Normal University’s depth enough to runaway with Class 2A team title

Heitzig ends storied career with distance double wins; 2A records fall led by Austin and St. Francis

By Michael Newman

Charleston, Ill – U-High Coach Randy Anderson was walking around the floor of O’Brien Field getting reports on how his team was doing. “Your team is doing great.” His reply was “I hope refusing to think his team was winning until he saw the Class 2A last event finish. Then he could say I knew.

U-High’s depth was the key to the program’s first state title with 63.5 points. They led all qualifiers after prelims 12 qualifiers. The Pioneers ended up scoring in nine of the eighteen scored events.

South Shore International won their first trophy in the school’s history, scoring 46 points. Tinley Park scored in just five events but still finished third with 36 points. Cahokia scored 35 points to finish fourth behind the double win in the sprints from Kayda Austin. East St. Louis-Senior scored 33 points to finish fifth.

The bulk of their scoring came from two disciplines. U-High scored 18 points in three relays. 23 points came from Zoe Carter and Natalie Bierbaum in both the 1600 Meter Run and 3200 Meter Run.

One of the stories that was watched during the Class 2A prelims was the possibility of a crazy triple. Becca Heitzig of Lincoln had qualified for three individual events along with her teammates in the 4x400 Meter Relay. She qualified in her basics in the 800 Meter Run and the 1600 Meter Run. She had also qualified in the 300 Meter Hurdles she started playing around with last summer. By the time that she got to this weekend, she was among the top 10 athletes in the event in Class 2A.

“I knew when I got to the Monday, I was still tired from the sectional meet,” Heitzig said. “I had to concentrate on my basics. The playing around was over in the hurdles.”

Heitzig entered the 800 Meter Run on Saturday with the top seed time and won the third heat Friday in the 1600 Meter Run. Heitzig was looking for her third straight title in the event. The answer came in the first lap of the race when Heitzig passed the first 400-meters of the race in 62.5. The rest of the field led by Emily Stecky of DePaul College Prep was five seconds behind in 67 seconds. The final 200-meters was completing the winning task which she completed. Heitzig did not break her Class 2A record like she had done the past two years, but she collected her state title with a 2:09.55 seasonal best. Erin Hinsdale of St. Francis was having the meet of her young life. The first-year student ran 2:14.83 to get by Stecky in the final 10-meters to finish second with Stecky (2:15.27), Brooke Zeibert of Rochester (2:15.88), and Cecelia Hilby of Aurora Central Catholic (2:15.94) rounded out the top five.

One of the shocking moments was in the 4x800 Meter Relay. Wheaton St. Francis and Morton ran one of the most exciting races we have seen in this event. Mt Zion had the early lead at the first exchange with Morton and St. Francis were within a second of the lead. The three teams ran close together in the second leg now with Morton in the led and St. Francis and Mt. Zion biding their time to take the lead. The race broke wide open on the third leg as Margaret Andrzejewski of St. Francis and Sophie Krueger of Morton both ran 2:18 third legs setting up a memorable final 800 -meters of this race. Erin Hinsdale refused to let St. Francis separate from Morton and Taygen Beyer. The two runners made mini-passes trading off the lead in the first 600-meters. Coming off the final curve, Hinsdale had a slight advantage, just enough to get the school home with the first win in the event. What was bigger is that it was a new Class 2A State Meet record of 9:12.88. Morton also put a great time of 9:13.17 in which ended up Illinois #6 in the event.

St. Francis will be a team to watch in this event in the next three years. There was a sophomore and three freshmen in that quartet.

The 2A 3200 Meter Run was the best of the three 3200 Meter Run races of the meet. U-High’s Zoe Carter and Natalie Bierbaum along with Sundara Weber of Sandwich and Cameron Crump of Waterloo stayed together until the final 600-meters of the race. It was not a tactical race. It was four runners pushing each other to the limit to see which runner would win a state title.

Weber made the definitive move of the race when she started her move 600-meters from the finish. The lead grew to two seconds when she got neat to the finish line. She looked at the clock at the finish and then took off. The four had run 79-80m second laps for the first six laps. Weber closed with a 73 second final lap to run 10:30.16 for a personal best and her first state championship. Teammates Carter and Bierbaum finished second and third separated by just a tenth of a second with Carter at 10:35.58. More importantly, it gave their team 15 needed points. Waterloo’s Cameron Crump ran the best race of her high school career running 10:38.08 to finish fourth. Sydney Gertsen of Montini was also under 11-minutes with a 10:54.74 to finish fifth. All five runners are underclassmen and will be back next year.

Ellie Fritzsche of Mt Zion won the first section of this event in 11:21.17. It was the second year in a row that she has won that race. She missed all-state last year. This year, she finished seventh behind Louisa Wilson of Williamsville with both earning all-state honors.

Carter and Weber would be waiting challenge for the 1600 Meter Run title. Heitzig has a simple strategy of going out fast and daring people to come after her. Heitzig did just that passing the first 400-meters in 74 seconds leading the rest of the field by two seconds. Heitzig had the lead at 2:31 at 800-meters with the rest of the field four seconds except for Weber who stayed within two seconds. Heitzig was feeling the effect of the last two days of racing saying afterwards she had to dig around the track one more time. Weber had sensed Heitzig, and she closed the gap down to one second.

The Lincoln senior found the extra gear she needed for that final 400-meters and pulled away from Weber one final time. Heitzig finished with her fourth state title on the track, winning in 4:58.82. Weber had a great double of 5:02.68 to finish second. Stecky ran 5:06.87 to place third with Carter at 5:07.32 to finish fourth and giving her team six points. Bierbaum also helped U-High finishing eighth in this race.

Kayda Austin of Cahokia was the defending champion in the 100 Meter Dash and the 200 Meter Dash. While some onlookers were looking at others to win both titles. Austin kept quiet looking for the right moment to strike. That started in the 100 Meter Dash where she got off to a great start with a lead that built from that. Austin ran a personal best of 11.69 to defend her title with Ranaisha Howard-Dunigan of Limestone running 11.92 to finish second. Reese Mitchell of Normal University ran 12.17 to finish third just ahead of Katherine Jewell of Prairie Ridge (12.18).

It was a moment of disbelief after Austin defended her title in the 200 Meter Dash. The 200 was run in the opposite direction due to a slight wind from the south. She started to say something before she saw on the scoreboard that she had broken the 2A State Meet record of 23.72. Howard-Dunigan completed a great senior season running 24.47 to finish second. Jordan Hamb of South Shore International ran 24.71 to finish third.

It came down to four teams that would battle for the win in the 4x100 Meter Relay. East St. Louis-Senior had the lead at the final exchange going on to win (47.76) ahead of Tinley Park (47.92), Cahokia (47.94), and Normal University (48.04). It was a repeat for the Flyerettes in the 4x200 Meter Relay but this time a larger margin of victory. East St. Louis ran 1:40.23 to capture the title with Cahokia at 1:42.35 finishing second ahead of Normal University (1:42.42) and Sacred Heart-Griffin (1:43.14).

East St. Louis completed the sprint relay sweep with a convincing win in the 4x400 Meter Relay. Their time of 3:52.97 won by over two seconds ahead of Mahomet-Seymour (3:55.14) and Sacred Heart-Griffin (56.71). Eureka and Normal University finished fourth and fifth.

Madalyn Marx, who was the anchor for Mahomet-Seymour in the 4x4, earlier won the state championship in the 400 Meter Dash in what was a close race. Marx ran a personal best of 56.11 for the win with Leah Smith of South Shore International (56.18) and Syriah Boyd of Galesburg (56.37) finishing second and third.

Jordan Hamb of South Shore International was the big favorite in the 100 Meter Hurdles and met those pre=meet expectations running 14.27 to claim the win ahead of Jamison Love of Mascoutah (14.54) and Gabby Graham of Tinley Park (14.58).

Graham and Love came off the third to last hurdle close to even when Love hit the hurdle and fell onto the track. Graham went on to win the 300 Meter Hurdles in a huge personal best of 43.56 to win by close to three seconds ahead of Kyla Barker of Thornridge (46.24). Brielle Seiler of Richland County (46.38) and Ann Marie Trentman of Freeburg (46.39). finished third and fourth. Love got up and was able to finish earning her all-state honors.

Julian Schlittler of Tolono Unity final jump in the prelims of the Long Jump was enough to hold on to the lead and eventually the state title. The sophomore jumped 17-10.75 to win the Long Jump finishing ahead of Symone Holman of Joliet Catholic (17-8). Jordan Hamb won her second state title in the Triple Jump. Hamb jumped 37-3.25 to win the state title ahead of Zubaydah Akorede of Mundelein Carmel (36-11.50) and Kylee Gardner of South Shore International (36-11).

Mariyah Elam cleared 5-4.50 to win the 2A High Jump finishing ahead of Jaida Linn of Hillsboro who cleared 5-3.25 to finish second. Brooklyn Kondritz of Mt. Zion and Payton Carter of St. Joseph-Ogden both cleared 11-9.75 in the Pole Vault. Kondritz won the state title on fewer misses.

Olivia Marshall of Geneseo was in complete control in the Shot Put when she took the lead in the second round. Marshall had a best of 43-4.25 in the fifth round to win the state title. Carmyn Huston of Monmouth-Roseville was closest to Marshall with a 40-4.25 to finish second. Marshall swept the weight events winning the Discus. The senior threw 139-5 to win the event with Elsie Williamson of Taylorville (16-2) and Isabella Thomas of Normal University (124-4) finishing second and third.