Four Kahoks set school records at Mt. Zion indoor meet
By Mark Jurgena
It was a big week of breaking indoor school records for the Collinsville High School girls’ track and field team at the Blazen Brave Invite in Mt. Zion.
Darianna Morris set two school records while Camryn Emig and Natalie Heaton also set new Kahok records.
Morris set CHS records in the 60-meter hurdles and 200-meter races.
In the 200, Morris ran a time of 27.19 seconds to take fourth place while setting her CHS mark.
“She actually took that from another teammate (Kwanza Henderson) who was excited for her, but once again, the competitor side came out as well, which we all know that competition is good,” said CHS girls track coach Adam Blair. “It makes us better.
“It’s super exciting for Darianna. I know that she’s been wanting some records of her own, so I was happy to see that she finally got a couple.”
In the hurdles, Morris took fifth place in 10.33 seconds. It was perhaps a bit unexpected because the Kahok junior had not run the hurdles since her freshman season and she’s a late arrival to the squad because she just completed the basketball season.
“It’s crazy that she came out and did that,” Blair said. “Last year, we focused a lot more on the sprint side of things. For her to come back, after only a couple of days of practice, and then she came out and did that. That speaks a lot to just her athletic ability overall. She’s a great leader and team captain. The girls look up to her, so I think her finally getting on the record with her own records is exciting for her.”
Blair indicated that she has a CHS indoor record from her freshman season in the 4×400-meter relay.
Emig set the CHS indoor mark in the high jump by clearing 1.40 meters or 4’ 7”. She took fifth behind Edwardsville’s Quinn Neal and Mt. Zion’s Sandra Munoz. Both of those athletes finished with marks of 1.50 meters or 4’ 11”.
“So I think this has been a long time coming,” said Blair about the junior high jumper. “She’s jumped higher than the school record several times. She has a PR of 5’ 0” (outdoors). So even yesterday wasn’t her best day, but for her to come out and do this indoor season for the first time and kind of shake the rust off a little bit. It’s a good sign for the future.
“She’s a big volleyball player, so she does a lot of club volleyball on the weekends. I’m glad that she finally took a break from that for this meet. She deserves it. It’s exciting to see that we’re performing this well this early. We all knew that she could do it. It was just a matter of coming to the meet and actually performing, and she did.”
Finally, Natalie Heaton ran the 1600 in 5:47.68 to set a Kahok record.
“She came out last year, kind of a little bit late into the indoor season, so she didn’t have a lot of training necessarily and she actually broke the indoor 800 record last year as a freshman at 2:10 flat,” Blair said. “And then we didn’t run her in any of the other distance events because she was also a 4×400 runner as well. But this year, we focused a little bit more on some longer mileage stuff. So for her to break a mile record at her first meet, it’s exciting.”
Blair also mentioned her time was only 10 seconds off her outdoor personal record from last season.
Henderson took fourth place in the 400 meters with a time of 1:03.29. Sophie Shapiro of Edwardsville won the race with 58.72.
In the 60 meters, Henderson took fifth place with a time of 8.02 seconds. Reese Hoene of Effingham (St. Anthony) ran a time of 7.84 seconds to win.
Two relay teams took top-eight finishes as well.
The Collinsville 4×200 meter relay team of Tafira Ferguson, Tramya Lewis, Patience Everage and Toby Hawkes took fifth place with a time of 1:54.70. Edwardsville won the race at 1:48.17.
In the 4×400 meters, the CHS team of Everage, Hawkes, Heaton and Tramya Lewis was sixth at 4:37.76. Once again, Edwardsville won in a time of 4:08.85.
Skylar Thomeczek of Collinsville took eighth place with a toss of 8.54 meters or 28’ 0 ½”. Emma Skeate of Marion won with a mark of 12.04 meters or 39’ 6”.
Blair on Mt. Zion meet
Collinsville went to Mt. Zion in lieu of indoor meets that have usually been held at Principia College in Elsah. The school is not hosting high school meets this year.
“(Mt. Zion) was a super, super nice facility,” he began. “Very well taken care of. It was nice to get to see a bunch of competitors that we don’t necessarily get to see, that we don’t typically get to race against, which is always nice to get a little change of scenery.”
CHS Schedule
Collinsville returns to the track on Feb. 26 at Marion.
