Emme Smith, Sophia Dalrymple lead Wheaton North state qualifiers at Rolling Meadows

ROLLING MEADOWS – With adverse weather outside, some of the field events of the Class 3A Rolling Meadows Sectional were moved into the field house to start Thursday’s meet.

Wheaton North competitors certainly didn’t seem to mind.

Falcons senior Emme Smith took top honors in the pole vault (11 feet, 11.75 inches) while teammate Sophia Dalrymple, a sophomore, claimed the title in the long jump with a mark of 5.54 meters.

Smith placed 10th in the pole vault a year ago at 10-6 and credited her big improvement to conditioning.

“I did a lot of offseason training and worked on my speed and stuff,” said Smith, who plans to attend the University of Tennessee and study architecture. “I think that’s really helped with my height. I just missed the podium last year and hopefully I can make it this year.”

Smith was pleased with the field events moving indoors due to the early lightning delays.

“I was very grateful for getting it moved inside,” she said. “I prefer inside because you don’t have the elements and everything but overall it’s pretty much the same.”

Also advancing in the pole vault were Glenbard West senior Kendal Cullen (11-05.75), Rolling Meadows senior Nora DeMaria (11-05.75), Wheaton North junior Megan Wozniak (10-11.75), Rolling Meadows sophomore Patrycja Lewicki 10-11-75), Glenbard East senior Mackenzie Fodrey (10-06.00), Maine West senior Maya Woroszylo (10-06-00) and Metea Valley senior Amaria Riggins (10-06-00).

“I was really hoping they’d (Smith and Wozniak) both make it downstate,” said Wheaton North pole vault coach Kelsey Rothas, a former pole vaulter for Lake Zurich. “This sectional was pretty strong in pole vaulting so I was expecting a lot to make it out.”

Woroszylo was all conference as a sophomore and junior at Maine West. She matched her personal best on Thursday.

“We had very high hopes for her this season and she did what she needed to do to advance to state next week,” said Warriors coach Greg Regalado.

Dalrymple’s triumph in the long jump, a personal IHSA best, came after a narrow miss qualifying for state last spring.

“I was just under the mark for state,” she said. “I did a lot of work in the offseason, a lot more lifting and a lot more focus on my nutrition and I think those things made a big difference.”

Wheaton North junior Lauren Mead was also a state qualifier for the Falcons in the high jump as she and Proviso East’s Tori Robunsin-Thomas both jumped a meet-best 1.57 meters.

That meant Wheaton North had four qualifiers from the three indoor events.

“I think we definitely knew it was a strong possibility to get those four,” said Wheaton North coach Anne-Marie Lemp. “But we knew on any given day anything could happen and we’re thankful they performed this way and we were definitely an advocate for them moving those events inside.”

The track meet was finally able to start at 9 p.m. with the rest of the field events.

Glenbard West’s 4x800 meter relay team kicked things off with a time of 9:21.14, second best in Illinois this year. Also qualifying in the event were York, Elk Grove and Wheaton Warrenville South.

The rest of the results were not available at print deadlines.