The Lake Michigan Invitational at Carthage College on Friday night provided Lake Forest High School’s girls track athletes a great facility, complete with a 200 meter track and a chance to preview competition for the outdoor season.
The 4×8 team of Milburn, Bentley, Zarek, and Chody started the meet of in style with an impressive preview time of 10:03.8 and a third place finish overall. Aside from the relays, Sydney Leonardi ran a fantastic race herself in the 55 meter hurdle prelims, finishing with a time of 8.9 and a fifth place finish at finals with 8.7. Both the preliminary race and the final were personal records for Leonardi with regards to her last year finish of 10.06. This of course proves that Leonardi could be a challenger in the conference race for the 55 meter hurdle crown.
Senior Erika Marchant pushed herself to a new personal record by running 5:45.5 in the 1600 meter run, which is a 7 second personal record from the 2017 indoor season. To go along with Machant’s personal best, senior Grace Duggan outran her previous year’s indoor personal record by 11 seconds with 2:44.8 in the 800 meter run. The 4×200 meter relay team of Bazell, Leonardi, Obrutz, and Curry placed 4th overall with a 1:52.57 time, missing third place by less than a second (.05).
In the field events, Ashley Alghini narrowly missed the finals in the triple jump, but still put forth an impressive 32′ 2.25″, which is almost a three foot personal record from the same meet last year. In the youth movement, freshman Maddie Medica completed her second competition at pole vault and cleared 7’0, and Weisner placed 8th by clearing 4’10” in high jump.
Overall, the Scouts tied for 16th as a team in the 26-team field. St. John, Indiana’s Lake Central High School was the meet champion, accruing 57.83 points while Grant was the first Illinois team to finish, earning a 2nd place trophy. Warren, Libertyville, Lake Zurich and Stevenson all finished in the top ten, so the Scouts will have their work cut out for them to compete with the NSC’s elite in upcoming meets.
