Girls Track and Field: Minooka soars to victory
By Tim Tierney For Sun-Times Media April 7, 2012 9:34PM
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Updated: May 9, 2012 9:48AM
Minooka girls track coach Kevin Gummerson was more than happy to be the team photographer Saturday afternoon as his team assembled near the finish line after the Plainfield North Tiger Relays.
The defending champion Indians won nine events and claimed the title of the 16-team meet with 137 points, outdistancing Plainfield North (81) and Yorkville (68), which edged Joliet West (66) for third place.
“They came out today and they just battled, they competed,’’ Gummerson said. “Every event there were positives that came out of it. To get that in a meet is a good sign of where we’re starting from.’’
Lauren Jonen and Janile Rogers were on four first-place teams, three of them together: the long jump, triple jump and 800-meter relays.
“Lauren Jonen had a solid day in the jumps, and closing the 4-by-400 relay,’’ Gummerson said. “Janile Rogers has been doing a tremendous job. Angelica Estrada, when she gets that baton, she’s hungry, she’s a competitor. In general, I’m proud of every single one of our kids.’’
“I really like this meet because I’m more of a team person,’’ Jonen said. “When we all get to jump together, or run together or even throw together, you’re not just worried about yourself, you’re thinking about the other three people with you. That really pushed us to win today.’’
Minooka set two meet records: the long jump relay team of Jonen, Rogers, Taylor Prieboy and Meredith Vesper (61 feet, 61/4 inches) and the junior varsity 800-meter relay of Sara Bechard, Marah Kasuba, Prieboy and Kayla Yates (1 minute, 51.44 seconds).
Minooka also won the 3,200 relay, sprint medley relay, distance medley relay, 1,600 relay and junior varsity 400 relay. Junior varsity events were included in the meet scoring.
“This meet is fun, first off just sitting down and trying to figure out what events to put kids in,’’ Gummerson said. “We’ve got so many good quality athletes, it gives us a lot of flexibility to put them in different events.’’
Plainfield North won the 400 relay and high jump relay, led by Jaclyn Aremka in the high jump, sprint medley, 800 and 1,600 relays.
“Today was a little rough just because I was kind of pulled in a lot of directions, but it was still a good meet overall,’’ Aremka said.
Plainfield North was without standout sprinter Cessily Jones, who ran at the Arcadia Invitational, an elite high school meet in California.
