BATAVIA – Four individual championships and three relay titles still amounted to a runner-up team finish for St. Charles East at Friday’s Upstate Eight Conference girls indoor track and field meet.
The Saints’ optimism after the early-season barometer remained high regardless. Neuqua Valley nipped East, 109-107, to win the 14-team event, but the Wildcats didn’t dent the Saints’ sunny view of the upcoming outdoor season.
“We’re looking good, yeah,” Saints junior Corrin Adams said. “I think we’re going to go far this year. I’m really optimistic.”
East narrowed the gap to the final margin when Elizabeth Chmelik, Kimberly Abels, Monika Stoskute and Allison Chmelik – Elizabeth’s twin – closed the night with a 4:07.69 run in the 4x400-meter relay, finishing nearly nine seconds better than their nearest competitors from Metea Valley.
East’s individual champions included Jordan Shead (400), Torree Scull (800), Amanda Passaglia (shot put) and Allison Chmelik (triple jump).
With plenty of depth to go around – eight Saints boast 400-meter split times of 62 seconds or better – first-year coach Tim Wolf said he’s been “ecstatic” about the Saints’ dedication since preseason. Wolf is taking over for longtime coach Denise Hefferin, a former St. Charles High standout who coached cross country in the fall but no longer is teaching at East, Wolf said.
St. Charles North (55 points, fourth), Batavia (32, sixth) and Geneva (19, seventh) also competed. Here’s a look at a few highlights:
• North junior Sabrina Rabin, a Northwestern softball recruit, ended her inaugural track experiment with a runner-up finish in the 55-meter dash (7.44 seconds) and a fourth-place run in the 200 (26.66). She’ll commit to softball the rest of the spring.
A pitcher/outfielder who stole 36 bases last season, Rabin aspired to try track since her grade school, Da Vinci Academy, did not field a team.
“My teammates are really great,” Rabin said. “I love great competition against speed since you don’t really test that on a softball field.”
• Batavia senior pole vaulter Skylar Schoen cleared a personal best 11 feet, 6 inches to establish a new girls fieldhouse record. She’ll share honors with Lake Park senior Maya Golliday, who also went 11-6 but officially won the event on a scratch tiebreaker.
A few days removed from committing to Grand Valley State, Schoen eclipsed her previous PR by six inches. She hopes she’s not done peaking.
“I always want to be at the next level already, but my coach [Chad Hillman] is always like, ‘You need to take your time. This is only indoor season,’ ” Schoen said. “And our main goal is outdoor.”
