Girls track and field: Critical decisions loom for local track stars

This weekend will mark the conclusion of the girls track and field regular season with conference championships being conducted throughout the area.

Many local coaches and their top athletes with elite state aspirations will be confronted with potentially intractable decisions with the postseason looming.

There are 18 events in the sport; athletes are permitted a maximum of four and the issue is further complicated by coaches having the option of substituting personnel in the four relays at the two-day state finals who otherwise did not compete at the sectional.

"It's really going to be hard," said St. Charles East two-event Kane County champion Katie Kempff about choosing between all three jumping events, both hurdles races at 100 and 300 meters as well as possible sprint-relay destinations.

Kempff won the 100 hurdles and triple jump last week at home while placing runner-up in the high jump.

"A lot of my events go early at a meet," Kempff added. "All the jumps go at the start. The 100 hurdles and the four-by-one go at the start. I have been talking to my coaches a lot (about my sectional event sequence). Hopefully we will have a better idea (after the DuKane) Conference (this) week."

South Elgin reigning two-time all-stater Naomi Ruff is in similar straits as the Upstate Eight Conference convened in West Chicago on Thursday evening.

"It's going to be tough to narrow down to four events," Ruff, a South Elgin senior bound for Arizona State to pursue a triathlon career, said. "I am going to talk to my coaches and see what is best for the team and for me personally."

Like Ruff, Batavia senior star Katrina Schlenker qualified in both the 800 and 1,600 to the one-day state meet last June.

But Schlenker turned in a scintillating county-championship 3,200 time of 10 minutes and 35.09 seconds to place her name in serious contention for a state championship.

The Liberty-bound Schlenker would almost certainly galvanize the Bulldogs' 3,200 relay while also tempting the Class 3A Lake Park sectional field in the open 800 and metric-mile.

To further exacerbate the issue, Schlenker anchored the Batavia 1,600 relay to a county championship in 4:02.63, the third-fastest time in the state this spring.

"She has tremendous range, anywhere from 3,200 to 400 meters," Batavia distance coach Chad Hillman said of Schlenker.

Essie Newburn has been the other senior stalwart for Batavia, undefeated during its invitational campaign, this spring.

The senior sprinter won three individual dashes at the DuKane Conference indoor finals, only to shift her focus last week at the county meet by participating in three sprint-relay titles for the Bulldogs.

"It's really up to my coaches; I do what they tell me to do," Newburn said of her potential sectional sequence of races. "Whatever event I am in, I run to the best I can. I want to say the four-by-one and four-by-two for sure; it's going to come down to the open one, two and four-by-four relay. We will have to see."

"It's a hard question, because it's going to be my last state meet," Schlenker said. "We will have to see how my workouts line up and how I am feeling. I am definitely going to be doing the four-by-four; it comes at the very end."

"It will be a challenge for sure," Batavia coach Justin Allison said of charting the most efficient state series course for Schlenker and Newburn. "It gives us a lot of flexibility. We have some decisions to make."

In Class 2A, Rosary distance coach Vic Mead said Lianna Surtz, all-state last year in the 1,600 and 3,200 runs, will also compete in the 1,600 relay.

The Toledo-bound Surtz anchored the Royals' metric-mile relay to runner-up last June.