Parks won in 25.88.
Other key highlights:
8th grade-
Sofia Arcuri of Chicago will be attending Maine South HS in the fall, so she won two hotly contested distance races in her middle-school swan song. The first was the 1600m in 5:13.38 and the 800m in 2:25.61- both were PBs.
Lia Patterson of Tuscola Middle School won the 100H over Simone Bernard of Chicago Whitney Young Center 15.37-15.56. Bernard would later win the long jump with a leap of 16-10.75. Both girls were high multiple medalists over the weekend.
Another Ifft is on the scene in the pole vault. This time it's Claudia Ifft who cleared 11-2 amid a ton of cheers from a knowledgable crowd. Ifft just missed the record.
Courtney Clabough, the younger sister of Yorkville star thrower Kyle Clabough, is making a name for herself. Courtney swept the discus throw and shot put with 113-6 and 34-5.5 efforts respectively.
7th grade-
Ainsley Johnson of Springfield Calvary Academy is going to be a very big problem in two years or so when she enters high school. Johnson won two of three events- taking gold medals in the 100 (12.74) and 200 (26.90). The silver medal was in the long jump (15-2.25). She apparently met her meet goals and projects bigger things to come next year.
Future Glenwood HS star Ali Knudson won the 1600 and 800 as expected. Knudson put the hammer down late in each race to post 5:15.90 and 2:25.24.
Addy Johnson out of Decatur had a split decision in the throws. She won the shot put (30-5) after taking second in the discus throw
Laila Green of Romeoville lost to Johnson in the 200 but won the 400 in a time of 1:00.20. It was the fourth-fastest time for all the participants in the event.