Eastern’s campus was taken over this weekend by the Illinois High School Association girls track and field state finals.

Eastern hosted the state finals, which took place Thursday through Saturday. Byron High School, in Byron, and Southeast High School, in Springfield, repeated as 1A and 2A team champions, respectively. East St. Louis won the 3A title.

Byron won the team title with lots of help from Paige Knodle.

Knodle set a new record in the 100-meter hurdles, winning the event with a time of 14.35 seconds. Knodle also won the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 43.57 seconds.

The school’s 4×100-meter relay team took fourth place with a time of 49.42 seconds. Its 4×800-meter relay group won eighth place.

The 4×200-meter relay team of Elyse Adkins, Nicolina Kozak, Cara Cortese, and Heidi Scheffler brought home second place, tallying a time of 1:43.51.

Besides the 100-meter hurdles, several other 1A records were broken.

Jena Hemann, from Breese Central High School, took home the long jump record with a jump of 20-feet, 1 1/2-inches.

Alyssa Applebee won the pole vault and set a new record with a 12-foot-9-inch vault.

Aurora Christian’s 4×200-meter relay team took home first place and a new record when they recorded a time of 1:43.35. The relay team consists of Alyssa Andersen, Alyssa Henzel, Lisa Rodriguez and Mackenzie Bollinger.

Southeast edged out Morgan Park by a point to take home their second-straight 2A title.

Southeast was aided by a record-setting long jump from Alexandria Harden. Haden jumped 19-feet, 5 3/4-inches to take first place.

Harden also captured first place in the triple jump, jumping 40-feet, 10 1/4-inches to win her second event of the day.

Harden was also a member of the school’s 4×100- and 4×200-meter relay teams which took third and second place, respectively.

Morgan Park beat Southeast Springfield by just 0.3 seconds in the 4×200.

Several 2A records fell, but two Emilys shared one. Emily Grove, from Pontiac High School, and Emily Clay, from University High School in Normal, tied each other in the pole vault. Each had vaulted 12-feet, 6-inches to tie for the record.

Yorkville’s 4×800-meter relay team set a new record with a time of 9:17.32 seconds.

Kayla Beattie of Woodstock high school won the 1,600 and 3,200 meter dashes, taking home both records. Beattie recorded a time of 4:43.65 in the 1,600 meter dash and 9:56.96 in the 3,200 meter dash.

Shamier Little from Lindblom high school in Chicago also broke a pair of records. Little won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.16 seconds. Little also won the 400-meter dash with a time of 54.85 seconds.

Kankakee’s Dominique Kimpeltook home a new record in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.69 seconds.

East St. Louis won the 3A title, with Lincoln-Way East close behind.

East St. Louis had only one first place finisher, sophomore Markita Rush. Rush won the 300-meter hurdles with a 42.40 second mark.

The Flyers gathered a handful of top-ten finishes to round out the scoring.

East St. Louis’ 4×200-meter relay team of Rush, junior Brandy Griffin, freshman Daria Walker and junior Joymesia Howard took second place with a time of 1:39.58.

The Flyers’ 4×100 meter relay team, comprised of the same four runners took third place with a 47.52 second time.

Howard also placed in the high jump and 100-meter hurdles. Howard took fourth in the high jump with a 5-foot-six-inch jump.

Junior Brandy Griffin also took eighth in the 200-meter dash with a 25.09 second time.

Only one record was broken in 3A competition.

Edwardsville’s Emmonnie Henderson broke the discus record with a throw of 161-feet, 1-inch.

Eastern will host the IHSA boys track and field final Thursday through Saturday.

Joe Long can be reached at 581-7942 or densportsdesk@gmail.com.

Alyssa Applebee from Seneca High School jumps in celebration as the crowd cheers behind her after setting a new record for the class 1A pole vault on May 21 at O’Brien Field. Applebee pole vaulted 12 feet-4 inches during the finals of IHSA Girl’s State Tr

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