A clean baton exchange is essential to a successful track relay. That’s why Stevenson’s girls track team practices the move a lot.
“We’ve been working on our handoffs,” Patriots coach Emma Degen said.
During the 4×100-meter relay at the Lake County Invitational held at Lake Zurich on April 30, Warren flubbed an exchange. The baton fell to the track. The miscue eliminated one of the meet’s better teams from contention. Stevenson seized the opportunity. Running a clean race, the Patriots finished runner-up to Grant.
Stevenson’s time of 51.32 seconds was a season best.
“To run your best time at county is cool,” Degen said. “As long as our kids didn’t drop the baton, I was happy.”
Junior Lily Marks ran the anchor leg of the relay. Handing the baton to her was senior Borchueh Wu, who followed junior Janine Fajardo and sophomore Juhi Jhaveri.
Marks said the baton drop by Warren served as validation for all the recent emphasis in practice.
“You always have to be on point and focused on it. Sometimes it’s hard as you are not always focused when you are running,” she said.
After opening the season as the starter on the 4×100 relay, Marks is now the anchor. She has often ran the same leg in the 4×200.
“We put her as an anchor. If she sees a kid out in front of her, she’s going after her,” Degen said. “She’s a competitor for sure.”
A three-year varsity member, Marks is the Patriots’ best individual 100-meter runner. Her time of 12.76 at the Lake County meet earned her a fifth-place medal. Whereas the baton exchange is an emphasis in relays, Marks is stressing her starts in the 100.
Beginning a race in an upright position can slow a sprinter. The loss of a fraction of a second can be the difference between a medal-winning result or finishing well down the pack.
“I’ve been working on coming off the block,” Marks said. “If I lean over my blocks and keep my head down, I let the earth’s forces and gravity push me. It’s less work.”
And it leads to faster times.
“Lily is putting in a lot of work on her starts and you can tell it’s coming along. She’s been consistently in the upper-12s [in the 100],” Degen said.
Stevenson placed fifth out of 17 teams at the Lake County meet (Warren won). The Patriots also medaled in the 4×800, finishing fourth with a time of 10:10.64, and the 4×200 (sixth, 1:52.75). Freshman Isabelle Sparreo ran a 1,600 time of 5:08.48, good for second place. Junior Jessica Philipp placed fifth in the 3,200 with a time of 11:35.45. Fajardo also finished fifth in the 100 hurdles (16.29).
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In the field events, junior Charlotte Langbo was runner-up in the long jump (35-00.25) and fourth in the triple jump (15-11.00).
The Patriots enter the North Suburban Conference meet on Thursday, May 7, on a roll. Marks said a team goal is for one of the sprint relays to qualify for the state meet at the Class 3A Palatine Sectional on May 15. Until then, her focus is on one start and one baton exchange at a time.
“We have a real tough conference. The schools are really competitive,” Marks said. “Each meet, who knows what will happen?”
Kerr is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @prepspioneer