2023 girls' track and field state notebook: Foltz, Clements, Johnson collect wins
May 19—CHARLESTON — Kate Foltz isn't the first freshman to experience nerves before that athlete's first IHSA track and field state preliminaries race. And the Tuscola freshman won't be the last.
Perhaps luckily for her, Foltz had four 400-meter laps around the big blue track at O'Brien Stadium on the Eastern Illinois University campus during which she could release her anxious energy.
"I was pretty nervous until the start," Foltz said. "I tried to find my inner peace, and I was like, 'You know what, you can do it. Just run.' That's all there is to it."
Foltz ran, all right. Faster than she ever has across 1,600 meters.
The freshman passed Mercer County senior Eden Mueller and Winnebago senior Kaylee Woolery during the final lap and surged down the homestretch to win Thursday's last of three preliminary flights in the 1A mile run.
Her time of 5 minutes, 3.66 seconds not only led the entire field after prelims, but it also easily outdistanced her previous-best mark of 5:17.80.
"My strategy was just to hold on, try to maintain third place, and then outkick them," said Foltz, who also will race in the 3,200 during Saturday's state finals. "Try to slowly speed up, and then that last 200 just go for it."
Foltz's facial expression for most of Thursday's race is a common one among distance runners. One filled with pain.
For a brief moment as she crossed the finish line, however, Foltz gritted her teeth into a smile.
"It was very happy in that moment, when I was running that last 200," Foltz said. "I had a confident moment."
Foltz's Tuscola teammate, sophomore sprinter/hurdler Lia Patterson, was walking to her starting position for the 200 when Foltz ran by and began her push toward first place.
"I saw her cut in the front, and I screamed as loud as I could," Patterson said. "So proud of her as a freshman. She's worked so hard this season, and she deserves it."
Alyson Clements isn't overly familiar with the uniforms she and her St. Thomas More cohorts donned for Thursday's 1A state preliminaries.
They're largely black in color, with very little of the Sabers' customary gold and hunter-green tones featured.
"These are new. We got them (Wednesday)," Clements said. "Watching the 4-by-8, I got really confused because I forgot my own team's in black."
STM's 3,200 relay tandem of sophomore Francie Williamson, senior Emma Devocelle, sophomore Paige Stark and junior Skyler Anderson came up three spots short of advancing from Thursday's prelims.
Clements had no such trouble.
She staved off Milford/Cissna Park freshman Addison Lucht to secure a flight win in the 400, with Clements' time of 58.16 seconds a bit stronger than Lucht's 58.42. The two both qualified for Saturday's final.
"I was hoping for it," said Clements, who held her heat's top sectional time at 58.45. "I got kind of scared because usually I pass at the end. I just tried to hold on to the lead."
Clements' prelims outcome ranks fourth among the entire field.
"Last year I didn't make it to finals," she said, "so it's a pretty good accomplishment."
Lucht not only moved on to Saturday's state finals in the 400, but also in long jump. She leaped 17 feet, 2 3/4 inches to place third among all prelims contenders.
"Very, very tired," said Lucht, who also ran for the Bearcats in the 400 relay and 1,600 relay races. "I felt really good. Long jump was my first event, and I was just trying to get a big mark out there. The 400, I knew there was two other really fast times in my heat. I knew I just had to stick with them and try to kick it at the end."
Lucht's prelims involvement was an all-day affair, with long jump leading off the meet and the 1,600 relay marking its conclusion.
"It was really nice having my teammates here and cheering me on," the Cissna Park student said. "Long jump they were all there with me, and the 4-by-4, just doing it for all of them was really nice."
Paxton-Buckley-Loda senior Trixie Johnson provided the area another 1A prelims flight victory on Thursday when she snatched top honors in the 800-meter run's second heat.
Her time of 2 minutes, 18.12 seconds was second-fastest among all racers, only behind Kewanee Wethersfield junior Kennady Anderson (2:17.19) in the field of 31 runners.
"It was just really reassuring," Johnson said. "I was seeded first in my heat, so that was already a good start. But I had some competition the first lap, and I thought, 'Just take it by the reins and finish it out.'"
Johnson did that in spades, soaring away from her nearest foes during the final 200 meters.
"I actually wasn't (expecting that)," said Johnson, last year's fourth-place finisher in the 1A 800 run state final at 2:18.23. "I always look behind me, but I've had so many people tell me, 'Don't do that.' So I'm like, I won't look back. (I'll) just sprint out my hardest."
Johnson will attend Illinois State beginning later this year to continue her track and field career at the collegiate level.
"It feels absolutely different (at state), even just more people looking at me and recognizing me," Johnson said. "Knowing that I can be a good role model for people is really reassuring, and it's honestly an honor to be that role model."
St. Joseph-Ogden junior Payton Carter and Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman junior Haley Carlton each spent an inordinate amount of time in O'Brien Stadium's pole vault area Thursday.
Carter performed just one attempt, a successful clearance of 10 feet,1/2 inch, before calling it a day during the 1A state preliminaries. Carlton offered four vaults at three different heights, last surpassing 10-61/4 among three successful clearances on the day.
"Two and a half, almost three hours," Carter said when asked how long she'd spent in the pole vault area that morning. "We had a set height — we were all going to come in at 10-6. But there were only 13 of us left, so we all just decided to do 10 and go on to finals."
Carter and PBL junior Bailey Luebchow qualified for Saturday's final from the same flight. Carlton was part of a second, different flight, that advanced only her and one other athlete to the championship stage.
"I'm currently dealing with a knee injury, and I'll be having surgery in two weeks," said Carlton, a Georgetown-Ridge Farm student who placed 12th in last year's 1A pole vault state final. "It was definitely some grit I had to push through, and I'm going to have to on Saturday, too. But it's all worth it."
Carlton isn't wishing her physical pain upon anyone else, though it may have briefly sounded like that while she waited to vault Thursday.
PBL senior Kate Wilson was part of Carlton's flight, along with Sullivan senior Sofia Nuzzo, the three clearly familiar with one another based upon their steady in-meet banter. And based upon Carlton jokingly threatening to remove Wilson's taped-up right ankle from her body so Wilson wouldn't think about it while vaulting.
"Yes, that is very true," Carlton confirmed with a laugh. "She told me to yell at her because her coach yells at her any time she needs to vault. And her coach was not able to be on the runway.
"So I was like, 'You know what? I can do that for you.'"
SJ-O's Carter entered the pole vault preliminaries with the second-best height cleared during last week's sectionals. Wanting to train her focus solely upon that exploit, she removed herself from Thursday's 100-meter dash.
"It was pretty easy," Carter said. "Based on my times, I wasn't going to make it to Saturday anyway. If we were done with vault, I was going to run it, just because it'd be fun."
Carter possesses one of just nine girls' state pole vault medals earned in the Spartans' illustrious track and field history, having placed eighth in last year's 1A final. The best-ever finish among those was Hanna Atwood's 1A runner-up display of 2016.
"It's such an exotic sport," Carter said. "It's kind of fun, in a sense, because people around town are like, 'Woah, you're the vaulter.' Literally, the vaulter. The only one, pretty much. We've got some underclassmen in this year, so it's nice to have some of them."
COLIN LIKAS
