SHORELINE — Last year the Shorewood girls track team waited until the final event to clinch its second straight Western Conference South Division championship.
Title No. 3 was sewed up much earlier.
The Thunderbirds set the stage for a runaway victory with strong preliminary marks and continued to pile it on during the finals of the 10-team meet May 14 at Shoreline Stadium.
Seven first-place efforts on the track and one in the field helped Shorewood generate 196 points, nearly twice the total of second-place Shorecrest (100) and a significant step up from last year’s 2.5-point winning margin.
“I really tried to stress that we can’t take anything for granted,” Shorewood coach Cecil Jackson said. “Last year we came in feeling pretty confident … and it came down to the last race. We could have lost that meet.”
This year, the T-birds were never in jeopardy.
Along with an assortment of individual winners, Shorewood was in position to pull away due to the high number of runners who qualified for the finals in their events.
“Everyone did well in prelims and we had lots of girls in finals. Even if they were running in the eighth lane, they still pushed it,” senior Emily Handley said.
“It takes everyone pushing their hardest in prelims and getting to finals and getting all those points. Every eighth place counts and every second place. It’s not a win because somebody got first, it’s a win because we all stepped it up and tried hard.”
Nowhere was that more apparent than the 100-meter dash. Five Shorewood sprinters reached the finals in the event and accumulated 27 points to give the T-birds a commanding lead in the team standings.
Senior Akosua Fordjour took first in 12.72 seconds and teammates Nicole Kopta, Katie Whittle, Christa Brediger and Annie Boone swept the fourth through seventh spots.
“Never in my career have I done that or seen that,” Jackson said. “They just really gutted it up in the prelims and fought.”
Fordjour also took the 200-meter dash in 25.99 and was part of two winning relays. Boone, Fordjour, Whittle and Kopta won the 400 relay in 50.59 and Brediger, Kopta, Whittle and Fordjour claimed the 800 relay in 1:47.62.
Boone, Hilary Zetlan, Elizabeth Schoch and Amy Simon won the 1,600 relay by four seconds in 4:04.75. Jackson expects all three relays will be in the running for a ticket to state.
“We’ve got four different girls running the 4 by 2 and the 4 by 4, so we’re not stretched in that area,” he said. “We’ve never been able to do that.”
Shorewood’s four finalists in the 400 combined for 19 points. Simon finished second in 59.84, Zetlan was fourth and Schoch and Jenny McCall were seventh and eighth.
Two freshmen led the T-birds in the distance events. Rachel Eckerlin won the 3,200 in 11:21.46 and Lily Albin edged teammate Kim Gladow for fifth in the 800 and took sixth in the 1,600.
Unsure of how she would perform due to a case of shin splints that kept her out of action for two weeks, Handley held off Shorecrest’s Karissa Delay for first in the 100-meter hurdles in a career-best time of 16.84.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Handley, who also placed second in the high jump by clearing 5 feet. “It was really a toss-up. But I felt really bouncy and happy. It felt good to run.”
Handley picked up some pointers from two senior hurdlers on the boys team last season, but for the most part is self-taught.
“She gets all the credit for her season,” Jackson said. “We haven’t had a hurdles coach … Emily did that on her own. That’s all Emily.”
Sophomore Lauren Sego took first in the javelin for the second year in a row with a throw of 114 feet, 4 inches. Teammate Kristin Thornton was fourth.
Other Shorewood highlights included: Megan Sego placed third in the triple jump; Jessica King was third in the discus; Jessica Creelman was fourth in the pole vault; Anyka Ozog was fifth in shot put; and Kathryn Claus took fifth in the long jump and seventh in the triple jump.
Jackson came away from the league meet hopeful the T-birds will improve on last year’s fifth-place showing at Northwest Districts and increase their number of state qualifiers.
“The North teams put us in our place every year when we show up,” Jackson said. “We have to go up there with a focus. I tell the kids, ‘Every point counts, so let’s go for it.’”
Despite just one first-place finish, the Shorecrest girls recorded their best team showing at the league level in Don Dalziel’s 13 years as head coach.
Becky Scherer supplied the lone victory in the discus with a throw of 105-3 and finished second in the shot put with a toss of 33-4.
“I know she didn’t throw the marks she wanted to throw, but she competed,” Dalziel said. “She was under the weather a bit. Hopefully we can get her feeling better and she’ll have a realistic shot at getting to state in at least one of those events.”
Three Scots scored in the 100 hurdles. Delay placed second in a personal-best time of 16.96, Jessica Fogg took fourth and Kellie Komorita was seventh.
Kim Shen took second in the triple jump with a leap of 33-6 and tied for third in the high jump. Molly Gibson was sixth in the high jump, seventh in the long jump and eighth in the triple jump.
All three Shorecrest relays clocked season-best times and Kristina Bendiksen set a school record in the pole vault by clearing 8 feet, 6 inches to place seventh.
Also for the Scots, Katie Krikness placed fourth in the 800, Aly Richards was fourth in the discus and Cora Speidel was sixth in the triple jump.
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