Several Area Girls Class 1A Track Athletes Qualify for Finals

CHARLESTON -- Several area athletes have qualified for the Class 1A State Girls Track Meet finals after preliminaries were contested Thursday at Eastern Illinois University's O'Brien Stadium.

In the field events, Rachel Jackman of Altamont advanced in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 1 inch. Mallory Bergbower of Newton did not reach the starting heighth.

Four area tracksters competed in the triple jump. The lone qualifier was Whitney Smith of Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg with a jump of 35 feet, 2 1/4 inches. Not qualifying were Teutopolis' Savannah Gimres with a leap of 32-11 1/2, Newton's Emma Weber with a jump of 30-5 1/2 and Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City's Jaelyn Robertson with a distance of 33-7 1/4.

T-town's Claire Bushur advanced in the shot with a heave of 38 feet, 1/4 inch. Not advancing was Altamont's Hanna Wolf with a throw of 35-3.

T-town's Nikki Wellbaum competed in the long jump and did not advance with a leap of 15-2 3/4. Also competing was Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City's Jaelyn Robertson who did not advance with a jump of 15-9 1/4.

St. Anthony's Kristin Slaughter, the defending state champion, advanced to the finals in the pole vault, going 10 feet, three inches. Three other area competitors failed to reach the finals. Micah McWhorter of Teutopolis went nine feet, six inches; Katherine Slaughter of St. Anthony, Kristin's sister, went nine feet; and Elise Hemmen of Cumberland went eight feet, six inches.

In the discus throw, Claire Bushur of Effingham did not qualify for the finals, with her top toss of 106 feet, 10 inches.

In running events, Effingham St. Anthony's Sarah Carr advanced in the 800 with a time of 2:27.70.  Not qualifying was Newton's Abby Stone in 2:32.11.

Brownstown/St. Elmo's Claire Wilhour advanced in the 300 hurdles with a time of 47.01 seconds. Neoga's Makenzie Hill did not advance with a time of 53.96.

In the 100 hurdles, Hill did not advance with a time of 17.48 and Wilhour did not advance with a time of 16.55.

Newton's Brooklyn Herman did not advance in the 100 with a time of 13.19.

St. Anthony's Kristan Slaughter did not advance in the 400 with a time of 1:03.13.

Teutopolis had two relay teams advance, the 3200 in 9:59.00 and the 800 in 1:47.71. Members of the 3200 team are Rebecca Habing, Morgan Mette, Savannah Grimes and Kara Weichman. Members of the 800 are Lanae Koester, Cali Johnson, Mette and Julia Hardiek.

St. Anthony's 3200 relay team of Katherine Slaughter, Abby Weis, Kaitlin Zeller and Sarah Carr did not advance with a time of 10:57.99. The Newton 800 relay team of Mikala Haarman, Emma Weber, Alex Haarman and Tori Zumbahlen did not advance with a time of 1:53.93.

The Wooden Shoes' 400 relay team of Koester, Hardiek, Johnson and Nikki Wellbaum did not advance with a time of 1:10.54. Neoga's team of Zoe Meadows, Makenzie Hill, Abbi Kepp and Allison Kingery did not advance with a time of 52.73.

St. Anthony's Anna Sophia Keller was an easy qualifier in the 1600 with the best qualifying time of 4:58.52 minutes. Not qualifying was Neoga's Emmalyn Walk in 5:43.9.

Keller will also be competing in the 3200, which only is contested on the final day, as will Neoga's Emmalyn Walk.

In the 200, Lanae Koester of Teutopolis and Julia Hardiek of Teutopolis competed but neither advanced. Koester had a time of 27.70 and Hardiek finished in 27.72.

In the 1600 relay, Teutopolis' team of Kara Weichman, Rebecca Habing, Savannah Grimes and Morgan Mette qualified in 4:10.92 and the St. Anthony team of Sarah Carr, Abby Weis, Anna Sophia Keller and Kristin Slaughter qualified in 4:11.15. Newton's team of Tori Zumbahlen, Brooklyn Herman, Claire Carr and Abby Stone posted a time of 4:14.92, but did not qualify for the finals.

Class 2A and Class 3A qualifying is set for Friday, with the finals Saturday.