By Fred Kroner
Senior Atleigh Hamilton concluded one of the greatest careers in the history of the St. Joseph-Ogden girls’ track and field program with medals in four individual events on Thursday (June 10) at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston.
Hamilton was the Class 1A IHSA state runner-up in both the 400 meters and the long jump. She finished third in the 200 meters and sixth in the 100 meters.
In all four events, she fared better than where she was seeded, which was based on sectional performances. In all four events, she also ran faster or jumped further than she did at sectional.
Hamilton was timed at 58 seconds in the 400 meters, 25.80 seconds in the 200 meters and 12.56 seconds in the 100 meters.
In the long jump, after scratching twice, she landed a leap of 17 feet, 8 inches. She was seeded third in the 400, fifth in the long jump, 10th in the 200 and 14th in the 100.
Hamilton is the second SJ-O athlete to earn medals in four individual events at the same girls’ state meet. She joined Rachel Ballard, who in 2012 grabbed medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and triple jump.
Additionally – despite missing out on her junior season due to COVID-19 canceling the spring-sport seasons – Hamilton broke the SJ-O career record for medals won by an individual at state in girls’ track.
Counting relays, Hamilton received the maximum of 12 medals for her three-year prep career. Athletes are limited to entering four events per meet.
The previous girls’ mark for career state medals was established by Maclayne Taylor, who wound up with 11 after the 2019 meet.
SJ-O had 12 total state entries. Eight did better – or matched – how they were seeded.
Also earning medals was the fourth-place 3,200-meter relay foursome of Malorie Sarnecki, Ava Knap, Helene Jones and Kailyn Ingram.
Their cumulative time was 10 minutes, 22.15 seconds. The relay was seeded sixth.
The Spartans’ two sprint relays were each seeded 10th and placed 10th at state, missing state medals by one spot.
The relays featured the same runners, Payton Carter, Reagan Crippen, Grace Schmitz and Hope Rajlich.
They stopped the clock in 51.92 seconds in the 400-meter event and in 1:50.91 in the 800-meter relay.
The school’s 1,600-meter relay group placed 16th. Sharing the baton were Ashlyn Lannert, Ingram, Jones and Rajlich. Their combined time was 4:22.03.
Knap was an individual qualifier in the 1,600 meters. She was seeded 11th and ran faster than she did at sectional, finishing in 5:35.34. She ended 13th at state.
SJ-O had two finalists in the pole vault and they cleared an identical height – 9 feet, 9 inches. Based on misses, Schmitz was 15th and Carter took 18th.
The Spartans’ other state competitor was high jumper Abby Behrens. She cleared 4 feet, 8 inches and ended in a tie for 22nd.
As a team, SJ-O placed fifth with 33 points.
The Class 1A champion was Belleville Althoff with 50 points. Althoff was followed by Winnebago (49 points), Salt Fork (47.6 points), Tuscola (34 points) and SJ-O.
In all, 70 Class 1A teams scored points at state.
