As we entered this week of practice and competition we were reminded of just how much of an influence mother nature has on those of us living in the midwest. We started the week with wonderful warm weather, had practices shortened due to thunderstorms, and then ended the week with a beautiful night in Darien for our last home track meet with Addison Trail, Lyons Township and Proviso West.
Our evening started with our Senior celebration for Ciniya. Ciniya has participated on the track team all four years here at Hinsdale South and it was so nice that in a year that has been nothing but normal, we were able to continue the tradition of Senior night.
After the celebration, field events began, and our athletes in the throwing events started things off nicely. To continue with her celebration, Ciniya had an outstanding PR throw of 32’4” in the shot put which earned her 2nd place. While sophomores K. Campbell and E. Tobar both PR’d in the discus with throws of 69’11” and 69’11.5”.
At 5pm the running events began and our 4x800 relay team of E. Garcia, O. Rogers, N. Budzak, and V. Cius competed strong and successfully against their competition to not only place 1st, but come away with an outstanding PR. It was definitely the motivation we needed to kick start a successful evening. The competition from the four schools there allowed our girls to come away with some nice PR’s as we look ahead to our conference meet on May 26th. Listed below are some of those performances: - K. Petrovic - 3rd Place 100m (13.3) - E. Garcia - 1st place 800m (2:40.9) - Y. Drabchuk - 2nd place 800m (2:41.9) - Z. Funk - 3rd place 300m LH (61.9)
Week of May 3rd
This week was another great week of track for the Hornets. On Friday, May 7th we traveled to Downers Grove North to compete in a triangular competition with Proviso East and DGN. Despite the unseasonably cold weather we had on Friday, the girls again had some great performances.
Starting with field events Senior Ciniya McCray had a PR throw of 29’4 to capture 3rd place in the shot put and Sophomore Kai Campbell threw 64’4” to capture 4th place in the discus. Junior Nicole Pacasova jumped 4’6” to earn 2nd place in the high jump.
Right about 5:30 pm when the wind rolled in we started with the running events. Junior Kate Haffner started off the 4x800 relay for the night with a PR split and then came back to run the open 800 and PRd again to take 1st place with a time of 2:46, and then ended her night with a 1st place performance in the 1600m run with a time of 6:14. Our sprint relays continue to bring their times down in the 4x100 and the 4x200 thanks to effort by K. Petrovic, O. Linkowski, C. Booth, C. McCray and N. Pacasova. And we had an exciting finish in the 4x400 where sophomore Elena Garcia anchored and ran a PR time of 1:07. We look forward to our last home meet on Friday, May 14th.
Week of April 26th This was another good week for the Girls Track team. On Thursday, April 29th we traveled to Glenbard West to complete in a triangular meet with York and Glenbard. We finally had some sunshine and great weather and the girls responded very well.
Our field event athletes started everything off with some great throws and jumps. In high jump - Junior, Nicole Pacasova tied for first with a height of 4’8”.
Our throwers were next in terms of PR’s and top placing achievements. Senior Ciniya McCray had a PR toss of 29’0” in the shot put earning her 4th place on Varsity. On the Fresh/Soph level we placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, the following sophomore students scored for us: Kai Campbell - 68.76’ - 1st Place, Elysa Tobar - 64.5’ - 2nd place, and Joy Nwonye - 61.71’ - 3rd place.
Our two sprint relays placed 1st. Our 4x100m team of Katarina Petrovic, Olivia Linkowski, Carly Booth, and Ciniya McCray started us off with a time of 55.01. And then came back later in the night with our 4x200 team of Petrovic, Linkowski, Pacasova, and McCray to finish strong with a time of 1:59.8.
We had some great performances all around distance runner Yuliya Drabchuk placed 2nd in the 400m run with a time of 1:16. And Elena Garcia placed 4th in the 1600 with a PR time of 6:01.
Each week the girls keep improving their times/distances, and we are looking like a cohesive team. We may be small compared to other schools in our conference, but we are proving that we can be just as competitive.
Week of April 19th
On Saturday, April 24th, Mother Nature held off the storms and our girls ran, jumped, and threw to some personal best accomplishments at the Leyden Triangular meet against Leyden and Lyons Township.. I was very happy with not only the way we competed, but also how we acted as a cohesive team. Girls were warming up together, helping each other with drills, cheering each other on during their events, holding blocks, and even helping the host school with placing hurdles on and off the track. Some notable performances from the day were: ●Sophomore Joy Nwonye placing 1st in the Discus with a PR toss of 73’7” ●Junior Kate Haffner with over a minute PR in the 3200m Run - 13:35 ●Sophomore Kat Petrovic placing 2nd in the 100m dash (13.74) and 6th in the 200m dash (29.18) ●Junior Carly Booth with a 5 inch improvement in the high jump from last week to place 4th with a jump of 4’6 ●Senior Ciniya McCray placing 3rd in the 200m dash with a time of 28.98
This week the coaching staff awarded our 1st ever “Star of the Week” to our girls for notable achievements from Saturday. The picture is below. Carly is not pictured. The first recipients were: ●Thrower - Joy N. ●Sprinter - Kat P ●Distance - Kate H ●Jumper - Carly B.
Week of April 12th
On Friday, April 16th, after a delay of over a year, the girls track team stepped to the starting line again for our first outdoor track meet since 2019. It was such a bittersweet experience for all involved. After not competing for over a year, and with only 7 days of “official” practice, the Hornets were joined by Glenbard West and Willowbrook. Even though the meet was not scored, we have some great accomplishments to recognize:
Sophomore Joy Nwoyne finished in the top 5 in the Shot Put with a distance of 22’9.5”. Juniors Nicole Pasacova finished 3rd in the High Jump with a height of 4’7” and Carly Booth ran 1:08 in the 400m Dash and Kate Haffner ran a personal best time of 6:21 for the 1600m run. Sophomores Katerina Petrovic ran 13.7 and 28.4 in the 100m and 200m dash and Elena Garcia finished 2nd in the 300m LH with a time of 56.4. The night ended with a strong finish from the 4x400m relay team of N. Paccasova, V. Cius, E. Garcia, and A. Hobbs, where the girls fought hard in the wind to finish with a time of 4:46.3 Congratulations to everyone and we look forward to what this season will bring.