By Michael Newman

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Rockton, Ill --- Emma Spagnola (West HS, Aurora) competed in four events at Saturday’s Hononegah Girls Classic. That’s no surprise. It would be major news if this multi-talented senior was not in four events. The future University of Minnesota student athlete is the main cog in the West Aurora Girls Track & Field team. Spagnola won three events to help West Aurora win the team title by 12 ½ points over area rival St. Charles East.

She started off her day in the Long Jump. The defending 3A champion in the event soared out to an IL#2 18-9 to win the event. Brittani Griesbaum (Lakes HS, Lake Villa) finished second behind Spagnola. Her 18-0 jump is currently ranked in the state.

Spagnola headed off to the track to compete in the 55 hurdles. She had the fastest prelim time in the event (8.53) by almost ¾ of a second. She had control of the race after the first hurdle as she cruised to an IL #3 8.52 win. Eva Burks (Cary-Grove HS) finished second (8.94). She also win the 200 Meter Low Hurdles. Her goal in the race was to under 29 seconds. She did that shattering the meet and facility record by more than half a second (28.96). She did get help in that effort. Morgan Schultz (Cary-Grove HS) who is hurdling for the first time this season stayed with her on the curve before Spagnola broke away on the final straight. Schultz also went under the meet record (28.96).

“I think I did okay. I think I could have done a little better,” said Spagnola about her short hurdle race. “I think I could have warmed up a little more on the hurdle. It just did not feel right.”

The only setback of the day for Spagnola came in the 400 Meter Dash. Sisters Allison and Elizabeth Chmelik (East HS, St. Charles) took the lead at the break and looked like they would finish 1-2. Spagnola made a late charge catching Elizabeth but getting out-leaned by Allison at the line (60.53-60.60). The 55 Meter Dash, however was the closest finish of the day. Brittani Griesbaum nipped Patrice Jones (Hononegah HS, Rockton) at the line to win the race by two hundredths of a second (7.37-7.39).

Allison Chmelik also had a great day in the Triple Jump. She easily won the competition (37-5 ¾) by two and a half feet. Her effort is currently the best performance in the state. It was a personal best for her by over five inches.

St. Charles East finished second from their strength in the sprints. Along with the Chmelik sisters’ 1-3 finish in the 400 Meter Dash, the Lady Saints picked up a win by Jordan Shead in the 200 Meter Dash. She held off Lauren Zick (Kaneland HS, Maple Park) by eleven hundredths of a second (26.76-26.87). East also picked up wins in the 4x2 and 4x8 relays. Shead anchored her team to a 1:52.03 winning time in the 4x2 relay. Kaneland was just behind in second (1:52.22).

In the longer relay, McHenry, Belvidere North, and St. Charles East were all within a second of each other at the final exchange. Corrin Adams ran a 2:25 final split to give her team the win by a little more than a second over McHenry.

Perhaps the best race of the day was the 1600 Meter Run. Even though you cannot wear spikes on this hard rubberized surface underneath the Hononegah Dome, this track still produces some great distance times. The 1600 was loaded led by Skyler Bollinger (Yorkville HS). Bollinger stormed out to the lead as she typically does going past the first 400 in 73 seconds. The only athlete that dared to stay with her was Torree Scull (East HS, St. Charles) who stayed right on Bollinger’s shoulder. The two passed the 800 in 2:31 opening up close to a five second lead ahead of a pack led by Megan Carroll (St. Viator HS, Arlington Heights) and Amanda Thate (South HS, Downers Grove).

Bollinger continued to push the pace the next 400. It was a pace that Scull could not maintain as she started to drop back with 500 meters to go. It looked like the race was Bollinger’s at that point. Don’t tell Carroll and Thate about that. The two worked with each other to cut the gap down in the last 2 laps. Carroll made a charge at Bollinger in the last 150 meters, but the lead that the Yorkville sophomore had built up was enough. Bollinger finished in 5:11.77, Carroll was a second and a half back with Thate a close third (5:13.37-5:13.71). Altogether, there were 23 performances in that race that made the DyeStat IL TFX Leaderboard.

“I wanted to go out hard around 1:15. I went a little faster than that,” Bollinger said after her race. “I knew there were two girls on me. I just tried to kick as hard as I could so that I could hold them off.”

Another close race was the 800 Meter Run. Danielle Griesbaum (Lakes HS, Lake Villa) built up an early lead in the 800 going out in a quick 67 seconds for the first 400. She held off a late charge by Alex Martel (Lane Tech HS, Chicago) to win by six tenths of a second (2:21.27 – 2:21.92). In the 3200 Meter Run, Emily Leonard (Maine South HS, Park Ridge) controlled the pace within the first four laps. She had as much as a ten second lead at some points of the race over Haley Albers and Abby Kargol (South HS, Downers Grove). Leonard went on to win the race in 11:34.25, a little more than five seconds ahead of the South duo. Both Kargol and Albers came back later in the meet in the Distance Medley. They teamed up with Amanda Thate and Michaela Hackbarth to win the event and establish a new meet record (13:05.78).

Kaneland also established a meet record in the 4 x 400 Meter Relay. The squad of Nicole Sreenan, Lauren Zick, Becca Richtman, and Allie Heinzer won by more than a second over Lakes. They broke the record set by Whitney Young in 2009 by more than a quarter of a second (4:14.94).

Rachel Augius (Yorkville HS) has one of the top ten performances in the High Jump in the state when she cleared 5-4 to win the event. The Shot Put was a great competition that produced two top ten performances statewide. Fiona Kanam (Niles West HS, Skokie) achieved a seasonal best with her winning put of 42-2 1/2 (IL #5). It was only a half a foot ahead of runner-up Maya Marion (West HS, Aurora) and her 41-8 ¼ put (IL #7). Danielle Wojciechowski (Lake Park HS, Roselle) won the Pole Vault clearing 10-6. She later in the day competed in the Windy City Pole Vault Summit clearing the same height.