Health & Fitness
St. Peter Sending Seven Track Athletes To State
Two more school records are broken in competition at Plano High School.
Under the pressure of intense competition St. Peter held their own against some of the best track and field athletes in the region at IESA Sectionals in Plano on Saturday. It was another week of many personal bests, broken school records and the added bonus of state meet qualifiers. Powerhouse teams Waterman Indian Creek and Hinckley Big Rock took the majority of the team awards but St. Peter had a strong showing against the larger dominant teams.
It was a gut wrenching race to the finish in the 8th grade girls 400 meter dash. In the end 8th grader Therese Hein of St. Peter ran away with the championship against her Waterman Indian Creek competitor with a time of 1:05.1 to Indian Creek's 1:05.6. Not only did Hein qualify for state but she also broke the St. Peter school record. Hein paid for her effort as she missed the 200 meter dash qualifying time by .1 seconds in a race which started only 12 minutes after her 400 finish.
The 4x100 relay team of Eileen Drew (7th grade), Rachel Tork (8th grade), Gracie Prange (6th grade) and Therese Hein were challenged in a field of eight teams in which five qualified for state. In a close race, anchor Therese Hein received the baton in 6th place. Sprinting hard for the last 100 meters Hein moved the team up to 3rd place with a time of 57.5, well within the state qualifying standard.
St. Peter's 4x400 meter relay team knew what they had to do to qualify for state and for the fourth year in a row did not fail to come through. Rachel Tork got the team off to a good start in a solid 2nd place behind Waterman Indian Creek. 8th graders Toriana Turk and Anna Burke kept the team in second and under the state qualifying time. 400 meter individual champion Therese Hein finished the job as the girls remained in 2nd with a state qualifying time of 4:44.
It was an exciting day for 7th grader Alec Wilson. Under the pressure of high expectations, Wilson remained focused and ran a state qualifying time in the 100 meter dash in the preliminaries. Not to be outdone in the finals, he finished in a close 2nd place only .2 seconds behind Waterman Indian Creek with a time of 12.4 seconds.
In the 200 meter dash, Wilson once again had the challenge of beating the same Indian Creek competitor he faced in the 100. It was close but in the end Wilson once again placed 2nd. It was an historic race for Wilson who for the fourth week in a row broke his own boys 200 meter dash St. Peter School record with a time of 25.6 seconds. His finishing time was nearly two seconds faster than the state qualifying standard.
The St. Peter 5th graders were also in action on Saturday at Rosary High School. Missing many athletes the young student-athletes held their own. The boys had an outstanding morning. Ben Robertson won the 800 meter run, Patrick Cahill won the discus throw, Anthony Cosentino won triple jump and the 4x400 meter relay team won their event.
In their final weekend of competition St. Peter will be competing in two venues. Seven athletes will be travelling to East Peoria on Friday and Saturday for the IESA State Track & Field Championships while the rest of the team will be at Marmion Academy for the Aurora Conference Championship.
