St. Peter Track & Field Wraps Up Successful Season Finishing 3rd In Aurora Conference Championship

After many early season challenges which included snow, rain, sub freezing wind chills and near blizzard conditions, the St. Peter Rocket Track and Field team finished the season on a high note with an overall 3rd place finish out of 9 teams at the Aurora Conference Championship Meet at Aurora Central Catholic High School. Annunciation of Aurora dominated the meet winning with a combined score of 801 points. 2nd – 4th place was decided by a spread of only 37 points with St. Rita of Aurora placing 2nd with 462 points, St. Peter in 3rd with 446 points and Holy Angels finishing 4th with 425 points.

The highlight of the meet for St. Peter was the 8th grade girls who won their division with little difficulty by a final a score of 123 points to Annunciation’s 97 points. The 8th grade girls, competing in their final meet for St. Peter, shined as their efforts put the team solidly into 3rd place overall. Savannah Volk led the 8th grade girls by winning the 100 meter dash in 13.28 seconds, breaking her own St. Peter School record. Volk also won the 200 meter dash with a time of 30.36 seconds. Volk’s 4x100 relay team of Sarah Woodford (7th grade), Rachel Tork (7th grade) and Sarah Ashbrook (8th grade, also 4th in the 100 meter dash and 2nd in the 200 meter dash) won their event in a time of 59.48 seconds thus making Volk responsible for scoring 30 points in the meet for the 8th grade girls. The rest of the 8th grade girls also performed solidly, scoring points in nearly every event including Elizabeth Allon’s win in the 1600 meter run and the 4x400 team of Allon, Rachel Tork, Anna Burke (7th grade) and Delaney Shanahan (8th grade) winning their relay race.

While St. Peter failed to place in the top 2 in any other divisions, their depth and consistency allowed them to score precious points in most events where they had athletes competing thus making this meet a true team effort. The team was also missing 6 key players who were in East Peoria representing the Rockets at the IESA State Championship Meet. Three individual athletes and two relay teams also won their events for St. Peter including Anna Burke in the 800 meter run, Rachel Tork in the 1600 meter run and Ainsley Hoover, a 5th grader who won her 800 meter run. Both 5th grade 4x100 meter relay teams won their events. The boy’s team consisted of Sam Barton, Colin Burke, Will Frangul and Drew Tabor while the girls competed with Ashley Harootunian, Ashlyn Reno, Ainsley Hoover and Gracie Prange.

This meet and the IESA State Meet concluded the St. Peter Rocket Track and Field season. In 2013 7 school records were broken on the way to a 1st (girls) and 3rd (boys) place finish in the ACS Invitational and a 2nd (8th girls) and 3rd (7th girls) place finish at the 17 team IESA Sectional. Eight events and six athletes also qualified for the IESA Class A State Meet with four athletes finishing 13th or better in their event, including Charlie Zimmer with an All State 7th place finish in the 1600 meter run.

Cross Country season is just around the corner where St. Peter will defend their 2012 Tri-County Conference title and the girls’ 3rd place finish at the 2012 IESA Class A State Cross Country Meet.