By Fred Kroner
Senior Atleigh Hamilton was a double winner and a double runner-up on Friday (April 30), helping the St. Joseph-Ogden girls’ track and field team to a fifth-place finish in the 12-school Lady Sage Invitational, in Monticello.
Meet champion Mount Zion accumulated 125 points and was followed by Tolono Unity (87), Salt Fork (83), Monticello (81) and SJ-O (64) in the 12-school meet.
Hamilton was the individual champion in the 200 meters (25.92 seconds), winning by .71. She was also victorious in the long jump (17-9 ¾ ), which she won by one foot.
She is unbeaten in both events this spring.
Hamilton placed second in the 400 meters (59.61) and was just .20 behind the winner. She also ran the anchor leg on the second-place 400-meter relay, which was timed in 51.99, just behind the winners (51.92).
Other 400-meter relay runners for the Spartans were Hope Rajlich, Payton Carter and Raegan Crippen.
Six Spartans, besides Hamilton, earned top-six placements in individual events.
Carter was the pole vault runner-up (10-7) and Grace Schmitz took fourth in the pole vault (9-11 ¾ ).
Crippen placed fourth in the triple jump (31-5 ¼ ). Ashley Eldridge was sixth in the shot put (30-4 ¾ ). Abby Behrens was sixth in the high jump (4-9 ¾ ) and Ashlyn Lannert was sixth in the 300 hurdles (54.38).
SJ-O also received points from its other three relays.
The 800-meter foursome of Rajlich, Carter, Angie Chahine and Macy Reed-Thompson placed third in 1:53.34.
The 3,200-meter relay finished in fifth place. Sharing the baton were Ava Knap, Addie Allen, Maya Chahine and Kaytlyn Baker. Their cumulative time was 11:22.84.
The sixth-place 1,600-meter relay of Lannert, Schmitz, Reed-Thompson and Rajlich was timed in 4:36.03.
SJ-O returns to action on Saturday (May 8) in the Rantoul Invitational.
