Maryjeanne Gilbert led the 5k chase pack before settling for 2nd place (Mary Ann Magnant photo)
Friday is opening meet day-
The first day of race competition began at 9am. I spoke briefly with Lincoln-Way East coaches Angelo Brown and Dwayne Pierre-Antoine prior to their girls competing. They were excited about producing some great marks. The primary events in the morning session were the emerging elites. Unlike in years past, emerging elite has gotten very competitive to the point that it is hard to hide up and coming talent. Richards senior Kyla Jimmar and Lincoln-Way East senior Alexis Pierre-Antoine kicked off the day with personal best efforts in the 60 High Hurdles prelim round in 8.96 and 9.00. Both marks bold well for the future.
Maggie Scholle was next up in the 2-mile. Maggie was eager to get going after her last big race nearly a month prior. Maggie would race in the third section ahead of Lake Zurich senior Caitlin Shepard who set the table with a strong third place effort in section two. Shepard led for a good portion of race before settling for a big personal best of 10:51.22 (10:47.44+ for 3200m). How would Scholle do? Maggie did not get out as aggressively as Caitlin and the final result left her at 10:54.57 (10:50.57). Caitlin was quite excited about her race effort while Maggie realized that one tentative moment could have resulted in running a few seconds faster. But you can bet moving forward these two young ladies are going to make some big noise in Illinois.
Maryjeanne Gilbert (Sr., Peoria Notre Dame) had only raced lightly coming into New York. The Footlocker National Cross Country runner-up was eager for her rematch with the champion Virginian Weini Kelati. Kelati put on a show with a big time national record 16:08.83. It was not even close to be honest. However, Gilbert ran a great race moving from the first pack of girls and finishing very strong to take second in 16:28.74- #1 for Illinois girls all-time indoors and possibly overall. The most amazing part of Gilbert's run was her 10:29 time through 3200m. She still had another mile to go and the thought in my head was she would be the state leader in that event had she stopped running lol! Hopefully, Maryjeanne will get an opportunity to test her mettle in her main track event.