Fenton Gunter plans on using all the time available to him to figure out the Evanston girls track and field team’s lineups for his sprint relays.
On Tuesday, May 12, two days before the Class 3A Loyola Sectional in Wilmette, the coach said he hadn’t settled on any foursomes for the 4×100-, 4×200- or 4×400-meter relays
“We still aren’t sharp,” Gunter said. “We’ve been rotating people in and out and changing the orders. What has hurt us is the weather. We haven’t been able to get any consistency with our practice.”
But the Wildkits are coming off a strong showing at the Central Suburban South meet last week at New Trier in Winnetka. All three sprint relays won conference championships on Thursday, May 7.
The 4×100 team of senior Remy Amarteifio, senior Alexia Harvey, sophomore Summer Mitchell and sophomore Tauja Foreman finished first in 49.55 seconds. Foreman, Harvey, Amarteifio and freshman Asia Lasley teamed up to win the 4×200 in 1:46.11. Lasley, Amarteifio, Harvey and freshman Noni Shelton capped the league meet with a victory in the 4×400 in 4:03.62, which eclipsed the Class 3A state-qualifying standard of 4:04.24.
Evanston took second as a team with 106.33 points at conference. New Trier finished first with 193.
Even with all the relay success at New Trier, Gunter said he will continue to “tinker” with everything from personnel to race order. Four of the six girls who ran the sprint relays at the league meet are new varsity contributors.
“We have a lot of young girls who don’t have that relay experience, so we are trying to find the best fits,” Gunter said. “The relays have been all over the place.”
Twitter: @harnesspreps