2023 Herald-News Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year: Plainfield East’s Elissa Perkins

As a track and field athlete, Elissa Perkins excels in jumping and running.

So it was only appropriate that the Plainfield East senior ended her high school career as an all-state medalist in the triple jump and the 4x200 relay.

For those accomplishments, Perkins is the 2023 Joliet Herald-News Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

“I did really well at state,” Perkins said. “It was my last year, and I really wanted to leave everything out there.”

She did, and that brought a smile to her coach’s face.

“I’m her third head coach in her four years here,” said Plainfield East coach Cari Mills, who has been in that role for the past two seasons. “For her to go through all the bumps and bruises along the way and end up third in the state in the triple jump makes me smile.

“Elissa is always a go-getter and pushes herself. I’m just so proud of her and the other seniors for missing their freshman outdoor season and persevering. I was in awe that they are so young, so motivated, so concentrated on their sport.”

Mills credited jump coach Lauren McNichols for getting Perkins to the next level, calling it a “partnership.”

It was all based on a chance encounter.

“We were at a meet two years ago,” McNichols recalled. “I was the jump coach at Naperville Central, and I overheard Elissa saying that she didn’t have a jump coach. When I got my teaching license shortly after that and started teaching at Drauden Point Middle School, I knew which Plainfield high school I wanted to be a jump coach at.

“She’s a phenomenal sprinter too, but she spent most of her practice time with me. We had this awesome bond, and we were a solid team. We went into the season knowing she was going to do amazing things.”

Perkins did just that, as she was a four-time champion at the Class 3A Moline Sectional. Winning the long jump (5.84 meters), triple jump (11.94 meters), 4x100 relay (48.56 seconds) and the 4x200 relay (1:42.67).

“I think this year was a breakout year,” Perkins said. “Coach McNichols helped me so much.”

Perkins placed ninth in the state in the triple jump (11.47 meters) as a sophomore and helped the Bengals to a 15th-place finish in the 4x100. As a junior, she made it to state in the same four events she did as a senior, placing eighth in the 4x200 relay, but came up short by placing 29th in the long jump and 14th in the triple jump.

This season, she helped the Bengals to another eighth-place finish in the 4x200 relay. Senior Ava Mabry-Spencer, Perkins, sophomore Courtney McDonald and senior Ally Wojciechowski had a time of 1:43.33 in the final.

In the triple jump finals, Perkins placed third with a distance of 12.11 meters.

“I first triple jumped as a sophomore and long jumped as a junior,” Perkins said. “Both my dad, Steven Perkins, and my brother, Grant Perkins, were jumpers in track and field. I also come from a gymnastics background, and that helped me in my jumps.

“My thing is power. I have to create power in my jumps.”

Perkins faulted on two of her long jumps at state. So in her only good one, she placed 14th in the preliminaries with a distance of 5.24 meters. That also contributed to her not running in the 4x100 relay at state, with the Bengals using an alternate instead and placing 21st.

“I was glad to do well in the triple jump, but I really enjoyed the long jump this season,” Perkins said. “That’s because I had such a vast improvement in it, and it was great to see. My performance at state didn’t work out for me, but that’s the sport.”

Track and field certainly has worked out for Perkins in many ways, however. She will continue her career and education at the University of Wisconsin.

“I just really bonded with the team and the coach there,” Perkins said of going to Wisconsin. “I just felt part of the team. It’s someplace where I’m really excited to contribute to the team for the next four years and become the athlete that I can be.”