Lady Red Devils Capture Share of Rollie Morris Invitational Track Championship
Matt Hassler Jumps 6'4" in High Jump for Red Devil Boys
by Jim Dresbach-BCR
April 10, 2008
Records made to
be broken and broken in Rollie Morris Invite
By Jim Dresbach
BCR Correspondent
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 12:09 AM CDT
SPRING VALLEY — After a year absence due to inclement weather last
April, the 2008 Rollie Morris Invitational returned with a
bang.
Make that a record-shattering bang.
Fans of the rivalry-charged Hall High School invitational witnessed eight new records during Saturday’s window of rain-free activity as the Bureau Valley boys won the male title while the Storm females shared the 2008 Rollie Morris title with the Hall Lady Red Devils. When the events were finished, both the Storm and Lady Devils had accumulated 130 team points.
“It turned out to be a great day to run,” Bureau Valley girls’ coach Dale Donner said. “It’s not too hot, and there’s no wind; it’s a beautiful day. We stood out in the rain all night (at Rock Falls) Friday, so this is a great day.”
BV’s Alisa Baron was a part of the record-setting day. The Southern Illinois University recruit smashed the 400-meter meet record with a sub-minute :59.09 clocking. The Storm senior also won the 800-meter open event at 2:29.17, but coach Donner was quick to add that a co-title could have never been claimed without other key BV contributions.
“Everybody looks out here and sees Alisa Baron, but everybody had a great day for us,” said the Storm coach. “We tied for first place; every point counted. Jordan Lebahn won the shot put; she’d never won before in her life (in high school).”
Lebahn notched a throw of 35 feet, 4 inches and right behind her in the standings was teammate Melanie Thompson (35-0), who also placed second in the discus throw with a 102-9 effort.
Not to be outdone by the traditionally strong BV girls on Saturday were the Lady Red Devils. Kendall Rush is Hall’s marquee name — she set a new meet triple jump mark at 34-9 — but Hall received many top performances in order to share the Morris championship.
“She’s (Rush) been hampered a little bit by a (bad) ankle, but she’s had some great jumps in the triple jump,” Hall coach Gary Vicini said. “The 100-meters was disappointing for her; she got third, but you know, in the hurdles, Katie Gerrard and Lacey Kwiatek gave us great runs today.”
Gerrard claimed titles in the 100- and 300-meter hurdle races, and Kwiatek was second behind Gerrard in both events.
“We’re getting some best times and distances now,” Vicini said. “I’m really happy in the way the girls are performing today.”
Other Hall female championships came from high jumper Abby Hoffert (5-0) and Lexi Fonderoli in the pole vault with a meet-winning height of 8 feet.
In the triple jump, BV’s Baron (34-5) finished second to Rush but was just an inch off the old triple jump mark set by Streator’s Ashley Yancy in 2003. Princeton’s Sarah Maynard had the third-best triple jump Saturday with a 34-3.5 effort.
Princeton’s Brittany Lowdermilk was a part of the other pair of broken records on Saturday. The current Tigress broke her sister Ashly’s 200-meter Morris record. In 2003, the older Lowdermilk set the 200 record with a :26.39 time; on Saturday, Brittney broke the mark but kept the record in the family with a :25.62 running.
“The wind is the main thing; its not much of a factor,” Princeton coach Pat Hodge said was the biggest reason times and records were taking nosedives. “That’s a big difference, especially, in sprint races. We’ve been looking at the forecast for this date all week, and we’re glad it turned out this way.”
PHS’ Natalie Lind, Brittany Mueller and Maynard — along with Lowdermilk — also set a new 400-meter relay record with a :52.08 clocking.
“Everything we’ve done on the track today has been a season’s best,” Hodge said. “Our 4x800 relay team was second, and that was great, and Sarah Maynard had a career-best triple jump.”
The Tigress 800-meter relay team also grabbed a title, and PHS thrower Sarah Schlund placed third in the shot put (33-4) and fourth in the discus throw (83-10).
A key second-place finish by Hall was claimed by Emily Kraemer (800-meters at 2:32) and Brigitte Klein gained valuable team points with a third place in the discus throw (102-2) and a fourth place in the long jump (13-5.5).
St. Bede’s top female finishers were Lucy Stanke and Katherine Toraason. Both finished third in their respective events; Stanke was third in the 3200-meter run (13:40) and Toraason notched a third in the 300-meter hurdles.
Boys break four records
Four boys’ records were broken during the male portion of the meet as Bureau Valley’s Ben Sabin tore into BV’s Garrett Barnas’ two-year old 300-meter hurdle record by knocking over a tenth of a second off the old mark. Sabin’s record time in the 300 was :40.88 as the Storm went home with the title by defeating the Mendota Trojans by 12 team points.
“I knew Ben would run decent in the hurdles,” BV coach Dave Moore said. “It has been the first nice (weather) day we’ve had, so I’m not surprised quite a few records went down.”
The marks were set by the Mendota 1600-meter relay team (3:35.58) and Streator pole vaulter Logan Pflibsen and Bulldog two-miler Jon Richards, but the team kudos fell to BV. Besides the Sabin sweep in the hurdle events, the Storm racked up event championships with first-place finishes from Adam Sanden in the triple jump (40-9) and in the long jump event, where BV claimed a one-two finish.
Alex Franklin posted the best long jump at 18-9 and Sanden was second with an 18-7 jump against a field that could qualify a handful of relay teams for the state meet. The Storm 4x100-meter team of Jeremy Culver, Sanden, Franklin and Sabin took advantage of a bad Mendota handoff to take first place.
“I thought Culver’s and Sanden’s handoffs were good; Ben got out early, and he doesn’t usually get out early,” Moore said about his 4x100 team’s performance. “There was a lot of adrenaline flowing, but you need perfect handoffs in this race.”
St. Bede speedster Kevin Blair defeated Mendota’s Kurtis Wujek by seven hundredths of a second in the male 400-meter race. Blair’s winning time was :52.01 and Wujek broke the tape at :52.08.
“He has proved he’s one of the best 400 runners in the area,” St. Bede coach Mike Skoflanc said. “He’s really close to state qualifying now (:51.7), and he knows he can do that time. His confidence should really be up there, right now.”
The Hall Red Devils, who finished third in the team results, posted championships from high jumper Matt Hassler and the 800-meter relay team of Hassler, Justin Piccatto, Austin Pozzi and Nathan Tucker picked up a number of runner-up finishes. Mike Miroux running the 3200-meter, pole vaulter James Thompson and Denzel Oppy all took home second-place ribbons. Weightman Oppy snared a pair of seconds with a shot put of 43-2.5 and a discus throw of 127-3.
Rollie Morris Invitational Meet Records
GIRLS
Shot put — 38-10, Kari Haines, Putnam County (2007)
Discus — 120-3, Madison Lebahn, Bureau Valley (2006)
High jump — 5-4, Eve Cullinan, St. Bede (1999),
Dani Miller, Lowpoint-Washburn (2002)
Long jump — 16-5 1/2, Jakenna Gilbert, Rock Falls (2002)
Triple jump — 34-6, Ashley Yancy, Streator (2003)
NEW RECORD- KENDALL RUSH - HALL (2008)-34-9
Pole vault — 8-9, Bevin Eichhorn, Streator (2003)
100 HH — :15.28, Lindsay Homfeldt, Marquette (2004)
300 LH — :46.91, Ashley Keaschall, Rock Falls (2005)
100 — :12.49, Ashly Lowdermilk, Princeton (2004)
200 — :26.39, Ashly Lowdermilk, Princeton (2003)
NEW RECORD -BRITTANY LOWDERMILK- PRINCETON- (2008)-25.62
400 — 1:00.76, Lindsay Homfeldt, Marquette (2003)
NEW RECORD-ALISA BARON - BUREAU VALLEY (2008)- 59:09
800 — 2:27.05, Cari Meyer, Bureau Valley (2001)
1600 — 5:25.85, Rebekah Faber, Princeton (2003)
3200 — 11:13.51, Rebekah Faber, Princeton (2003)
4x100 relay — :52.11, Princeton (2005)
NEW RECORD- PRINCETON (2008)- 52:08
4x200 relay — 1:49.75, Rock Falls (2005)
4x400 relay — 4:16.35, Princeton (2006)
4x800 relay — 10:16.0 Bureau Valley (2004)
800 medley — 1:55.45 Putnam County (2005)*
BOYS
Shot put — 50-10, Todd Maynard, Bureau Valley (2004)
Discus — 155-3, Matt Stank, Hall (1998)
High jump — 6-6, D.J. Glynn, Hall (1999), Jose Oquendo, Rock Falls (2002)
Long jump — 21-4 1/2, Nick Hanck, Hall (2000)
Triple jump — 43-9, Nick Hanck, Hall (2000)
Pole vault — 13-6, Will Aberle, Rock Falls (2001)
NEW RECORD-LOGAN PFILBSEN- STREATOR-(2008)- 14'0"
110 HH — :15.41 Garrett Barnas, Bureau Valley (2006)
300 IH — :41.04, Garrett Barnas, Bureau Valley (2006)
NEW RECORD-BEN SABIN-BUREAU VALLEY (2008)-40:88
100 — :10.69, D.J. Glynn, Hall (1998)
200 — :21.8, Walter Moton, Streator (2004)
400 — :50.29, Chris Safranski, St. Bede (2003)
800 — 1:58.65, Jason Bill, Bureau Valley (2002)
1600 — 4:32.08, Michael Grieve, Bureau Valley (2005)
3200 — 10:01.56, Michael Grieve, Bureau Valley (2005)
NEW RECORD - JON RICHARDS- STREATOR-(2008)- 9:54.15
4x100 relay — :44.51, Marquette (2001)
4x200 relay — 1:33.14, St. Bede (1998)
4x400 relay — 3:36.03, Bureau Valley (2002)
NEW RECORD-MENDOTA- (2008)-3:35.58
4x800 relay — 8:29.66, Bureau Valley (2006)
*The medley is no longer held
