Before the season, Mendota girls track and field coach Joe Hughes said the Trojans would have junior Mariyah Elam “compete in every event we can fit her into.”

“She is a unique talent who can compete for a top spot in any event she chooses to compete in on a given day,” Hughes said.

That has proved to be true this spring.

Elam has competed in nine different events this season and has recorded wins in eight of those. The only event she entered and didn’t win was the shot put. She threw once and placed second.

FEARSOME FOURSOME

The Henry-Midland girls track and field team is led by what coach Ian Briscoe called a “talented and versatile” group of four athletes in seniors Daniella Bumber, Taylor Frawley and Ali Mitchell and sophomore Audrey Chambers.

The four make up the Timberducks’ 4x100-meter relay that has run the sixth-fastest time in Class 1A this season, 50.4 seconds. Each also has state medal aspirations in individual events.

Bumber has the fastest 400 time in 1A this season at 57.14 seconds and ranks fourth in the 200 (25.33) and 21st in the 100 (12.61).

Bumber owns eight career state medals, including two last spring despite dealing with a stress fracture.

Frawley ranks 13th in 1A in the long jump (5.31 meters) and has beat the state-qualifying standard in the 100 (12.92), 200 (26.66), Mitchell is the school record holder in the 100 hurdles (16.34) and has cleared the state standard in the high jump (1.55), and Chambers is tied for the 10th-best long jump in 1A this spring at 5.36.

The foursome ran a school-record 1:47.34 in the 4x200 during Henry-Midland’s senior-night meet on May 7.

The Timberducks’ usual 4x200 is made up of Frawley, Mitchell and Chambers and Piper Roach, and the foursome’s top time of 1:48.87 ranks 16th in 1A.

Henry-Midland will compete at the Class 1A Farmington Sectional on Wednesday.

AMONG THE STATE’S BEST

Henry-Midland isn’t the only area team that has athletes ranked among the state’s best this season.

St. Bede senior Lily Bosnich was Class 1A runner-up in both hurdle events last spring and is once again among the top hurdlers in the state. Bosnich has recorded the second-best time in 1A this season in the 100 hurdles (14.88) and ranks third in the 300 hurdles (45.3).

At state last season, Bosnich ran a 14.43 in the 100 hurdles and a 43.4 in the 300 hurdles.

Bureau Valley’s Elise House ranks fourth in the 400 (58.69), and Amboy co-op’s Bella Yanos ranks eighth in the long jump (5.39).

St. Bede, Bureau Valley and Amboy along with Hall, Putnam County and DePue will compete in the Erie Sectional on Wednesday.

In Class 2A, Mendota’s Mariyah Elam seems poised to add to her medal collection after winning the high jump as a freshman and placing second last year.

This spring, Elam is tied for second in the high jump at 1.68 and ranks eighth in the triple jump (11.11), ninth in the 300 hurdles (46.87) and 22nd in the 100 hurdles (15.82).

La Salle-Peru junior Aubrey Duttlinger owns the third-best long jump of the season in 2A at 5.65, which is just shy of Shay Scheri’s school record of 5.68 set at the Class 2A Mendota Sectional in 2017. Duttlinger also ranks 20th in the triple jump (10.79).

L-P, Mendota and Princeton will compete in the Mendota Sectional on Wednesday.

Mendota’s Sebastian Carlos set school records in the 400 (49.59) and 200 (22.25) this season and is among the best in 2A this spring, ranking fifth in the 400 and 20th in the 200.

Also in 2A, La Salle-Peru’s Aavery Hill ranks 10th in the discus (50.27), and teammate Caleb Currie is 14th in the triple jump (13.39) and 24th in the high jump (1.91). Princeton’s Casey Etheridge is 14th in the 300 hurdles (39.9) and 15th in the 110 hurdles (15.15), and teammate Landen Hoffman ranks sixth in the discus (51.28) after placing second in the event last year as a freshman.

In Class 1A, Putnam County’s Alex Rodriguez medaled in both throws last year and should be in the mix again as he ranks eighth in the discus (49.87) and 12th in the shot put (15.92). Amboy’s Ian Hassler is 13th in the discus (48.56).

Bureau Valley’s Andrew Roth ranks 12th in the 110 hurdles (15.51) and 14th in the 300 hurdles (41.12). Fieldcrest’s Micheal Beckett is 10th in the triple jump (13.48) and tied for 20th in the long jump (6.58) with Amboy’s Damian Bender.

COMING TOGETHER

The La Salle-Peru 4x400 foursome of Griffin Hammers, Eli Hammers, Luca Verucchi and Wyatt Kilday is coming together well as the regular season winds down. Eli Hammers is a freshman, and Kilday is a first-year track athlete.

The Cavalier relay recently ran a 3:29.55, which beats the state-qualifying standard of 3:30.4.

“Wyatt has been a good athlete, same with Eli,” L-P coach Adam Spencer said. “Good track teams need the football/basketball players. Getting them to buy into the 400, hopefully we can make state time at the sectional and run it well, because the Galesburg Sectional is loaded.”