The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The La Harpe Junior High School track team sent an 11 member contingent to the Illinois Elementary School Association State Track and Field Championships held recently in East Peoria. The I.E.S.A. meet is the largest Junior High championship meet in the nation and includes over 2000 competitors in 4 divisions. The LJHS girls won the 7A division with a record total of 61 points over runner up Mount Olive, who finished with 38 points.
The 7 girls who represented LJHS in the 7A category included 7th graders Carlie Wear, Kelsey Wisslead, and Claire McKee; plus 6th graders Mackenzie Ourth, Alyssa Swanson, Haeli Johnson, and Morgan Mohr. Overall these girls brought home medals in 9 events, including 5 first place finishes.
LJHS's charge to the title was led by the triple gold medal performance of Claire McKee. McKee won the 1600 meter run (5:29.8), the 800 meter run (2.30.4) and anchored the victorious 4 x 400 meter relay. McKee is the first LJHS athlete to win 3 golds in a single I.E.S.A. championship meet.
McKee's teammates on the (4 x 400 relay were Swanson, Johnson, and Mohr. This trio of 6th graders joined McKee to post a winning time of 4:32.01, which was a new record for that event. LJHS now holds 2 of the 3 state relay records in the 7A girls category. The 1997 LJHS team of Jennifer Link, Rebecca Bruns, Adrienne Louden, and Meghan Sparrow still hold the 4 x 200 relay mark.
Morgan Mohr also picked up a gold medal in the high jump with a winning cap of 4'7". Kelsey Wisslead joined Mohr and McKee in picking up individual gold by racing to first place in the 100 meter hurdles. The winning time of 17.26 was her best mark of the season. She also showed great courage by overcoming a nasty fall in the semi final race to continue our quest for victory.
Alyssa Swanson added a 5th place medal in the hurdles (17.95) to her relay gold, while Mohr added a 3rd medal to her golden pair with a 5th place showing in the 400 meter dash (1:05.4).
Weight thrower Carlie Wear helped jump start the LJHS championship push with a pair of medal winning performances on the meet's first day. She picked up a 7th place in he discus (80'7") and an 8th place medal in the shot put (28'1 1/2").
La Harpe also had good performances from several other athletes that did not quite produce medal winning results.
These included: Mackenzie Ourth in the 1600 meter run (20th, 6:09.4) for 7th grade girls, Kevin Mershon in the 8th boys' 110 meter hurdles (prelims, 7.3), Keery Sparrow in the 8th girls' 100 meter dash (prelims, 14.2) and Ashlin Pollock in the 8th girls 400 meter dash (32nd, 1:10.5). The 8th grade girls 4 x 200 relay of Pollock, Sparrow, Wisslead and Jenna Ourth ran to a 14th place showing with a time of 2:01.7.
The 11 athletes who represented LJHS all competed very hard and very well. They represented their school and community with class and sportsmanship both at the meet and in general. They should be proud of all their accomplishments at state and during the entire season.
The first place trophy is the 2nd state championship in track for LJHS. The 1997 squad also took home a 7A girls' state title. Overall, LJHS has taken home 5 state team trophies since the track program was started in 1993.
During that same period LJHS has never failed to have at least one individual or relay champion. All of this has been accomplished despite the fact that La Harpe does not even have a track.