By Andy Colbert

Special to SVM

WINNEBAGO – In girls track and field, it is often upstart freshmen and sophomores making the biggest splash. For the Oregon Hawks, it was a reliable trio of upperclassmen setting the tone at Thursday’s Class 1A Winnebago Sectional.

Long jumper Lydia Cermak and throwers Brenna Noon and Jenae Bothe will be making return trips to Charleston, site of next week’s state meet.

Bothe was a double-qualifier, winning the discus with a toss of 36.22 meters. Noon just missed qualifying with a third-place effort of 33.35, which was seven feet off her personal best.

“That was disappointing, but I didn’t let it bother me in the shot put,” said Noon, who is ranked No. 1 that event and top returning placer.

Her shot put mark of 12.42 meters bested the 11.82 of second-place Bothe. Both look to get on the podium downstate.

“I think we could have done some damage last year,” said Bothe, who had her most fundamentally sound throw of the year in the shot put.

Both girls admitted to being tight during the discus, which saw Winnebago’s Hannah Logan put the pressure on them with 36-meter PR.

“Competing in the discus allowed me to calm down,” Bothe said. “After I qualified, I went into the shot relaxed and had my best throw.”

With three more Hawk qualifiers, hall of fame throwing coach Doug Engle is approaching 100 total boys and girl state qualifications.

“We trust him and don’t want to deviate from anything he tells us,” Bothe said.

For Cermak, it was bittersweet after having run on state-qualifying sprint relays as a freshman and sophomore. The 4x100-meter relay of Cermak, former state qualifier Jadyn Bothe, and newcomers Hadley Lutz and Ava Wight missed by one spot, taking third to Rockford Christian and Byron.

“First of all, it is weird doing sports two weeks after graduation,” Cermak said. “The short season was hard on us. Usually, we have more time to hit marks and times. We didn’t even have a conference meet, and that hurt.”

Their time of 52.1 was 1½ seconds better than their seeded time coming in, and less than a second behind Byron.

“I’m disappointed the two seniors [Jadyn Bothe and Cermak] can’t go back down again, but to PR by that much is tremendous,” Oregon coach Nick Schneiderman said.

Wight nearly made it in the 100 meters, finishing only .06 out of the second-place time of 13.30. Right behind her was Alex Dusing of Forreston/Polo, who was fifth in both sprints.

Cermak leaped 4.89 meters in the long jump to punch her ticket downstate with a second-place finish. The winner was Cali Minke of Dakota (5.55), who also won the triple jump, 200 and 400.

“I was so nervous and my steps were off,” said Cermak, who won the event two years ago.

For Forreston/Polo, it was a freshman doing something that hadn’t been done in the program for eight years – qualifying for state.

Letresse Buisker placed second in the high jump at 1.47 meters to earn the automatic state qualification. She tied with two other girls, including Mariah Drake of Oregon, but advanced on fewer misses.

The real surprise, though, was her performance in the 300 hurdles, where she almost took another second. She bested her seed with a time of 52.49, losing by only .8 seconds to Alana Julian of Byron.

“That’s astonishing, and a bigger deal than what she did in the high jump,” F-P coach Terry Jenkins said.

“I thought I had the Byron girl,” Buisker said. “It was amazing.”

Another near miss for F-P was Emileigh Williams in the 100 hurdles; she had a third-place time of 17.37.

“All our girls performed so well,” Jenkins said.