Girls Track and Field

Downers Grove North graduate Isabel Maletich made her long-awaited return to the the NCAA Division III women’s outdoor track and field championships in May in style, winning the triple jump with a University of Chicago outdoor school record jump and also winning the long jump.

Tori Franklin, who rewrote the triple jump records in high school at Downers Grove South, in college at Michigan State and and holds the U.S. national indoor and outdoor records, is set to write the next chapter of her track and field career as a member of the United States team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Batavia junior Katrina Schlenker won won the Class 3A cross country sectional championship in 17 minutes, 5.64 seconds. In track, Schlenker took sixth in the 1600 and 11th in 800 at the state meet. Schlenker is the 2021 Chronicle Female Athlete of the Year.

“I broke a lot of barriers, especially coming back after a COVID season,” Long said. “It was one of those seasons the competition was tough no matter what because you had a lot of super seniors coming back. But I ran lifetime bests in all my races, got in the top 10 in all my events so it went really well. And I also made it into the first round of the NCAAs for the first time in my career. So it was nice.”

Sandwich's Claire Allen, who took second in the state shot put and fourth in the discus in a record-breaking sophomore season, is the Record Newspapers Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

Burlington Central senior Brooke Barkocy, who won the Class 2A state championship in the 300-meter hurdles, is the 2021 Kane County Chronicle Girls Track Athlete of the Year.

Seneca's Brooklyn Giertz, a four-time state track medalist this year, is the Girls Track Athlete of the Year.

“For the crazy year we had, I couldn’t be more happy with how it went,” Peeler said.

St. Charles North’s Natalie Buratczuk soared to third place in the Class 3A state high jump on Saturday, among the Kane County Chronicle area medalists. North Stars' teammate Kaylee Hopp, Batavia's Mackenzie Benkers, Geneva's Kelly McCloughan and St. Charles East's Lauren Swartz were other area medalists.

Oswego East juniors Madison Zarembski and Ana Barroso and other area athletes made the most of a 'memorable' Saturday at the Class 3A state track and field meet, an event delayed by four hours because of lightning and rain.