Raven Gant’s track and field career at Nazareth began on the basketball court.
The varsity basketball team was performing some athletic testing during the preseason in 2013, and Gant, now a senior, was grading off the charts.
“We did training before the season ever started and my basketball coach [Kim Connell] said, ‘You’re doing track this year. There’s no question about it,’ ” Gant said. “I did track in grade school but it was just for fun. My junior year I realized track was where I needed to be. I wondered why didn’t I start this so much earlier.”
Gant, a Broadview resident, showed incredible versatility from the get-go. She was the team’s best thrower but she was also an top-notch sprinter, a rare combination.
Gant won the East Suburban Catholic meet in shot put as a junior and made fantastic progress in the sprint events this season.
“She seems to be more passionate about track this year,” Roadrunners’ coach Joe Wejman said. “She’s always been a great athlete, but she seems more focused and a lot more committed. She’s more outgoing with her teammates and has been a great leader.”
Seeing how much progress Gant made in one year makes Wejman wish he would have had more time with herl.
“It’s disappointing we didn’t get her for four years,” Wejman said. “We don’t have a home track and so it’s hard to sell the sport sometimes. A lot of these kids are afraid to come out freshman year but they see how their friends have fun with it and they kind of get dragged out. We find a lot of kids by accident.”
“I really wish I started freshman year,” Gant said. “I might not be [as good as Trinity sprinter] Anna Sloan, but I would be a lot closer. I’m happy I came out; I’m just so upset I didn’t come out earlier.”
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Gant’s high school track and field career came to an end Friday, May 15 at the Class 2A Glenbard South Sectional.
She finished eighth in both discus (81-feet, 4-inches) and shot put (27-7) while taking fifth in the 200-meter dash (28.56). Gant was also part of the 800 relay team that took fifth place with a time of 1 minutes, 52.2 seconds.
Gant was hoping to make the state meet because it’s held at Eastern Illinois, where she plans to study in the fall and try to walk on the track team.
Notes
*— Nazareth finished seventh at sectionals with 32 points, while Glenbard South won with 122.
*— The Roadrunners will be represented at state by the 1,600 relay team of Colleen Cavanaugh, Gianna Levato, Nicole Kozak and Mia Longo (2nd, 4:10.61).
*— Levato also qualified for state in the long jump with a second-place leap of 16-8. “I’m beyond excited,” Levato said. “I did not expect this. I knew our 4×4 had potential. In the conference meet we were put in the slower heat but we came up to get third.”
Valentin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.