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CHARLESTON – After so many close calls, Montini finally broke through in the 4x800-meter relay.
The Broncos won the race at the Class 2A state finals May 23 at Eastern Illinois University.
Once junior Gianna Salzbrunn crossed the finish line, winning the race by nearly three seconds with a time of 9:30.93, she collapsed to the ground and teammates Jenna Weidacher, Emma Makowski and Madeline Jamrozek immediately embraced her.
“We’ve gotten second three years in a row,” said Jamrozek, a Glen Ellyn resident. “It’s my senior year and thanks to these girls we were finally able to do it.”
Jamrozek, who ran the opening leg, was a part of two of those second-place teams. After Jenna Weidacher, a Lombard resident, ran the second leg, Emma Makowski (Willowbrook) burst ahead to give the Broncos a sizable lead.
“This has been a dream of ours forever and I think that this year we just all came together as one and we all wanted the same goal,” Makowski said. “We all loved each other. We went into it as best friends and we came out on top because we wanted it. We had the heart and that’s how we went into it.”
Salzbrunn, a North Aurora resident who also medaled by taking fourth in the 300-meter hurdles and placed 11th in the long jump, held onto the lead as the quartet took the title.
“I’ve had dreams of crossing that line,” Salzbrunn said. “It’s real. I don’t even know. It’s mind blowing.”
Despite placing second in the race three straight years, the runners said they weren’t worried about the competition, but rather chasing their best time.
“In the previous years we’ve been focusing on winning, but this year we focused more on doing our best,” Makowski said. “I think that took a lot of the pressure off and allowed us to do what we wanted to do.”
Montini’s other state qualifier, Jasmine Woodley, was 19th in the discus and 27th in the shot put.
Glenbard East
Cailyn Biegalski placed 25th in the 800 and Angela Kerndl was 27th in the 300 hurdles in the Class 3A state meet.
Willowbrook
Kyla Denwood took 28th in the discus and Shannon Jones was 33rd in the 800 at state. Melissa Johnston, Diana Marin, Ashley Tegtmeyer and Grace Guthrie placed 33rd in the 4x800 relay.